Spent the whole day working on my blog. Sent the link to Jim Fatata. It's looking good. in the PM we went to Fresh market and picked up some skewered beef kabobs. Libbie got the Thomas's they use as a marinade for future meals. Also picked up some Chilean Cabernet in the store after tasting it. Dinner was roast potatoes and beets, beef kabobs and wine. Good stuff.

The charger arrived from Amazon. This is a Battery Tender plus which maintains the charge on a lead acid battery rather than trickle charge it all the time. Hopefully the new Walmart lead acid battery won't blow up when maintained this way. I went under the house and ran the wire to a junction box by the access door. Fortunately it was on the Family Room breaker so it will be activated when the generator is running. This is more good luck. Got everything hooked up, put plates and outlet covers on and then activated the power. The red charging light came on. I took pictures of the charger with the light on only to document the project for my files. I worked some more on the blog which I signed up for from Google. It's really going nice. Tonight is First Friday. I made reservations for the Duck and dumpling at 8. We went to VAE first, looked at a painting of birds swallowing pills and feather in Rx bottles. Don't know about that. Walked through Artspace, more wine and saw a sad exhibit in the front gallery. A Woman lost her 20 year old son 4 years ago. she made wall art from his homework papers and other possessions. So sad. The duck was great. Slow wervice but very nice food. Libbie had Chicken Pad Thai and I had beef and black bean. Nice. Home at 9:30. Lots of dressed up pretty young woman running around.

Had a quick trip to Sanford this morning. Back at 1 then took a walk around the lake. Summer is rapidly coming to a close. Came back from the lake sweaty and showered, didn't like the barbershop smell on my body. Dinner was eggplant parmesan. Mmmm.

Messed around on the web quite a bit. Worked on my trip blog, looked at BP. Went out to Home Depot for a utility box and mounted an electrical outlet inside the generator. IT's screwed down inside the generator so it's pretty secure. I hope there's room for the battery tender that's coming from Amazon. The 7 port hub arrived this afternoon from Newegg. I got tired of my phone always dying because of a bad battery so I bought a new phone at Walmart. It needs 16 hours to charge. Dinner was sole with spinach and lima beans and a sauce. A Trader Joe's creation. We had it with Farmers Market corn. We watched a very nice Great Performances with Renee Fleming and Dimitri H. from St Petersburg. It was great.

Last day of the month. I went under the house to run a wire in the conduit. My effort was short circuited by a Southern Racer snake coiled up where the wire comes through the foundation. I left him there and went back a few hours later. He was gone so I ran the wire into the generator. Now I need to hook up both ends. Dinner was crab cake sandwiches which were yummy since we have nice ripe tomatoes. I'm happy all the garbage from upstairs went out today.

Picked up the conduit for the generator. I need to get 110volts out there for the battery charger which I ordered from Amazon. Did some extensive research on sirius satellite radios and programming. I need a radio with ALA Carte programming which will allow me to purchase the music only option for 6.99 per month pls 50 cents for the Met premium channel. Dinner was Briyani. It's been a while since we had that. Tonight I started a blog for my California trip. I'm supplementing the writing with pictures. It's a lot of work but should be entertaining. Wish I did it from the road.

Did not go out for the paper today. Finished cleaning the office then replaced many of the old AC outlets. Libbie made her super pizza, this time with a pepper from the garden. We watched the Emmys in the evening. It was a better than usual show.

Started the day by disassembling the generator control panel. I located the voltage regulator, measured an output voltage of 14.4 which is too high since the battery has been installed for 2 days now. After pulling the leads I found the battery was at 13.3 which is where I wanted it to be. I'll install the battery tender but first I'll need to run 110 volts out to the generator which it currently does not have. Next task was the lawn. Mowed the backyard but did not finish the trimming. I also took a walk to the back of the property and discovered another tree had fallen on the fence and pulled it apart at the gate. Libbie and I took the rental car to Fresh Market to forage for food. We didn't want to get out of the car since the Met Sirius channel was running Lucia from 1966 with Joan Sutherland. We got steak kabobs which were delicious. There were lots of sampling going on inside. We tried the apple pie and Gelato and ended up buying it. The Gelato was free with a pie purchase. I now have removed the piles of paper in the office but still have a ways to go for a full cleanup. It's getting there. For dinner we had Shiraz, steak kabobs and corn with apple pie and gelato for dessert. The kabobs were marinated with Thomas's but not the flavor we normally use.

I decided to do a cleanup today. Started by scanning the AVM's Libbie found for me with sample David Buttram articles. I also went through a lot of my trip receipts and started filling the garbage can. Mucho stuff. We went to the Farmers Market this afternoon and picked up lots of produce and bought shrimp. Came back and lost it for the day. No momentum here!!!! Bought tickets to Rheingold, the first of the HD series this Fall. Tix don't go on sale to the public until Sept 7 but Fandango is selling them now!!! This is the last day for my Schwab billing period. I'll wait till later in the week for additional Met HD purchases. The shrimp and corn was delicious which we had with Shiraz. After dinner we wanted Skinny Minty so I drove and Libbie went into the store and bought a half gallon.

We heard a loud explosion outside the hosue today. Went out and found that the battery in our standby generator blew up. Wow. Did some online research and found it was prevalent to Generac generators. The charging circuit for battery maintenance is too high and boils the water out. NExt time a test cycle puts a demand on the battery the plates warp, touch and spark igninting the hydrogen gas in the now hollow battery. The result is boom. Bought a new battery at Walmart. Dinner was the Trader Joes pasta in Marinar sauce. After dinner I packaged up the DVD and took it to he Post Office where I used the self serve kiosk to send it out Priority Mail to Denton. I enjoyed waiting for a girl in front of me who had a blonde pony tail and tight gray bicycle shorts framing her nicely shaped derriere.

State Farm authorized the car repair and a rental car. I went to Hendricks but there were no rental cars. They said to come back at 4. Came back and got a Dodge Caliper with Sirius Satellite. Found the Met channel and I was happy!!! Dinner was homemade Eggplant Parmesan that Libbie made. Very nice.

Did the groceries this morning, looked at interesting photos on backpage for Raleigh and went to Home Depot for a LAN wire tester. I mistakenly thought the wire going to the office was bad but I later realized the switch was bad. Replaced the wire unnecessarily then replaced the switch. This got Traviata working again. I heard from the Father of Lydia Buckley in Knoxville. He said he will check with State Farm. I sent the estimates last night. We went to La Cocina and ordered 4 Margaritas because of John Regans $5 he sent us. We had La Cocina Quesadilla for dinner. Very good.

More catch up. Ran around this morning and got the car repair estimates. Later in the day I finished the new intro section of the AVSA DVD. Still could not get the DVD Styler program to work without failing with an over-run.
Dinner was Mahi Mahi burgers.

Woke a little later and spent some time watching the morning TV shows. It's nice to be in my own home for a change instead of a hotel room. Did some sorting of papers and clothes before getting dressed for RLT performance of The Putnam County Spelling Bee. It was great as usual. Came home and had Libbie's outstanding pizza. It seems to have been a long time.

Got up a little later than usual. I had the hotel eggs and sausage. Took a banana and hit the road. It was misting when I left Nashville. It turned to full scale rain in the Smokeys and also got pretty depressingly dark. Stopped at a McDonalds for coffee just before the mountains and drove in rain all the way to Hickory. When the rain finally stopped I needed gas. Did a fill up for 2.59 per gal which wasn't too bad. I missed the turn onto 421 at Greensboro but enjoyed hwy 87 at Graham to Pittsboro. This road seems to have been improved since the last time I took it. Got into the house door at 1:30. Emptied the car of the suitcases and Libbie helped by immediately starting to do laundry with the dirty clothes. We went out to BJ's to get ribs and other things for dinner. We had ribs, wine and sweet potato. Welcome Home Tom!!!!

Got up pretty early in Little Rock, I even set the alarm. The breakfast starts at 6 and I was one of the first. Hit the road and watched the sunrise on 40 Eastbound. There was a beautiful fog over the fields giving them an ethereal quality in the morning sunrise. Called Knoxville once at 10:46 and left a message. Around Dickson just before Nashville I got stuck in a long construction traffic jam. I lost about 30 minutes. With the time change I ended up at the hotel at 4 PM. Took a shower and put on clean clothes. Later in the evening I went out for dinner. Found a Panera's and had French Onion soup and an Italian deli sandwich. Didn't care for the sandwich. In the parking lot after dinner my car was struck by a college girl returning. She couldn't see out her back window and hit the side of my car. We exchanged info and went home.

I came down all showered and dressed at 7:09. It was a very good sleep. Richard
was watching TV and Anne was cooking in the kitchen. It was fun being with them.
I recorded an audio CD of the Raleigh show and left it for Anne. She called
Hortense and asked if I could come over. I got an address and quick directions
and set out for Hortenses. I picked up some gas in Denton for 2.49 on the way.
Many many traffic lights and some weird routing but I eventually found Hortenses
home. I should mention it's been fun checking on Facebook. I posted Anne and
Richards pic yesterday in their plantroom and it was a big hit on Facebook.
Had a nice chat on the back porch. Had some coffee with Hortense, watched the
cows, visited the garden in front then headed out. I set the GPS for Little
Rock. It doesn't have the Clinton library. Traveling was OK until 30 miles from
Little Rock. Then all traffic stopped. I got off theinterstate and took a back
highway, picking up some gas on the way. Got back on 10 miles later but the
traffic was still heavy. Got to the accident and then things speeded up again.
Got to the Clinton library 35 minutes before closing. Paid the admission and
went through the place. Not very impressive. I guess it's the archives that
count not the flash and glamour. Checked into the Comfort Suites. It's
incredibly nice, even has a bar with happy hour. Went out for a sub down the
street for dinner. This was lunch as well.

I tore right into the wiring. There is a lot of it!!!! Joe helped snake a wire to the ceiling center for the fan and light. I ran out to Home Depot and got a 10 foot section of 12/3 for the switched outlet. $13!!! The portfolio NAV made another new high of 228. I don't think there is much upside left from here. For lunch we had turkey and cheese. I got pretty tired around 5:15 and quit while Joe continued to work on supporting the nailer.

I did a spreadsheet for the tile footage. Joe and Christa went out to order the tile while I worked on the shower control. It took a long time. I had a little trouble with the tee connection behind the future vanity but got it fixed by 7:15. We went out to the Huntington Brewery and picked up Pat for parking privileges. The street is closed and there are millions of people wandering about including a live band. After a half hour wait we got a front row seat overlooking the crowd. The do it yourself tacos were delicious. I had two Black Phoenix Stout beers. Thanks to Joes mug club they were served in a huge mug, at least a 24 ounce. We got back at 10 and I passed right out.

Libbie went paddle boarding with Joe and Christa while I stayed home and added the numbering to the AVSA slides.
We had the leftover pizza for lunch. In the bathroom I worked on setting up the plumbing and also removing the toilet connection. We went out to Thai Wave on Main St for dinner then at 7:30 I took Libbie to LAX for her 10:10 flight. Her terminal was the last one on the loop around which meant the 405 was easy to get to. I got back at around 9.

This morning I framed the door for the shower. Christa's Uncle Mike came over and helped with the shower seat and the blocking above for nailing sheetrock. He was a pretty good help. He will be doing the tiling next weekend. Joe made a variety of pizzas for dinner tonight. This afternoon while Libbie and Christa picked out tile Joe made Omaha Steak burgers with jalapenos for Mike and I for lunch. The girls ate at Wendy's. The bathroom project is slowly coming along. We also ran the vent stack up behind the shower. Mike helped cut the 2 inch holes above and below for the pipe.

We didn't do much this morning. I looked at some of the wiring and did some AVSA work. We left around noon for the Lapworths. They had a very nice BBQ with many slow cookers with meats. I had the barbarillo which is a slow cooked pot roast. I fixed it on a bun with some onions and peppers. Later in the evening we had ice cream splits with bananas and fudge and birthday cake. It was freezing cold. I only had a short sleeved shirt and my ears and nose were freezing cold. We got back around 9 PM.

Libbie and I watched the surf city being constructed on the sand at HB for the US Open of Surfing. We got back at 10 to start working on the bathroom some more. This morning I went with joe and picked up a Skil Saw to cut the 3/4" plywood for the base. Dinner was tritip that Joe grilled.

Joe went surfing and Libbie and I did our usual walk out the pier watching the
construction and lifeguard training. When we got back we started working on
framing the pocket door. This involved cutting more plumbing pipes, adding
nailers to the header for the door jamb, nuking the old medicine closet and
installing the plastic floor drain for the shower. I bought Joe a Skil Saw in
Walmart and used it to cut the 3/4 inch piece of plywood for the floor. The
shower fixture started leaking so we decided to cap it. Had to go to Home Depot
and pick up the caps as well as lead free solder and flux. Also picked up some
felt paper for between the plywood and on the walls under the cement board.
Capped the leaking shower. Tonight we had Thai takeout again that we purchased.
It was better than last night. Anne nicholas sent an eMail today with her list
of photos and the script. Richard is still sick. The doctor wants to send him to
the hospital.

Libbie and I walked the pier in the morning. They're constructing tents for the
Surf open this week. We watched Junior Lifeguards exercising, running,
stretching and getting ready to swim. Watched Asians catching sardines several
at a time while we walked to Rubys and back. We walked Main St to Starbucks
where I ordered a small coffee and shared a cranberry scone with Libbie.
When we got back Joe and I went shopping in Home Depot. Bought a pocket door and
framing materials. Had a little trouble getting it all into Joe's truck but we
drove home with the tail gate open. Spent the day tearing down walls, ducts and
plumbing. Ran into a gas line cutting a hole in the floor. That was a close one.
This job has no end in sight. We ordered Thai takeout which was delicious. Went
to bed exhausted.