Everyone was up early. Took the Benzigers and the 4 microwaves to the airport this morning leaving the house at 7:15. They are flying US Airways. Heard later that their flight was uneventful. Dinner was pasta from Trader Joes.

Picked up the paper this morning. Mary came with me and picked up some cheese, Fritos and other misc to go with the egg omelets she made. They were excellent. Yummy. We went to Duke Gardens and walked the formal gardens. The reciprocal membership parking pass worked fine. We got an all day pass. Dinner was several of Libbie's good pizzas she made from scratch today.

Tonight we went to the Ballet with Mary and John. We saw Dracula and Red Mask. Attended the pre performance with the composer which was quite good. The guy is very dynamic and I learned a lot. We had box seats which had a limited view but nice nonetheless. In the afternoon we went in to the NC Museum of Art. We had a very nice lunch in the Iris cafe. I had a delicious chicken salad sandwich. Yesterday we did the sculpture walk, today was a visit to the inside. The galleries sure are nice.

Finished wiring the microwaves then took a trip to Lowes and picked up some missing screws and fluorescent fixtures. After a nice lunch of BLT, we went to Jerrys to get paints for Mary who is starting an acrylic class. Our next stop was the art museum where we did the sculpture walk including a walk across the beltline bridge. Left there almost at dark. There was a traffic jam on the beltline so we did some evasive behavior and took Buck Jones to BJ's to buy salmon and milk. Our salmon dinner with sweet potatoes and peas was delicious.

John and I worked on microwaves all morning. He drilled the cases while I wired the controller cards. We did all 4 microwaves. The great news is the card he brought from Maine did not turn on the microwave. I found two of the connectors were installed reversed. Fixed that issue and now everything works as planned. Next we took a nice walk around the developments behind us, Seagroves and Vintage Grove. Got cleaned up and went to the Nasher. I was disappointed in the collection but the dinner there was memorable. I had Thai crab cakes and pumpkin soup. We shared a bottle of Chardonnay. Got home at 9:30. Interestingly as we left the Nasher they were setting up for a student party with fancy h'orsedeouveres and cookies and drinks.

Most of the day was spent measuring fluorescent tubes for new light stands. I picked up the Benzigers at 6:45. They were supposed to arrive at 5:50 but their flight was canceled. We went to La Cocina and had Margaritas and dinner. it was a nice evening.

This was run around and get the house clean day. I was pretty busy as well. Got a haircut, did the groceries. Could not get the controller card working. Dinner was Chicken Serenada from Trader Joes. Deliciious.

Got up at 6:30 and started packing our stuff. Left at 7:30 AM but swung by the Post Office on Lake St before leaving Owego. Had breakfast at Clarks Summit, PA where we also got gas. Lunch at Taco Bell in Fredericksburg, arrived home at 6:15. I went to Home Depot for a fluorescent light fixture to experiment with and then Panera's for dinner. I had French Onion Soup and a Mediterranean Veggy sandwich.

The sales room opened today. Business is pretty slow. The show opened this afternoon but without the awards on the honors table. At 5 PM Sue Hoffmann, Libbie, Bob Clark and myself placed the ribbons. We then got cleaned up for dinner then came down for drinks and a salmon dinner. The show opened after dinner with the awards and everyone miulling about. Nice.

The Holiday inn breakfast was very nice. I had sausage with an egg omelet which was good. After breakfast we toured Owego. Visited the cemetery and took pictures at the Indian Maiden overlook. Visited Tioga Gardens, Beecher Hill. Stopped at the gas pipeline and also on the road opposite Beecher looking across. Visited downtown Apalachin. what a depressing area. We toured downtown Owego and took the riverwalk behind the buildings on Front street. This was my first time seeing the back of the building foundations up close. We stopped in the bookshop where Libbie bought postcards. At the Hotel our room in the Treadway was ready so we moved from the Holiday Inn to room 121 in the Treadway which is by entrance door "A". We set up the plants in the salesroom for Fridays vendor opening. Our dinner tonight was prime rib with cheesecake and wine. We ate with Diane Richardson.

We got going with the Prius filled to the ceiling around 7 AM. The first part of the trip was misty with heavier rain on I-95 in Richmond. We took 17 at Fredericksburg to 81. Stopped at McDonalds outside of Harrisburg for lunch then continued to Owego. Arrived around 6 PM just before dark. We realized we came a day early from original plan. After getting settled in the Holiday Inn next door we went out to dinner to Tonys down the street on the river. I had Italian Sausage Parmesan with 2 glasses of house cabernet which was pretty good. It was a nice dinner out. Internet service in the Holiday Inn was terrible.

This was a get packing day for Owego. Libbie brought the Prius home packed to the gills with plants. I packed up the table cloths and coffee cans into a camera bag which had to be tucked in on the floor behind the seat. Libbie has no blooms so we printed first class labels with pictures for her plants. Dinner was bean burger on a bun with tomato.

Tried modifying a second microwave for testing the controller card. This card didn't work either, so the problem must be in the card, not the microwave. There is no time left before our trip to debug this. Dinner was pasta from Trader Joes.

We got up late today, almost 7:30. I picked up the newspaper and after finishing it worked upstairs some more. I got the beeper and heartbeat working. Later in the day I tried a new keypad and that did the trick. Still need to hook it to a microwave. We went to HH Gregg in Apex for 3 microwaves. They sent us to the airport where we visited the HH Gregg warehouse and got our microwaves. Took them home, showered and dressed for RLT. On the way to RLT we stopped at JoAnn's for fabric for MAAVS. There was an incredible line. We waited almost an hour to get the fabric cut then hurried to the RLT. Arrived there at 2:45 which was not too bad. We had a small worry about the State Fair traffic but it was OK. The Piano Lesson play finished at 6:11. Libbie pulled a trick out of her hat by preparing a previously frozen dough ball. We had very nice thin crust pizza.

The rest of the PCB parts came today from Mouser. Libbie and I went to the new Carolina Pottery looking for a large pot. We bought a 14 inch clay pot then went to Raleigh Little theater to swap our tickets from next weekend for tomorrows Piano Lesson play. We got stuck in State Fair traffic but it wasn't too bad. For dinner we had salmon, sweet potato and Shiraz. I drove Libbie to Krogers and we picked up some ice cream and filled the gas tank. Just before dinner I put the Charge Pump onto the card and measured minus 5 volts from it as it was supposed to be. Good deal. No heartbeat but the LCD is displaying the banner.

Worked some more on the PCB's. I almost have one ready to power up. I ran out to Home Depot for heavier gauge solder for the power connector. This worked well since it allowed me to pool lots of solder into the mounting hole covering the terminal of the PCB jack. I also mounted a 485 transceiver in a socket on the card. I'll use this for data logging and possibly using the device as a terminal, especially to display greenhouse data. I mowed the lawn in the front and then Libbie and I took a walk around Seagrove Farms today. This morning I bought balcony tickets for Dracula tonight by Carolina Ballet in Fletcher theater. We had a Mahi sandwich before leaving and really enjoyed the performance. It was lots of technical wizardry, nice music by a live orchestra and storytelling told through the ballet. Wonderful (but expensive).

The PCB's came this morning in the rain. I got to work right away putting the parts on that I did have. I'm missing the negative converters and one CPU. This means at least I will be able to get one PCB running with the recycled CPU. Dinner tonight was crabcakes with tomato.

Worked all morning on trying to configure streaming for the Sirius. I finally succeeded around noon with a prepackaged program from Australia called Broadstream. It's a no config required solution. Once I installed the program and hooked up Sirius, I was able to listen on Manon to a stream broadcast by Cosi. I went downstairs at lunch time and had thais tuned into the broadcast. Libbie was also able to tune in, so this is a working stream solution.
I found the PCB will be coming tomorrow so I got busy and ordered the rest of the electronic parts. Digikey is out of the AVR CPU's so I placed an order with Mouser but because the buzzer is sourced at Digikey, I also had to place an order with them. Dinner was salmon with baked beets and potatoes. We went to the Farmers Market this afternoon for pansies but also stopped at BJ's for jeans for me and ended up getting salmon which was yummy. It's been a while.

Did a grocery run and had to get back for Violet club which met at noon on our back porch. I studied streaming and recording of streams. We listened to Hoffman live from the met tonight which I recorded using Audacity. Dinner was pasta which I picked up in Trader Joes this morning.

Today is Columbus day, no mail or stock market. The market is on a tear lately with just about everything going up in price. I cut up the last of the soffit scraps and put them in the garbage. Dinner was a bean burger with tomato and onion.

Finished the Kahlo 4 job and sent it to AP Circuits. Hopefully all is well. Now I need a Digikey order for parts. Spoke with the Benzigers. They will try coming here the 27th. I offered them my car for their visits to Holly and Sue. Got the ladder set up in front of the house and placed the Sirius antenna on the roof. It's just laying there but it has a more clear view of the sky. Performance seems to be better. It's hard to tell because the porch roof worked from time to time as well but with a few dropouts. So far no dropouts listening to Sirius with the antenna higher up on the roof. At one time the signal strength meter was showing full scale reading before it later dropped to half. The antenna higher up on the roof definitely works. The temp went up to 86 this afternoon. We went to AC Moore to get streamer material for my river in the MAAVS staging. Tried looking for bulbs at Lowes but they were picked over. Did better at Home Depot, got a package of 60 Crocuses but rejected the daffs. They were small and had rotted ones. The lady at the register said they have been here a while. Next we went to Krogers where I bought a small box of daffs and a box of grape hyacinths. Libbie made whole wheat pizza for dinner. Earlier in the day I made a broccoli salad.

Did the Kahlo layout in the morning then left for Rheingold at 11:30. It was a 1:00 performance. The theater was not full. Met Jim there and talked about his upcoming NY trip and my drive to Santa Fe. The Opera was great although I'm not sure the invesment in the machine for the Ring was worth it. It was a very nice perfromance with Brynn Terfel and Stephanie Blythe. Dinner was tuna steak and butternut squash. this was quite good. We had water again with dinner. No wine.

Paid the last of the Visa bill, this time with checking account money. It was difficult since I used Scottrade money, Schwab money and then checking to pay off $3100 which included $500 for Sarasota trip expenses, $550 for Lonestar plane tickets, $500 for Touchstone 3D and the $830 Washing Machine. We can't do this every time but hopefully this was an exception. I used Fandango bucks I purchased last night to buy opera tix to Don Carlo and Don Pasquale. Using the Visa signature card it was a 20% savings. I still have $8 on the card. Went to the greenhouse at noon and pulled the shade off the front two houses with Libbie. Thank goodness it's 80 out today. Later we went to BJ's to get Salmon but they didn't have any so we got tuna steaks and dishwashing stuff. I also picked up a pair of jeans, one size too small as an incentive to lose weight. Dinner was tuna steak with peas and mushrooms (Steamfresh). Water to drink.

This morning I ordered a small Sata drive from Newegg for the Atom PC. I'll see if this thing speeds it up. Amazon sent me a tracking/shipping link for the Sirius boombox. I was pretty happy to see it was out for delivery via UPS which means it should arrive today. Orcad layout files can be converted to libraries according to the info I found via Google.
The boombox arrived and I hooked it up immediately. I love it, except the signal with the antenna out the window the A/C is in is not good. Probably too many trees. Tried tuning to various channels and then listened to an opera. It's dropping in and out. Sirius main display only shows 2 bars most of the time, one bar others. Dinner tonight was a bean burger we had on the back porch. Afterwards we listened to the WCPE opera house.

Today I worked on the schematic and layout for Kahlo. Updated the schematic and now I want to extract the buzzer from a QYX Orcad MAX layout file. I don't have the QYX libraries but I need to figure out how to get those parts into a library I can use. Will Google this later. Enjoyed some Sirius operas today. I got the Atom processor working and receiving Sirius. Using the Compact Flash makes the thing pretty slow. I researched small cheap SATA drives to put into this thing.

The Sirius receiver arrived via USPS from an eBay dealer in Chicago. I have enjoyed some operas today using the online version. When the boombox gets here I'll see if this thing works in the house. We listened to Hoffman today live from the Met at 8 PM on Sirius. Dinner was a beanburger with Lima Beans.