Lots of Feb 1 stuff this morning. Changed the Vonage phone from Vonage lite for Stoneybrook. Reconciled the stock accounts to get end of month totals for performance tracking. Went to Krogers for groceries and stuff. Libbie is not going to fly tomorrow because of the huge winter storm approaching the Northeast. I continued my woods cleanup in the back. The pathway is now clear from the creek to the Bluebird house at the top of the hill. There were a pair of Bluebirds checking out the house while I was piling up sticks and twigs. I worked on the Mbed this afternoon and surprisingly I successfully got the Mbed to attach to the home LAN and monitor packets, printing them out using printf's which direct to a terminal program on the attached laptop. I picked up some nice salad ingredients today including olives, raisin, sunflower seeds and Asian Sesame dressing. Wow, was it a good salad. I need to add up the calories of this treat. Listened to Simon Boccanegra live with Dmitri in the evening and loved it. Earlier I watched a movie, The Collectress which was a psychological thriller from Lithuania. I had the salad for dinner but I had two chicken tacos for lunch, 250 calories each.

Talked to Libbie in RI. She's thinking of changing her Wednesday flight because of a snow storm scheduled for the northeast. Worked in the woods clearing a new path in the back. It's only 50 today which is chilly compared to yesterday. Dinner was leftover piece of chicken and a chicken leg.

Up nice and early today, went to the machine at Mickey d
D's for a newspaper. Came back and looked some more at mbed while GMA is on. It's almost 40 out now, to go to 60's later. More snow in the NorthEast while it should be 65 here on Wednesday when Libbie arrives.
worked more on woods cleanup then went to BB and checked everything out. Took garbage home and tested the generator.
went to Trader joes for pizza for dinner, also some desert - chocolate cake. not good since it tastes so great. I also bought a bag of salad.
Wrote the pachube interface for Mbed. It needs an Mjack to connect to ethernet which has to be hand wired. I'll probably build a board for this.
In the evening worked some more on mbed code.

This morning I paid the comcast bill, stoneybrook cc bill and paid for the watercolor course on St Simon. The course iis $1046 for 5 nights including meals and instruction for 2. I think it's a good deal. Worked outside on the Maple log and the downed tree doing basic chain saw cleanup. I got a lot done. My milk was sour this morning so I didn't have breakfast. I had fried chicken for dinner with chips. I spent some time learning about mbed, arduino and Pachube. Pachube is a web site that collects data from everybody for dissemination. Went upstairs after watching a little of Giganto Sabado and filed the AVSA sakes tax statement. Before dinner I filled out the Form 943 for FICA taxes, wrote a check and carried it to the Post Office. It needs a postmark before Jan 31. Stripped down a Frame thrower card to salvage the MagJack and the board itself. I'll mount the jack along with Mbed and TT4 into a case. With luck once I get the data onto an ethernet connection I can send frames to Pachube and Traviata.

Spent the day trying to get the avr to receive serial data from the TT4. I did find a wiring error in the TT4 to AVR. I also decided to get rid of the intervening conversion chip and put the jumpers on the TT4 to use the aux serial port in TTL mode. Still no luck. I crawled through the uart setup and single stepped various scenarios putting in lots of modifications to look at received frames. It was always corrupt and unrecognizable. Finally I changed the fuse bits for the crystal oscillator from an RC setting to the external 8 Mhz crystal setting and everything worked as expected. The AVR is correctly decoding TT4 data and displaying it on the LCD. Next step is to get the data on the web. I need something with a serial interface to receive data and an ethernet to either serve web pages or else send data to a server application somewhere. Dinner was fried chicken from Krogers.

Spent some more time on the packet without much luck. Played online with various road scholar courses, reading and looking. Dinner was Progresso Soup. Looked around at BP for locals. Did some catchup on accounting and documenting of bills.

Left the house at 6 AM for Libbie's trip to Providence. dropped her at the airport, stopped in Brueggers on the way back for a bagel and coffee. She later called at 8 AM that her plane was in hold on the roadway because of snow in BWI. She was supposed to take off at 7:45 AM. She finally landed around 3:"30 in light snow in PVD. For dinner I went over to Krogers for French Bread pizza.

Did some catchup on mail and finances. Sent Nancy Hayes descriptions of the pics for the AVSA calendar. The pictures are the Raleigh convention pictures. Did a grocery store run but only picked up bananas and OJ. Nothing else needed since Libbie leaves tomorrow and I want to cut back. Moved another Maple tree log to the brush pile. There are 2 logs left plus the piece attached to the stump which needs shoveling to cut out. Watched the Oscar nominations and was motivated to look for True Grit and Toy Story 3 online. Found both and downloaded them. Dinner was beanburger with mixed vegetable medley.

Last night I went to Publix for Lo Mein for dinner and also a slice of cheesecake. This morning I got up and packed the car and took off at 5:22 AM. The trip was great, traffic was lighter than normal. A little slowdown at Orlando but never stopped. Once I cleared downtown it was back to the speed limit. Stopped at Ormond Beach for a biscuit at McDonald's, gas at exit 1 Hess in Georgia for 3.02. Next stop was a rest area before Florence for bathroom and a banana. Got gas in Florence for 2.87 and got my apple out. Spilled some gas on my hand during fueling. Used the banana peel to wash my hand and a Mickey D napkin to dry it. It worked well. Got home at 4:00. Listened to Norma, Eugene Onegin and Meistersinger today from the Met on Sirius. I really like the satellite radio. For dinner Libbie and I went to LaCocina for a quesadilla and Margarita.

Got up early today, 6 AM. Went out to Publix for the paper and also some Jelly donuts. Bad me. Read the paper while watching the Sunday morning shows. Tried putting some more spackle in the holes. Hope to paint it today.
Got the holes spackled and painted in the morning. After talking with Lib about her flights I decided to speed up my return. Reluctantly I'll leave tomorrow. We decided on Tuesday but rain is predicted through the Southeast so I'll do it tomorrow. The snow for Raleigh is now projected to be a rain event. I went to Yoders but they are closed on Sunday. Came back and started cleaning in earnest for a Monday takeoff.
Installed a Zumo drive on my PC thanks to Yahoo. This is a drive that remains in the cloud and synchs automatically with your PC. I put my bookmarks there as well as the Firefox scrapbook. Hopefully multiple PC's will share the scrapbook. Took a bike ride into the estates side of Stoneybrook. I sure like Stoneybrook. Maybe housing prices will continue the decline and we'll pick something up but I won't count on it. Tried calling jack Wilson about an interview for my series but he declined! I feel bad about this and I don't know why. Oh well, need to move on. If there was no greenhouse i would be able to stay here longer but I would lose a tax deduction. Not sure of the financial impact but I'll figure it out. If MLP's were cheaper I could switch over and gain some lowered tax income but I would be very afraid to sell preferreds and go to MLP's at these levels. Everything is almost set for a Monday takeoff. I may go out for dinner tonight since I don't feel like having a beanburger. There's Panera, Subway and Publix takeout.

Got up early for a change. Didn't feel so hot yesterday, shortness of breath and generally weak. I don't know what's going on. I felt better after eating the ribs and veggies but not 100%. I was suspecting some kind of coronary problem although i hope not. I feel normal today, thank goodness. It's only going to be 60 today so I'll wear jeans on my bike ride.
Tried a bike ride late in the morning but turned around down the street since it was so cold. Listened to Rigoletto live from the met on Sirius, then I worked some more on Mars, the program that sits at the greenhouse. I can't find the source code so I'm reconstructing it from other sources. I dusted the condo today and patched the holes in the wall above the TV. Went out for dinner food to Whole Foods and came back with Birayani, GG Bran and Oolong tea. I cruised the buffet bar but nothing appealed to me. Earlier in the day I went out to Yoders and picked up some honey-belles and an onion then went to Publix for buns for a beanburger which I had for lunch. dinner was the Biryani, not as good as Libbie's from TJ's but passable. It was flavorful but dry.

Didn't get out of bed until 8 AM. What a shocker. The ribs didn't sit well with me during the night. I had to take an antacid in the middle of the night. Will tone that down in the future. Hung the picture of the boating party on the wall. I ended up using some wall anchors from above the TV to hold the picture. Now I need to patch the wall over the TV. The TV needs something in the corner. It doesn't look too great, actually it's kind of junky. Made some BP calls but no results. Verizon charged my account $4 for no activity. I ended up adding $15 to the account even though the credit card is straining this month. I'm having a little shortness of breath today, I think it's from the overly huge dinner last night. I won't ever do that again. Today I had just an Orange besides breakfast so far. Went to Publix and picked up some single serving veggies, broccoli and carrots with Italian seasoning. Only 40 calories per serving! I had the leftover ribs with the veggie. Finished up the Phobos software. I'm happy with the display. I used simulated data and then watch variables to see how the data would be formatted, Went out to North Sarasota in the evening. Tamiami is not crowded at night like it is in the day. I spent some time this afternoon scrubbing the baseboards in the condo. Still need to dust and clean the chandelier and table top.

Slept a little late today. Didn't wake up until 7:10. Tried the backup drive power supply on the boom box. It works fine. Now I need something for the backup drive. The boom box will run on batteries if necessary. After GMA this morning I worked on the program for the packet some more. Using the simulator and simulated data, I've been stepping through the telemetry routine. All seems well. Started writing the functions to display packet telemetry formatted for the LCD. Went over to the clubhouse at 6:50 to pick up an order of ribs. They weren't ready until 7:15. The clubhouse was incredibly busy. Spent the rest of the evening listening to Simon Boccanegra live on Sirius. I really like Dmitri Hvortovsky. Such a nice baritone. Went to bed at midnight.

Got up at 6 and was out the door at 6:44. Stopped in Florence for a biscuit and to pee. Gas was 2.89. Topped off again in St Mary, GA exit 2. Gas there was 3.03. stopped at McDonald's for a single hamburger, medium fries and medium drink. Very nice drive, the weather stated out misty but cleared off nicely. It was warm and clear in Florida. Even Orlando was trouble free. I sailed through there at 3:30. I was in Lakeland at 4:09. There were a lot of speed cops on I-4. I saw the usual motorcycle enforcement in Lake Mary andd several State troopers West of Orlando. I reached the condo at 5:40. After talking with Lib went out to Publix for milk and bourbon chicken for dinner. I really blew the diet today!!!! Will get back in track this week.

I finished debugging the packet to Phobos interface. Found a wiring error, finally verified that the data is getting to the UART pin. The break didn't trip so somehting's not working. started packing instead then Lib came home so we went to find her a coat that I promised. Went to Kohls, then to the Cary mall to Macy's, Belk and dillards. The coats are kind of light. got the packing done early so layed down and read some more. For dinner we had wheat spaghetti and a slice of wheat bread.

Worked on getting a 232 level converter wired tot he Phobos card. dinner was pad from a whole foods box with Libbie's checken.

I put a long days effort into Phobos getting the 4 bit LCD to work. The CPU was fuse programmed for a 1/8 clock. Fixed that. Next I worked out which nibble gets sent first and what nibbles are used to initialize the display. Through trial and error and dumb luck I also worked out the delays needed after each mode data and command. I went outside and worked a little on moving some more logs. Now there are two big logs and one half log left. It looks like I'll be going down to Sarasota this Wednesday. In preparation, Libbie and I bought a frame with glass at Michael s in Crossroads. On the way back from Crossroads we stopped at Trader Joes which was very crowded. I enjoyed two shapely ladies in form fitting leggings with just a sweater over. Very nice! Libbie made a yummy pizza, I was very hungry since I'm on a calorie deficit. We watched the Golden Globes red carpet then the Golden Globes. Natalie Portman won best actress for Black Swan, a movie we saw in Apex. That was the night we went to Lonestar afterward.

Tried a weigh in this morning, I was down another pound. Libbie attributed this to Tilapia and Broccoli, both of which were low calorie. I added the fact that I worked on moving logs as an exercise aid. I worked on getting Phobos working in 8 bit LCD mode. Finally when I disabled the UART the thing worked. The UART shares a pin with the LCD which is why the next step is to reduce the LCD bus to 4 bits. Spent the day rewriting the LCD routines but haven't tested them. Went to Lowes and Home Depot looking for a small gas heater. Bought a clearance model from Lowes for $104 marked down from $139. This is for my shop. Traviata was live from the Met this afternoon. Enjoyed the broadcast while Libbie got many calls from her siblings regarding her Mother who is in the hospital after a fall. The LCD came from Byonics. It was a kit I put together and got working on the TinyTrak. It works well displaying what is received by TinyTrak. Dinner was salmon and peas with mushrooms. I finished reading Sandra Brown "The Switch" after dinner. Libbie gave me a boook from Jack Shannon, "Four Corners of the Sky" which i started reading.

I weighed in this morning at 237.5. I don't know my start weight a week ago but I put down 240 on the Sharecare weight loss web site a week ago. I worked some more getting Phobos code with an 8 bit LCD ready before modifying the LCD to 4 bits. This will free up 2 pins for the 232 interface to the packet. Much to do. Went in the backyard and sliced up the maple logs in half so they could be moved. The remaining logs are too heavy to move over to the log pile. I spent a lot of time and only got 2 of them cut in half. Will move the 4 halves of 2 logs tomorrow. A Little bit at a time! Lib and I left for Tigerdirect and Whole Foods. I decided at the last minute to not go to Tigerdirect because it was 3 PM on a Fri afternoon. I ordered a USB to 232 adapter when I got home instead. We went to whole foods for Tilapia on sale but they were sold out. Instead we bought Parmesan crusted Tilapia. Dinner was the Tilapia with broccoli. I feel lighter which is good. After dinner I listened to Walkure on Sirius while reading Switched by Sandra Brown. I have really gotten into the story in this 550 page book.

I thought this was weigh in day for the Dr Oz challenge. It's tomorrow. I was disappointed with my total, only 238 which means I was much heavier than 240 that I put down. Have to cut that shit out!!! Finances continue to do well except we're spending more than my pension provides. I got the Kahlo card working for the packet. Now I have to modify it for 4 bit LCD and a serial interface. Much to do.
Just discovered I have been editing the wrong file. Fortunately I believe MARS is backed up on the external drive. I'll have to check when I'm upstairs. Gave up and decided to read the Sandra Brown book "Switched" while Carmen was live on Sirius. Listened to the end at 11:10. I really got into the Sandra Brown book. It's becoming a page turner. Dinner was chicken Pad Thai which Libbie made from a Whole Foods box of Thai rice. Yummy.

A cold day. I moved one of the logs from our downed Maple tree then came inside to work on building a Kahlo card to re-purpose for the packet system. I moved another Maple log, boy was it cold out. Dinner was bean burger again with onion, tomato, ketchup and rice-spinach steamfresh veggies.

We got a nice coating of ice last night but it wasn't bad enough to take down trees. We had extra gas on hand just in case. Libbie stayed inside and worked on cleaning kitchen cabinets. I worked on the packet radio. In the afternoon I did a grocery run then we both went back to pick up additional items. Dinner was beanburger and mixed veggies.

Waiting for the snow and then ice to start this afternoon. It never happened. We got almost no snow but are supposed to get ice tonight. I struggled today getting the TinyTrak programmed with the USB to serial adapter cables. They don't work very well. I tried Traviata and had much success. It has a normal serial port. I used Traviata over the LAN using the remote terminal login and it worked pretty good. I finally got both TT4's updated with new firmware. Now I have to figure out how to utilize them for communications. Dinner was chicken curry and spaghetti. It was spicy and very good. The Dr Oz program continues with success. I've been food logging everything I eat which is a good way to track weight loss or more accurately, why I'm still fat. We listened to Tosca tonight live from the Met.

Went early for the paper, watched the CBS Early Show then worked on the packet hardware some more. I got it to the point where I was able to apply power but not much further. We took a walk in Seagroves this afternoon as part of the weigth loss challenge. cliff Mitchell, our neighbor, had done a nice job cutting up and splitting the beech tree on our property line. It was pretty cold so we just walked the loop before going home for soup. Talked to Anne this afternoon about kids, albums and violets. Dinner was Libbie's nice pizza again, She started a crust fresh froms cratch this afternoon. Amazing.

The snow never happened last night, there's about 1/2 inch at the Virginia border. Today we have La Fanciulla at 1 PM in North hills. Left home at 11:40 and about the time we got on US 1 it started snowing and getting colder. The temp dropped 10 degrees on our journey to North hills. It was snowing pretty hard when we entered the theater. Fanciulla was lovely. I enjoyed it although some Opera L devotees didn't csre for Deborah Voight. Great opera!!! Very detailed sets, the behind the scenes work looked complicated. On the way home we had a brief slowdown between Western Blvd and Crossroads. Got off at Crossroads and picked up Salmon in BJ's which we had with leftover rice and veggies. We started our Dr Oz weight loss challenge this weekend. This morning I went to Lowes and got an electrical box to contain the TinyTrak4 and Radio. The box is roomier. Before I got dressed for the Opera I spent some time in the garage drilling holes and mounting the terminal strip and other misc screws.