I did a little more work on the Kahlo cards cutting the spacers down so they would fit into the case. We had a quick bowl of soup and then went on our way to the ballet. Carmen was fabulous. We had balcony seats which I was thinking while in the balcony that we probably would be better served by being in the orchestra where we would have beter sight lines to the dancers and their wonderful movements. It was incredibly enjoyable although our Carmen was a bit skinny and flat chested to be a Carmen. When we got back Libbie used the lower oven for the first time of the new oven to make our pizza. The crust didn't cook thoroughly which means the stone wasn't hot. We need to investigate further.

I went right to work on Kahlo after Saturday GMA. Three out of 4 of the cards work. I also built the last probe and finished the power supplies. The LCD display is sitting too high so I need to shorten the two spacers under the PCB by the display. Hopefully this will correct the situation.
Sitting on the back porch on this cold day (temp 46) and listening to Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky live from the Met. Dinner was a Trader Joes Beef Bourginon which we had early because we had to leave for the symphony. Symphony parking was crowded - all three theaters had stuff going on. We found an illegal spot in one of the drives of the lobbyist's parking lot. Symphony was a little different. I didn't care for our seats way in the back in row CC under the balcony. For the second half we moved up several rows into some vacant seats. It was cold and windy going and coming. It's hard to believe it's Spring it's so cold.

Once again worked on Kahlo. Put one power plug on the power supplies. It went well, now there are 3 more. Also building the rest of the probes. The project is moving along at a glacial pace. Deposited a bunch of checks in the CU that Jennifer gave me this morning. After the CU I went to Lowes and picked up 2 more fence posts for the azalea electric fence wire. I broke the water can on the back porch so went to Walmart and found a substitute watering can. Dinner was salad and a bean burger. i love those things. Heard from Libbie at the airport in Providence. She leaves at 7:30 landing in RDU at 10:30. While on Facebook I had chats with Ann-Marie about population in Apex and Andrea about her upbringing in Kissimmee. I noticed the time and it was 10:30 so I jumped into the car and took I-40 to the airport. got there at 10:50 but Libbie's plane had got there at 10:25. We didn't return on I-40 because they were paving the other direction so it was down to a single lane.

It rained during the night. Sky was blue this morning so I took some dogwood pics and posted to Facebook. Worked on assembling plastic cases to PC Boards. All went together well. I had a bean burger for lunch then went to Home Depot for bark and a water pitcher. I broke the back porch watering can today watering all the plants. The spout broke when I was taking it up from the fish pond and it hit the floor cracking it. Home Depot doesn't have an acceptable replacement. symphony sent a buy one get one coupon today so I ordered tix for Sat. I also found a credit union coupon online for 20% off Carolina Ballet so I bought Carmen ballet tickets. Monday there is a live from paris ballet, so we will have a weekend full of culture.

Did some surfing and investment analysis in the morning, drove up to Wake Forest Rd at 3. There is a bunch of hotels across from Trader joes that I never knew about including a Hampton, Studio Plus and Extended stay. Wow. Built some probes which included soldering the ends shut on 4 brass tubes, installing brass plugs that I made from a solid rod. Put connectors on 2 other probes and plugged them into the microwave with a controller attached. They worked!!!! Big step. dinner was Tika Masala, an Indian dish that I never had before. Very flavorful but it wasn't filling. Listened to Luisa Miller on sirius. Very nice.

Did a Trader joes run for thai salad which i enjoyed and pizza which i had for dinner. Walked outside and photographed Spring. It got up to 85 today. Watched a movie, Last Night, which I sort of liked. The people in it are beautiful. Dinner was the previously mentioned pizza. Today I assembled the 4 cases with all their spacers, bezel, etc. The project is moving forward.

Raked some pinestraw and took it to the mound at the greenhouse. Spread it around. Jennifer said David Ward was looking for me. I went down to his house and knocked. He let me in where we chatted in his kitchen. What a filthy dump but an interesting person. He is interested in the greenhouse land. I went home and made a list of equipment in the greenhouse. Dinner was bean burger.

Worked on the Kahlo stuff a little. All 4 PC boards seem to be working. I also spent some time juggling funds and bought some Double Eagle in the IRA and RGNC in the individual account. Logged in to make a payment to GE Credit for the Havertys furniture. They finally seem to have their act together. I got a statement with account number which means I;m on my way. The brass rods and the power supplies came today. Power supply connector is wrong. Brass rods seem perfect. Need to build a batch for the microwave. Need at least 5. Dinner was a Chile Relano.

After breakfast I worked outside on the fence posts around the azalea patch in the backyard. Came back inside, got cleaned up and left at 11:30 for Lucia at North Hills. Loved the performance. The music is the best, the chorus and staging are a treat. Some folks on Opera L don't like Natalie Dessay but I think she's the best. Libbie called afterward. She was listening to it on her computer in RI. Dinner was Krogers fried chicken and an Edwards single serving pie. I'm not very proud of this. Need to get back on track. Maybe a hunger diet is what I need.

My heart and heartburn is remarkably better this morning. I think yesterday was an anomoly self caused by the tablet I should not have taken Wednesday for my trip to Old Wake Forest Rd Raleigh.
Fired up each of the 4 cards for Kahlo. All programmed OK. I appear to have a problem with one LCD and at least one card has a heartbeat problem. I need to add a buzzer test routine somehow to the software to also test that function. There is so much more I would rather do now that it's Spring and nice outside. Dinner was a bean burger on thin sandwich round.

I had a rough night. Woke several times with severe heartburn. I'm worried cause I didn't have spicy foods. Thoughts of Mario 10 years ago who had artery blockage. He said the symptom was heartburn. I'll monitor it closely. Dinner and Lunch was the leftover tuna sandwiches from the TAVS meeting. I also had a nice serving of bean salad.

It turned out to be a nice day. I took a shower after breakfast to wash my hair then went to the CU to deposit the rent check from Prudential and stopped by Krogers to cruise the Great Clips store. They weren't busy so I got a haircut. Pretty nice. Went home and took another shower to hose off the hair clippings then lined up the PCB's and their respective parts for Nicaragua. Took a trip to Wake Forest Rd, there was an accident at the beltline. Took a trip North then turned around at the Homestead parking lot. Didn't even know this facility was there, right next to the Hilton where we had the convention.
Came home and had a leftover eggsalad sandwich, some beans and chips and an orange. I'm feeling tired.

I made the bean salad for the meeting and also made the tuna sandwiches. Libbie made the egg salad sandwiches yesterday. Everybody came around 12:30. We had a well organized meeting making lollipops and covering what we had to do for the show. The meeting was over about 3 PM. We went to the airport at 5 PM. Traffic on the Cary Parkway was heavy in the other direction. Got to the airport at 5:35 for Libbie's 6:30 flight. On the way home I stopped at Krogers for OJ and cereal. I noticed gas was 3.44 with the 10 cent discount. Dinner was leftover sandwiches from this afternoon with a side of beans. Desert was the lemon squares. Earlier in the day I logged into Colts and got the mortgage payment money back that they always take out on the 15th. I give them Libbie's FICA check at the end of the month. I listened to all of Queen of Spades live tonight on Sirius. It was wonderful but didn't end until midnight.

This was a busy day. I blew off the driveway, cut up the cardboard box from the oven for the recycling pickup tomorrow. I managed to get it all in the green rolling bucket. Cleaned out the garage with the blower and also the vacuum then changed the oil in the car. The oil change was 800 miles overdue. When Libbie came home she vacuumed the house and mopped floors while I went to the grocery store for rolls and ingredients for tomorrow's violet meeting lunch. All in all it was a busy day. Dinner was Pasta from Trader joes. Libbie made lemon squares in the new oven. It didn't smell as bad this time since all the oils are burned off in the upper oven. We still need to fire up the lower oven to burn off manufacturing oils.

I did not get a newspaper this morning. I'm still interested in getting the website done this weekend then I have to do taxes and the Nicaragua project. Libbie had some problems with the new oven - mostly user error. She thought she turned the lower oven on but the control was in between broil and highest temp so no heat. Instead we played with the electronice control on the upper oven. The highest it would go was 500. We watched the temp climb. When it got to 500 it beeped. The oven smelled terrible but Libbie cooked the pizza anyway. It was very good but the kitchen did not smell like pizza due to the manufacturing oils coating the oven.

I worked on the computer managing finances and organizing files, doing backups, etc. At noon today we listened to Boris Godunov on the Met sat afternoon broadcasts. A nice musical opera but not a favorite. For dinner we had leftover ribs with steamfresh veggies and Shiraz wine. We had all the dinner fixings in the house so no grocery store trips needed. I continued to work on the Bluebird website adding the new pictures to the database and changing some plastics prices.

Worked on the violet catalog today, getting everything into the database. It's a cold day but I didn't do anything else. Researched stainless hoods but won't do that until I finish Bluebird and the Nicaragua project. Dinner was leftover rotisserie chicken with steamfresh peas.

Disappointing new this morning. TCB-A fell 1.41 yesterday to 25.77. It may be recalled in May for $25. It will be break even for me. I paid 27.75 a year ago, call date isn;t supposed to be until 2013 but they received permission to call this for a "financial event". They floated a new common which is to be used to pay of the preferred. The fish look healthy, ammonia levels are down a little but not great. I added some more pond clarifier to the pond. This is bacteria that's supposed to charge the biofilter.
The Oven arrived as planned. The new oven was bigger by 3/8 inch all around so I had to cut the cabinet with my jigsaw all the way around which was a messy and hard job. I did not want to chip the laminate and the jigsaw had to be held straight for a long time so as not to get wavy cuts. Ran out to HD for cable clamps which the original hookup did not have. Put it all together then used the hydraulic jack to lift the oven to the correct height and slid it in. Evey thing worked. Dinner was rotisserie chicken with Steamfresh mixed veggies.

We cleaned up the house this morning. Our Feb tenant was a disappointment. They stained the brand new bath mat, broke the coffee carafe, burned the brand new ironing board cover and took all the outdoor mats and threw them in the water heater closet. We got going at 8:28 am. While taking things to the car I talked a long time with Noney and Vern we met from Michigan and also Joe from upstairs. We filled up last night in Venice at 3.59. Stopped at first exit off I-4 for biscuits then first gas stop was exit 29 in Georgia for 3.45. Florence gas was 3.35. On the way we also had half of the leftover sandwich half from last night. It was a texas BBQ beef on flat bun with onion, peppers and cheese. Yummy. We also had half each of one banana and half each of an Orange. Got home at 7 PM in a nice rain bathing the car starting on the Raleigh beltline. We went out to dinner at La Cocina and had a Quesadilla and Margarita with tortilla chips and salsa. Home Depot called on our journey home, delivery will be between 9:30 and 1:30 tomorrow of our new stainless double oven.

Picked up a 2x4 this morning in HD as well as a box of nails and 2 hooks. They were nice enough to cut 2 feet off the thing. Mounted the 2x4 in the shed, screwed the hooks in and hung up Libbie's bike. Next stop was to Walmart for a lock and a bike carrier. My credit card was declined at Walmart. Had to use another card then called the credit card company when I got home. They had a hold on my card because I was charging stuff out of town. Fixed that then spent quite a bit of time assembling a bike carrier with many parts and only a limited amount of instructions, no text whatsoever. We finally got it all hooked up and drove to the Venice Rail Station. Had quite a time finding the place, eventually we stumbled upon it. Rode to the end of the Venetian Waterpark. My pedal broke down there. With extra effort I was able to bike with only one peddle. Picked up a new peddle on the way home at Walmart but I was unable to get it mounted cause the threads are stripped in the crank too badly. I'll bring a tap with me next time to fix this. We went out to dinner at the Club. I had a Texas beef BBQ sandwich with onion and cheese. We also had 2 glasses of Shiraz and Libbie had a Key Lime Pie while I had coffee. A very satisfying evening. We ate on the high top tables and while eating we were able to see Bingo going on in the Dining Room. They had quite a crowd.

We took a ride to the Amish Village by Yoder since they had an article in the paper. It wasn't much. On the way home we stopped at the clubhouse for lunch. I had a BLT with a Yuengling draft. It was yummy. For the party tonight we picked up some crackers, cheese and wine. Took a bike ride down the trail to the Oscar Scherer park. We got cleaned up and then went to the pool party at 4:30. Anita and Joe hosted the party. We brought our wine and cheese and met a lot of nice people, mostly from Ohio and Michigan. I was able to dispose of the huge Rubbermaid tub that we emptied, Mike downstairs took it. Somebody made nice hamburger and beans that were a little spicy on a hard bran cracker. They were a big hit. Earlier we stopped by Peter and Christa's and admired their nice double oven with smooth cooktop by LG. It truly makes their condo look great. Dinner was the rest of the BLT plus all the appetizers we ate at the party.

I finished up the pictures for Bluebird then went out to the machine on Honore and bought a newspaper. When CBS Sunday Morning was finished we got on our bikes and went North on the Legacy Trail and back on McIntosh. It's about a 5 mile trip. We left at 12:15 for the 1:30 performance of I Lombardi. I didn't have time for lunch. Picked up our ticks at Will Call. We had perfect seats in row H seats 112,113 in the center of the theater. What a spectacular opera. Lots of choruses, trios, duets and Verdi music. It was over the top musically and the Sarasota Opera pulled it off with 12 scene changes. This was an achievement in itself. After the Opera we went across the street and had dinner at the American Cafe. I had the special which was fish stuffed ravioli and little clams surrounding the ravioli. We had a glass of house Cabernet with dinner. Maestro Rienzi came in while we were waiting for dinner. The food was excellent. When we got back we watched 60 minutes then the movie Forest Gump. It was fun seeing it again.

This was a nice day. We had a leisurely breakfast and coffee while watching the news. Then we headed to Venice for the Art Festival which opened at 10. It was pretty crowded but enjoyable. Libbie found a violet colored leather butt pack for $48 which we bought. I really liked the art of two watercolor artists. Very nice stuff, especially the rendering of Palm Trees, my favorite. I colelcted their websites and visited when we got back. Worked on cropping and labeling photos on the website before we went over to dinner. There was a wedding with very pretty women in slinky short dresses. What a sexy show. We waited 30 minutes for a table in the grill, then service was very slow but we didn't mind. We had 2 Shiraz's and I had the salmon with Louisiana spices. Libbie had the Tilapia fish basket. We got back to the condo at 8:30 pleasantly fed an inebriated.

A nice early wakeup today then breakfast while we watched GMA. I spent some computer time juggling money to pay the $3600 credit card bill. Fish ponds, Road Scholar, Florida trip and Stoneybrook club bill pushed the cc bill over the top. I sent $1300 from checking yesterday but have to scramble to get the other funds. There were two dividends this morning which helped - HLMp and AEP enriched me with about $800 to help fund the payment. We had leftover dinner from yesterday. I had the Prime rib with baked potato. We got dressed and left at 6:15 for the 7:30 Don Giovanni. There was no parking on Pineapple around the church so we used the new Palm Ave parking deck. This was very nice and convenient. We ended up on level 3. The Opera singing was fantastic. They do a nice job. We had very good seats in row K on the aisle, orchestra right. I really liked this Opera!!!! We got home at 11 PM pleasantly exhausted.

Slept a little late today. Didn't get up till 6:50 am. Bought some Fandango Bucks online then bought Comte d'Ory tickets. There is a problem with one of my Fandango Bucks, it didn't arrive.
After GMA we went to Target next to Publix and looked at a bike for Libbie. They had a weird green and white one. I suggested additional stores. Next stop was Selby where we thoroughly enjoyed the tropical gardens and the beautiful day. We shared a cranberry bread turkey and cream cheese sandwich. I had a birch beer soda and Libbie had an iced strawberry green tea with lunch. Next stop was Whole Foods where we got our GG Bran bread. Drove to Tzrget on Fruitville. It was not a Super Target but they had a 7 speed bike which seemed perfect for Libbie with 7 speeds and both front and rear handbrakes but no fenders. We also bought a 36 inch bungee cord to hold the trunk lid down. It worked perfectly. When we got home we went for a test ride of about 3 miles around Stoneybrook and through some of the streets with homes. Very nice but windy day. Before our big adventure today we called the Dining Room for a 7:15 dinner reservation. Life is Good.
Our table was ready at the clubhouse when we got there at 7:10. We had a predinner Shiraz then another with dinner. I had the Prime Rib with salad, veggies and baked potato. The warm rolls were especially good. I took half of the prime rib home but still it was a lot of food.