After breakfast this morning we got into the car and left home at 8 am. It's supposed to rain but so far we drove in NC under blue skies and little to no traffic. We stopped on I-95 around Roanoke for more coffee and a McDonalds biscuit. We hit rain from Richmond to Fredericksburg. Bought gas in Fredericksburg at 3.92 and also had a ranch wrap in McDonalds. This was also a good bathroom break. This time going North I wanted to avoid the DE-MD toll so we did the drive around. It took 7 minutes. If we had not gone around, the toll and 2 exits would probably be 5 minutes so I estimate this added 2 minutes to our trip. We had a very good trip, we arrived at 3:30. I briefly had a chat with Winston about the website. Nothing has changed. After settling into our room and unpacking the plant boxes we called the Nicholas's and also Marjorie and went out to Bahama Breeze with them for dinner. I had the Jerk painted salmon with sweet potatoes. We each had a glass of Shiraz with dinner. Bahama Breeze was next to the Cherry hill Mall. After getting back at 8:30 we went to our room and to bed.

Did some last minute work outside today. Put stakes in for the tomatoes and the one renegade Dahlia that appeared by itself. Tied the plants as appropriate. Went back inside and prepared the cameras and lights for the trip to AVSA. Packed up my suitcase. For lunch I had the leftover Chinese and also a BLT. For dinner Libbie made the Trader Joe's pasta. We watched about 20 minutes of Dancing with The Stars before turning it off and going back upstairs to fine tune our suitcases for the AVSA trip.

Got up and started organizing files as well as I did a few touch ups to Jessica's album. Watched an Indy film this afternoon, Endure and briefly went outside to stake the Dahlias and tomatoes. Couldn't find the string so that job is incomplete. Printed labels for the Violet Convention sales this week. Libbie had to go to OfficeMax for Avery 8162 labels. WE had a yummy pizza this evening with real tomatoes. After dinner I watched spanish TV for a while, Nuestra Belleza Latina. I started gathering my journals for the past 15 years by running the program "egret" against the phpblog. This VB program I wrote gathers the individual daily entries and compiles them into a yearly journal. I may compile the 2000-1010 into a decade journal and put it on Google for archiving.

The Guenthers arrived around 1 am this morning. Libbie went down to greet them. In the morning they went to the greenhouse at 9:30 but we had to leave for the opera at 10:30. Libbie managed to get away and get home in time to get dressed and make tuna sandwiches. We got to the theater on time and even took some pics for the Met Facebook page. The performance was delayed 40 minutes by troubles with "the Machine" which stages the opera. When it went on the Opera was spectacular. Bryn Terfel and Jonas Kaufman are part of a stellar cast. The music, singing and staging were a complete experience. We got home around 6:30. We ordered Chinese takeout which we had with shiraz. Yummy. I finished up Jessica's 40 page album today as well. What a relief.

Worked on Jessica's album and finished it today. Now I still have the last minute tweaks such as adjusting borders and choosing backgrounds. This was a big relief. Looked at the AVSA budget. What a mess. Revenue is still going down while expenses remain level. Libbie and I went to Trader Joes this afternoon for wine and sundry items. We had wine, Lima Beans and ribs for dinner. The Guenthers spent this morning at Disneyworld then they were going to drive here. We heard they got into the car at 2 PM which means a midnight arrival if we're lucky.

This was catch up day. Sorted stuff, unpacked the suitcases, dealt with some finances, etc. Resurrected the Chumby from Best Buy and programmed it to display pics from Traviata as well as Facebook, Picasa and Flickr. Dinner was La Cocina where we had Margaritas and our standard Quesadilla La Cocina. There was an accident on Old Raleigh Rd where we couldn't get buy so we came home through buckingham. It's been a while since we went that way - the back entrance.

Well, I woke up this morning and made the decision to leave today. I'll pack the apartment up this morning then get going by 8:30 which will allow me to miss rush hours in Tampa, Orland and JAX. I managed to get everything buttoned up but later realized I left my water bottle in the bike handlebar bag, partially filled with water. Sirius XM has Florida traffic on one of their channels. I programmed preset A0 to access this easily. It gives Miami on the 1's, Orlando on the 4's and Tampa on the 8's, both traffic and weather for each of those cities. It was pretty handy for the traffic. I left at 8:28 and had a pretty easy drive with no congestion or slowdowns anywhere. First stop was in Brunswick where gas was an outrageous 3.99. I used exit 29, should have waited for exit 36 or so where they were advertising 3.89. Next stop was Florence but instead of my normal exit 164 I drove further to hwy 38, the Hess station where gas was 3.65. I chose this because there are no lights getting on or off the highway and it's less congested for the same price. There also is no food here and since I had my cut up cup of fruit from Publix all was fine. I arrived home at 7:15 where Libbie greeted me with BLT's and strawberry shortcake.

I decided not to paint the door this trip. I'll bring a sanding sponge next time and maybe blue tape and a good paint brush. I want to start a painting but I'm not sure if it should be a simple tree or the complicated building I was going to paint.
Took the old cruiser bike to Goodwill and dropped it off then hooked up my bike and drove to the Venice Train Depot. Rode the Venice waterways all the way to Casperian Beach. It was great. Very scenic and I love the Casperian Beach park. Came back and had Thai Curry chicken for dinner along with some Ravenswood Zinfindel and Key Lime Cheesecake. I treated myself nicely. I also called Comcast today and turned off the Internet. I'm also going to try getting rid of Vonage and switching to an Ooma. I took out a 941 area code google number for use in the condo, specifically with the Ooma device.
I have mixed feelings about driving home tomorrow. I want to stay another day.

Got up early this morning and started quietly cutting away the carpet where the new door frame has to go. When it got to be 9 am I got to work seriously on the effort. Cut a 2x4 and a 1x4 for use as shims and nailed them to the sides. Cut a 1/2 inch off the new frame and installed it but the door was too tight against the carpet. I decided to pull the door out and remove the sheetrock on the header. It was a messy job but necessary. The door fits much better. After getting the door secured I went to Home Depot and bought a door handle with lock and shims. Using the shims I was able to get the door straight and then spackle all the nail holes. For lunch and dinner I ordered 2 sandwiches from the club house, a hamburger and a BLT, both with side orders of sweet potato fries. Both were excellent. I listened to Walkure live on Sirius but dozed off several times. I worked hard, did not go out on the bicycle at all which was too bad.

Bought a newspaper this morning. I'm not sure it was worth it. Hopped on the bicycle and rode to Oscar Scherer. This almost killed me I was so tired. That's what I get for eating donuts after breakfast. I was also concerned about tire pressure on the rear tire. When I got back I checked it and it was low at 35 but that's not too bad. Dinner was a beanburger with Vidalia on flat bread.

Went out this morning to Lockridge Rd. Interesting. When I came back i listened to the Met saturday broadcast of Ariadne. It was incredibly good. While the opera was on I built a St Simons photo book on lulu and ordered it using a graduation coupon for 30% off. Lulu's tools are better than Kodaks. Libbie called later in the afternoon relaying all the travails with the Guenther trip. They got off to a a late start, having to switch rental cars in Richmond which also meant driving 2 cars to Richmond and leaving one there while they switched the van with the wrong child restraint mounts and picked up one with the correct mounts for their Florida trip. It seems like much ado about nothing. For lunch and dinner today I had a bean burger on flat bread with a slice of Vidalia and ketchup. Desert was chocolate Moose Tracks frozen yogurt. I'm watching my favorite variety show on Spanish TV, Sabado Gigante.

I wanted to go for a bike ride but the sky looked too threatening. Went to Selby gardens instead and then stopped by Home Depot on the way home. It started thundering and lightning inside the store but I was able to get door sizes and prices anyway. I also looked at door handles for home. I want to change our doorknobs to levers in the Playroom as a start. I may defer this project until I'm able to raise the funds to pay the Stoneybrook fees. Found a good watercolor book in Books a Million. It's called Watercolor: The Spirit of Spontaneity. It was $25 in the store but is $15 on Amazon. I ordered it from Amazon for around $18 with shipping. Dinner was the leftover ribs, potato and rolls. Very nice. Libbie is doing much better today. Ron Davidson called and told her he was going to call the ag department and apologize for Georgine's behavior.

Talked to Nancy today when I called the greenhouse. I thanked her for being Libbie's therapist. Went out later in the morning and looked at bikes in both Target and Walmart. I liked the Walmart Next model with 7 speeds. hooked up the bike rack back at Stoneybrook and bought the bike at Walamrt as well as a very nice straw hat. Since it was an XL it fits much nicer than my other one. Pumped the tires up to 40. They came with 20 psi. Used the factory seat and took a ride to the back corner by the junk yard, a total of 4 miles round trip. Talked to John Carter when I returned. He was out mentoring elementary school kids. His assigned child has a Mother in jail and is being raised by a grandmother. He had the child make a Mothers Day card anyway for the grandmother to give to the Mother if she see her. I relayed to John the long sad story of Georgina and INSV. Unknown to me he sent out an eMail to AVSA EC members and Anne telling what the "AVSA INSV Expert" did to Libbie. Anne sent out a note and I replied with the story. Libbie called her. At 6 PM I called over to the clubhouse for an order of a rack of ribs to go. They were delicious. Unfortunately I went to Publix later in the evening and picked up some frozen yogurt which I don't need. Listened to the Met on Sirius for both Trovatore and Walkure in the evening. Set the radio to auto sleep and went to bed with Walkure playing. It shuts off in 90 minutes.

It was raining this morning. Checked the radar and decided that it was OK to travel at 10 am. I canceled the room I had reserved in JAX since even though I may get in late I still cam make it to Stoneybrrok at a reasonable hour. Had rain on the beltline and some of 40 but I-95 was celar and by the time I got to Fayetteville there was blue sky. Stopped for gas in Florence, used my $25 gift card and paid for the rest of the gas with my Visa. $3.73 per gallon. Next gas stop was Kingsland/St Mary where it was $3.88 per gallon. These were my only two stops. I had an apple on the way down. Bought milk and OJ at Publix but the Subway was closed when I got back outside. It was just after 9. Instead I went to Checkers and had a Big Rufus combo for 7.06. It was way too fattening. A Big Mac like burger, tasty fries and a huge coke. I should not have done it besides it cost $7.06. At the condo I talked to Lib who was still getting over this Georgine thing. It's a shame, she works so hard and gets dumped on like this.

Did the grocery store run this morning then visited Ace Hardware looking for a 9/16-20 tap. No luck but I did buy pepper plants and zucchini seeds. Put the electric fence around the grow boxes after planting 6 peppers and the squash seeds. I'm ready for the trip. I also hooked up the watering to the box and ran out to Krogers for a new 9v backup battery for the watering timer. Took a drive up 55 to the bicycle chain bike store looking for my tap. They have a huge selection of bikes, all of which were very expensive. Libbie came home in tears today with INSV issues reported to her from a different ag department. That Georgina is a pain in the ass. Our ag inspector insisted we did not have INSV.

Watched some news this morning that Osama Bin Laden was killed yesterday. After breakfast news went outside and tilled the garden. The tiller started right up. Planted the tomatoes then prepared the grow boxes for planting. Put two tomatoes in there as well but they need an electrical fence for protection. Next i mowed the front lawn for the first time this year. Also picked up the outlet covers and plaster for the playroom job. Much going on!!!!
For dinner we had crabcakes with tomatoes Libbie picked up at a vegetable stand on Kildaire Farm Rd.

Managed to get all new outlets installed on the South wall of the playroom and under the fan window (3 outlets).

I started working on the plaster job in the playroom. When Libbie came home started putting the green paint on. Made it all the way around the room in 2 coats except for the wall that needs repair. For dinner we had Libbie's wonderful pizza. It was great that she was able to do this despite the fact she worked all day painting trim in the playroom! I ordered a fruit basket for Arlene's 60th birthday this week from edible arrangements. Luckily i used Google and found a coupon code to get 10% off. Getting ready to go to Sarasota this week. It's one of the few weeks i can do this!

I'm not feeling too sore today after doing the paint roller yesterday. The Met Facebook page is requesting pictures from inside the HD theater today so they can post it on their site.
Took a few pictures outside the theater of the line and also a few inside but didn't use them. We loved Trovatore!!!! it was perfect. The HD camera also focused on a group of ladies waving panties to Hvortovsky. Unfortunately those 2 annoying ladies from last week sat down next to me. I moved to the other side of Libbie to get away from them. i could still hear them but it was better. After the theater we stopped at BJ's for ribs and sundry other groceries. Dinner was ribs with broccoli and Shiraz. Very nice. I worked a little more on the Hiroshima Peace building then sent it to the virtual paintout. I'm going to redo it but first i want to participate in the May painting.

When I turned GMA on this morning the Royal Wedding had just finished and they were in the registry signing the book. Saw the procession and drive to Buckingham Palace as well as the replay put together by ABC called 4 hours in 40 minutes. Enjoyed it all, especially the funky hats.
I started the Hiroshima Peace Memorial painting again. It's going better this time, I decided to use a wash for the building and then add weather effects. The sponge worked especially well. I hooked up the wire snake and pulled the last wire into the knee wall for the Playroom rebuilding project. When Libbie came home we opened the new paint I bought in Home Depot this morning and started rollering. Made it all the way around the room to the front window. I have some serious plaster repair to do for the other half of the room. Got cleaned up and drove to the Chapel Hill Town hall for Kim's Art show of her sculpture. We had some nibbles and stayed around a little looking at her artwork and chatting. We next went to Thai Palace on Raleigh Rd where we had Spring Rolls, Chicken Pad Thai and house burgundy wine. The bill with tip was $44 which was excellent. We got home about 9:30 and watched a little of the replay of the Royal Wedding between Will and Kate which was today.

I heard from Joyce Stork today supporting my offer to convert the AVSA website to PLONE. She said she and some AVSA ladies were praying for the AVSA website and she thinks I am the answer to their prayers. I don't thinks so. Changed the toner in my printer since it stopped printing while trying to get a few pages of the Plone theme manual printed. After lunch I planted the Marigolds we bought last week. They looked pretty dried up. Hope they make it. Libbie brought my tomatoes home from the greenhouse today that Jennifer started. Dinner tonight was 15 bean soup with the leftover Easter ham. We had Libbie made corn bread with the soup.

I did a lot today. Moved the pinestraw pile from the front of the house to the azaleas in back. Put the oil in the mower too conclude yesterdays oil change and mowed the back yard. Spackled and sanded playroom wall for further painting. Moved the ladder to the front window and to the side window and power washed both window frames then bought new screws for the window fan and re-installed it. It's now properly hung. Libbie cleaned the windows prior to me installing the fan and I used the power washer from far away to clean the screen before putting it back. Still need to paint the windows on the outside but first i'll have to hook up the trailer and fetch the ladder. I played with Plone some more and then sent an eMail to the entire EC saying that I could port the AVSA website over to PLONE inless than 90 days. Dinner tonight was the leftover Rotisserie chicken and potato salad and macaroni salad. Listened to Trovatore tonight live on Sirius. It's pretty nice, can't wait to see it on Saturday.

Went to Barnes Noble in Cary looking for a Plone book. Saw a demo of the Nook color. I really like the toy but it would be just that, a toy. Maybe we can buy one passing through Delaware next month to avoid the sales tax. I figure we would save $20. Came home and found a used Plone book on Barnes and Noble website for 1.99 which I ordered. When Libbie came home we had a nice ham sandwich for lunch then with her help we pulled another wire from the attic into the knee wall. The attic wasn't too bad, mostly becauuse it was rainy and cloudy outside. We have the house A/C on since the window fan is out of commission until the window is painted. I washed the fan in the garage today, it was pretty greasy. Dinner tonight was a rotisserie chicken with potato salad and macaroni salad for the trimmings. Krogers had the salads on a 10 for $10 sale ($1 each). Listened to Rigoletto live tonight while studying Plone themes.

Played some more with Plone then went outside to do some work. Drained the oil from the lawn mower and cleaned the pine needles off the shed roof. When Libbie came home we set the ladder up in front of the house and I raked the pine needles off the roof. Also hooked up the pressure washer and washed the garage door and corner wall. This really was a pressure washer test for doing the windows. Upstairs I picked up some screws and outlets to wire the playroom. I also went to the greenhouse where a bench in house 3 collapsed. I repaired the plumbing. Not sure how to repair the bench which is flat on the ground. I didn't think this could happen. Dinner was pasta. Earlier I managed to send the first 20 pages of Jessica's album to her.

This was a busy morning. Pulled the wire from the knee wall to the stairwell outlet. Cleaned up and left at 2:00 for the RLT play. The play was Last Night at Ballyhoo which was about Jewish segregation and was wonderful as usual. Today is Easter Sunday. Enjoyed the bikini's in the Rose Garden on coeds. Very colorful. Libbie mastered her pizza in the new oven tonight. Previously she had been having temperature control issues with the lower oven. I now have 20 pages of Jessica's album complete. I also volunteered to implement the AVSA website using Plone. Wrote an eMail to Richard and Winston.

Worked on Jessica's wedding album in the morning until it was time to go to the Opera. We left a little after 11:30 for Capriccio at North Hills. Libbie made sandwiches which we had in the theater. There was no intermission so it was a long 2 1/2 hour opera. The best part of course is the last 20 minutes which features Rene Fleming's solo aria. Very good. On the way home we stopped in Trader Joes and got some Shiraz for our dinner. Dinner was Ham, Apple Sauce, mixed veggies.