I went into the garage and started using the new 2x4's I bought yesterday. I assembled a large rectangle 8 feet by 40 inches. Unfortunately, on one of the corners the nail gun double fired. The first nail went into the wood while the second one hit my left index finger. Oh, what pain. It's throbbing 6 hours later as I type this, and I cam only type with one hand sort of. I'm using a finger or two on my left hand occasionally. This morning I bought tickets to Pilobolus at dPac. We have never been here. Ticket cost was $114 for 2 seats in row s.

This morning I went to TigerDirect and picked up a new switch for upstairs. This fixed the problem. All is well once again. I ordered a GE THQLsurge whole house surge suppressor for our electrical panel but this won't fix the Ethernet lines which are still vulnerable. Worked out in the garden tying up everything that fell in the rain. Pounded some more poles into the ground for the rest of the tomato plants to be tied. I bought these in Home Depot today along with 4 2x4's to experiment with light shelves. I want to build a large light stand. After a dinner of corn and BLT's, we left for ADF. We had a wine and cheese tasting in the lobby before the performance and then went to our seats in row P which was far back but OK. These were Groupon seats, $28 for two. The Rosie performance was long with lots of skits involving dancing and music, including a Soprano singing very nice operatic arias. After the performance we stopped at Goodberrys. Got there by going down Davis from I-40 which was weird but a great way to get there. The place was very crowded with hundreds of swim team kids crawling all over along with the normal assortment of teenagers.

While GMA was on I played What IF with flights to Lonestar and also to Beaumont. The best way is to fly Southwest to Houston round trip. We can arrange for the Beaumont trip on either end of Lonestar. I left at 9:40 to get Libbie from the airport. Her flight was on time. After resting at home briefly we went to the Farmers Market for the TAVS meeting and lunch. Picked up some produce after lunch. Late in the day we had a really good rain and lightening storm. It seems to have taken out the upstairs switch. There was a loud snap inside the closet. Dinner was just corn and ice cream (Mango Sherbet).

Got up bright and early to check Libbie in at 6:05. When I did the check in it failed. Called Southwest and found her flight takes off at 7:05, not 6:05.
The fish pond is really looking good. Dinner this evening was Trader Joes BBQ with baked beans. I ate too much. Picked up a carton of Mango Sherbet which is yummy. My favorite flavor to date.

Had a nice time this morning. Packed up to head out at 12:30 and Libbie called at that moment. At the greenhouse I brought the miter saw, some extension cord and nails. As i cleaned up a board of nails I cut it into lengths to build a lightstand. At 4:30 I brought everything home and hooked up the nail gun in the garage and assembled one shelf. i'm not happy because the wood is splitting badly with the framing nails, even when I switched to smaller nails (2 inch instead of 3 inch). Dinner was a beanburger and Bushs baked beans. I'm certainly getting my fill of beans! Went to bed after reading a chapter of New Moon Rising by eugenia price. this is the second

Went into the attic this morning and implemented the permanent fix for the hole in the duct. Cut a piece of metal and caulked then screwed it onto the ductwork. Next step was to tape the seams with aluminum duct tape and then cover everything with aluminum faced self stick insulation. Finished in the attic for now. One thin i noticed, after the A/C stops the ducts still have cold air in them. The room temp was 81 and I turned the fan to on and measured the air temp. It was 74. I need to run the fan a little longer after the compressor turns off. Possibly I need to measure the delta difference between the room and the ducts and use that. Dinner was vegetable lasagna followed by a Klondike bar. In the PM I went to the greenhouse and finished taking apart the fallen bench. Started cleaning up the 2x4's as well by pulling nails. Got about half of them done.

I left at 9:30 this morning for a 10:00 appointment at Leith for an oil change and tire rotation. Even with a $34.95 coupon the bottom line was $42. The good news was i did not have to rotate the tires. Changing the oil is easy, rotating tires is bad news. On the way home I stopped at Northern and bought a fiberglass handle rubber grip 4 pound sledge hammer. Went over to the greenhouse after lunch and started knocking the wood apart of the fallen bench. It was hot and I got pretty tired. I almost crawled to the car I was so weak and overcome with heat exhaustion. Dinner was a bean burger which totally revived me.

Drove out to Tony Avents in vain. Came home and went up to RTP. There is an amazing amount of new construction going out 55 to the Park. In the evening I took everything out of the workshop closet and started running the conduit with the wire in it for the upstairs wiring. I got tired so I stopped working on the project. Dinner was Vegeterian Pad Thai from Trader Joes. It had a strong garlicy flavor which I didn't care for.

Spent most of today making a schematic for a temperature monitoring system in the upstairs. I want to know what's going on with the A/C and why it's performing so poorly. Dinner was a Bean burger. Yummy

Today started very early. We got up at 4:15 and then were out the door at 4:40 am for Libbie's 6:10 flight. Came back at 5:40 and laid down on the couch. I slept for about an hour and woke up very groggy. A little bit of breakfast woke me up but I was still very much out of it. Shortly after 9 I went to Great Clips and got a hair cut that I'm happy with but she didn't thin my hair on top. It seems to be bushy to me. Dinner was TJ's Chili Rejeno which I really like. I had Krogers chocolate cherry truffle for desert which is bad considering I've been good all day. We had a thunderstorm at 9 and then another one overnight at 2 am. I had to disconnect the driveway alarm for the second one.

The Japanese Beetles have arrived. I didn't have any powerful insecticide so I used Malathion as a short term and put down systemic granules for a long term solution on the three roses. The big advantage to Malathion is I was able to spray the vegetable plants. The garden is looking good and also the outdoor pond is coming back to life with the new bio filter. I made a Trader Joes run for Libbie because she needed almonds. I picked up some Thai salad for our lunch and pasta for dinner. I completed the Pasquale schematic and made an attempt at layout but I didn't like some of the footprints I used so I aborted it.

This was a slow day. It was Fathers Day and I decided to hang around and read and not do much of anything else. Joe never called for Fathers Day today. It's pretty dry outside, I may have to water the plants again. Took a look at hardware for an RS485 network. I think I'll have to send out for client cards to be made. We skipped the RLT performance today, Three Penny Opera. Dinner was Libbie's excellent pizza. She has perfected thin crust pizza. I had to go out to Krogers earlier to get cheese.

I finished the Eugenia Price today. Loved it. I'm going to read the next in the trilogy, New Moon Rising. Late in the afternoon, 5 PM, we went to Fresh Market for Almond Crusted Salmon and Sourdough bread which we had for dinner with fresh asparagus and shiraz.

Worked outdoors this morning. I routed the electrical wire for the replacement pump. Next step was to tie the plants to stakes including peppers, tomatoes and Dahlias. I weeded the tomatoes which just about killed me, literally. I felt really weak and possibly slight chest pains. I need to lose some weight to get in better shape. This can't go on. Looked at how to pay bills. Schwab has a hold on my funds transferred in from Scott. The Visa is due next week and the condo maintenance is due at the end of the month.
For dinner we had a Groupon for Dixie Belles BBQ. I paid $7 for $15 worth of food on Groupon. We bought a full rack of ribs with 2 sides, baked beans and loaded potato salad. The bill was $16.98 which was pretty good. We had the ribs with Shiraz at home then went out after dinner to Krogers for a carton of Moose Tracks frozen yogurt. In the mid afternoon today I came in to rest and chose to lay on the bed and read the Eugenia Price "Lighthouse" which I'm really liking. Unfortunately Andrea called in the middle of my read to vent about her run in with Rob and Olive over the Commercial DVD tour.

A lot of my divvys posted yesterday which was good since I need money to pay the credit card bill for the AVSA convention as well as the quarterly maintenance fee for Stoneybrook. I sold the duke Realty preferreds this morning and picked up some BAC-H which has an 8% yield. Duke only had 6.73% but I made a nice profit buying it in the teens and riding it up to $25. Not bad since it also paid divvys over this period. My retirement cash flow only went up by a few hundred annually with this move but a nickel here and a dime there and we'll have a nice cashflow. I'm waiting for the day that it crosses $50k annually.
Just checked and the divvys from reg ira, roth ira and individual accounts is $51,033. Forget about crossing the $50k boundary, I'm already there. Dinner was Chicken Pad thai. We ate late, about 7:30. Unfortunately, the pond pump quit and I want to return it to Home Depot tonight. Unhooked everything, put the pump and sponges in baggies and headed to Home Depot Cary where I bought it. They exchanged the pump. Also picked up a surface outlet box and conduit for mounting an LED indicator to tell when the pump is on.

This was a successful day. Studied RS485 networking in the morning then went out in the PM and added the 50 more feet of poly to the outdoor filter. Put a grate over the top and held it down with a brick. The filter is now done except I want to bring it indoors under the house for freezing weather. We had pulled pork barbecue early then left at 6:45 for ADF. Got there around 7:30. duke has eliminated all on street parking forcing us to pay for the parking garage. I saw lots of pretty woman getting off the bus in front of Reynolds. There was a wine tasting in the lobby which we did before the performance. I liked Yossi and Berg but Libbie wasn't excited by it. She has a real problem - nothing makes her smile. There were some comedic moments as well as some superb dancing about Zoo animals breaking out of their skin and having human emotions. It was about releasing the inner animal in you. Afterwards we stopped at Goodberrys for Carolina concrete. I had the featured flavor which was pistachio and banana. Yumm. I also liked the many many young women in summer shorts hanging around Goodberrys. Pretty.

This morning I worked on finances and musings catch up. stayed clean for a dental appointment at 11:20. On the way to the Dentist I stopped at Lowes and looked at industrial racks for use as light shelves. They're a little pricey. Perhaps I can recycle the greenhouse benches into light stands. Bought some more poly rope for the outdoor fishpond filter then got to the dentist on time. They were running late. Finally got into the chair and chatted with Dr Beaver and his Yosemite and Monterey vacation. He drilled a filling in tooth #11 and replaced it. It wasn't tooo bad except he said it's close to the nerve and to monitor the tooth. Bad news! The pond continues to improve. Dinner tonight was pasta from Trader Joes this morning.

I went into the attic this morning and ran a 2 conductor thermostat wire from the furnace to the closet in my shop. This is to control the aux AC unit I'm planning to add to the playroom. I somehow need to monitor temperature and factor that into the control mix. I started looking at a 585 network of temperature sensors. These will probably be smart sensors with AVR. The pond continues to do well. It seems to be clearer. I may add more media to the filter as well as a grill across the top to hold the stuff in the water. Sheila sent the Violet show database and I added the major awards. Got one wrong for best design. Libbie and I went out to the Verizon store to replace her phone. I spent some time online with her phone hooked to my laptop's USB port to get a better ringtone for her. I tried a Pachelbel MP3 file. The volume is extremely low. I need to convert to midi and see if that's louder.

Back to normal today. Libbie and i went to Walmart looking for a radio and plastic tub for the niches. We found neither. I used my old trunk instead for the niches. We'll order a radio from Walmart online for her. I worked on the wiring in the playroom. i got most of the cosmetic work done - outlets and boxes installed, wall plates on. I'm still not sure how to handle the supplemental A/C. I think I want to have it run when the house thermostat is calling for cooling. We'll play this one by ear. Dinner was Libbie's made from scratch pizza. It started raining around 6:30 but didn;t really come down too hard. I think we're getting ahead on our pond water. At least it seems to be clearing up and the filter running longer between cleanings. It used to rn for 5 hours but now we seem to get 7 or 8 hours out of it. The water looks better as well.

Got up at 5:45 this morning. Sheila promptly knocked on our door at 6:30. The arboretum opens at 7 for show setup. Libbie and sheila left promptly but I had to get some weeds from the field as well as a fern for my designs then i spent some time looking for the small camera with no luck. I took the DSLR instead which worked OK. I was happy with the pictures. The setup went well. I had to build the niches which went together well with the quilt pins I had. The judges arrived from Richmond around 10 when we were still setting up the show. It was open to the public at 10 as well. We had people waiting at the door to buy plants before 10. The surprise was Ed who came with his guitar, sax, violin and another guy to play music. it was great since he rewrote some of the words to fit a violet show. We delayed lunch a half hour and went over to Iris for lunch. Lunch was $111 for 7 of us. Sheila and JoAnne Raymer payed me cash for their lunch. The day went very fast. Before I had a chance to get photographs, the show was over and the judges were heading back to Richmond. we had Barbara Stewart, Vicki Carr and Bill Schmidt. After we dragged ourselves home we lay on the floor exhausted. Got up and went out at 7 for dinner at La Cocina. We had the medium Margarita which was too large for me. I also left some of the food because I was full from lunch. at Iris for lunch I had the burger with sweet potato fries. It was yummy but a $12 hamburger! Ouch. Our waiter, Kyle, came over to the show around closing time. That was pretty nice.

Studied BP extensively and found interesting people. Went to jerry's Artarama and picked up 2 more poster boards because JoAnn needed a niche and i wanted to have at least one extra. Assembled the design and it looks OK. Folded the maps for tomorrow. I found a piece of foam for the maps but I'll need to nail it to something solid to support it, then cover everything in Sand to hide it. Dinner was BBQ chicken breast again with wine and baked beans. After dinner I went out to Krogers to get a $50 gas gift card for the judges as well as ice cream for us and gas for my car. They seem to have a new way of taking the bonus. You take the whole credit at once. I took 30 cents a gallon with my 300 points.

Went to the greenhouse first thing to fix the flat tire in the garden tractor. It looks like it needs a new tube. Went to Northern then Lowes and home Depot. No luck. Drove to AgriSupply and struck out there as well. Came back and bought a tube in Northern that was a little too wide. Worked on replacing the tube but had lots of troubles. I may have punctured the new tube putting it in. In any event, i lost the valve stem into the tire. Couldn't work too much since Andrea called. Will deal with this after the show. Worked on the Violet show instead cutting the niches and working out my design. Dinner was barbecue chicken with wine and veggies.

Did a run to Jerrys Artarama and bought the niche material for the Violet show Saturday. Talked for quite a while with Andrea about her idea to use a Black Eye Peas song "Time of My Life". Found the album on Easynews and downloaded it. I did some more watering with the green pond water. It's dry out. Watered the Zinnias and Marigolds as well as 3 pepper plants. I need to weed the tomatoes and get some water on them as well. I planted the garden for my natural garden and have an idea for the vacation design. Dinner tonight was Pasta.

I did the grocery run today and also cleaned the pump prefilter a few times. This thing is plugging up about every 4 to 5 hours but I think the water is getting clearer. Did a lot of communicating with Andrea about the Commercial DVD then I watched the tutorial on enabling downloads in Zencart. I now have downloads working satisfactorily. It hasn't rained in over a week so I used pond water to water the new daylilies and the geraniums in front of them. I also watered my Marigolds, Zinnias and Dahlias. I may have to water the bushes as well - the Gardenia and Stella D'ora's are looking dry. Dinner was Jack Daniels pulled pork barbecue on sandwich rounds. I went out after dinner to pick up a box of Skinny Minty ice cream. I'm reading the Eugenia Price Lighthouse book. It's very interesting since it now is covering where James Gould arrived on St Simons Island. I watched some videos of a huge explosion on the sun from yesterday morning. Beautiful!

After studying a few online reviews I bit the bullet and invested in a UV light for the outdoor pond. I decided that the only way to tackle the algae and green water problem was with a light that zapped algae. I got it all hooked up and leak free. I installed a bypass around the UV filter but ended up not using it since flow rate seemed OK. I cut some of the log up in the front yard and also cut one log slice out for a natural container. I used a chisel in the garage to make the center larger but the sides broke on me. I'll still use it but will glue it back together. Dinner was bean burger and a slice of Joe's leftover pizza.
I had a multiple eMail conversation with Andrea and Anne about the Commercials DVD. I was thinking of doing a vendor visit on a circle tour of PA and NY.