Today starts my enrollment period for medicare! Wow, we've come a long way baby.
I started the day by working on the cold water supply to the carbon filter next to the water heater in the laundry room. Had some trouble with leaks the first time around but rewrapped the teflon and got it on tight and leak free. Behind the water manifold is the 2x6 Libbie painted yesterday. I placed it at a height that the bracket screwed into it will support the carbon filter. After I mount the filter I'll plumb it to the water tank using CPVC pipe. Went to Home Depot with the trailer and picked up a dozen 2x4's and 5 sheets of wafer board. The sheets on the trailer cause the trailer to be unbalanced towards the rear. Had some trouble on 64 coming home because the trailer started swaying back and forth. Pulled over and checked the load but no troubles found so I continued home but slower. Started the shelf building by starting with making the first shelf level. The others on top of that one as a base should be easier. Went back to Home Depot after lunch to get 16 penny nails which I ran out of. Should have also picked up 8 penny nails for the shelving sheets but I have enough for now. Dinner was Briyani.
Received the Gel Cell battery charger today for Meistersinger and also the resin and cloth for the plant trays. Moving forward! The big thing will be when the Arduino arrives Wednesday! Hopefully the software is ready to go.

I finished the Meistersinger 2 program for Arduino today. Learning Arduino is not hard and there are a lot of user written libraries that make it easy to do complex functions such as webserving and Pachube updates. i worked on the new water tank pan and got it plumbed which involved a Home Depot trip to get a 45 degree PVC fitting. Placed the new tank in the pan and started planning the filter hookup. Libbie painted a 2x6 for the support of the water filter and I picked up some galvanized pipes for the plumbing portion. Thank goodness it rained all day today. It's been a while. Dinner was Libbie's super pizza which she almost burned. We also were using up some Kroger cheese which was mozzarella only, no Parmesan.

I went out into the garage early. The guy was coming between 9 and 10 to pick up the posing stools and tables. I sanded the plaster and did a little touch-up. He arrived on time at 9:30 and picked up the stuff for $100. I threw in the camera case and overhead paper rolls. I'm glad to get rid of it all. I painted the outside wall but had lots of trouble. the roller was coming off the handle, using the extension the handle cracked. Worse, the paint can was leaking out the bottom and it's the wrong color. I finished the job with the wrong color paint. It will be OK since the shelves will cover it all up. When Libbie came home we went to Home Depot for paint and plumbing parts. She painted the hot water heater steel tank with Rustoleum Hunter Green. I put the outlet covers back on and picked up the drop cloths. We also did a greenhouse trip to measure the existing shelves that I'm going to duplicate. On the way home we stopped at Krogers for Sherbet and U shuck em corn. We bought 4 pieces for dinner which we had with Ribs and Shiraz. The corn was yummy for grocery store corn. During the day today I worked on an Arduino program. The plan is to measure one wire temps, send them to Pachube and also display them on a web page. There's lots of learning here.

I tried taking the housing off the new water heater and ended up cutting it away then scraped off the poured foam. What a mess. Packed up the garage and the foam and loaded the trailer for a dump trip. We had to wait at the dump for about an hour while they changed dumpsters. I was committed to getting rid of this stuff. We had a late lunch then after lunch I spackled the garage while Libbie sanded the water tank. I put the posing table on Craigslist and got a call right away. Things are moving along. We had stuffed flounder, corn and tomatoes for dinner with Shiraz.

Did some studying of the Arduino shields and decided the best route would be the Arduino Ethernet from Sparkfun since it's based on the Wiznet and is all on one board. I had to order an FTDI breakout board as well to program the thing. The Arduino seems to have a lot of software libraries I can potentially use to implement the monitoring system I've always wanted. i was in Lowes to buy a hose repair coupling and noticed a scratch and dent water heater on sale for $175. We went back with the trailer and bought the water heater as well as 8 sheets of $10 plywood to make the bill $280. I had a coupon that took $25 off $250. After the Lowes trip we went to La Cocina for Quesadilla's and a Margarita then home for skinny Minty ice cream. I stayed up studying Arduino some more.

This morning I mounted a Hobby Boards temperature sensor into a box and mounted it in the attic. I ran the Cat 5 cable to the top of the attic stairs. It looks like I can pry up one piece of plywood and route the cable into my office. The office closet is centrally located for home monitoring. I will order an Arduino Ethernet for this project to post it's sensor data to a web page.

After lunch we went to AgriSupply to research water tanks, picked up a will call at Wyatt Quarle, then went to the Farmers Market and BJ's. Dinner was the corn from the farmers market along with crab cakes. After dinner I started receiving the Nicholas audio files. We got a call at 10 pm from the Nicholas's who had finished sending all the audio files.

Did a grocery run this morning then came back to tackle renumbering the AVSA slides. This is quite a job. The Bayreuth Festival was going on so it was a fantastic opportunity to be seated and listen to Meistersinger, all 6 hours and 41 minutes of it. Exquisite!!!! Next I lightly sanded the playroom seams and put down what I hope will be the final plaster coat. The AVSA slides need the descriptions put into the onboard captions so that this data moves with the slide.

Dinner tonight was pasta. Worked late at night doing fixups and talking to the Nicholas's on the phone walking them through problems with their browser cache.

This was an exhausting day. Did a trip to Home Depot for more plaster, filled the car up at 3.58 using Kroger points and took a trip to Garner. Came home and sanded the playroom corner seam then plastered it. We had 3 deliveries today - the Hobby Board moisture sensors, the whole house carbon filter and our Kodak album. Dinner was Trader Joes BBQ pork on buns. I had two plus some Mango ice cream. I went to bed exhausted.

Watched the Sunday morning stuff as usual then went outside and did some watering of the flowers and general yard maintenance. Tried playing with hooking up a mist sprinkler to the garden hose with some Home depot plumbing fittings but I had no luck. Libbie made her usual excellent pizza using up all the tomato sauce we had in the closet. Need to get some more this week.

Sanded the playroom seam then put on a coat of plaster. Now that the bulk of the AVSA work is done it;s time to tackle the playroom. We had a lite dinner of BLT sandwiches then went to the last night of ADF, this was nite 2 of the student performances. There were no big numbers like last nights jazz band but we saw some wonderful dancing of male and female. Simply exquisite as she did leaps and formations into her partners waiting arms. Good stuff. Goodberry's afterward. It seemed to be High School girls night out. There were gaggles of them around.

I finished the photos of Philly 2011 after a very full day of doing this. In the evening we had a BLT and then went to the ADF MFA performances at Reynolds. It was an entertaining evening. When we arrived there were all these dancers performing movements in the lobby. We weren't sure what this was all about but then caught on. The movement continued down the aisles of the auditorium all the way to the stage. Pretty girls, summer clothes, it was heaven! The last number of the night was a full New Orleans jazz band with lots of colorful dancers and audience participation. Wow. After the performances we stopped at Goodberry's for Ice Cream. I had a concrete flavor of the day, banana, walnut and chocolate.

Libbie's birthday today! Put the Chumby in the PO dropbox then picked up the 8x10 for Libbie's birthday. Did some serious work on the AVSA convention pics. They really came out good but there is much to do. I found that the old Burbank project has op amps and an Atmega128 which will be handy to test the leaf wetness sensors from Hobby Boards. I placed the order today for 2 temperature kits and four moisture sensor boards. Got back to more serious work on the AVSA pics. Got all the way to pic 40 but skipped a dozen designs. The Sony shortwave radio sold on eBay so I packaged that item and dropped it at the Post Office. We left at 6:15 for our 6:45 Pit reservation. The beltline South end was stopped so we went to Western Blvd which was not much of a problem. Got there in plenty of time and parked on the street around the corner from the PIT near the new contemporary Art Museum. Unfortunately we were seated next to a crying baby who seemed to calm down after a while. I had the ribs and 2 glasses of Melbec. Very nice evening.

Dropped the Bee off at the Post Office and when I came home the Chumby One was sold. Wrapped it up and printed USPS postage for dropoff in Priority Mail. Dinner was Briyani. Had lots of trouble using ACDSee on my computer. Tried to Irfanview for a while but it doesn't have the nice database that ACDSee has. Photographed violets for Libbie as well as the Sony shortwave radio and the Playstation for my next eBay listings. Researched moisture sensing by reading the Circuit Cellar article. Will order the leaf wetness sensor from Hobby Boards. This may be what i need to detect wet mats on the lightstand. According to CCI, a square wave drives one sensor lead through a capacitor. The CPU monitors the other lead using the AD converter and looks for correlation. Positive correlation indicates the presence of moisture. No correlation means there is no conductivity due to a dry pad.

On the way to Trader Joe's I went to the greenhouse for a cardboard box to ship the Alien Bees then stopped into Staples for bubble wrap and tape. Took everything to the Post Office and met Libbie there. On the way from there I stopped into Lowes and picked up an entry lock for the side garage door. Painted the door then installed the handle. This was a very full day.
Anne sent the photo list which I need to get started on.
Listed the last of the Alien Bees this evening and it sold right away. Here we go again. I also listed the Chumby. Next I want to list the PSP and the Short Wave Radio as well as misc photo stuff. I have a lot of junk!!!!

After the hotel breakfast we got onto I-81 about 8 am going home. The Comfort Inn in Clarks Summit was pretty old and beat up. Breakfast was cold only, no hot choices but it was convenient. We took I-66/US17 around Winchester which goes over to I-95 in Fredericksburg. Got gas and bathroom stop in 7-11 in Fredericksburg. Gas was 3.58 which was way better than NY and New England. We had the leftover pizza for lunch which we stored overnite in the hotel refrigerator. Libbie took over driving at the NC Visitors Center while I fell asleep. Woke up when traffic was stopped for road construction 10 miles before the US64 exit. The rest of the way home was without incident, even the Raleigh rush hour traffic. We arrived home at 5 PM and were very surprised how clear the pond water was. Dinner was our usual Margarita and Quesadilla at La Cocina with a minor twist. We had a Sopaipilla which was tough and chewy, not like the one in Mechanicsburg last week. Started archiving the pictures this evening.

We left the hotel at 8:30 this morning heading to Dolgeville. Ran over something on the road on the NY Thruway going to Pauls. Lots of people checking their tires at the Rest Area since they all hit it too. Got to Paul's shortly after 1. Talked to Andrea beforehand then met Paul outside his greenhouse. It was a fun time. He said he will close this Fall if he does not get Natural Gas installed. Those old glass houses heated with oil are just not efficient. This is all too bad and would be a loss for the violet world. Left thre around 4 stopping in front of the Post Office to get a picture. Took an interesting road after lunch in McDonalds in Little Falls, NY. We went over hill and dale in a very scenic route straight down to get to I-88. Once on 88 it was high speed all the way to our hotel in Clark Summit. Had some trouble with Visa but got our card unlocked over the phone. Went down the street to a fantastic pizza and beer. They had Yuengling, we ordered a mushroom pizza which was very very good.

Got a late start, down to breakfast at 7:30. We met Mary, John, Laura, Bob and Connor in the Comfort Inn Seekonk. after breakfast I uploaded a pic of Joe and Christa to Walgreens in Bristol for pickup on the way to the park. We're also supposed to pick up chicken for the picnic.
Started out looking for Carbelas for the chicken which we found OK. Got the pic of Joe and Christa in Walgreens then topped off the tank in Bristol. 3.78 per gallon, which is high by our standards but cheaper than New York where it is 3.89. The traffic going to Colts State Park was bumper to bumper but manageable. The park is beautiful. Bill and Jeff set up a tent over 6 picnic tables which worked out fine. We brought chicken wings but later there was veggie burgers with all the trimmings and baked beans and stuff.

We got up early in the Violet /house and went down the street to the Grainery for breakfast. I had a very nice bagel with cream cheese and some excellent coffee. All of /Naples must stop there. Next we went up the hill to say goodby to Rob and Olive. Met Rob at the lookout on the lake when we were taking pictures. Went back down to the Violet Barn to say goodby. Libbie bought a lipstick plant, sunshine sunrise or something like that. headed out of town using GPS and found it took us to Route 17. Stopped in Elmira for McDonalds break and gas. The trip up i-88 was excellent but the Mass Pike was stopped solid at Sturbridge. We bailed out and took Rte 20 to 146 where the journey was better. Made it all the way to RI. Had pizza and wine at George and Marys. Everyone except the Bill Condons was there. We left at 7 when the mornon ball game started and made our way to Seekonk. It's quite far but reasonably priced.

Left Mechanicsburg after breakfast at around 8. We decided to go to Watkins Glen on the way to Naples. Did a gas and donut stop just outside of Harrisburg. Of course we stopped in Mansfield and walked the campus a little. visited the student center where we used the facilities then otured the library which used to be Libbie's old dormitory. At Watkins Glen, Walked the park a little then headed out. i needed a bathroom break badly so we stopped at t public park on Lake Seneca next to Captain Bills Lake Cruises. Got to the Violet Barn at around 2:30. Rob and Olive were very gracious, took us around everywhere explaining each of the areas. We visited the Karen washing pots in bleach. visited the employee work room where they were separating babies for planting. Each had a personal work area. Rob explained his employee manual which shows each task and how it should be done. He also explained that each of the tasks is timed and showed me the timings of what he and olive can do, then what each employee can do average and what is considered minimally acceptable. The manual had detailed pictures showing how to cut a leaf, propagate it, pot a violet, pack a plant for shipping, etc. It's a very good how to manual. The soil room has buckets for mixing 4 different kinds of medium. We saw the A/C water filling a bucket for use in the growing area. I like the benchtops with a resin coated holding tray over each thin sheet of plywood. This makes a giant 4x8 water reservoir. The A/C is distributed by exposed 8 inch ducts with openings every few feet. I need something like this.
We next went out to dinner with Rob and Olive at an American Food place called Poor Richards. I ordered Meatload. Libbie had turkey breast. Very good food. Got a tour of the Violet House next. Incredibly restored old home downtown. The first floor had no sheetrock and had plant stands in their when they have no roomm back up the hill. Amazingly there is WiFi.

Left shortly after 7:30 this morning. Good drive up 95 and then did the West side of the beltway where everything was torn up. Slow going until we got to 270. Still lots of construction but we moved along. Stopped in Gettysburg for gas and McDonalds. Brenda isn't too far from there. We got to her place a little early. They greeted us warmly and took us through all the growing and propagating areas. Showed us packing and the office, then went into the farmhouse for iced tea and brownies. After leaving there we allowed GPS to take us over hill and dale until we arrived at the hotel in Mechanicsburg. Went out to dinner down the street at an excellent Mexican restaurant called El Rodeo. The Margaritas were huge. I had the Guadalajara special. Very good. The Sopopilla afterwards that Libbie ordered was over the top.

Today was an easy day getting ready for our trip. I did a small grocery run picking up milk and cereal. Went to Walmart for new shorts, new socks and a 12 volt adapter for our boombox. Dinner was pasta I picked up in Walmart when I was there.

Started right away this morning carving wood for the new door strike. We need this done before we leave for vacation. Marjorie sent her pictures this morning. Need to get going on that stuff. I'm so down on AVSA. Went outside and tied tomatoes and peppers. One pepper plant broke but had huge gorgeous peppers on it. I used them on my BLT at lunch and then again for dinner. dinner was a bean burger with Vidalia, pepper and tomato. What a flavor delight.

Finished the first coat of plastering this morning in the playroom. In the afternoon we went to Home Depot to get caulking for the playroom window molding. We also looked at new entrance door-sets with a lever design. Our old door handles are getting pretty ratty so it's time to bite the bullet and replace them. They are 30 years old. Libbie made her great pizza again. She has mastered the new oven. she said it cooks slower than the old one. In the meantime I found I needed to lower the door strike but that would put the top hole into the strike cavity. Went back to Lowes and picked up a bigger strike plate. I also exchanged the door lock since i screwed up the keying. The keys don't work anymore.

A guy came over this morning and bought the tractor aluminum ramps for $50. After that I went to the Post Office and mailed the two Alien Bees to Torence, CA. The postage was $38 for priority mail. Got cleaned up and went to Carmike in Morrisville for the Paris Ballet live performance of Children of Paradis. They forgot to switch it on. I went to the usher and reported that it was after 1:30 and the screen was blank. Enjoyed the ballet but Libbie said it wasn't her favorite. I didn't think it was too bad. A unique feature was the ballet on the stairs of the lobby during intermission while the audience was wandering around. On the way home we stopped at Fresh market and picked up a pair of Parmesan Tilapia and some sourdough bread for dinner. Because the bio-filter clogged the other day we decided to clean the sludge out. I disconnected the thing and dragged it out. Libbie hosed the rope and inner parts. Assembled it all and poured some pond flush into the outside pond which is supposed to contain live bacteria to break down the fish waste. We also have a lot of plant waste in the pond from the trees. Dinner was steamfresh veggies, Tilapia and shiraz with sourdough bread.

Continued the plaster job this morning. Went out to lunch at Logans. We had the crabcake sandwiches - yumm. Bought the needed rocks to dress out the pond. They look good. The biofilter started overflowing today. Went under the porch and found the shower drain was plugged with scum. I may be able to just remove the drain and run free flowing. On the way back from Logans we stopped at Trader Joes and got wine and some other foods. Dinner was ribs, steamfresh veggies and Shiraz. Very mellow. I finished the New Moon Rising book. Outstanding. We definitely have to go to St Simons island now.