This was a tough day. i essentially spent the whole day installing light fixtures on one shelf - the bottom shelf. This was a job I did on my back and it was truly a struggle. At least I got the thing in. Now all that remains is to install the top shelf and then install lights on the underside of the top shelf. Dinner was a very nice Scallops in cream sauce with a Brown Rice base. The Brown rice took 45 minutes to cook but was very very good. After dinner spent some time on the phone with Anne about the DVD. She wanted the captions corrected for a few of the exhibits. There were extraneous commas and periods throughout. She sent a list of changes needed. I'll make the changes and turn it around in tomorrows mail.

Went out to Lowes to pick up more light fixtures. I bough one 4 foot and two 8 foot strips. It took a while to get a procedure for hooking up the lights but after getting the 8 foot strip mounted and running I liked it enough to abandon putting up the four footer and did another trip to the store to get 6 more 8 foot strips. After lunch Libbie and I took a trip to JoAnne fabrics for matting. I wanted 18 square yards. They sold me 18 linear yards so we got almost twice what we need. This is OK since the second light shelf will be coming almost immediately behind the first one. Libbie worked on wash and waxing the back porch this afternoon after the fish tank emptied onto the floor last week. Dinner was BBQ on a bun. I still felt energetic and wanted to get the second shelf lights running but I needed wire nuts. Made a late night run to Home Depot. It was 8:30 and dark enough that I needed to use headlights. Summer is quickly slipping away. Returned home and got another shelf up and running. I also mounted the quad outlet on the stand but still need to wire it up. Went to bed happy because we're making forward progress on all of this.

Juggled some finances this morning. don't have enough in checking to cover $256 car payment at the end of the month. I'll have to do some creative juggling. Installed a shelf on the plant shelf rack before I went to pick up Libbie. The internet went out at 10:30. Cable crew on the corner made it go out. Left to pick up Libbie from her 1:05 arrival however I couldn't tell if the plane was on time since the cable is out. Stopped by Ace on the way there to get screws for the drill press stand wood top. Picked up Libbie and listened to her tales of dealing with the sibs. Lots of emotions and conflicts and stupidity. When we got home the cable was still out so I talked to the Troutmans who are not happy. Called Time Warner who had no record of anybody calling them. Escalated the repair - they eventually got it running a little after 6. Put up more shelves on the plant stand. The total is now at 4. We went out to dinner tonight at La Cocina. They put us in the back in a booth for 8. It was OK but noisey because of the carts of dishes going by. Had the usual La cocina Quesadilla and a Margarita. Libbie brought half of hers home for lunch tomorrow.

WooHoo! Finished the AVSA DVD and burned 3 copies. Sent two to Anne via Priority Mail using the USPS Click n Ship, paying for postage online. Put that out plus a Birthday Card for Aunt Helen. Her 96th birthday was yesterday! Moved to the garage and set up the 5th shelf out in the yard. Fiberglassed the whole thing before the sun got on it. This is now going well. UPS delivered another roll of Fiberglass tape. Checked Libbie in this morning. she is on a B list to Philly tomorrow and has an A seat on the flight to Raleigh. Spent a lot of time this afternoon trying to install some sort of Linux on the Windows Server. Tried andLinux twice making further progress each time. Still can't install the device drivers which kills this whole project. Did the normal Tuesday grocery run then talked to Libbie. Mary is about to arrive and they are all going to meet in the empty condo. Dinner was a chicken sandwich with pepper and tapatio. Very nice. Orange sherbet for desert.

Mowed the lawn today. It's been a while, especially for the lower half by the creek. finished the entire back. It's looking good. Had an interesting trip to Crabtree today. Enjoyable. Before that I worked some more on the AVSA DVD. I sure would like to finish this thing. Got the DVD Styler menus designed and finished. Now I need to create the backstage tour and it's done. Dinner was prepackaged ribs in bbq sauce from Krogers. Not very good. Won't repeat that one. Listened to Hoffman on the Met in the evening. Made a run to Home Depot around closing time to get bolts for the upright supports on the plant shelves. They need 5 inch long carriage bolts which I didn't have. All set to start mounting shelves now. After Hoffman this evening I listened to Aida until Midnight.

Today is another spotty rainy day. Moved some furniture around in the Playroom and laid the base shelf on the floor. This was after I attached wheels. It seems to roll around pretty good. I calculated the height of the support studs and set up outside to cut them. I only had 2 straight boards, the other two were warped. I'll see if I could use them for building more shelves. Went to Home Depot and picked up 4 more new studs. I cut each of 4 studs to 77.5 inches then painted them all blue. Used the remainder of the paint in the roller tray to paint some of the shelves in the plant room until I ran out of paint. Cleaned up and moved on to the Arduino. Hooked up the proto board i built and plugged all the sensors in. The H2O sensor does not work. It reads 85 all the time which gets converted to 185 Fahrenheit. Will probably have to put a scope on the line to figure out what's going wrong. Dinner was potato salad and the leftover rotisserie chicken. Not bad.

Got up this morning and got back to learning Spanish. It's probably been a week since I last did this. It's raining out so I probably won't set up the fiberglass outside today. It's also supposed to rain tomorrow. I may paint the supports in the garage instead.
Well, the rains did come. I moved 2 more plant shelves into the plantroom. I also picked up some sliders for the sofa so I could move it to the other side of the room. Went to Kmart for a new filter for my vacuum. The store is pathetic. I later learned it will be closing. Dinner was also lunch. I picked up a pulled pork sandwich in Krogers for 1.99. this was a pretty good deal.

After GMA I went into the shop and cut the protoboard and mounted the Arduino connectors as well as the RJ45 connectors. The RJ45's are epoxied down. Hope that holds up. Next I went outdoors and set up to begin fiberglass operations. The new fiberglass comes with tubes of hardener. You're supposed to count 14 drops per ounce!!!! Since there were 2 ounces of hardener for a gallon of resin I calculated that the needed amount it 1/4 oz per quart. I'm mixing the stuff a quart at a time to coat the panels. Just as I was preparing the last panel which was on the trailer it started raining!!!! I covered everything with the unused sheets of plywood since the resin was still wet on some of the panels and the third uncoated panel I did not want to get wet. Dinner was a rotisserie chicken from Krogers. On sale for 3.99 and I also had a 0.80 coupon making it 3.19. Wow. Moved the panels back into the garage - one unfinished and 2 finished panels. Will resume tomorrow. In the evening I wired up the RJ45 connectors previously glued to the Arduino board. I also watched "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock. I liked it, it was a cute movie. Went to bed at midnight.

I had a pretty good morning. Went to Overtons but they were out of resin. Went next to AgriSupply in Garner and bought a gallon of resin. I'll try this out and cancel the resin from the eBay company in Ohio. Mixed up the old can of resin which had a little over half a gallon left. My first batch was a quart but it started hardening before I was finished. The next batch was half a quart. This went along better. Mixed another half quart for the second tray which was on the trailer. It's a lot easier with the tray on the saw horses. My back hurt from bending over to the panel on the trailer. I finished both panels with the remainder of the one gallon can. That makes it 3 panels per gallon of resin. The new gallon should get me through the next 2 panels with resin to spare although I will run out of tape before I'm done.
Dinner was stouffers French bread pizza. I ate too much this evening.

I put the new 1x2 top on a plant shelf outside today and attached the fiberglass tape all around the edges. Mixed up a quart of resin and painted the shelf and glass. I sure was stinky but went well. Mixed another 1/2 quart and finished the job. Left it to cure for several hours before moving it to the garage. I'm happy with the result. had a trip to Lowes in Garner today. Took 401 on the way back to 1010. Stopped at Smithfields and had a BBQ platter for lunch/dinner. It was good along with sides of beans and potato salad. This evening i set up another tray on the saw horses. I built the 1x2 edging and applied fiberglass tape. Tomorrow I'll prepare a second on the trailer and then use the rest of the resin to see how far I get with the two trays. I have more resin on order from the Ohio dealer on eBay.

It was not a productive day. Woke at 4:15 and took Libbie to the airport for her PVD trip which took off at 6:10 am. Hooked up the water tank plumbing and filled the tank so i could monitor it on Pachube. Puttered with the shelf and discovered i cut the 1x2 edging to the wrong size. Came in and found the water from the backporch fish pond had drained onto the porch floor. The fish were in less than 2 inches of water. I went into panic mode and grabbed the backyard hose which luckily I had just repaired. Hook it to the newly installed spigot in the laundry tub and gave then about 100 gallons of carbon filtered water. Went down to Petsmart looking for a chlorine test kit and also chlorine remover. When I returned the fish were still alive which means the carbon filter worked. But in the chlorine remover anyway then topped the pond off with 200 more gallons of water. A while later I was in my chair and heard a crash on the back porch. The yellow koi had jumped out of the pond, knocked the water can over and was flopping around on the floor. I picked him up and threw him back in. Dinner was shitake mucshroom and tofu over jasmine rice, a trader joes entree. I loved it. I also had a Chile Relano earlier for lunch/dinner.

Finished up the plant trays. We now have 5 of them made. Libbie is packing for her PVD trip. I went to Cary and renewed the Corolla registration then stopped in Trader joes for Pasta and a few items. We had the pasta for dinner. It was quick and easy for Libbie since she's packing. in the middle of pasta making Bill called about the arrangements to pick her up and stay at his place. I turned the water and sauce off until she was done on the phone. The market is down over 500 today because of the S&P downgrade of US debt. It's ugly. I'm not going to look until the dust settles.

Loved Sunday Morning the TV show. It was about design and covered some Corning products, buildings, and the Villages where everyone rides a gold cart. Went outside and finished building shelves and the 1x2 tray around them. Will probably paint them next or perhaps build the fiberglass tray next and paint them in the plant room. Pachube continues to record my data. I'm going to add the water heater next. Put the second coat of paint on the remainder of the Plant room. This concludes te painting project. At 5 pm we went out to dinner with the Troutmans, Hanlans and HErners to Tony's Oyster bar. It was quite good. I had a Yuengling and blackened tilapia. We had a nice time with everyone.

We got an unusual amount of rain this morning. Wake County is reporting 2 to 3 inches and a flood watch of all things. I used the down time to get the Arduino web server working reporting the HVAC and attic temperatures. The ethernet wire I strung yesterday from my office table to the closet through the attic is working well. I crimped an RJ45 on each end surprisingly all is working. Meistersinger is putting readings to Pachube every 15 seconds and the web server is being updated every 5 seconds although the page is not refreshing automatically. I need to manually refresh the browser. We put the last of the paint in the playroom although it may need another coat tomorrow. At least this job is almost done. Went to Lowes in the PM for more wood and CPVC plumbing parts.
Dinner was fresh Krogers corn and robs with Shiraz.

The Sony PSP sold for $50. plus $10 postage. I packaged it up and dropped it in the Post Office. On the way home i stopped in Lowes and bought some plumbing parts and a roll of CAT 5 wire. Ran the wire from my work table to the closet via the attic. This will allow me to locate a switch in the closet for Traviata use and also for Meistersinger to monitor the house. Went outside and built a few more plant shelves as well as the sides for the fiberglass tray. When Libbie came home we had BLT's for lunch then hooked up the trailer and returned a sheet of particle board. I bought more nails and a dozen 2x4's. This is First Friday but George and Mary informed us yesterday they were moving next week so Libbie booked tickets to go there.
We went to La Cocina for dinner. Had 2 Margarita's which will effect me tonight. Stopped at Krogers on the way home and got milk. Listened to Armida a little on Met Opera Radio before going to bed. Happily the 2 sets of AVM's we listed on eBay sold, both for $10.

Built a plant shelf and took one apart. I need to cut the long 2x4's by 3 inches each. i found this out when I tried to put the 4x8 sheet of Plywood on and saw that it was short. Had to disassemble it. In the laundry room I got a lot of the CPVC plumbing done. The tank is plumbed to the filter and a line goes to the laundry tub. need a backer board to hook up the laundry tub spigot. In the other direction i need to run the lines for the plant shelf automatic waterers. I put the probes into the furnace and wired up the rest of the One Wire including putting a connector on the wire end. I successfully read the temperatures in the attic and the AC unit. Attic temp was 104, AC output was 58 for an 82 degree input. Dinner was Trader joe BBQ on sandwich rounds. This is nice chopped BBQ.

Hooked up the trailer and got some 2x4's from the greenhouse. Finished up the garage shelves then hooked up the blower and cleaned everything up. When Libbie came home she went out to Home Depot and had them match the blue garage paint. She then painted the shelves. They look nice. Dinner was pasta from Trader Joes. The Arduino came today. I downloaded the FTDI drivers, installed them and familiarized myself with programming on the Arduino. Made the cables for the upstairs temperature but that's a little beyond my level at this point. I'm still learning how to walk before I can run. I tried the UPS on the Arduino. Wow, the regulator on the Arduino gets hot. I need to feed the device with way less than 12 volts with a pre-regulator that has a big heat sink!

I put the brackets up for the filter supports. I'm now ready to start the plastic plumbing. First line will be down to the water tank input.

Did the grocery run and also stopped by the greenhouse to pick up some wood. I also went to Home Depot for more 8 penny nails as well as CPVC plumbing fittings to finish the filter and watering plumbing. At the greenhouse today I took some pictures of Jennifers purple hair. She wanted to match MacKenzie's hair. Did not finish the shelves - there is still a few more pieces to put on as well as trim work. Quit at 4 PM today which was still too long. Dinner tonight was corn and bean burger with Mango Sherbet desert. Very good.

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.