Bought a copy of Windows 7 pro off Craigslist. Met the guy in the Cary Amtrak parking lot. Paid $75 cash which was worth it. Still having install troubles. Ubuntu server won't install, Win server 2003 won't install. The only thing that works is the Win 7 ISO. Spent alot of the day configuring the new server. It's getting closer to reality. Dinner was French Bread pizza again.

Went to Tigerdirect and got an AMD Motherboard by MSI, an A6 triple core chip and 4 gigs of memory.
Got it all installed into the Traviata case. Windowss Server 2003 crashed twice trying to get this installed..
I'm running a memory test from Ubuntu to rule out hardware problems. Libbie is coming back Tuesday! Crap,
where did the time go? Dinner was French Bread pizza by Stouffers.

There was a tremendous wind storm last night. the power went out and the generator took over. Unfotunately
Traviata the server will not boot. Changed the generator oil then spent the day researching motherboard and
whole computer replacements for Traviata. Went to Walmart to get the generator oil and perused the computers
they have in the store. Also looked at BJ's as well as the office stores. Nothing jumped out at me. I guess
it's either order from Newegg and wait or deal with TigerDirect which I hate to do. Dinner was French bread pizza, supreme model wth
banana chocolate ice cream.

Temps were ridiculously high today. The house was cool, however. I finished
installing the LED spotlight shining onto the driveway. This will be a replacement for
the two lights on the Gum tree in front of the house that quite a few months ago. This morning
I was able to sucessfully get the watering going for the backyard and greenhouse. The problem was a timer variable was only an 8 bit var which meant a max value of 255 seconds. By making it 16 bits
it can hold a larger number of seconds. Dinner was fried chicken and key lime pie.

Did some light work in the garden then took a 3 mile walk around the lake. My butt hurt from the long walk. I really like the new sidewalks installed in front of Buckingham. dinner was a beanburger.

Worked some more on Calibre and eBooks in general. Repaired the spotlight over the grill. It was hanging by it's wires because the metal mount had split open. This repair went well and now the new light works. Dinner was fried chicken pieces and pie.

Took Libbie to the airport at 4:40 am for her 6 am flight. We took 40 and got to the airport at 5. Went home, changed cars and picked the Doggets up at 6:45 in the Prius. Used this car because they were bringing the bedding to their vacation trip in Calif. They had an 8:30 flight. Came back and did a lot of reading. I set up Calibre as a Server on Traviata. It will serve magazines so I tried Consumer Reports. It worked. Dinner was fried chicken from Kroger.

Lots of reading today about interfacing to my Sprinkler. The Adafruit stuff came. The USB microscope seems to be flimsy but the electronics are OK. I assembled a TV B Gone kit as well as another RTC and an LCD shield. I have a few things I want to try with both of these. Helped Libbie scramble around getting ready for her trip tomorrow. Dinner was a pulled pork BBQ from Trader Joes with Blue Bell Mint Chip Ice Cream.

Chose to skip RLT and the Bolshoi today so we could get a little more done around here. Went to Home Depot for more stakes for Libbie's tying work. On the way back I checked our mailbox and found we had not retrieved the mail yesterday (Saturday). Our photo book from shutterfly was in the mail. It came out quite nixe with just a few exceptions. I'm happy. Successfully removed the pump and seals from the hottub. Ordered replacements on eBay. This will probably take a week to arrive.
I spent some time looking at using a web proxy which allows a browser to open a socket in web proxy software which handles sending and receiving data out the serial port. I found this was pretty complicated and that a better way to do this was to use PHP on a server. I think if Traviata had the PHP code and the serial port hooked to an Arduino, comm would result. Another way would be to use the PHP code on Traviata and go out the web interface to a sprinkler timer arduino. This has lots of possibilities. The Arduino would not be doing the web serving function, just straight TCP processing. ANy kind of session would work, Telnet, SMS, private TCP/IP message, etc.
Libbie made another great pizza, this time using a pepper from the garden. Yummy.

Worked outside today on the garden. Picked up some bamboo stakes for the zinnias which are falling down. The flowers are growing nicely. Planted the cone flower and the Licorice plant that I missed yesterday. This should do it for a while. Started draining the hottub so that we could remove the pump and water heater. The element seems to be bad and the pump is leaking. Both are available on eBay for around $20 each. Will wait till I get the motor out before ordering the seals in case I can't remove the rotor from the shaft. Dinner was shrimp on the Barbi with Mach choux and Barefoot cellars cabernet. Desert was Bluebell ice cream. Totally delightful evening. I will miss Libbie when she's at her parents this week although I can now cook for myself quite well.

Worked outside this morning first planting our Farmers Market purchases then I mixed up some Roundup and did the fence as well as a trip up to the fence line in back. In the PM I read the Amish romance which I'm enjoying and listened to Satygraha which is on my Nook. Dinner was grilled chicken with Corn Mach Shoue an Shiraz. Had Bluebell Three desert on the back porch after dinner while we watched it rain.

Nancy came over this morning to work with Libbie in the greenhouse. I went onto the roof and blew the pine needles off the greenhouse then put the shade cloth over the original shade. This is the first day of summer and the light is brighter so we needed more shade. After this I worked in the garden tying the tomatoes, harvesting the cucumbers from the cucumber vines which had died for unknown reasons. Next was deadheading the flower garden All this work really tired me out. We went to the Farmers Market before lunch and bought 7 more plants from Longhill Nursery, the guy in the straw hat. It really started pouring when we were there. We both got wet picking out plants. Once home I finished reading Creep by Karen Hillier on my nook then briefly napped. Libbie made corn machu which was fantastic using fresh corn. I cooked cajun rubbed tilapia under the broiler. We had it with Barefoot Cellars Merlot which was great. I went out to Kroger after dinner and got BlueBell Ice Cream, three Dessert flavor. Yummy.

We scrambled this morning getting the porch and house cleaned for Violet Club. We turned the A/C on for the first time this season. I put out a buffet of broccoli salad which I made, potato salad, chicken salad and tuna salad on buns with chips. I also made iced tea by dipping 5 tea bags in 8 cups of water. It went over well. The meeting was excellent, Libbie did a grow to show demo. We had one new member, Catherine, and Felicia also showed up. She is going to contact hotels in Durham for MAAVS. Dinner was some of the leftover salads with slices of the rotisserie chicken.

Libbie did a few more of the orders which I did click and ship for. I did some catch up on the accounting and also messed around on eBay looking at Arduino stuff. I placed an order for some Chinese Arduinos, a mega or two, an ethernet shield. I also went to Adafruit and ordered a USB microscope as well as another RTC and some LCD stuff. I waited till we were back before ordering this stuff. I did a major grocery run and visited both Trader Joes and Krogers. Dinner was lobster ravioli from Trader joes.

Did a lot of click n ship for the 45 orders that were backed up. Went to the CU to sign for my new cashback Visa card. Dismayed to see even more monitors on the walls. Finished the Chicgo photo book and submitted it to Shutterfly. I really don't like shutterfly. Dinner was a roast chicken from Krogers with steamfresh pasta.

This was unpacking and settling day. Had to deal with sorting and backing up all our photos and also did some garden maintenance. Sprayed Malathion, dusted eggplants and weeded. Dinner was Libbie's great pizza.

Bonnie had cereal and coffee for us in the morning. We got going at 8 am. Traffic was easy. Stopped up the road for coffee and McDonalds. In Indiana we got some gas at a Krogers just before Cincinnatti. Stopped at Beckley for dinner at McDonalds and gas for 3.57. Made it into NC right around dark at 9 PM. Around 11 I was stopped on US 64 in Siler City for going 70 in a 55 zone. He let me go because his printer was jammed. Lucky. No speeding for me the rest of the way home. Home at 11:30.

This morning after breakfast we checked out and put our suitcases in our car down the street at 111 E Wacker in the parking garage. Got our parking voucher validated at the hotel so it was $120 instead of $190. We toured the Chicago History Museum which was pretty interesting. Lots of Chicago history on view. Lunch was a Chicago Hot Dog with all the trimmings. After the bus brought us back we navigated the parking garage and got out on Michigan to go to Congress for the start of Andrea's instructions. Followed them at 1 PM as we made our way through stop and go traffic on the Eisenhower Expressway. Picked up a bottle of Merlot in Downtown Downers Grove then to Andrea's house. We enjoyed our time but wow, was it ever smokey for our tastes. We got the tour of her addition, a lovely BBQ of riba, steak, salad, corn, Margarita's and Key Lime Pie. We really enjoyed her cute little dog named Ruby. Leftn there very tired and crashed at Bonnie's house. Bonnie is a widow and Andrea's Mothers friend.

After breakfast we got on the school bus and went to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Illinois Building and then to the Fox and Obel cafe in a high end grocery store. My sandwich was one of the best ever. The bread was to die for. We then walked around the corner to the boat dock for the Architectural Tour by boat. That was fantastic. We saw all the buildings from the water and got a narrated tour. When we got back I didn't care to wait for the elevator so I ran up 12 flights of stairs. It wasn't bad although I was winded. It gave me energy to go out with Libbie to the popcorn store next to the theater on Randolph. What a treat. The popcorn was yummy. We picked up some for Andrea and our host. Dinner tonight was at the Elephant and Castle, a pub on N Wabash on the turn of the el. Nice buffet but crowded room for the size of our group. Dinner was fish n chips with slaw and green beans. Desert was bread pudding and cookie with coffee.

After breakfast today we went to the Field Museum. The guides weren't very good at the Field so we wandered on our own then went to lunch where I had a veggie sandwich which was cheese and tomato. Did not care for this museum but afterward had a lovely walk through the park to the Art museum. We sat outside and did some people watching in the garden courtyard before going inside using Andrea's member pass. Used the bathrooms then went upstairs to the impressionists. We met Joe our guide from yesterday inside the museum. He seemed to have a small class he was lecturing. We stayed around for two Monet paintings then started doing rooms of paintings on our own. I thoroughly enjoyed the museum. This is the treat and highlight of the tour. We were incredibly tired when it was only 4 PM so we took a bus home and rested before going out for dinner. We had Giordano deep dish mushroom pizza and Sam Adams beer. It hit the spot perfectly. Came home very tired and went straight to bed.

After the hotel continental breakfast we .got on a school bus and went to the Federal Reserve. We got a lecture from a very good economist. i thought he ha a good command of facts, figures and numbers but others said he didn't answer the questions. We then saw a movie of what the Fed does then visited the Fed museum. Next stop was Willis tower. Went to the top and had my picture taken with Miss Illinois. Walked out on the glass shelves above the street, it was fun. We had personal deep dish pizza for lunch. I had the spinach. Libbie had the cheese then we tasted each others. I liked the Spinach better. Next stop was the Art Museum. Joe led us on a discussion of the Rainy Paris Street then a few other keynote works including American Gothic and some Modern pieces by Picasso and others. It was highly enjoyable. Dinner was at the Bacio in the hotel. they had a very tasty buffet set up for us. Our only problem was they ran out of desert.

Up early, actually a few minutes too early for breakfast. The clock in our room is fast. We will fix that! Nice continental cold breakfast, nothing special. The bagels are good. The coffee is also. Did a bus tour of the amazing Chicago architecture. This was very impressive. our guie, Joe, is also amazing. We had a delicious lunch in Greektown complete with Baklava desert. On the bus again with stops at a Univ of Ill chapel, the Chicago skyline and Buckingham fountain. After the tour, Libbie and I rested up hen walked up to Heaven on Seventh for dinner. I had a wonderful BBQ salmon with gumbo as an appetizer and veggies consisting of trinity mix and Tasso. This was yummy and accompanied by a Ragin Rita which is the house specialty on Monday Margarita night. After dinner we got on a #3 bus and went down to a rock concert at Millenium Park under the Gehry designed concert shell. We next went through a garden and walked to the Buckingham Fountain. Saw the fountain shoot off at 9 with coordinated music, lights and water. It was lovely. Hauled ourselves back up to Michigan and waited 15 minutes for the #6 bus to take us back to Wacker. It was a fun evening.

The food court was closed this morning. Packed the car up and stopped at an iHop on the way to the Laundromat. The sign on the door said this is a pistol free zone. Our Senior omelet was very good - lots of bacon and cheese. Too much food. Next the Harbourtown laundry was the nicest we have seen. It was very clean, had parking in front and WiFi. What a surprise. When we got going we found the ramps on I94 were all closed. Drove many miles through very run down areas with burned out and abandoned houses. It looked like a combat zone. Many other homes were torn down but many still remain that need tearing down. This is a disaster. Found the Interstate and drove to Chicago. It was $5.60 in tolls. When we got to Chicago we immediately were in a traffic jam. Got off 90 and took city streets for the last few miles. Put the car in a parking garage and rolled our suitcases down the street for checkin. The hotel is great. It's old and the rooms are small but nice. Dinner at McCormick and Schmick, a very nice upscale seafood restaurant.

After the traditional McDonalds breakfast we went to a "Last task of Judging" seminar. It was dry and boring. Tried for lunch at PotBelly's but they were closed. So were the other sandwich shops but we went to Subway and split a foot long turkey which was fine. I really enjoyed the David Thompson lecture on Streps. He was quite informative. I took lots of notes. David can do a great job talking about his Streps. Afterwards I collected the sales tax and went to the room to count it. Wrote the total on an envelope along with the amounts of the 3 checks and gave the whole thing to Kathy Lahti. Richard Nicholas made a haul of Streps from David Thompson. He was nice enough to share with us. We bought his duplicates, 6 of them for $25. We went over to dinner tonight at the Italian restaurant along the river in frornt of GM. It was OK but dinner was $121 with tip. Ouch.

Breakfast at McDonalds this morning then upstairs to the show. Did some more photography of the designs. We went late to a Basics class then visited a beneficials lecture about predatory bugs. We had an Adiamos pizza for lunch which was pretty good. We got on the cruise this evening which was interesting. Several High Schools were having their prom. The ladies were dressed in very poofy and colorful "princess" dresses with glitter and bright tropicsl hot colors. Most of the dresses had no sleeves, the poor girls kept pulling the tops back up since they seemed to be quite insecure. Funny. Dinner was very good. It was a buffet with Salmon, potato salad, cole slaw, noodles and tortellini. We purchased wine with dinner for $5 per glass.