We had the breakfast buffet which was $11.50. I didn't think it was too bad a price. Entries were this morning. Later we went into the showroom and photographed plants. The show was better than expected.
We dressed for dinner then went to the open bar before dinner.
I put the Palm Tree costume on for our costume party. Most woman wore some variety of a mumu but the Palm Tree was unique. I won $20 in commercial plants.

It was cold this morning. I started the car to warm it up and left it running. Unfortunately the heat was off, but the water warmed up in the engine so heating the car was easy. We had an easy trip to Richmond via 64 then I-95. I forgot the hotel address, we couldn't find it on the GPS either. Libbie called Sue who looked it up online. We had no trouble getting there. Arrived shortly after noon and unloaded the car. It seems to be a nice sunny day but chilly in the 50s. Set up the Violet table and began sales at 3. Because judging school started at 6, we ran out at 5:30 and got a half subway sub each for dinner. It was good, especially toasted with the honey grain bread.

Libbie went out at 8 when OfficeMax opened and got more labels. The yellow ink is low but it's still printing so we'll continue without buying a new one until I can buy some on the Internet somewhere. After printing the rest of the labels, I printed the judges study guide and started looking at judging requirements. I'm taking the school tomorrow night. Packed our clothes and went to Hendricks and picked up s rental minivan. It's a Dodge Grand Caravan. I folded all the seats into the floor for our trip. We went out to La Cocina for dinner. I had a dark beer and Libbie had a Margarita. For dinner I had the usual quasadilla La Cocina and Libbie had a shrimp soft taco.

Today was incredibly busy. I covered the tomato cage with paper to make my costume and painted it with poster paint and didn't like it. Ripped it all off and recovered with some corduroy fabric that Libbie had. This is better. Now I need a foam to support the branches. Tried printing labels for MAAVS but ran out of paper and ink. Found some ink but we are still low on the yellow. Did 4 pages this way. Got a nice surprise today in that the BAC payment came early. It was supposed to be Nov 15. Paid the Stoneybrook dues and the Sarasota taxes. Today I am officially at "full retirement age" according to the US government. Was very busy updating the AVSA convention pages with Penny and her team providing feedback. Made all the corrections. Dinner was pasta in oil with fresh tomato from our garden. Talked to Arlene this morning. She still doesn't have power from last weeks storm. It's cold up there.

I ended up reserving a minivan at Hendricks for our MAAVS trip. They are calling for a NorEaster up North. Joy came over to help with shipping. I did the click n ship thing. Dinner was a bread round with tomato sauce and cheese early since Libbie had to go to her RexWay class. I continued working on all the website, LSAVC, MAAVS and AVSA. This is more than a full time job. This is our first full day back after being at Lonestar in Houston last week. I'm glad we decided to fly home Sunday even though it is one of the busiest times of the week.

After our usual hotel breakfast we went to Kroger for Ziploc containers to hold Libbie's leaves without crushing. It was pouring rain when we went out. Had to show our room key to get back into the hotel parking lot because they were selling parking for $20 due to a game this afternoon across the street. This is for the Reliant Stadium next to the Astrodome. We got going around 9:30 and drove to the San Jacinto Monument. The skies cleared and the sun came out for our timne there. We walked around the monument and the battleship then headed for the airport. We had lots of time. Stopped for gas and McDonalds on the way to the airport. Had an easy time into the airport,through security and onto the flight. The flight was remarkably smooth and was very comfortable because we got the exit row. What a bonus!!!! It seemed cold in Raleigh at 54 degrees. It was 90 back in Houston. Our car was first off the Fast Park bus, stopped at Kroger for necessities. Dinner was a frozen Freschetta Brick Oven pizza. It was pretty tasty.

We had the usual hotel breakfast buffet. Anne asked about taping the Paul Kroll Dish Garden talk. While Ruth Goeke had a tape recorder, John and Judy Carter had a small movie cam and I took lots of still pics. I'm not sure about this for a library program. We went down to McDonalds for lunch, the usual chicken wrap and small fries. Went to the showroom and did some photography then rested before going down to the showroom to help the Nicholas's pack their plants and load up their car. They were traveling shortly after the banquet. We left for the Opera at 5:30 using the GPS to lead us to the Opera house. We parked underneath somewhere then walked to a small Thai restaurant called Pad Thai. We both ordered Chicken Pad Thai was excellent. Price was $25 for dinner. Nice. The opera was out of this world. It was an incredible delight with whimsical colors and light hearted dancing and excellent singing. This of course was Rossini's Italian in Algiers. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Got back to the hotel by 10:30.

The usual breakfast group this morning then we reported for duty as clerks outside the showroom. I had a judging team of Beverly, Susanne of Houston (very pretty slender woman) and a lady named . I enjoyed the judging and did the paperwork as well as the ribbon work. In the afternoon we went down to listen to Paul Kroll do a walk through of designs. It was quite good, I took lots of pictures. At 6 PM a group of us went to an Italian restaurant called the Grotto by the Houston Galleria. It was very nice, Libbie had a baby salmon covered with Sesame and Spinach while I had the Pescatore which was a lot of nice shell fish over Linguine. We each had a glass of Cabernet.

Woke up surprisingly late. We had breakfast with Mary Corondan, Marjorie, the Nicholas's, And Janet Castaglione. The buffet is very reasonable for a hotel - $12. After breakfast we helped Anne and also Mary move tons of plants out of their room to the show. Went for a quick lunch at McDonalds down the street then out to downtown Houston. Found the Art Museum only a few miles away. It's s marvelous art museum, we only covered a small portion of it and were very tired. There is so much there. I met a woman on the bench who talked about getting immersed in the art when she was away from her kids. Stopped at Kroger on the way home and picked up some grapes and apples for snack food. We had a sandwich in the restaurant. Libbie had a chicken with veggies and I had a tuna wrap. We had a couple glasses of Cabernet to go with the meal. Walked back to the showroom to see if they were doing OK. It was a long walk. The hotel is sprawling, it reminds me of the one in Cincinnati where we had a 3/4 mile walk to the showroom.

We're getting ready for our flight this afternoon. Lots to do around here. I bought one years worth of web hosting for MAAVS from the same webhost that Lonestar uses. They sold me one years worth of hosting for $57. I want to switch the MAAVS site over to Drupal before Nov 20. This will be a challenge. I have a limited amount of time available because of the amount of travel we have to do. We had sandwiches at home for lunch before leaving for the airport at 12:20. Our flight was at 1:50 PM. It was totally full but on time and very smooth and pleasant. We rented a brand new Dodge from National at the IBM rate. The Odometer only had 2 miles on it. Found the Crowne Plaza next to the Astrodome thanks to GPS. We went to dinner across the highway to a Joes Crab Shack. I had the New Orleans boil which had a pound of Crawfish, 12 shrimp, Andouille sausage, a corn cob and boiled red potatoes. Libbie had the salmon. With a glass of wine each the total was $48. Very nice. Later that evening we heard from the Nicholas's and met them downstairs in the bar. We sat with Penny and Glenda, Anne and Richard and drank another glass of wine. It was an enjoyable day. Richard told me we had the go ahead for the AVSA website. He got everything smoother over with Linda and she has authorized the site.

What a miserable day. Linda Hall sent a very vitrolic letter to the EC over my helping of the website. I'm upset but out of there. No more help from me. I'm reassessing whether I should even go to Houston.
I replaced the laundry room faucet. It took 2 trips to Lowes to get all the parts. Sandy struck the Northeast last night. We hardly got any rain or wind but we had a lot of pine straw on the driveway which Libbie raked up and I carted away to along the fence. Went to Kroger and bought the fruitcake candies and fruits. This cost $64. an I had a $5 off $25 coupon.
For dinner tonight we had Tilapia with mixed veggies and a salad. The Met is closed tonight because of the storm, no live broadcast on Sirius.

I studied solar panel kits some more and did some lookups on the very nice government web site that details panel output per latitude and geographic region. Tell it your kw capabilities, your region and panel angle and it will predict the kwhr per month for each month of the year. Watched the hurricane go by in the ocean, we hardly had any rain out of this. Libbie had her class tonight so dinner was split pea and bacon soup. When she came home much later we had bread rounds with tomato sauce and cheese as a supplement. I was hungry.

Went into the greenhouse this morning and started putting up the foam board over the insulation. Finished the entire job, Next I tried to configure the Panasonic wireless camera but had no luck. It's not getting an IP address on the LAN. Not sure why not. Received the last of the needed info for the MAAVS booklet, the award list. Finished the book and sent it out for proofing. Another job is now complete. If all is well will take it to the printer on Monday. I have a few other tasks to do today. The Sheraton in Chapel Hill needs additional info. and I want to do a write up on the AVSA website.

We're going to Othello today, live from the Met on HD in Crossroads. The hurricane is supposed to pass us by and hit the Northeast. Hurricane Sandy is currently midway up the Florida coast in the Atlantic. I reprogrammed the tower timer for less water and also fixed Meister. The porch ambient was reading funny with two decimal points. I found that variable did not have a null indicating end of string so it kept going until a null was found so I got garbage including another decimal point on the tail end of that one. All seems to be well for now. I want to put it into a metal case instead of the plastic one next.
Othello was outstanding as expected. Dinner was ribs with broccoli, salad and Shiraz. The Nicholas's called from their cell while driving this evening. They want to get together with Ron and John at Lonestar, and hopefully Sue Ramseur as well. They also mentioned out to dinner for Wednesday and Friday nights. We're game!

Libbie finished up planting the pansies in the garden today. I started installing the foam panels over the insulation. Cut the first one but got no further. Did a lot more studying of Solar panels including Arlene's installation. Richard forwarded Winston's website comments which were a bunch of boiler plate and pure crap. Dinner was pork chops, broccoli, home made apple sauce, salad and shiraz. Quite nice. Le Nozze de Figaro was live from the met on sirius this evening. I read more of the Map of Bones while listening but fell asleep.

This morning I took advantage of a steals and deals on GMA, 12 months of O magazine for $12. Went outside and cut up insulation into 2 foot lengths and installed it in the greenhouse. Next step is to cover this with foil covered foam boards. Dinner this evening was spaghetti, with sauce and cheese. Very nice.

Made some changes to the MAAVS booklet today, final proof is done. Waiting on the award donor list from Richard. Took the light meter switch apart and cleaned it. the old GE light meter now seems to work. Monitoring the light levels in the greenhouse using the Adafruit photocell shows that the greenhouse is shaded most of the day. I spent a lot of time in the evening studying solar panels. The tower consumes 850 watts, so it would take about a 2 kw installation to offset the light tube consumption. At 9:30 in the morning sunlight is just starting to hit the roof near the top. Dinner tonight was tortellini pasta covered with mushroom, cheese and fresh tomato pieces.

This morning I got out the ladder and put the new exhaust pipe sections onto the greenhouse furnace. Now the drafting should be correct. Did the Krogers and Trader joe thing. Libbie and I went to the gas station together at Krogers so we could take advantage of our points which expire next week. We had 400 points which give us 40 cents off bringing the price per gallon to 3.19. COSM conrinues to workvery well tracking all our relevant sensor info. Dinner was turkey, salad, stuffing and broccoli. Yummy.

Another spectacularly beautiful day today. I continued to work on the MAAVS booklet. We got a good proposal from the DoubleTree in new Bern. I forwarded it to Brian and now it's time to go visit the place. The temperature and light from the greenhouse continue to work well. I purchased a steel box for the Arduino mega in my closet. I don't like the plastic pencil case and feel it's a fire hazard, especially since the regulator gets very warm. Lowes has a steel box made for use as an AC disconnect for only $6. I also picked up a 90 degree flue pipe and a three foot section of double walled flue. This should improve the draft of the greenhouse furnace since currently I had to jump out the detector for an out the of firebox flame. I don't feel it's dangerous but the detector must be there for some reason. Dinner was turkey slices, stuffing and broccoli with gravy. We ate early because Lib had to go to her healthy eating class at Rex.

After the morning shows this morning I went to my shop and retrieved the temperature probe and hung it from the greenhouse ceiling. Removed the outer shade cloth next. While Libbie worked on planting pansies I worked on the MAAVS Souvenir booklet. We had a nice avocado and turkey lunch before leaving for the Carolina Ballet program. It's a spectacular day. We enjoyed a very eclectic Balanchine program. The first half was more classical ballet while the second half was lively Gershwin tunes reminiscent of Broadway. I liked the first piece, "Apollo" but that was Lib's least favorite. Apollo danced with his 3 muses. The sculptural poses were great. I also like the music of Shostakovich and Stravinsky. It was a nice program but pretty long with 2 intermissions. We were in the fourth row of the balcony which were pretty good seats. In the evening we had Libbie's great pizza from a frozen dough she made last week. I went out in the dark and picked a fresh basil using a flashlight.

Today was a splendid day.It was incredibly nice and clear outside. Libbie and I did a walk in the back around the pond. I finally got temperature readings sent from my shop to the Meister ocntroller. Yes!!!! I went to the Indian store in Apex and got spices to jazz up some fresh cranberries. It was terrible!!!! Libbie made a turkey breast fro tonight along with stuffing and sweet potato and shiraz. Incredibly good. I'm happy about all the temperature data streanming across the house. Excellent.

Did a lot more work on the temperature sensor. I seem to be handling the pointers to the buffer badly. Stayed up late trying various things, I may now have a working strategy. Will try it in the morning. Went to Kroger and got a frozen turkey breast and the fixins for turkey dinner tomorrow night. Tonight's dinner was Tilapia with baked Sweet potato and salad. Very nice, topped off by a bottle of Shiraz.

I worked on the Arduino software while Libbie gardened. Still not much luck for a lot of effort. Not sure what's wrong. Dinner was very nice Lobster pasta with cheese and olive oil and a salad. Good stuff.

The Benzigers got going around 10 for the Smokeys. Lib and I decided to go to Wyatt Quarles for domes for an order and stopped at the Farmers Market for veggies and pansies. The Asian lady sold us pansies, ornamental cabbage, a spreading mum and Mexican Salvia. Another vendor sold us 2 flats of Super Pansies. These have the giant faces that did so well last year. When we came home we tended to the garden. I tied up the late season tomato and got rid of the eggplants and tomato baskets while Libbie cleared out the zinnias and Marigolds. We planted the Salvia and Mum then she made a start at the cabbage and pansies. Dinner was leftover Bom Choy which was still excellent.

We had breakfast and lounged around with the Benzigers until 11 then left for the State Fair. Had a lovely day at the Fair. Started with the little pioneer village then went to the gardens outdoors and the flower show indoors. It wasn't too bad as far as crowds went. Spent some time talking to the composting lady about worms and compost before resuming. Walked through the village of yesteryear and talked with the Son in the Turn N Burn exhibit about the Russian Violet article I wrote. They have it laminated in the shop in Seagrove. Did the Arts & Crafts next then found a grassy area with picnic tables for our tuna fish sandwiches. Next stop was the fine arts where we looked at an artist of mine who is a favorite, David Pollack or something. He does watercolor specializing in glass reflections. He also entered an Apple store glass reflection painting. I spoke with the hostess who told me about the artists Son who did a very nice painting in the Fair. Next stop was the quilts and cakes, Mary bought a candy Apple from a pretty blonde in the Education building. Next stop was the cows where we watched a calf judging before moving on the pumpkins and watermelons. Talked with Jennnifer who is hostess for the peppers. It was 5 hours and we were very tired and trudged back to the car in the beautiful weather. We made a stop at the Asian Market for Bok Choy and mushrooms for our stir fry. Took everyone home then went back out to Krogers for Old Geezers Day. Benzigers came along so they could get camping supplies for next day. They were going to cook stir fry in the Smokeys for a 2 day camping trip. Dinner was Bok Choy stir fry with Shiraz and Coconut Fudge Ice Cream for desert. Afterwards we watched the HBO documentary, "Birders, the Central Park Effect." I fell asleep halfway through.