Did some reading about B4A today then went to the greenhouse to start the disassembly process. I removed all the drip waterers and started taking down conduit and waterlines in houses 3 & 4. Also did quite a bit of cleanup picking up trash and filling some garbage bags. Dinner was the turkey breast and cranberry and also some reried beans, Contadina by Bush's. I was surprised it was refried, I expected Mexican Baked beans. I put 5 hours in at the greenhouse this afternoon. It's a beautiful day.

It's a warm day. I worked outside and took down the Morning Glory on the fence. I also took several trips up the hill looking for good spots for a solar array. I can save considerable money by using greenhouse pipes and greenhouse wiring to trench a long conduit from the back. It's 300 feet. The house would be acceptable as well but I would have to purchase mounting rails, about a $1500 dollar expense and it would involve screwing the rails into the roof. This isn't good for roof replacement in 10 years. Dinner was more of the turkey breast with cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Nice. I went to home Depot and picked up a metal shelf stand with wheels for a light stand in my ofice. Carried it upstairs and started assembling it. Aida is live tonight from the met.

I got up at 3:30 and started the coffee maker then started carrying stuff to the car. Stored the Sirius radio in the lockup this time and took the radio module itself and plugged it into the car for the trip home. I hit the road at 4:07 am. Today is Thanksgiving so I was wondering if McDonald's would be open for breakfast since it was too early to have breakfast at home. It was daylight when I reached the other side of the state at 7:00 am and pulled off in Ormond Beach. McDonalds was empty but open. I was their only customer!!! Traffic was incredibly light for I-95. There were a few speed traps along the way and one or two people pulled over. I used the cruise control and kept it at no more than 3 to 5 over the limit. Stopped by Kroger at 3:09 pm and picked up a turkey breast and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. I went there for the Black Friday newspaper and OJ. Talked with Vicki in the evening and also heard from Rich that he got his hot tub fixed. It was the Oxygenator module. Weather here is not bad, around 60 degrees. This is good for Thanksgiving. Supposed to be even warmer tomorrow before the bottom falls out.

Cleaned the floors and did laundry then went to Walmart for trip food and the Nexus. This is a nice toy. It's very responsive and works well with all the Google Play apps. I like it so far. I even wrote the Hello World app and uploaded it to the droid and ran it. I picked up a frozen stir fry dinner from Lean Cuisine while in Walmart. Libbie called this afternoon. Remarkably the sun had gone down at 4:19 up there. We don't have sunset until 5:30. I had the eggroll and rice lean cuisine with the rest of the Merlot. Started packing the car and carrying stuff to the trash. Met Sally outside her condo and chatted about the holidays and the fact I'm driving tomorrow because that's the best day to do it. Tomorrow is thanksgiving. Sat down and played with the Nexus 7 some more, reading about developing Droid applications. I'm all set for tomorrow!!!

Spent some time reading about Google Apps on the Nexus 7. I have decided to get one at Walmart. They have the 32 Gb byte version for $249. I ordered a roof hatch online from a Graham, NC company. They claim no residential deliveries. We shall see. Bought a sandwich at Walmart for lunch and had a Publix Spicy Bourbon chicken for dinner. Had some wine and cheese while listening to Clemenza live on Sirius.

Woke this morning at 3:30 to take Libbie to the airport. We left at 4 and had no trouble with fog or traffic to the Tampa airport. Dropped Libbie off at 5:20 for her 6:30 flight and went back to Sarasota. Heard from her later that the Bsltimore to PVD leg was delayed for 6 hours because of mechanical difficulties. Libbie got a $200 voucher and her fight eventually left at 3:45 PM. I called Enterprise to make sure her car reservation was still good 6 hours later. She got a black Toyota Corolla which is a good color for Providence. It's a gorgeous day in Sarasota, temp in 70's and clear blue skies. Dinner was the leftover eggplant from the Italian dinner in Lake Mary.

In the morning after breakfast Libbie packed her suitcase for Providence. We left at 9:00 for Cynthia and Jack's in Lake Mary. We had a traffic problem around a mall near Disney World but once we cleared that it was clear sailing again. Arrived around 11:30. Cynthia
had a nice lunch of cold cuts and bread as well as a pumpkin beer cake ready for us. It was nice. Did a tour of her house and got a tour
of the development in Jack's electric GEM car. I like the thing. It's quiet economical transportation. Our next activity was the Longwood, FL arts and crafts fair. Nice afternoon talking with some painters then we got into Cynthia's Toyota Rav 4 and went to Fay's home in the Forest Club subdivision. We met Fay and went to dinner with her to an Italian restaurant. It was very nice, I had the eggplant Parmesan. Libbie did too.
Of course it was way too much food so we boxed up some to take home. We had desert at Cynthias then left for home. She is a dog lover, her house really smelled of dog. She has the Scottie and is watching a little chichaua called Taco. I don't like dogs. Stopped for gas in Lake Mary for the trip home and the airport trip tomorrow morning. We ended up getting home at 9:00 PM. Libbie did some last minute packing
while I messed with the computer. I had submitted a TER review and they granted me VIP membership for 2 weeks. It's fun to read the VIP
reviews.

I stayed around in the morning working on MAAVS web stuff. We had the leftover Chicken Pad Thai for lunch then left around 1:30 for our
2:30 photography class in Selby. We arrived early so after parking in the lot opposite the wood gate, we entered the welcome center a
and toured the Tropical display house. Walked down to the wood gate and checked in. Our first stop was the classroom building where we
were given 30 minutes of photo essentials about composition, etc. We were anxious to get into the greenhouses. At last at 3 they let us into
the big greenhouse, #5. We spent our allowed time in there then went over to house 4. Eventually towards the end we ended up in House 1 which is
the Gesneriads. We had a blast and got tired out in the greenhouses. It was an incredible experience. The last few minutes together with Daniel
our photo leader and the other class members we spent in the classroom reviewing Daniel's photos. He's a good photographer, definitely shooting
for artistic merit as opposed to Libbie and I who were shooting to document Gesneriads and other interesting plants. It was a great day none
the less. We left after sunset and stopped in Paneras for a soup and sandwich. I had the Mediterranean Veggie and French Onion Soup. We came home
and crashed.

Stayed in this morning and worked on the MAAVS website some more. I'm having trouble getting the colorbox module to show forward and previous arrows. Not sure what is wrong. In the PM we went out looking for the celery fields. Found them off Fruitville and thoroughly enjoyed the birds. I saw a bald eagle, Libbie saw her second of the day. Took a ride over to Siesta Key where Libbie got some tee shirts at Davidson Drugs. Went home for a little bit then off to Bangkock Thai food. I had shiraz with hot Pad Thai and a Spring roll appetizer. $48 including tip was the bill.

Left after breakfast this morning for Myaka. Arrived around 10:30 and bought tickets for the 11:30 boat tour. Drove over to the bird walk and met an Audubon volunteer who let us see a snipe through his spotting scope. Neat stuff. Good airboat tour, saw lots of alligators. The boat was pretty full. After the boat ride we had lunch in the Outpost Cafe, we split a chicken and swiss wrap sandwich. Did the canopy walk and got pretty tired so we went home for rest and relaxation. Out to dinner to rib night. I had the small prime rib with salad, green beans and baked potato. The fresh bread was cranberry bread. Yummy.

Tried getting the giant TV into the car but it didn't fit. Left it by the dumpster for Waste Management to pick up. Did a walk around the neighborhood then I worked on the MAAVS website some more. Libbie wants to go to Myakka tomorrow. I'm not thrilled since I have an agenda here to work the two websites. We found a hot tub place on Tamiami for Libbie to get her Bromine tablets. Went to Pub night at Stoneybrook. I ordered the Guinnes Beef with mashed potatoes which comes with a family style salad. I also had 2 glasses of wine with the meal.

It's a beautiful day. We went to the homeowners meeting at 9:30 then went to Selby Gardens. Had lunch at Selby. The other half of my sandwich was dinner. On the way home we picked up a new Nook charger from Barnes and Noble. Later in the PM we went to HH Gregg and bought 2 new TV's for the condo. We got a 40 inch Toshiba for $379 and a 23 inch Coby for $129. The deal wa an additional 11% off using the promo code. This worked well. Found the TV cable was not turned on. Had to call Comcast to get it authorized. Dinner was half a sandwich from lunch and the other half of the cookie we shared.

We got up at 6:30 and got out the door at 7:05 am after packing the car and having breakfast. Traffic was light because it was Veterans Day but we had rain in Georgia and some of Florida, especially a very heavy spell near the St Johns. Lunch at McDonalds in St Marys Georgia and arrival in Sarasota around 6:15. We picked up dinner at Publix which was some Bourbon chicken and Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a nice day.

We left Richmond around 7:30 after check out and stopped for breakfast when we got onto I-95. I also topped off the gas. Got home around 10:30. It was a quick reset - unload plants, wash clothes and get set up to leave again. I walked up to the back to examine potential solar sites and also went to Home Depot for a grid over the water reservoir to hold the new plants. Dinner was a Libbie homemade pizza. I returned the rental minivan after getting some supplies in Kroger, filling the tank and using the minivan to fetch the grid in Home Depot.

We had the hotel buffet. I ordered an omelet but won't do that again. We sat with Irwin for breakfast and chatted. Faye gets up much later. I went to the board meeting in the morning and the members meeting in the afternoon. They passed a joint convention with Lone Star. In the afternoon we did the Trolley tour. It was pretty neat, I had not realized that Richmond had such nice architecture. Loved it.
Before dinner we had help from Linda Kilby and Barbara Jones making the centerpieces which were a shell with flower in the center. We sat with the Philly girls which was fun.

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.