I left at 8 today for Watercolor at Carolina Preserve. Traffic on 55 wasn't bad. I arrived there at 8:20. Put the broccoli salad into the refrigerator in the kitchen and then picked a table. Met Becky and the rest of the class. She is a good teacher. I really learned a lot about mixing green and also about brushing out hard edges. This was helpful. Also helpful was the avoidance of long surfaces of solid color. Different colors are used to add interest and texture to a surface. The pot lunch was way over the top. JoAnn had a lot to do with the nice environment. Came home around 4:00 and started sorting through 2 weeks of mail. Wells Fargo is offering a 15% discount for the tax check. I quickly wrote a Scottrade check. I will mail it when I go to watercolor tomorrow. The Pi cases also arrived from Adafruit. I didn't spend much time with the Pi stuff since there was too much mail to go through. Dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce and pizza cheese sprinkled over the top.

It's nice to be done with the driving and spend the day at home. Libbie has a huge pile of boxes already to go tomorrow while I worked on backing up pictures, etc. We had Lib's homemade pizza tonight while watching the Oscars. I started with the red carpet at 6 then the main show started at 8:30.

We got up normally and looked at the Radar. It's a good rain falling in Georgia and South Carolina. We watched GMA and took our time cleaning up the condo and packing the car. We got going around 10 AM. It was quite warm, I was hot from carrying all the items to the car. We ran the A/C up a notch to cool down. On our journey the temperature in FL peaked out at 86. We had the usual trouble in Orlando where it was stop and go around the outlet Mall East of Disney World. The jam ups began as we reached hwy 192 which is the Disney Main Gate and continued for the next few exits. Finally we go going again without incident. We hit heavy rain just South of Savannah for about 20 miles. We checked our tablet in the SC Visitors center to see what the radar looked like. I was pleasantly pleased by the fact that we finished traveling in the worst of the rain. Woo Hoo. We had stops for gas in Ormond Beach where Libbie bought Doritos, water and granola bars. We ate our turkey and cheese sandwiches on the road with the Doritos and water. Next stop was McDonalds in Florence for dinner. We had grilled chicken snack wraps. Gas light was on going into Florence where gas was 3.55 per gallon. We paid 3.79 in Ormond Beach. We got home at 9:35 which was good considering we didn't know if we were going all the way or not depending on the weather.

I used the whitewash stain and put a coat of stain on the inside of the bookcase to disguise the sloppy brush work. It sort of worked, the inside doesn't look too bad now. This was a last ditch effort before hauling the thing to Goodwill. We took a little bike ride around the neighborhood before stowing the bikes for the season and went back to cleaning up the condo. I finished the story "Burglars" and posted it to ASSTR. I'm now working on the sequel, "Alice Returns". It feels good to be writing again. We called Craig and Debbie to get Dsrshelle's address to send a Sympathy card for her Mother's death this week. The funeral is tomorrow. We drove to Target before the Michigan party and filled the card out in the Publix parking lot and mailed it at the mailbox conveniently in front of the Pack and Mail store. We went to the MI party at 6 PM where there were h'orsedeovres and drinks. The buffet was very nice, much better than the NY/NJ one last week. Doo Wop Denny was the entertainment. He is quite good and played some very nice dance music which is pretty popular. The couple we sat with was from Lancaster, PA. They have been Ballroom dancing for 10 years and were quite good. Travel tomorrow isn't looking too good. There is a huge rainstorm covering the SouthEast which we would drive into.

I spent a lot of time today on the SQL for the violet viewer. I created a large database of 10,000 items but it didn't seem to work. I get an IO error. The smaller 100 record database works better. I need to investigate this some more. The bookcase is a disaster. The paint job is pretty shitty, very careless application of paints and drips everywhere. I'm pissed at myself for not catching this sooner. I'm trying a last chance recovery by using the sanding sponge to sand off the finish on the outside and the stain to essentially paint the inside with stain to cover up the crappy brush work. This may be the best I can do. I didn't go out and do anything fun today, just a Lowes trip for furniture pads and to look at painting options.
We went to the Clubhouse for rib night. It was crowded because of the Dixieland Festival. We saw Peter and Christa there, Peter has a UK friend looking for a place next year. I had a half rack of ribs with baked potato, string beans and salad. Two glasses of Cabernet complemented the meal. I enjoyed watching a young European women in a slinky dress that showed off the outline of her thong and was low enough cut that every time she bent over to attend to her child she put on quite a display of flesh. Csme home to Parsifal live on Sirius XM.

I had a lot of luck today with B4A and accessing an SQLlite database. I sucessfully displayed the first 10 violet names from the database. Now I need to take it further so that search works, then the click on the listview item to retrieve a record. Around noon we hooked up the bikes and went to the celery fields. It was 81 degrees and very enjoyable. What a nice day. Came home, had lunch and worked on the database some more as well as started reading Linda Howard "Ice" in earnest. I really like the story so far. We had crackers and cheese for a lite dinner then went to Turandot. This was one of the best Operas I have seen by Sarasota. It was incredibly good. We were in aisle H against the wall. The seats were pretty good, I was surprised. All the principals and the chorus gave their all. The sound was fantastic. This is so much better than HD.

We went to the Celery Fields to do some birding today. On the way home we stopped at Yoders at the mall for lunch fixings. From the mall I picked up a clamp to finish the vinyl baseboard job in the bathroom. I also picked up a scrap of 2x4 so I could use one clamp and the 2x4 across 3 feet of base to secure it to the wall. I returned to Lowes because the glue we purchased said that it won't work on non porous surfaces. I picked up some silicon instead and finished the baseboard job. It takes 3 hours for the silicon to dry. We went out for dinner to the clubhouse where Bingo was going on. I never knew about Bingo but apparently it's $5 a card and hundreds of dollars per prize, basically splitting the proceeds among the winning cards. I had panko crusted amberjack which was still good even tough they overcooked it. It came with fries, cole slaw and white rolls. We also had a house salad.

It was a chilly morning so we stayed indoors. After our normal turkey sandwich lunch we went out to Ringling and did the galleries on the left side of the museum that we didn't do last week. Notables were a wall of Harlequin paintings featured because they purchased the 15th painting to complete the set. I noticed a room full of Rubens paintings, something I was not previously aware of. I knew the front room with the 4 huge paintings existed but not the room with smaller works. I also found a Greco of the crucifixion which reminded me of a blackboard painting I did and photographed in 7th grade. The other work of note was the lady strapped to a bull on the front lawn that I never noticed before. She is a Christian being punished for her faith. The story says her assistant saved her by killing the bull. The Romans let her go after this. I photographed the statue in multiple views. After the museum we walked Selby and made note of some Staghorn ferns we had noticed before. We went to the free dance lesson at 7 then paid $20 for the one hour class following. The free class was a circle of us doing various steps. The paid group class was great, we practiced the foxtrot for the entire hour including doing a turn as part of the second step of foxtrot.

It's cold today. High only in the 50s with some wind. We took a walk around the block but Libbie wanted to stop at every bird, I wanted to keep walking. I don't like standing still like this. We left for the ballet in Bradenton at 1 PM for a 2 PM performance. The ballet, La Baladeyre was the best ever. My favorite host, Katerina, wore a Lacy form fitting red dress. This girl is beautiful. The third act of the ballet was the best I've ever seen. The scene called the dance of the shades featured 32 ballerinas in white Tutus noving down a spiral ramp on a black stage. The only lighting was on the white Tutus. Exquisite!!! On the way back we stopped into Trader Joesand picked up some wine and cereal. Dinner was a pizza we picked up from Valentinos and ate at the condo with shiraz while watching 60 minutes.

This morning we took a walk then had an early lunch so we could go to the opera. The theater parking lot at the Sarasota mall was pretty full. We were there a half hour early and were told at the box office that Rigoletto was sold out. I inquired when was the encore. I was told that was sold out too!!!! Wow. We left disappointed and listened to the Opera on Sirius satellite radio in the condo. In the evening we left at 6 PM for the NY/NJ party. We had a table of 6 with one couple who lives in Paris for the summer and another from Buffalo. Both parties recently sold their Stoneybrook condos. We judged them as having aged out. Dinner was a buffet of beef on rolls, crab cakes, pierogi, spring rolls, wings and salads topped by cheesecake and canolis for desert. This wouldn't be my choice of a buffet, especially for $20 but it was OK. The DJ was terrible. Many people just sat there as he played non dance music such as the theme from Shaft and Saturday Night Fever but the people came out for dancable music. We had 2 glasses of wine with dinner for a total of $67 including tax and tip. Not bad for an evening party.

It looks dry but a little chilly out this morning. We have the outdoor fern class at 10 am. We went to Bill the fern guy's house on Trinidad near the Bangkok Thai The weather started out cool and cloudy but later the sun came out. Bill's house is very eclectic. The whole yard is covered in tropical plants with the backyard given over to all Staghorn Ferns. Amazing and junky at the same time. You have to have understanding neighbors to own a yard like this. After the fern class we went to Yoders for fruit and lunch fixins and then to Lowes for steel wool and wax for the bookcase. I went out with Libbie later in the day so she could get more fabric from Sew Right, the quilt store in Palmer Ranch. We went over to the clubhouse for dinner. I had panko crusted amberjack with french fries and cole slaw. For an appetizer I had New England Clam Chowder.

It's a cloudy misty day. We left for Dunedin to Rainbows End quilt shop. By the time we got there it was really raining. While Libbie fabric shopped I walked outside looking for the train station. We got in the car and drove downtown where I finally found it. I got out in the rain and took pics of the station. It looks like it wss turned into a cafe. On the way home it rained quite a bit. Stopped at the Outlet Mall in Ellenton then we did the quilt shop in Palmer Ranch. I got some black slacks for 10.99 in the VF Outlet store. I chose not to go into the Palmer Ranch quilt shop. Libbie bought a red fabric in there. In the evening we had a 6:45 PM Dining Room reservation. We had a very nice prime rib dinner with baked potato, rolls, veggies and a Yorkshire pudding thing. We shared a Key Lime pie for desert with coffee. Accompanying dinner we had 2 glasses of Cabernet. This was a nice Valentine dinner for us.

Another pretty day with a temp around 80. Nice. Libbie finished sealing the bookshelf out on the Lanai. We then drove to Yoders for Honeybells but they don't have any. Instead we purchased turkey, swixx and Amish bread and a tomato for a sandwich. It was an outstanding sandwich. Took a bike ride after lunch then a walk around the block (2 miles) before dinner. We went over to pub night which was very crowded. Bought raffle tickets from the Breast Cancer foundation fund raiser. Libbie spread the tickets around the prizes ($10 for 5 tickets). I had 2 glasses of Yuengling draft with Cajun spiced Amberjack and the family style salad with garlic bread toasted. Overall it was a nice night. During the day today I finished the first sample project for the B4A compiler. NExt I'm going to tackle a database.

Busy day. Libbie painted the bookshelves out on the Lanai. We got the bikes out, pumped up the tires and took a ride outside to the front wetlands then down McIntosh and home. We went over to Peter and Christa's for wine at 5 PM then to the clubhouse for dinner. I had a Veggie burger which was out of this world. We then went to the goup dance lesson and social at Sarasota Ballroom on Swift. Fun night!!!!! The dance was way over my head, it was a Rhumba.

Didn't wake this morning until 7:10, wow! After the morning shows we headed over to Ringling. Really enjoyed the Paolo Veronese exhibition. Paolo was a renaissance painter. One painting, the baptism of Christ, was from the NC Museum of Art. We had lunch of Italian Sausage with peppers and onions under the Banyans. Some folks from near Syracuse, NY joined us at a picnic table since the tables under the Banyans were full. We did half of the museum because we got tired after a while. Will come back for the rest another day. We went out for dinner to Bangock Thai where I had a Singha beer and Chicken Pad thai. Libbie had Scallops Pad Thai. The Westminster show was on. The judge was Dennis from Apex, judging the Toy group.

We watched CBS Sunday Morning then went over to Selby and enjoyed the gardens. We also toured the Botanical exhibits that are in the Payne mansion and that I like. Libbie didn't care for it but she admitted to warming up to it later. Lunch was a cran turkey sandwich and rain forest cookie in the garden under the Banyan tree. Very nice!!! We took a drive across Siesta Key before coming back. Walked around Stoneybrook at Sunset and also had cheese and crackers with wine at sunset. We ordered a large cheese pizza from Valentinos on Clark then drove over to pick it up. We had our pizza with wine then watched the Grammys. Not a bad show, I never heard of a lot of the artists but enjoyed the music.

We had breakfast and loaded the car up this morning. We got going by 7:02 AM, not bad. It's 36 degrees outside. Topped off the gas in Florence at 3.28 and also bought 2 bacon, egg and cheese biscuits. Traffic was surprisingly heavy for a Saturday. We think it's cars escaping the blizzard which is going on in the NorthEast. Libbie called bill. He said power was out but his gas log is running. Portsmouth was showing 100% out this morning when we left. She also later talked to Mary and George who were on generator in Tiverton. Their generator doesn't run the electric heat strips. Stopped in St Mary for gas at 3.54 and lunch which was a McDonalds Snack Wrap. Traffic was sluggish through Orlando with a little stop and go through the Seaworld-Disney corridor. Traffic picked up again after Disney. We got to the condo at 6:15 PM. Unpacked the car, changed clothes and had dinner at the clubhouse. We both had salmon on a plank with Cabernet. Desert was chocolate tort. After dinner we did a quick Publix trip for milk and soup for lunch. It's a warm 78 degrees this evening.

I had a lot of trouble with the ass kicker circuit. The Uno device appears to be dead. I switched to the Ethernet Pro from Sparkfun. Had to come up with a power supply but the ones I found had the wrong connector. Cut off a connector from another PS and soldered it on. Had trouble when I initially hooked it up in the closet. It didn't work. Found the connector strip plugged in backwards. All is now well and the resets seem to be issued because the thing worked all day long. Went to Jerrys and picked up a Botanicals book and 2 tubes of green watercolor. Packed my suitcase in the afternoon because we have a dance lesson tonight and then a dance party. We learned some swing dance from a beautiful young girl named Erica. Turns out her Dad and brother were also there dancing and are quite good. Her Dad bought the family dance lessons for Christmas 10 years ago. We enjoyed the lesson until 8 then the Dance Party started. I danced with Erica a few times then with Libbie. We left at 9 but went over to the Fred Astaire place in mcGregor Village to see if they had a party as aell. It was 9 PM and they were closing, there were about 6 people there. We leave for FL in the morning. Dinner tonight was crabcakes with tomato on bread rounds.

Meistersinger continues to crash. As a temporary fix I wrote an ass kicker program for an Arduino Uno which will reset Meister every hour. It will run on it's own supply and the only connection will be reset and ground. I put another step in off our walkway next to the pond going into the garden. I wanted this done before the rains this afternoon. They are predicting over an inch which is going to be a blizzard for the North East. We went to Ballroom this afternoon and spent the whole class doing Swing. I get confused with the footwork at times but feel confident this will become more natural with practice. I hooked up a Raspberry Pi at home in the Family Room to the stereo system. Libbie and I practiced swing and foxtrot. It was a lot of fun. Dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese.

This was our day off from dancing this week. I worked outside in the nice 61 degree weather and trimmed the Holly Bushes in the front of the house and on the side next to the walkway. Dinner was Trader Joe's BBQ sandwiches.

Busy day today. I went to the dentist at 10:10 am then to the grocey store where I first got a haircut at great clips then got the Tuesday groceries. The darned Meistersinger Home monitor crashed again. I'm having a heard time figuring out why. I talked with Andrea about the upcoming DVD we're supposed to be putting together. The router crashed once while we were talking. Need to work on getting another router outfitted with DD-WRT. We had another ballroom class at 3:30 today. I think I'm getting the hang of this. This was a lot easier than our very first lesson a week ago and we seem to be a lot better.

Meistersinger crashed at midnight last night. I pressed reset to get it going again. I studied watchdog circuits this morning before Libbie wanted me to print some shipping labels. I wasn't happy with this. We left earlier for our dance lesson so we could complete some paperwork. We signed up for a 4 lesson package for $300. We couldn't remember the steps from last week. We need these lessons. Dinner was the good Tortillas stuffed with corn and beans and topped with salsa and sour cream. Good stuff. In the evening we listened to Rigoletto live from the Met. This is a good Opera. The trivia question was which Operas have candy mentioned in them.

What a great day. I got a bootloader burned into the Meistersinger Atmega2560. This one has a watchdog timer issue and needed a bootloader with the correction. I used an Arduino Uno to burn the bootloader using a sketch I found online. Got it all back together and added the watchdog code so if the thing crashes it will recover. It crashed twice in the past 6 months. After lunch I went outside and added lime to the pansies and questionable fertilizer. The fertilizer was very wet and possibly not effective because the good stuff may have washed out. My next act was to diagnose the hot tub. Bought a brass plug, 1/8 inch, from Lowes. Replaced the pressure switch with the plug and worked on the switch. Seemed to have gotten it going again. Hooked it up and the water is heating at 1.5 degrees per hour. Woo Hoo! The Super Bowl is on tonight. Libbie is watching it but I'm not. Went downstairs for some pizza which was our dinner - another winner by Libbie!!! Came back upstairs to read "Strength in What Remains" by Tracy Kidder.

I saved the raspberry image of squeezeplug to my raspberry then went outside and blew the driveway off. I also spent some time organizing files on my laptop, offloading some files and pictures that needed to be archived. At 7 we left for the NC Symphony. We had a serving of Meyer Lemon chicken before leaving. The program was loud and envigorating. It ataryed with Strauss' Sprach Zarathustra then went into the Blue Danube before doing Star Wars and Star Trek. The second half was the planets with nice NASA HD imagery playing in HD. It was quite a nice eveningg.

I had a pretty good checkup at the Doctors office today. I lost 10 pounds since last year but my blood pressure and triglycerides are still up too high. He changed my bp medicine which I picked up at Kroger with Libbie when we both went over there on a grocery run. She got some more tortillas for Sat night and a few things for tonights dinner. I got the Pi going again after the SD card got corrupted. I need some kind of shutdown on the device so this doesn't happen again. I also will save the card image on my laptop. The Natl Geo park of National Parks came as well as my new camera for the Pi. This will give me an HD cam web server when I get it hooked up. Dinner was the Meyer Lemon chicken from Cooking Light magazine.