This morning we went to the Farmers market and WRAL TV gardens. Afterwards we had sandwiches then walked around Seagrove. Libbie made some yummy pizza which we had with Merlot wine and listened to the top 100 of 1969.

We cleaned the house up this morning. Libbie did most of the work and did a nice job cleaning up all the yellow pollen dust which is everywhere. I picked up chicken on sale for dinner tonight. Vicki arrived around noon. We had turkey sandwiches for dinner

The kitchen sink drain started leaking today. I went to home Depot and then Lowes to get parts to rebuild the drain. While I was there I also picked up a new hose and a box of Miracle Grow sprayer refills. this stuff is expensive. It's $19 for 8 refills which is around 2.50 each. I hosed down the flower garden with Miracle Grow using the new hose. For dinner tonight we went out to La Cosina because we both worked so hard getting the house ready and we were both pretty tired.

Did the normal groceries this morning. It's a nice day outside. The grow boxes arrived. I assembled them on the back porch but did not set them up. Today dinner was BBQ on a bun with baked beans.

Spent all day working on the Android program. I think I've learned a lot and am finally able to get the data base accessed and displaying entries on the screen. The next challenge is going to be the pictures. I'm currently looking at how to package up the picture files for installation. Libbie put together a large order for 2 violet clubs and worked most of the morning. I helped with the labels and then helped her take the packages to the Post Office. We thought it would be worse than it was because today is tax day but it went smooth. Today is a fast day so dinner was a salad with grilled chicken overlay.

I finished up the fence wire today and trimmed the top of the fence posts with the chain saw. Started looking at how to write programs in B4A for the first class on Android. Steep learning curve. Dinner was Libs delicious pizza.

We left at 6:05 which wasn't enough time for getting to Richmond at 9 AM. Libbie needed a rest area break which killed our timing. Got to the Ginter Botanical garden after 9. We stopped into the judges room for breakfast and instructions then went into the Showroom for judging of the show. I had a lot of fun. Carol Vann and Susan Barbi were on my panel which was good since I learned a lot as well. We had lunch in the Cafe where Libbie and I split a turkey and cranberry sandwich and had a cup of pepper and crab soup. Both were very very good. After judging we walked around the arboretum and thoroughly enjoyed the spring flowers and trees. It was a delightful afternoon. We left the arboretum by 3 PM and had no problem on the 3 hour drive home. I managed to round trip it on a single tank of gas in the Corolla. On the way home we stopped into Trader Joes for wine and a side for dinner. Dinner was ribs with baked beans and Trader Joe wine. I downloaded the cameras and put everything on the server. Our pictures came out pretty good.

I installed the fence posts for the electric fence today. Still need to hook up the wires and insulators. I wanted to copy a Pave article for judging tomorrow but Libbie wasn't very cooperative. I got tired of the piles of crap all over the house. We did not go to Dancing tonight, too tired and I was a little peeved. Dinner was the fish again with potato and beets and a single glass of Shiraz. Gathered up my judges handbook for Richmond for tomorrow as well as the judges ID card.

Today is another fast day. I went out in the back and spent the majority of the morning cutting down the Oak tree leaning and hanging over the back yard. Unfortunately the tree came down in the Azalea patch. We had a few broken branches of Azalea and Camelia but nothing too serious. The pollen today is terrible but it's supposed to rain tonight. The tree was pretty big and wore me out. I went to Lowes to get a replacement fence post but did not install it because I was too tired. I'm leaving it for tomorrow. Dinner was panko catfish with baked potato and beets. The potato and beets were baked with olive oil in a pan. Nice. The Panko breading was the worst I ever had. Libbie said she used egg on the fish to hold the coating. This was awful and I don't know why. the breading had a creamy texture and I thought I could taste the egg. this was terrible since I'm trying to reduce calories not add them. After a few bites I gave the rest of my fish to Libbie.

Weight was not so good today. We went to the Farmers Market and also to Wyatt Quarles. Looked at several packs of bedding plants. I'm afraid we're a little late with our planting. We planted seeds anyway today. We'll see what happens. Went to dancing at 3:15 for our 3:30 lesson. We learned some fine points of cha cha progressive and tried mastering the waltz with right and left turns. Dinner was chicken with potatoes and beets as well one glass of Shiraz each.

Very Nice!!!! Weighed in at 229 this morning. This Fast Diet thing seems to be working pretty well. I went to Kroger for normal Tuesday groceries and picked up turkey and cheddar cheese as well as slaw and macaroni salad for lunch for the violet club. Sylvia gave an excellent presentation about trailers. I was pretty tired after the meeting. Dinner was lobster ravioli from Trader Joe.

This is another fast day. It seems to be easy although I'm tempted by fruit. In order to keep the calories off I'll stay away. Weight was 231 this morning. Not bad starting out at the beginning of a fast day. In the PM Lib and I went to BB&T and got the AVSA 2014 Convention checking set up. It wasn't bad and I even got online banking setup and tried it at home. For fun I tried SMS messaging which worked since I got an alert. Dinner was tilapia with panko and slap your mama. Served with a side of salad. Yumm. Watched Dancing with the stars after dinner but beforehand JoAnn Hoover called with her tales of woe. She's in the early stages of a divorce. It sounds like a similar situation with Sue a few years ago.

Reviewed the taxes and submitted the Federal. Printed off the state ones because they wanted $20 to eFile. I'll use a stamp. Had to write a $175 check to the state. Took a walk around the back - Seagrove Park - today. Lovely day. Libbie made her wonderful pizza for dinner from a scratch made dough. Credit card bill closed yesterday at a recird $7200. Wow, it had the LA trip and plane tickets for Austin.

Finished up the taxes but did not file yet. I want to look them over. Spoke with Mary Corondan about an ad. She thought we needed to run one in the Austin Souvenir book. Listened to Rheingold from the Met this afternoon. I believe it's the part of their ring cycle. The Wagner Tubas were very prominent. I believe we were listening to artifacts from the satellite transmission that messed up the horns. Dinner was Salmon with Chutney sauce, brown rice and mixed veggies accompanied by a bottle of Shiraz. Yum!

I weighed myself this morning after the fast yesterday. Weight is 231 which is pretty good. I don't have a weight before the fast. I downloaded the Credit Card totals for March and broke out the wedding then added back in the opera tickets and the airfare. The bottom line for the week was $3661.35. Wow, this was an expensive vacation but a lot of fun.
Libbie was a little under the weather today. I went over to HH Gregg and picked up our new dishwasher. It took the rest of the day to hook it up. Wow, is it quiet. This was a good deal. $699 list, $636 on sale but with the Easter 15% promo code I got $95 off. Delivery charge was $79 but by hooking up the trailer I went over and picked it up for no delivery charge. Now to figure out what to do with the old one.
Dinner was two kinds of pasta with Turkey sausage and Parmesan and mozzarella cheese on top. Very Yummy. We went to the group lesson at 7:15 where we learned a little more rumba and cha cha with forward/reverse travel. Erica was our teacher. She's pretty darn cute and good.

It's a crummy rainy day. I finished the book today "The coincidence of Callie and Kayden". I really enjoyed it but the ending was so sad and there is no resolution. Ii spent some of the day downloading some new free ebooks and organizing the wedding pictures. This was a fast day. I'm going to fast on Monday and Thursday which means a 600 calorie regimen. Dinner was a nice salad covered with chicken fingers. I estimated the salad to be 300 caloories. Combined with 100 calories for soup and a 200 calorie breakfast it was a good 600 calorie day. The opera this evening was the premiere of Julius Ceasar. I didn't like it. HH Gregg finally sent me an eMail saying that the dishwasher was no available for pickup. I ordered it on Easter Sunday this past Sunday (today is Thursday) using an Easter 15% off promo code.

This is our first day home in almost two weeks. Libbie did a lot of packaging of orders that have accumulated. We had a pretty good dance class today. We did cha cha traveling to and fro as well as sideways. We also tried the waltz with turning right and left. Had a little trouble getting there because the Cary Parkway is closed and we got lost in Kildaire Farms. Dinner tonight was the rest of the rotisserie chicken with beans and potato salad.

We got up at 4:30 for our 8:20 am flight. Christa and Joe were up, Joe even moved our rental car from across the street back into the driveway. Left his place at 5:05, arrived at LAX Enterprise Car lot at 5:45 which was good. The fuel gauge still said full so we cheated and didn't buy gas. We went smoothly through the rental shuttle, baggage check and TSA. I unfortunately bought two Muffin breakfasts at Sammys in the airport for $18 for the two. Ugggh. American Air was having a promo of the inaugural flight and we got Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee and then a gift bag and finally cupcakes when we landed. This was too funny. It was great that the direct flight only took 4 hours and 8 minutes. After the Park and Ride shuttle we got our car washed at the free car wash which was excellent. We stopped at Kroger for groceries and picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner . It was nice to be home. Everything looks great.

We enjoyed the Google Nose April fools joke. In the morning Libbie and I took advantage of our last day of nice weather and parked downtown near the Post Office and walked Main Street to the Pier and back. The scenery was very nice including a lady parking her car in a very skimpy bikini which showed of her butt cheeks. I worked with Joe today in his garage and we finished the garage wiring including a patch panel which has the light, the switch, the outdoor lights and some hot lines coming in. They bought a new motion sensor light for the front entrance which is set for dusk to dawn lighting. Dinner was restaurant lasagna and salad which christa picked up from a local restaurant. Yummy.

Easter Sunday. This morning HH Gregg had a 15% off promo code which I used to purchase the Bosch dishwasher. Did not have the HH Gregg credit card so I used the Visa card. Not too bad since we get 2% more off with the card. Joe made a wonderful ham and egg breakfast. After breakfast we did a little bit of exploratory work in the garage on the wiring. I didn't want to get dirty for the trip this afternoon.
We went to the electric boat place for our 2 PM boat party where we met Craig, Debbie, Granny and Uncle as well as Corry, Darshele and their kids. With the food and wine we had a nice boating party on Newport harbor. When we got home I was too full for any more food but Joe was making do it yourself Calzones. I split one with Libbie which was quite bland since she only put spinach and cheese in it.

Today after breakfast we studied Joe's garage wiring. Replaced the switches in the front foyer with white ones and correctly wired the switch to the front door. Next we cut the conduit and fittings to hook up the garage wiring into the power box outside. This went amazingly well. We stopped at this point for the day. For lunch we had slices off an Easter ham on Hawaiian Buns with tomato and Avocado.
For dinner the 4 of us (Joe, Christa, Libbie and I) went to La Capilla for dinner. We each had a Margarita and I had the Camarones Rancheros which was shrimp in a tomato and onion sauce. Yummy.

This morning we made our way to Hollywood. We were very lucky and found on street parking near Madame Tusseauds Wax Museum. We used our Coastal credit card points for two admission vouchers. Normal price is $27 and probably not worth it. We really liked the place. The statues were high quality and well sculpted. The museum had 3 floors worth of very nice exhibits. I enjoyed the final room which was a how to of how they did each of the displays. There was also a counter where you can have your hand molded. We watched a young girl have a hand cast made in the ice water and hot wax. Didn't stay too long in the "education" room since nature was calling. Took care of business then walked down Hollywood Blvd a little wondering about the weird people. Stopped in front of Grummans and admired a few hand prints before cutting through the Highlands center which was a pretty nice shopping mall on the Blvd. Started back in stop and go traffic on the 101 till we cleared downtown then slowed down again before the 605. Talked to Joe and he informed us that the 605 had many accidents so we got to the 710 and had clear sailing the rest of the way to Joe's place. Had lunch at Rubys on the end of the pier. It was very cold and windy but despite that there were many girls in tiny bikinis. Brrr. I had a turkey Chipotle burger with onion rings. For dinner we had lobster ravioli and leftover pizza.

We had a leisurely morning. I bought wax museum tickets using our credit card points. At 9:30 we went over to the Disney and took the free audio tour. Spectacular building and facility. We parked under the Disney for $9 and had a very nice lunch there. I had a portobello sandwich Panini. After lunch we drove down Wilshire to LACMA. Found a parking meter that took Visa cards. Enjoyed an installation of light poles and photographed a pretty girl posing with them. Visited the Tar Pits then back to the car to get to the hotel to clean u p for Cinderella tonight. We chose to eat on the plaza this time. Had a nice fountain side seat where we enjoyed wine and a Portabello sandwich. The bill was $75 with tip. Wow. Cinderella was delightful. It was silly and whimsical. They had 6 mice who really added to the opera since they were such good actors. Our seats were in the balcony row c towards the center. The trip out at the end was pretty good - we are getting to know our way around.

After breakfast we drove to Barkers Dam in the park. We enjoyed the mile walk around looking at plants and shrubs and rock formations. Saw some Petroglyphs which had been vandalized. too bad. We drove out of the park approximately at noon heading down 29 palms highway. Stopped for lunch at McDonalds in Yucca Valley then looked for binoculars in Walmart but no luck. Found a Sports Authority on the way into LA and bought binoculars there. Made it to the Comfort Inn on sunset Blvd at 3 PM. We had a little rest before having Chicken Pad Thai at a Vegan Thai restaurant at 6 PM. Left for the Opera and took the 10 minute drive. The parking garage was almost full, we parked on level 8. The Flying Dutchman was good, the scenery was awesome. I had a bothersome kid behind me talking and with a cell phone that went off several times. What a moron.

Inn the morning we met Mary and John at the visitor center and walked around the Oasis Mara which used to have water running out of the ground but not since 1947. Next we drove to skull rock and hiked the trail to the campground. This was quite nice, lots of native plants and beautiful rocks. Mary and John left us around noon. We all went to 29 palms and ate lunch at the Hamburger Carousel. I had a burger on a bun with thousand island sauce and fries. This was a unique restaurant. Good local diner food. We went back into the park and drove to the South end which was the cotton springs end. Due to road construction we had a 20 minute delay. Enjoyed the desert at the stop. Went down to a wash below the visitors center and enjoyed the wildflowers. I also discovered quite a bit of gold in the stream. We collected a baggy of rocks and took lots of pictures. For dinner we went to Rocky's NY Pizza in downtown. You order at a window and the lady brings the food to your table. We had some Red Trolly Ale with a large mushroom pizza.