I got on the scale this morning and was pleasantly surprised that my weight was down to 227. I didn't think it possible after a dinner of pork chops, wine and assorted veggies last night. This is a good deal!!! It's darn cold this morning. I went to Lowes and picked up the last piece of fencing and a couple of posts to mount it. I'm still not happy with the gate, it seems to be flimsy. I picked up a piece of u channel fence post to try to stiffen it. The other option is a length of greenhouse pipe driven into the ground, possibly even cemented. In the PM I planted the Morning Glories while Libbie put in the package of sunflower seeds that we bought a while back. I picked up some catfish from Kroger on sale for 4.99. It was one pound exactly for 2 filets. We had the catfish with a Panko bread coating baked in the oven using a Cooking Light recipe and also a salad. This is another fast day.

This is a busy day. I started by working on the grow boxes in the mud. Spread out a landscape cloth and retrieved some cinder blocks from the woods to level the boxes on the hillside. Next job was to work on the fencing endwall and the gate. I'm not happy with the stability of the gate. It's pretty shaky and holding it shut is a crappy plastic catch. Need to do better. I left this job unfinished. We went to dance at 3:30 where we had a fantastic lesson adding sparkle to the waltz. We added a single sparkle and a triple sparkle which was fun. We kept practicing this until we almost got it. Robert was good tonight. Dinner was pork chops with a single glass of Shiraz, broccoli, and apple sauce. I previously had a bowl of salad but Libbie didn't want one. I love lettuce and carrots!!!! Rigoletto is live tonight. It's the final live broadcast of the season. Too bad!!!

It was too yucky to work on the fence and grow boxes today so I mowed the lawn instead. Did the normal grocery run this morning. Dinner was angel hair pasta with chicken and Curry sauce. After dinner I messed around with the AVSA presentation again. I wanted to finish by May 1 but it doesn't look like it will happen.

Another cloudy rainy day. I spent the morning indoors but in the afternoon I laid out the new fence even though the grass was incredibly wet. There is an issue with the gate and where the walk is that I need a solution for. today is fast day monday so for dinner I had a salad and a piece of Sockeye Salmon from Kroger. The Salmon was .6 pounds which was around 4 ounces each. This is 192 calories. The web says about 48 calories per ounce. This is happiness. Breakfast was the usual 200 calorie cereal and milk while lunch was a 200 calorie bowl of soup. I'm guessing my calorie total was 700 which is my upper limit. I finally got the Panasonic wireless cam going. Thanks to an app on Android I'm able to look at the cam on the tablet.

It was a rainy day but in spite of the rain Libbie and I went to Lowes and purchased $300 worth of fencing to repel rabbits around the new bed along the walkway. I'm still not sure if this is going to be stable enough with the DIY pound in the ground sleeves they provide. The posts then go into the sleeve. To me it doesn't look deep enough. I laid out a mason string to get a straight line and lined up the first fence which still may need more adjusting to account for the slope of the ground. Dinner was a Libbie pizza which she made from scratch because the dough in the freezer was frozen and she didn't remember to take it out earlier.

It's a perfect day outside. Blue sky and mild temperatures. I smoothed out the last of the sand, then cut some tarpaper and placed the remainder of the brick sidewalk. Libbie helped. She and I then went to Lowes to look at fencing to thwart the rabbit. There is a nice short fence which will block the critter and is attractive. We bought a 4 foot section with posts for $20. It looks like it will do the job so we will go back to get more. Next task was to shovel several wheel barrows of compost onto the new bed next to the sidewalk and till it in. this was where I left the job for the day. We had a nice dinner at 6:30 at Tony's Oyster Bar in McGregor Village. Libbie was paying ($251 with tip). The dinner party consisted of Coleman and Nancy, Joy and Rick, Jack and Barbara and us. Eight people, all volunteers in some way or another at Bluebird. I had blackened Tilapia which was topped with Oysters. Accompanying the meal was mashed potatoes and veggies.

This was a tiring day. I laid down the rest of the bricks then got out the rototiller and finished the path to the garden gate. Next I dug a trench next to the gate for two drainage pipes. The four inch pipes will drain rain water as well as serve as a conduit to carry power and water for the garden. I was extremely tired. We did a trip to the Farmers Market for tomatoes and strawberries. We also picked up some perennials for the garden which included Begonias. The perennial garden is looking great. Libbie planted the purchases while I took a nap. I needed the rest since I was having trouble catching my breath. I woke up refreshed. Today's blood pressure reading was 102 over 73 using the new device sent by Aetna. I was concerned by low blood pressure but the systolic number has to be less than 90 to be considered HypoTension which is low blood pressure. Dinner was leftover lemon chicken. We went to dance today. the group lesson was very basic essentials and was taught by Atlanta. We stayed for the dance party which was fun but pretty tiring. I think we're improving but compared to others in the room, not so good.

Moved the remaining bricks from under the house onto the sidewalk and put them down. Next I got out the chainsaw and moved a lot of logs and cut down saplings to clear a path to the brick pile in the woods. Libbie filled my cart and I moved it to the sidewalk and dumped it. We took two cart loads of bricks out of the woods. This was a fast day so dinner was a salad with a chicken breast split between the two bowls. I surprisingly was OK with the fast although a tiny bit hungry.

I spread the sand today, leveled it nicely and with Libbie's help cut a piece of tarpaper which went over the sand. I moved about 50 bricks from under the house to hold the tarpaper down. We had a very good lesson with Robert today. We missed last week because he had to pick up his daughter. We met his daughter Atlanta who is a very nice High School girl. Today we added embellishments to our Foxtrot including a box step and various right/left turns. This is the last Wednesday of the month so it's Mariachi night at La Cosina. We enjoyed dinner around 6:30 at the restaurant. The Mariachi band included a female vocalist and was dressed in white with gold bullets down the side. We both ordered the Quesadilla La Cosina. I had two Yuengling drafts with mine. It was a very nice satisfying day.

My weight happily this morning was a good solid 229. This was in spite of missing the fast last Thursday and then consuming 3 bottles of wine with dinner on three consecutive nights. Need to cut that out. Did the groceries including a trip to Trader Joes. I saw the repair job on the Cary Parkway culvert fire. All 4 lanes are now open. Got the rototiller working and tilled a path from the existing brick walk to the fence gate. After raking and leveling I went to Home Depot and got 8 bags of sand. It won't be enough but that's all I could get in the car without stressing the springs too much. I'll spread this tomorrow and see how much more I need. Dinner was lemon chicken which is Angel Hair pasta, chicken, spices, lemon and spinach. Yummy. We had this with a single glass of Shiraz.

This was a do nothing day. I worked on the MAAVS website and got the New Bern convention added. The task was to re-learn Drupal. I also fixed the Bluebird website. The inventory was updated and some of the outdated text was reworked, especially the Jessie Road address on the orders page. This was a fast day again so we ate light. Dinner was a salad and beets and potatoes broiled in olive oil. They are sure excellent.

Stayed inside and did computer work all day. I wanted to go out but it was too cold to work outside. Temperature in the 50s. Brrr. Libbie made her excellent pizza again from scratch. She added Italian turkey sausage to the mix on the pizza.

Vicki and Bob left this morning around 6:30. I got up early and went downstairs, Lib joined me a little while later. I worked outside and planted the tomatoes and peppers and also got the grow boxes cleaned up so that I could plant into them. Worked a little on the Austin presentation. Dinner was leftover lemon chicken with Merlot.

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.