This was a pretty good day as most of the work I did for the Android version of First Class is now working including the addition of several thousand pictures to the tablet via FTP. I still don't have a reliable FTP program working so I sued one from the marketplace. Robert was sick so dance lesson was canceled for today. Dinner was salmon, broccoli and a glass of Shiraz.

Got FTP working on my Android so I used it to download 100 violet pictures from Traviata for display in the Violet Viewer program. In the afternoon I worked in the garden transplanting the squash and cucumbers and running the garden hose to the new boxes but I still need to build a header to combine the hoses and hook them to a source of water. Dinner was angel hair pasta with tomato sauce and parmesan over the top. Very nice.

Worked the whole day on the Violet viewer software. This was great, Libbie was occupied downstairs with packing violets with Jack and Joy while I listened to Opera in my office and learned quite a bit about how Basic for android works. I got a rudimentary system up and running from an SQL database, retrieving data and displaying pictures. Yeah!!!!!
Dinner was leftover Bok Choy which was great since this is a fast day. My weight is at 226 and holding which is around 10 down from my physical on Feb 7.

It's still cold today. We worked in the yard planting 3 new bush Lantana next to the sidewalk and also the two remaining Lavenders. I also put down some more landscape cloth around the new grow boxes. short and sweet, that summarized our outdoor activity today. I got a second Raspberry Pi running the Squeezeplug software with the new C-Media USB sound cards that arrived from Amazon yesterday. This one will be in my office hooked to the stereo. I'm pretty happy with the system. Libbie wants one now but I'm running out of Raspberry Pis. I probably need to order some more from Element 14. I worked some more on the violet viewer software for Android. I had to remember how this is done. I learned about sdcard memory in the emulator and how to preload jpg images. This is for the storage for First Class. Dinner was Libbies super pizza. I put some shitake mushrooms on mine which were excellent.

I did some research on weather stations. I have decided to add a Raspberry Pi with WeeWx to my mix of web based electronics. Not sure of what instrument package to use. I may go the homebrew route and write an interface to WeeWx but the easiest thing may be to get a Davis and a weatherlink interface. At noon we we went to Crabtree to see the Iris show. It's been a while since we visited crabtree. Bought a microplane in Williams Sonoma. I was amazed at the number of high end restaurants outside the mall. I finished up the fence today and planted the Lavender along the outside. Dinner was Bok Choy with a bottle of Shiraz and strawberry shortcake. Yummy.

After yesterdays fast but with a healthy fish dinner last night I was pleasantly surprised by the scale this morning. I weighed in at 226.5
Woo Hoo!
We did a huge shopping trip today. From AgriSupply we got a rain gauge. Next stop was Wyatt Quarles for bird food and potting soil. Then we went to the Farmers Market. After purchasing tomatoes and strawberries we went to the end for Dwarf Lantana and Lavender in one gallon pots.
Next stop was the Asian Market for mushrooms, Bok choy and sprouts then Staples to use a $10 gift card they sent us. We purchased envelopes and multi colored pens at Staples. Stopped in next door to Trader Joes for wine and fruit then home. I mixed up 2 gallons of roundup and did the grass along the new fence as well as the path through the woods to the back. Wow, I was tired.
We had a nice dinner of pork chops, broccoli, apple sauce and salad. This went with a glass of Shiraz.
In the evening we went over to Carolina Ballroom and danced for an hour. We were in bad shape, had trouble with a lot of dances.

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.