This morning we were the first in the dining room. We had a delightful breakfast
this morning at the hotel. I had oatmeal and a bagel with coffee. The meal was
great - Libbie had an omelet which looked greasey or fatty to me with the butter
and cheese. We met Bruce Bell downstairs for our lecture. He is a very dynamic
speaker with a rich command of facts, figures and dates. Our tour of the
distillery district was over the top interesting. We had a nice lunch of veggie
burgers with fries and chocolate ice cream for dessert. After lunch we hopped on
a street car to go to the ROM. We had a very interesting architectural talk
about the crystal before a docent led us on an overview of the museum. What a
nice intro to the museum. Libbie and i then walked through the museum some more
before boarding a subway back home. At the college station it was pouring rain.
We huddled under an awning for 30 minutes watching people cope with the
afternoon thunderstorm. I took a movie and some stills. It was an amazing scene
as people got drenched. We talked to a young woman soaking wet who was coming
from a job interview. A fellow was playing a classical guitar which we enjoyed
while waiting. We watched several streetcars pick up llines of soaking wet
people. We finally made a break for it and tried to get into the side locked
hotel door.

Instead of going out to have dinner we opted to eat inside and ordered a pizza
and 2 beers in the bistro. The bill was high at $41 but it was dry and good.
Five things that delighted me: the delightful couple from Scotland we met at
breakfast talking about their journey and tour to Canada, Historian Bruce bell
was dynamic and interesting, Our waitress Michele in a kilt was pretty, very
sharp and called everybody by name, The young lady who was soaking wet coming
home from a job interview and had no umbrella but a smile and great attitude,
the rain which was everywhere while we stood under an awning listening to a guitar
player and the trolleys picked up soaking people as the lightning and thunder cracked overhead.

Up early then down the street to Tim Hortons for breakfast. We have to transfer to the Marriott today. We packed up our stuff and headed down to the Lobby. The doorman got us a cab to take us to the Marriott. It was $15 with tip. The Marriott was able to get us into a room at noon. It's a crummy location near the elevator but at least we're not homeless for the afternoon. We went on the street corner and had a chicken wrap at McDonalds then got onto the North subway to Eglinton. Hopped city bus 54 where we had a very nice driver show us the Toronto Botanical Garden. It rained when we got there but we waited for the passing shower and enjoyed all the plantings in the formal gardens. We found gardens there from the Toronto AVS. On the way back we got on the 54 bus and it was the same driver. He took us to the subway where we quickly got back to the Marriott.
We napped a little then got cleaned up for dinner. Received our packets from the Road Scholar coordinators just before dinner. We had a very nice dinner in the hotel consisting of beef barley soup, a chicken breast on veggies and rice and Tiramisu for desert. We went downstairs for introductions then to bed after a loong day. Some delightful things today: The Bus Driver to the Botanical Garden, Rain and water drops on the flowers, the waterfall in the creek in the garden, The people on the subway in pretty clothes with Bed Bath and Beyond shopping bags, the fine hotel meal, our road scholar leaders.

We had breakfast today at Tim Hortons down the street. this is more budget
friendly than the Hyatt. We had the breakfast biscuit which was good then we
each had an old fashioned glazed donut for desert. The donut was a treat. We
went to a Sinningia presentation this morning by the director of the Geneva
Botanical Gardens. Wow, a lot of this was over my head but this is the kind of
stuff I want to learn. After the lecture we gathered our stuff and headed out to
the Bata Shoe Museum. We got to the Spadina subwaay stop without any problem but
we had lots of trouble getting oriented walking around. First we started walking
the wrong way on Spadina then when we got turned around thanks to the help of a
passerby, we went the wrong way on Blaar. We walked quite a ways through a nice
retail section of shops and mostly restaurants and cafs. Once we got turned
around again we decided to get lunch. We found a Tim Hortonn on the corner and
split a Panini sandwich. After lunch we walked up the street to the museum. I
had a buy one get one free coupon so we paid for one Senior admissionn for $12.
The museum was very interesting. It traced the history of shoes via a timeline
from early man and then the greeks and Romans all the way to present times. A
special exhibit traced the development of sneakers to the present. I noted some
similarities of researchers mounting expeditions into far away places to
research foot wear. This is very similar to researching the origin of Sinningias
in the remote areas of Brazil. After the museum visit we stopped in Tim Hortons
for an Iced drink. Mine was Raspberry, Libbie's was Lemon. We went to dinner at
6:!5 in the lobby where we met everyone for the short walk to the CN Tower. We
shot up the elevator to 115 stories above Toronto where we had an incredibly
nice dinner in the revolving restaurant called 360. We each had a Cabernet and
then the Salmon over a bed of rice and other veggies. It was very good. Desert
was raspberry and blackberry compote with a cream and crunchy stuff. Very nice.
We sat with Jeff and Eva, Nancy and Jerry Kast and the Karrs, Nancy and Richard.
I took lots of pictures. Jerry next to me also had a Canon 7d. After dinner we
slowly walked back to the Hyuatt. The city had changed. There was a pretty
youthful crowd in the streets on a Saturday night, having dinner, going to the
theater, etc.

This morning we had the continental buffet at the Hyatt. It was $42 for
breakfast with tip. Not sure if this is worth it. Tomorrow we'll do the coffee
shop or Starbucks or something else. It was raining pretty constantly this
morning so we mostly stayed in. When it briefly stopped we walked down to the St
Andrew Station where I bought a book of tickets and we took the subway to
College Ave. We walked to the Pierce Arboretum which was an old Victorian Glass
house built in 1909. The tropical display house was quite good and well cared
for. The admission is free. After our visit we had lunch at Tim hortons near the
College Subway. Got on the train home then took a transfer and got on the light
rail running down King. It went pretty smoothly to the Hyatt. We were about 15
minutes late for lecture on pollinators by John L Clark. This was an interesting
talk on how insects and bees pollinate various genera of gesneriads. Very
interesting. Next we watched a presentation of the Montreal Botabicall Gardens
and their Gesneriad collections. Before dinner we walked to the corner LCBO stor
where hundreds of young people were standing in line 10 deep, all buying bottles
of wine for dinner. We bought our wine and found a whole foods type restaurant
across the street where we bought swiss cheese. We made a dinner reservationat
Pease Italian Restaurant across from the hotel for 7:15 PM. They were having
the first night of a summer Prix Fixe menu where we had a three course meal for
$35. The bottom line with drinks and tip was $120. I had the first course of
crab, tomato and smoked watermelon. Second course was a lobster saffron with
fresh peas and the desert was pound cakee with cheese and fresh smashed fruit
which included strawberries and blue berris in a ricotta cheese over an Olive
Oil cake. Wow, was this good. We went away very satiated.

We have to check out this morning before noon. Great news in that I found my
battery charger before breakfast and plugged in for a charge. This is really a
plus because I was facing the Road Scholar week without my SLR. For breakfast
this morning I skipped the omelet which was a mistake. I had the pancakes which
were a little tough since they were on the steam table. We had a fantastic table
right in front of the horseshoe Falls. Wow, another good time. I'm going to miss
this place. We left shortly befor 12. I got the car from the valet lot while
Libbie waited with the suitcases in the Lobby then we were off. We got to
Toronto OK but the downtown traffic was horrible. After checking into the hotel
I took the car back to the airport using the GPS. Got to the terminal but I
forgot to buy gas. Went back a few miles and lucked into finding a gas station
and filled the tank then went back to turn the car in. I was an hour late but
they forgave the charge. The public transit ride back was incredibly smooth. I
took an express bus to Kipling station then the subway to Spinard and another
subway to King. The whole thing cost $2 which was incredible. What a bargain and it
was very fast and as easy going as could be. I caught a little bit of a Strep lecture
then Lib and I went to Tim Hortons down the street and ordered a Paniini each for dinner.
We had it in our roonm with a glass of wine and called it a night.

This morning after a wonderful omelet breakfast we went down to the Blue Line
bus and waited for 30 minutes before finding the bus doesn't start running till
9:40. We walked down to the waterfront and walked to the maid of the Mist. It
was about a 15 or 20 minute walk. We bought our tickets and got right on the
boat. The ride was fantastic and well worth it. we got totally soaked as the
boat drove into the mist at the base of the horseshoe falls. After the ride we
took a bus to Victoria Ave and walked the whole length of the street looking for
the liquorur shop for a bottle of wine. We finally found it at the other end,
bought some Beringer Cab and cught the bus just outside the door. Got off at
the hotel and stopped into TGIFridays for a lunch sandwich. We bought a
California Club which cost $21 at the bar to go. We had our sandwich in our
room in front of the view with a glass of wine and enjoyed it. After lunch we
went out again and took the bus to Table Rock which is the Horseshoe Falls. We
bought tickets for the Journey Behind the Falls which was also fabtastic. they
outfitted us with Yellow disposable rain coats. Our first walk was to the base
of the Horseshoe Falls which was totally soaking wet. Wow, what incredible power
of the falling water as well as the loud roar and the heavy rain squalls as the
mist enveloped us. Next we walked the long tunnels which go 1/3 of the way
behind the Falls. We looked out two portals in the rock behind the Falls. What
fury!!! The howling was spooky and the nasty swirling waters was almost demonic.
We purchased placemats and lemonade in the gift shop after the behind the Falls
Walk then got onto the Blue Line bus for the ride back to the hotel. We went to
the managers reception again where I had a Canadian Molson draft. In the
evening we walked to the front of the Casino next Door to see the fountains then
went in to see if there was a restaurant. We found the Marble Canyon Chop House
which was outstanding. We had a nice window seat overlooking the park in front
of the horseshoe falls. I ordered a Rickard Red draught and the prime Rib which
came with a fully loaded baked potato. Libbie had the planked Salmon with a Cab.
The meal was incredibly enjoyable. We came back and sat in front of the window
watching the Falls lighting. beautiful all around. I couldn't find the battery
charger for my camera. I'm reading the Last Madam: Underworld in New Orleans
and really dislike the book. It's nothing but a recitation of facts with no
story behind it. Boring and not very interesting.

We left this morning shortly after 9 on a rainy morning for our 11:25 fliight.
I had checked in the day before and purcased the fee to send two bags to
Toronto, $50. Canada Air was a little backward at check in, the one agent of
course was on the phone and a family was traveling with tons of stuff. Southwest
Air it is not! Our plane got off the ground late because of the rain. The plane
was a small commuter jet but the flight was incredibly smooth all the way to
toronto. We got into Toronto almost on time. The plane was about as far from the
terminal as you can get. We walked for miles which I didn't mind. The small
plane had stairs from the cabin door onto the pavement. Very different in this
day and age. We had no trouble getting through customs, the young lady was very
nice. We answered the usual questions about why we were visiting, where we were
going and how long. We had another long walk to Enterprise rent a car to fetch
our car but the great news was we didn't have to take a shuttle somewhere to get
a car. The Enterprise lady was very friendly and also young. She had a Gold
Toyota Corolla available. We took it and then found it had crank windows. Wow, I
didn't know they still made cars like this. Libbie programmed the GPS to our
hotel in Niagra and we were off. Traffic was pretty heavy and stopped at times
on the QEW but we just went with the flow. We stopped at a Tim Hortons for lunch
where we split a turkey Panini which was excellent. After a while the traffic
cleared and we went into Niagra without any further problems. Our Hotel was the
Embassy Suites and it was wonderful. Our room on the 42nd floor is a suite with
a fantsastic view of both the American and Horseshoe falls. Our view was way
over and beyond what I expected. We really lucked out in the room assignments.
We have a suite with a hot tub, several sinks, and a living room. Very nice. We
walked down to the Horseshoe Falls after the managers reception which was
nibbles and a glass of wine. Somebody gave us their tickets so we had a second
glass of wine. Down at the Falls we bought a bus pass for $7 each and took the
Blue Line back. For dinner we went out late and walked to the Outback next door
where I had a Rickard Red beer and a half rack of ribs with fries. Libbie took a
few of the ribs since it was more than I could eat. We went to bed with the
curtains open since it was so gorgeous out. The Falls lighting was in Red, White
and Blue. I was thinking of Mom and Dad tonight. Back in 1942 they had their
honeymoon in Niagra Falls. I wondered if they came here by train or if they
drove here in my Dad's sister's car that he borrowed. I have the telegram of him
asking to borrow the car.

It's raining again!!!! I'm getting tired of this. We had over 10 inches last month. I checked us into Air Canada for tomorrow then I went out and purchased a loaf of bread at Kroger and a new grill scraper for the one that broke 2 days ago. Mowed the lawn when the rain tapered but there was still standing water in a lot of places. Came back and changed some colors as suggested by Joe Bruns. Dinner tonight was Angel Hair Pasta. This is a light eating day, I'm at around 118 pounds!!! We packed the suitcases tonight and the computer, readers and cables and chargers.

After watching CBS Sunday this morning we both went to the greenhouse where I took down a bench in House 1 while Libbie chopped up pipes, removed irrigation pipes and removed the endwall plastic from the Fan end. This frees up the conduit which needs to come off the wall. We returned home exhausted then it started really raining. I tried upgrading the Raspberry Pi program but couldn't get it to work. libbie outdid herself with pizza making. Using the garden tomatoes she made a nice tomatoe pie with fresh basil. Yumm.

This morning we did the Iris Society plant sale at the Ralston Arboretum.
We both did the greenhouse this afternoon because it was cloudy. I took down 2 more benches in house 1. The benches on one side of house 1 and 2 are gone. Libbie took the scraps of bench top out to the shed to clear them out of the way. We had an Avocado sandwich for dinner before getting ready for the dance party which was at Carolina Ballroom at 8. We really enjoyed the party. They had nice sandwiches and veggies on the buffet with wine and beer. Really nice. The Pros did some exhibition dancing which was enjoyable. this was in 2 parts then it was an open dance party for us amateurs. Libbie and I danced a few numbers which we are getting better at. It was a nice evening all around. We left the party around 10:30 PM and slept well. I had 2 beers and 2 sandwich quarters plus a few shrimp and cocktail sauce.

Good news!!! I weighed in this morning at 218. This is fantastic news for me. My goal is 200 by the end of the year. I think this is reasonable and totally do-able. I did a round in the greenhouse with Libbie late this morning. We got the pipes off the bench in house 2 and the lathe topping off this 4 foot bench. Libbie in the meantime pulled the irrigation line to be chopped up. We had a tiring afternoon and dragged ourselves home. For dinner we had a nice salmon with broccoli and a bottle of Merlot. watermelon was the desert. We were supposed to go out tonight to the ballroom for the Friday night party but we were both too tired to go out tonight. We stayed home and went to bed early.

Nancy came over to work with Libbie while I went to the greenhouse to work some more. It was a cloudy day so it was a good one to spend time in house 3 disassembling another bench, removing a bench top and pulling the water lines. this house is significantly hotter than the others so it was a good opportunity. In the PM I responded to a Plone vs Drupal discussion and of course Winston dressed me down. I'm getting tired of this guy. For lunch I had a slice of the Trader Joe's watermelon. For dinner, which we had early at 5:30 because of sculpting tonight, we had BLT sandwiches. This is a light eating day. During sculpture I smoothed over the ballerina dress and thinned out the legs. With Kim's help I worked on the head. This is Gabrielle's last night with us. A new model starts after the July 4th break. I won't be there the next 2 weeks.

We went over to the greenhouse in the morning with the trailer attached and filled it with the pipes, old pots and cool cell scraps.
We had an easy trip to the landfill. Purchased some corn and tomatoes on the way there. The greenhouse is getting better and better looking as I continue dis-assembly. We went to Ballroom lesson today where I purchased 2 tickets for Saturday night for $25. Our lesson was doing some fifth position turns in the Rumba. After ballroom went to Trader joes and picked up a watermelon as well as wine, oatmeal and olive oil. Dinner was butter and sugar corn froom the vegetable stand, BBQ sandwiches and cucumber salad.

More of the same. Took apart 2 more benches but one of them was only 4 feet wide and only about 48 feet long. I still came home very tired. Did the grocery thing and had a couple of plums for lunch.
Dinner was BBQ and a squash souffle which Libbie made from our garden yellow squash.

Did some more bench busting at the greenhouse. It's really hot in there. It felt cool outside but it was 87. This was cool compared to inside the greenhouse. Really exhausted myself on the bench work. Came home and had a couple of peaches for lunch. As I was getting cleaned up Libbie took a phone call for a person looking at my Craigslist saw. He took it for $35 which was a great deal for him. The shed looks so empty now. Dinner was Curry Chicken.

This morning I went out to the greenhouse and pumped up the tractor tire so Libbie could mow and I also started taking off more bench tops and moving them to the back door. Next I took the sledge hammer and the crowbar and started disassembling 2 of the benches. Completely took one down and I'm half way through the second before breaking for lunch. Much still needs to be done. Came home and had a tuna lunch then started working on the newest sprinkler which is over the Irises. Turned the geranium watering on for 15 minutes and as expected, it started raining about an hour later. We got a total of .31 inches of rain. Libbie made her yummy pizza again for dinner.

What a busy day! I started out debugging the telephone. There is a short in the line going upstairs and it has been frustrating tracking it down. Around noon I decided there is only a week left before we leave for Toronto. With Libbie's help we tackled the shed putting a bunch of stuff on Craigslist and eBay. We had a parade of people all day picking up stuff, mostly for free. I need to pack up the wizards and lens for ebay purchasers. Amazing. The shed looks good. I may have a helper for removing the greenhouse and hauling it to the scrap yard. A guy picked up the satellite dish for selling as scrap. Libbie mentioned that they may be able to help us with the greenhouse. Dinner was ribs, cucumber and corn from the farmers market. We had dinner with a glass of Shiraz and Bluebell for desert. The AVSA minutes came today which I signed and put into a stamped for Mary Corondon who is the next in line to receive these.

Tried to debug the phone line today but kept getting interruptions. After a quick dinner of salmon with corn we went to the ballroom dance party. We stayed for an hour and had trouble with our turns. I need to ask Robert about how this happens in the rumba.

This is a light day. I'm still trying to understand the Open Sprinkler stuff. Installed the Web2Py framework to run some tutorials. We went to the Farmers Market but I was limited because it was a light eating day. We bought our first corn and first peaches of the season. Dinner was the corn and some chicken strips before sculpting. I left a little late, about 6:15 but still did alright. Libbie stopped in to see the sculpture tonight after attending the dance class at Carolina Ballroom. I can home around 10 PM, Libbie was still up downstairs. I was glad she stopped by to see the sculpting. She had not been at any of the sculpture sessions prior to this.

The upstairs phone line is also out now. Spent the morning trying to debug the downstairs phone. i found the wall jack is intermittent. Went to Home Depot in the evening after dinner and bought a new wall jack as well as Black Flag fogging liquid. I used the stuff in the yard to smoke mosquitoes. It works great on shrubs and taller items but not for low lying grasses like Mondo grass. Dinner was angel hair spaghetti. This afternoon we returned tot he ballroom after an absence last week. We are getting pretty good, Robert said I should get ballroom shoes with felt bottoms. I'm not sure about this.

I worked on variables for my open source sprinkler. I'm trying to get the vars passed from module to module but with no success. Most likely this is because I don't understand how Python and Jason scripts work. Left for the airport at 10:45 and stopped by the Honeybaked store in Crossroads to get the free turkey slices from the GMA offer. We had the turkey for lunch, it was quite good. Lib's plane was on time and we got back home around noon. For dinner this evening we had the turkey sandwiches again. The turkey has a honey glaze which is sweet and very good. I had this with a cucumber in a sour cream and vinegar salad.

I'm still trying to figure the variables out in the Open Sprinkler program. I discovered another version of the program with logging so I set up another Pi with the new OSPi software and tried fooling around with it. Didn't have much luck with the logging. Outside I tied up the tomato plants which are really getting tall. Lunch was an avocado sandwich and dinner was a bean burger and a salad. This is a light eating day.

After the morning News shows I had a long chat with Libbie about everything. Told her about Rosenkavalier playing on the Met Sirius/XM channel at this moment. Previously when the waltz music was playing I practiced my waltz doing the turns and moving fast from one end of the room to the other. Fun and a good learning experience. Can't wait to try it out for real. I used a container of Miracle Grow and sprayed the flower garden today. I was thinking of doing this tomorrow on the geranium garden as well tomorrow. I walked in the back today around Seagroves pond then went across Downing Place and talked to Charlie. Surprisingly he was working in the woods cleaning up a tree that fell on their crepe myrtle. I installed the Adafruit webide this afternoon but then discovered I really need java/jason rather than python. Oh well, I know have a web ide to debug python code. I picked up a nice cucumber from my garden and had half of it in a salad tonight which accompanied the last of the rack of ribs from yesterday. Yummy. Probably too much food but tomorrow is my fast day.

Finally got around to blowing the driveway off of the storm debris. I also noticed the tomatoes are wilted so I turned the grow box watering on. This needs a rework since the tomatoes need more water than the peppers do yet they are on the same water hose. Worked on the Flower Timer software trying to figure out how the program is stored. This is going to be difficult. For lunch I made a beanburger with a vidallia. For dinner I went to Krogers and picked up a rack of ribs from the hot case in the deli department. I also had some mango sherbet with dinner as well as baked beans.

Weight this morning was wonderful. I'm down to 220.5. Just a little more to break into the teens!!! After the horrible storm last night it's a beautiful day! Wrapped up the timer project on the porch, now I need to pick up all the tools and work on software. Did a watering of the greenhouse overhead as well as the furnace waterer. Dinner was a beanburger with lettuce and slice of vidalia.