It was 45 outside this morning. Brrr. We had the hot breakfast on our final day. I set the DVDs up at the Ways and Means table and they sold out which is great. I took photos in the showroom then went to Penny's lecture at 10:15 which was very good. Her talk was growing African Violets Project Manager style. We took a break and checked out of our hotel room after her lecture then sat in on the tail end of Steven Spachaks Episcia lecture. He was pretty free flowing and not reading from a prepared script. We left the hotel and walked next door for lunch at the Taco place next door before heading out of town. We picked up tissues in Walmart for Libbie and drove down I-10 towards San Antonio. We canceled our Marriott Courtyard room on the riverwalk and booked a Comfort Inn by the airport. In Boerne outside of San Antonio we stopped at Country Hill Violets, the business owned by Ken Froebese. The Comfort Inn let us check in at 2:30 PM. Libbie was really dripping so we located a Walgreens nearby, drove there and got a consultation. The pharmacist recommended an antihistamine which we bought and it worked. After resting at the hotel for an hour we went downtown which was 17 minutes away and parked in a lot next to the riverwalk for $7 flat rate. We went to Paesano's Restaurant, an Italian place where I had baked ziti with Italian sausage and a glass of Ravenwood. Libbie had an Alfredo. Our seat was lovely, the food and service were excellent and the price was moderate. After a relaxing dinner we took a boat ride on the river and enjoyed the ride in front of a Latin band. They were pretty energetic and lively. We went back and set the alarm for 5:15 wakeup which isn't too bad because we go off daylight savings tonight, back an hour.

We did the cold buffet again then went to the judges instructions at 8:30. I enjoyed judging with Mary Corondon and Irene Hafner. We did the vintage, trailers, unusual containers. I enjoyed judging the show, will probably sign up to also do MAAVS. In the PM we went to the Art Museum. They ripped us off, charged us $10 for admission and didn't tell us there was no art. They put it all in the vault so they could have their sale. We left disappointed. The show was open in the afternoon so I hooked up the camera and took pictures. I think the flash with light modifier will work out very nicely with softening the light. We went out to dinner to Billy Genes again on the river. We had a booth but the whole back room was filled with AVSA folks at 3 long tables. We stopped by after dinner and chatted with the Savages, Ruth Loomis and John and Judy. Did not do the dancing tonight, unfortunately Libbie is coming down with my cold.

Happy Halloween. We had breakfast this morning in the hotel which had a wonderful buffet included with our room. The cold buffet included hot oatmeal or waffles plus fruit and bagels, etc. It's incredibly nice. Libbie helped Richard with classifications while I went to the room and did some web work. I fixed up the director eMails and addresses and published that in the public section of the website. I did some other misc work on LSAVC that needed doing. We went out to dinner with the Nicholas's to Billie Jeans which we really liked. I had chicken saltillo which was chicken breast covered with bacon, mushrooms, cheese and was accoompanied with onion rings and cole slaw.

We slept till 7:15 Central Time this morning. Wow. We had the Comfort Inn breakfast which was quite minimal After breakfast we checked out and went downtown to walk Main St. We found a very nice Art Gallery that i enjoyed of mostly Western Art. Libbie found a quilt store that had an amazing inventory of quilts. There was a steel stool with leather seat that I was very interested in. It was almost $300 dollars. Next stop was the Chisolm Trail winery. We expected to have food there but they only serve on weekends. We did a 5 wine tasting instead. The wines were passable but not great. I bought a Cabernet which was OK but there are better California wines. We enjoyed the road out of there. On the way to the winery the road had Longhorn cows in the road. The road out was narrow and crossed a creek on a paved creek crossing. Pretty neat stuff. The trip to Kerrville was only 20 miles. At Kerrville we stopped at a Taco stand where I had a very nice Tostada. Yum. While reading in bed at the Inn Of the Hills, Anne and Richard called. They were 2 hours away and wanted to meet for dinner.
We got together with Janet and her Mother and Anne and Richard for dinner at Cowboys, a steak house which was very good. I had a half rack of ribs with baked potato and salad with Blue Cheese dressing accompanied by a glass of Cabernet which wasn't very good. They didn't have the Beringer so we had something called Williams wine which was not great.

Left the hotel after 9 and went West on I-10 then North to Fredericksburg and then to the LBJ ranch. it was highly educational seeing some of the buildings where history was made. I enjoyed seeing some of the old technology of the time in the Texas White House. After the ranch we visited the Wildflower Seed Farm and had lunch there. We each had a pulled brisket BBQ sandwich and beer. Nice, really enjoyed the formal gardens even though it was Fall. Spring is the best time to visit. After lunch we went to Lukenback TX for a beer and listened to live music for an hour. Quite enjoyable drinking beer under the live oaks and listening to music. The performers were quite informal and quite good. For dinner we went to Downtown Fredericksburg to a German restaurant, Auslander Biergarten. I had a ribeye with salad and baked potato. I had a Shiner Bock on draught which was quite good but too many beers in one day. Iut was my third for the day. Came back to the Comfort inn and pretty much passed out.

We left the house at 7:40 for our 9:40 flight. Everything went well - the flight was smooth and on time. We rented a Toyota Corolla from enterprise for the week. Drove down to Riverwalk using GPS. Had a briscuit sandwich and beer at The County Line. Walked a few miles of Riverwalk after lunch and visited La Vilita Art district. It was quite nice, especially the gallery we stopped into and browsed. Got to the hotel at 4. It was a free night using choice points. We picked up a takeout dinner for Mark and Danielle at La Fogota and visited them in their home for dinner and saw the babies. they're pretty cute. We each had a chicken Queso with the trimmings and a Sam Adams.

This was an easy day. Mowed all the grass with the lawn tractor and repaired the electric fencing. I had to replace quite a bit of it because it wss rusty and thin. I packed the suitcase in the evening after watching 60 minutes with a nice story on Peter Gelb and the Met HD and modernization to reach out to a younger audience. Dinner was Libbie's yummy pizza with home grown basil. The basil may have been zapped by frost earlier this week.

This morning I drove over to Sams place and checked out the construction. The electricians and carpenters were there. Power, gas and water are all now run to the greenhouse. They were running metal conduit to the fans. The benches look good but I have some concern about how far apart the supports are and whether they will support the lath benchtops. I came home and worked some more on the Orlofsky server and also finished up the MAAVS Convention booklet. Things are moving along fine. Libbie so nicely made me a bear costume head with ears. I added a black boa to the top for fur. We wore our costumes to Carolina Ballroom. For a dish to pass we made ham delights in the afternoon. They were a hit at the party. We stayed until the end at 9. Robert wore a ghost sheet the entire night for his costume. It was a lot of fun but I'm still having trouble with the waltz and doing quarter turns. I need to practice this a lot more.
We had dinner before the party consisting of shrimp that we peeled and ate with cocktail sauce and steamfresh corn. We had Shiraz with dinner and took the rest of the bottle to the party.

I went to Kroger and picked up a Sympathy card for Joe Bruns who lost his wife. Spent more time on the AMD Media center - got Win 7 installed and stable using the Windows Loader which authenticates it and removes WPA. Watched a few sample movies on it then spent the rest of the dayon the MAAVS convention booklet. Dinner was beans and corn with corn bread. Very yummy.

It was supposed to be light eating day but I didn't. Went to walmart to look at costumes but I struck out. I did get a remote controlled outlet however. I want to hack into this and control it from a Raspberry Pi for my sunrise/sunset lighting control. Not sure if I will use the RF feature or not. Probably not if it's simple enough to activate the relay directly since the RF path does not have any feedback. Dinner was Salmon, Shiraz with broccoli and squash. We had Lemon Meringue Pie for desert. It was a rescue pie from yesterday.
Also today I got Win 7 successfully installed on the new computer. It really flies along. i tried watching several movies over the LAN and it works very well. The darn AntiVirus program on Traviata removed Calibre because it was deemed suspicious. It scans clean by Total Virus. I nuked AVG anti virus and installed Ad Aware AntiVirus. I can't have this behavior on my server not to mention the darn thing rebooted the comouter several times in the past few weeks for updates. Bad news.

We went to the greenhouse and picked up a trailer load of plastic and took it to the dump. We then used the trailer to bring the ladders and lawn cart home. At home I took the shade off the backyard greenhouse and picked up the pine needles that Libbie raked off the driveway. I need to repair the electric fence which is badly damaged by running deer. I was able to get the new AMD CPU mounted in the new Motherboard tonight and get the computer to boot it's BIOs. This is a big step forward. Next step is to install an OS. We had a very good dance lesson with Robert. He was under the weather but I finally learned the right and left turns of the waltz. Dinner tonight was pork chops, apple sauce and squash with a glass of Shiraz.

I did the grocery store and deposited the scrap yard check at the Credit Union this morning. We left shortly after 11 for the State Fair. We did our usual circuit. First the gardens and Horticulture, next the Villag of Yesteryear then the hobbies, lunch on the grass, the arts building, the commercial stuff and commercial tents outside, the cow judging and then the fruits and veggies. On the way out we stopped in the Hunt horse pavillion and tasted wines from Duplin Cellars of Cary and a winery in Rocky River. Then it was the easy drive home with a stop in Trader Joes to get some apples. Dinner was angel hair spaghetti with cheese and garden basil.

I stayed home in the morning working on MAAVS stuff. Right after lunch I got a phone call that the driver was at the greenhouse to pick up our dumpster. I went over there and followed him to the scrap yard. It was interesting watching him get a gross weight, take the aluminum off, weigh it again, take the steel off and then weigh yet again. We had 1,000 pounds of aluminum and 7000 pounds of steel. After a $100 dumpster charge we netted $925 for the scrap metal. I was relieved it was all gone. Dinner tonight was out at La Cocina. I had a quesadilla and Guiness draft. Yumm.

This morning we went over to BB and finished loading the dumpster with the gutter sections and closed the door. Mission accomplished!!! We left at 1 for the Ballet. We enjoyed Balanchines Rubies. When we got home Libbie had to make a pizza dough from scratch since she didn't thaw one. It was yummy as usual.

Went over to Sams around 9:00 and watched them put plastic on the 2 houses. They didn't unroll the roll on the roof but instead hung it like toilet paper and unwound it. I got some moviees of this. We had subway subs while there then went to our own greenhouse and loaded all the pipes into the dumpster. I was happy that we got all the pipes done in one day. Dinner was ribs, sweet potato, broccoli and shiraz wine.

I went over to Sams to see the end wall framing. They still don't have the ridge beam finished. After I left there I stopped into Trader Joes and got wine and apples. Libbie and I went over to the greenhouse and put all the bows into the dumpster. We had a dinner of Briyani and then went to Carolina Ballroom where our cha cha is pretty good but the rest needs improving.

I stayed home working on MAAVS and then got a call at 11:30 that the dumpster arrived. I went over and guided it in place then started taking down the two remaining sections of greenhouse - 4 gutters and all the bows. Lib and I loaded all the heaters and FanJets into the thing. This was the biggest part of the job. We ordered Chinese takeout with a glass of wine and skipped dance class. I want this dumpster filled up by next week.

Libbie burned wood while I worked on the front wall of the greenhouse cutting down the remaining deadmen and rolling up the plastic. This completes taking down the walls. There is one section remaining we are using as a carport covering all the equipment. We had a very good dance lesson with Robert learning about the cross body lead in cha cha. I did some video taping of him dancing with Libbie. Dinner was angel hair pasta. We took a wlak today along the golf course. The vegetation has really grown in. We also have a lot of golf balls on our property.

It was another greenhouse clean up day. I took down the back door and door frame. that thing was really solid.I took it down but left it laying there. Most of the day was spent moving pipes, bows and gutters to the pile in the back for eventual pickup. Dinner was squash with pork chops, homemade apple sauce and butternut squash.

Libbie worked on packages with joy while I worked on the MAAVS booklet instead of going over to the greenhouse inn the morning. After lunch we both went over where Libbie burned wood and I disassembled gutters in the front house. We were both exhausted so we opted to go over to La Cocina for dinner. I had a guinness draft and Libbie had a Margarita with our Quesadilla La Cocina.

We went to the greenhouse around 10 this morning. Libbie burned wood while I took the footer out of the West side of house 1 and cut down the deadmen standing there. While the fire died down I took some time and cut up the plastic pipes from the cool cells. I made 6 foot lengths so they could be trailered to the dump. Came home very tired and worked on the AVSA directory some more. I finally have the public directory and chairs displaying correctly. Dinner was Libbie super pizza. She really jazzed it up with an overabundance of fresh tomatoes. Very nice. We had Bluebell Mint chocolate chip for desert.

Arrived at Sam's around 9. I spent the time laying out the ridge poles and discovered he is one short. We put up 4 bows before lunch and tied them together with a piece of ridge pole to serve as a template for the rest of the greenhouse. The workers dug holes and poured concrete into the deadmen posts. I met Sam's girlfriend, Lauren, who is an extremely attractive blonde girl who seems to fit well into the family. We had Subway subs on the porch and chatted.
On the way home after lunch I stopped into Trader Joes and got wine and blueberries. Dinner tonight was ribs, sweet potato and Shiraz with Mint Choco chip ice cream for desert.

We did burning this morning of wood scraps. I took down all of the gutters in the front of house 1 on the tank side of the garage builkding. It was easier than I thought it would be. Once I unbolted all of them I pulled the end one out and they all fell down. Nice!! Libbie worked on neatly folding up the plastic from the front.

We went to the Friday night ballroom party later, leaving around 8 since we were both tired. We had a dinner of BBQ sandwiches and a glass of wine before going to dance. We made it all the way to the end at 9:30.

Another rainy day. We loaded up the car with all the wires in the garage as well as some pipes and electrical boxes. Libbie came with me so she could experience the scrap yard with me. It was amazing - all these guys with carts full of junk waiting to be weighed and loaded. We took two carts and loaded all the wires from the trunk and the back seat and got issued a bar coded ticket which we took to the ATM machine and received $289 cash. Pretty cool. We next went to the Farmers market and got our veggies and then to the Asian lady for our pansies, Salvia and mums. We had Salmon and butternut squash with Shiraz for dinner. After dinner we went to Carolina ballroom of Cary for a lesson in Rhumba Foundations. We learned some pretty complicated steps from Andrew doing a Spot Turn in the Rhumba.

This morning I worked on looking at membership software for AVSA. It's a big task. Later in the morning I went to the greenhouse and completely cleaned up the downed metal in house 1. This was the mess we took down last week and left there. I got it all taken apart and sorted by type into piles in the back. Little by little it's all coming down. We had lessons in Cha Cha this afternoon with Robert. We're learning the timing a little better or different so we can have time for the extra manuevers. Dinner tonight was Curry spaghetti with chicken. Very tasty and spicy.