I did more website work in the morning then we went onto the driving range and played a little on the pitching green. We picked up a bag of balls and tried pitching then I used the rest of the older bag I had on the driving range which was fun. I got to wack away at some balls. We had an afternoon performance of Die Fledermaius. Our seats were excellent in row F in the center of the house. The performance was outstanding. The Orchestra never sounded better, the opera was comically played and the singing was excellent as usual. I love this Opera house. We got back around 5 and rested before going out again to our favorite Thai restaurant, Bangkok Thai where I had a Michelob and chicken Pad Thai. It was spicy hot and yummy. I came home terribly full and pleasantly sleepy.

I continued working on the various websites - MAAVS, AVSA and Lonestar. Libbie left at 11 for her first golf lesson ever. I finished the MAAVS website with the New Bern pics. In the afternoon we enjoyed Selby Gardens. Walked through the Childrens rain forest. I objected to this at first but it is high quality and should attract more people. We had wine and cheese at sunset then at 6:45 we went over to the clubhouse for rib night. We both ordered the 7 ounce prime rib which came with veggies, baked potato and yorkshire pudding. Penny finally sent the Lonestar presentation files and I created a presentation page under the Kerrville past conventions menu option.

It's a cold day. I spent most of the day indoors doing web updates. Libbie and I took a short walk in the afternoon but came back quickly since the wind was brisk. Even though temps were around 70 the wind made it difficult to walk. At 7 PM we went out to pub night. I had Yuengling with an Oyster basket while Libbie had the crab cake. She said it wasn't as good as the Sweet Tea Grille in Savannah. We came home and had the rest of the Bluebell ice cream, Fudge Divine.

After breakfast we attended the homeowners and the board meeting which started at 9:45. After the meeting it was time to go furniture shopping. We drove up to Trader joes then visited Rooms to Go. It's a very nice store but we struck out. Next stop was Kanes. They didn't even help us, we sort of found a table and chairs made by Broyhill. We reserved the table and stopped by Havertys to take another look. We ended up buying the Havertys furniture. They gave us the Veterans day sale price plus a $50 veteran day bonus. This was a great deal. The list price was 999, sale price of 899 and veterans day bonus of $50 for a total of $849. Tax and delivery brought it back to just under $1,000. A stop by the clubhouse for lunch capped the day. I had lobster and shrimp croissant with a glass of Yuengling.
I messed up the Online groups on AVSA.org by accidentally deleting the online groups. I will have to restore them from a backup unless Mel has a copy. We had some crackers and cheese before leaving for the Opera at 6:50 am We found parking in front of the Church 2 blocks away. The Operetta was a total delight. When the curtain opened and the staircase was revealed with the entire cast and chorus it was stunning. The music was light and very enjoyable. We had nice seats in the center of the Opera house. There was light rain on the way back but nothing serious.

After a non descript Comfort Inn breakfast we hit the road by 8. This was a bonus night paid with points so I can't complain. Liked the young mother is shapely black tights with two little ones in the restaurant. Nice! Arrived in Sarasota around 2:30. We saw Peter right away and the very attractive Candy who was cleaning sills and lights. I like her short shorts and nice legs. A guy will be taking over for her. We went to HAvertys and Publix. Havertys has a table but can't deliver until next week. We got wine and cheese in Publix and had BBQ at home which we brought with us from NC. The wine was a nice Rodney Strong Cabernet which accompanied triscuits and swiss cheese.

This morning we got up early and packed the minivan. Chatted with the Philly girls in front of the hotel for a little. they were in a rented SUV. We had an easy drive to Kinston where we stopped at McDonalds for breakfast. Got home around noon. Libbie put all her plants away and on waterers as we repacked our suitcases and hit the road by 2:40. We deposited checks in the CU before leaving town. Arrived at our hotel in Savannah around 7:30. We found a wonderful restaurant, the Sweet Tea Grille in front of the hotel. It was outstanding. We both had lump meat crab cakes with Yuengling.

Thank goodness I stayed away from Commercial sales. I hate it. I went to Andrews presentation about soil, got the PPT for the website from him then went to the membership meeting. I was elected VP on a floor nomination which was pre-planned. At the banquet this evening I had the vegetarian portobello with some kind of rice looking pasta and spinach. I didn't care for the spinach. I tried a Duck Rabbit beer. Ed Lyons and Hanna came and played dinner music for MAAVS. I was the MC and then Kitty handed out awards and Ken did the installation. Ann-Marie did the photography for us. It was a nice evening. This is a good hotel but attendance was very poor.

Commercial sales opened this morning, I helped a little while libbie went somewhere. At 1:30 I did the Meet the Commercials talk which went over pretty good. We sold 8 DVDs. I went down Middle Street to the Kitchen Bakery for a takeout lunch which was pretty good. I had a grilled ham and cheese. Libbie had a grilled swiss. Dinner tonight was a BBQ buffet in the hotel which was very good. We joined a bunch of folks for Karaoke in the bar. I recorded some of it and posted to Facebook.

We got going this morning in the rental mininvan, a Toyota Sienna which seems pretty spacious and luxurious. We left around 8:30 and stopped around Princeton for gas and a boBerry biscuit at BoJangles. We got to New Bern around noon, checked into the hotel early and started unpacking the plants. Libbie did classification all day with Ken Barbi doing the entries. They stopped at 7 and we all had dinner at Christophers on the Water in the hotel. I had Fish and Chips and we split a bottle of shiraz with the barbies. Libbie set the show up after dinner and I went upstairs to rest and read.

Happy Birthday to me! After breakfast I went out for a haircut at 9 when they opened. Gloria took me right away. Glad that's over with.
Libbie spent the day packing way too many plants and her show plants. In the evening we had a Chinese takeout dinner with Shiraz and chocolate truffle birthday cake from Kroger. After dinner I pcpaked for MAAVS New Bern.

I did the groceries early then came back and worked some more of the AVSA website. None of the older CDs and DVDs is on the site. Much to do on the site. I also wrote a tutorial on how to update the magazine section of the website. I'm not sure who is going to do the updates of this section. Winston sent a description of this month's content which I posted. Bob Hilker called and I went over to Sams at 2:30. Wow, what a mess. They still haven't hooked up the inflation and the Fanjets are in front of the heater in a bizarre configuration. They also have one of the fans rotated 90 degrees so that the shutter won't go on. They have not read a thing about how greenhouses work. Dinner was plain spaghetti with cheese. There was no heat in the house early this morning. The thermostat batteries were dead so I bought new batteries for upstairs and down. I also mounted the antenna in the attic and located the correct down coax to hook it to the new DVR box that came yesterday. I did a channel scan and it found all the local digital channels. The little adapter box is pretty good.

This was primarily catch up day. I also rounded up the garbage and put it out - we missed pickup last week because we were in TX. The new DVR antenna box came but I didn't hook it up yet. I did post the new AVM magazine cover and index. Dinner was Salmon with fozen peas. This was supposed to be a light eating day but I cheated quite a bit. Libbie isn't do well with her cold. I definitely had it easier.

Up this morning at 5:15. The Google Table auto-magically switched from daylight to standard time. I previously changed time zones to Central at the start of the week, actually on the plane coming here. It was chilly outside this morning. I wore my NC jacket and a flannel shirt so I was comfortable. We got coffee in the lobby as we left. Had to go around the block once to find the car return. The bus was waiting as we dropped off the car. TSA was pretty easy to go through, the line was short. We had a terrible breakfast at Dunkin Donuts on the other side of TSA. I had a bagel with cream cheese. They also put a slice of American Cheese on it which I took off and threw away. Yuck. I got the exit row on both of our flights. I got a chatty guy on the way to Chicago and a squirm-er on the way to Raleigh but it was an easy trade-off for the extra leg room which was comfortable. I rally got into the Karen Robards Shiver novel. I forgot what a good writer she is. Libbie made some cheese and tomato toast rounds when we got home and then we had her marvelous pizza for dinner.

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.