It's a gorgeous day out. We went to Selby and enjoyed the plants and art in the Selby house. The theme today was art in the garden, two artists painted various orchids, etc. One did his work in oil while the woman did her paintings in watercolor. The Selby house was divided with one side being the oils and the other side contained watercolors. We had lunch at the clubhouse then went back for dinner which was pub night. I had Mahi Mahi with pineapple mango salsa covering the fish. Very nice. Topped it off with a glass of Cabernet. Our parking spot has yellow caution tape now since we sent an eMail to the board mentioning that a hole has developed behind our parking spot. Todays delight was the various foliage of the ferns at Selby and the art in the Selby house.

It rained off and on all day today. We went out at 11 to return the Comcast equipment. I couldn't believe we had number 115 and they were only on 86. It took an hour for them to get to us and only because 2 guys showed up with a cart to collect equipment from people only returning stuff in the waiting room. I was glad to be done with this stuff. After this we went across the street to Target and purchased thank you note paper, socks and a bed skirt. The bed skirt was an impulse purchase. They had one Libbie was looking for so we got it. Our last stop was to Sports Authority down one exit on I-75 but we took Honore instead of 75 to get there. Libbie got a set of beginner graphite clubs. She got the whole set which included a bag for $200. We went to lunch at the clubhouse on the way back and then discovered the golf course will be closed from May 1 until Oct 1 for rebuilding. Even though the owners voted this down they are going to do it anyway with the railroad right of way settlement. Dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese. We had Moose Tracks ice cream for desert. I found today our Toshiba TV doesn't play movies on the USB drive. I still can use the secondary HDMI channel however. La Boheme is live from the Met tonight on Sirius.

The Verizon guy came as planned at 8 to install FIOS. We have a fiber cable in our box in the Bedroom which was just installed a few weeks ago but we would be the first in the building to get a hookup. It took all day, the guy was finally finished at 4 PM. It tied us up all day. I like the FIOS service but hate the remote with more buttons than necessary. I just want channel changing and volume and possibly the guide. We went out to Bangkok Thai for dinner. I had Chicken Pad Thai with a Spring Roll and a glass of Shiraz. We came home pretty tired and fell asleep right away. It's pretty warm out - 72 degrees at 9 PM.

Tossed the suitcases in the car, had breakfast and got on the road at 7:25 AM. It's a beautiful sunny day for a drive. Traffic was pretty light as far as I95 traffic can be light. We stopped in Florence for McDonalds. Gas was 2.98 but we only needed a few gallons. Next gas stop was in Baldwin where 301 meets I-10. We decided to take the route 301 way down to the west coast instead of I-4 since I-4 is under construction between Daytona and Lake Mary and weekend traffic around Disneyworld and the shopping centers is usually a mess. It was a good choice. We continued to have easy going and got in around 6:30. We ordered a pizza from Valentinos and had it during the Golden Globes. It was a nice day and we are here in Florida.

It's warm outside - almost 70. I filled the car with gas for our trip tomorrow and picked up Kansas City ribs and Ravenswood Zindindel for dinner tonight. At home I set up the violets for long term watering on a lattice over water with wicks. I also did some minor grooming. Got the two pictures ready for Sarasota. The bedroom needs 2 picture replacements so I'm using two of my photos of Selby in 16x20 frames for Stoneybrook. I'm totally enjoying listening to Fledermaus this afternoon live from the Met. What a great opera. It's a good feeling spreading joy and happiness on a glum day like today. Although warm, it's dark and raining.
At 7 PM Libbie turned on the grill to warm up and then opened the ribs. We discovered the ribs I bought in Kroger were not fully cooked. They would need 2.5 hours of oven time!!!! I immediately hopped into the car and went to Kroger and picked up a package of finished ribs, Tony Roma brand. They served us in an emergency but they were not great. They had a lot of high fructose corn syrup and salt. uggh. It was the best we could under the circunstances. We had the ribs with mixed Asian veggies and Ravenswood Zin.

It's raining but mild today. Our plan was to drive Saturday but that may be Sunday due to a lot of rain on the way. I started reading through the Basic 4 Android book that I purchased. It's pretty good and explains quite a few things that I wasn't aware of, specifically what a View is and how Views can be created with the Designer or via programming. We had a dinner of ham, potatoes and onions all scrambled together. Very nice and a great way to use up leftovers.
We went to the Ballroom tonight for the Friday night party. I'm still having trouble with the waltz. We did OK on the Rhumba with Cuban turns. We also tried what we learned of the swing. This too came out correctly. We stayed all the way until the end which was around 9:45.

Lib vacuumed our bedroom then I took the mattress and frame out of the way so she could vacuum under the bed. We also cleaned the bed frame pretty good. Nancy arrived around 10 to help with Violets and the guys came with the mattress around 11. They quickly dropped off the 2 pieces and hauled off the old ones. The new mattress is pretty high. The sheets of course don't fit. We went out to Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohls, Pennys and eventually Sears where we found Cannon 425 thread count sheets on sale for $65 each. We bought two sets and got an additional $20 off with our points for a total of around $117. Dinner was Salmon, salad and broccoli with a glass of Shiraz.

It's a little warmer today but not much. We had a great dance lesson today at 3:30 with Robert. We went over some of the fine details of the Cuban turn and a few pointers. He also gave us a few pointers for the Swing. Overall it was a good lesson. Dinner tonight was more Chili from yesterday.

Wow is it cold. Went out at 9:30 and it's 10.4 degrees!!!! I had to get the bathroom sink from Home Depot for the installer today. They are coming at 1 and take the sink with them to mount it under the cabinet. I also picked up groceries which included ingredients for Chili while I was out.
After lunch a guy named Izzy arrived to measure the bathroom cabinet. I signed a lot of papers and he drew a sketch of what they needed to fabricate. He took the sink model number but did not need to take the sink. Libbie made her chili and cornbread but she accidentally left the sugar out of the corn bread. What a difference without sugar. We went over to Carolina Ballroom for a Rhumba Almagamations class. The place was really busy - lots going on and a large group class. We learned 2 versions of the Cuban walk. One with an under arm turn and a second with a cross body lead. Robert needs to help us with this tomorrow.

Today is closing for the Visa account. It's over $4500 this morning. I went to work on the ceiling again. I did some light plastering of a few more pock marks then hit it all with the paint. It's not perfect but it looks pretty good. The job is complete - Lib waxed the floor as the final touch. This is our last day of 50's before the artic blast tonight. They're predicting a low of 9 degrees tonight. Dinner was curry chicken over spaghetti with broccoli. Listened to Falstaff live over Sirius. Cecilia of Carolina Ballet was at the performance in NY. We exchanged a few words on Facebook. Amazing.

Sanded and plastered the foyer ceiling. What a messy job - there is dust everywhere. I attempted a cleanup but Libbie did a better job with the vacuum. Lunch was the ham and cheddar delicious sandwiches with a little Dijon mustard. Dinner was Lib's incredible pizza once again.

It's cold outside!!! It went down to 20 last night. Went over to home Depot at 1 and got the new lock rekeyed as part of the effort to get all the exterior doors on the same key. After Home Depot we went to Trader Joes which was crazy. We parked out in the Boston Market parking lot. The lines were long. We got our wine, Libs oatmeal and my oranges. For some reason Trader Joes has the nest Oranges compared to Kroger. I came home and after a lunch of ham and cheese I did the first coat of plaster in the foyer pock marks. I also installed the new lever handle on the door going from the house to the garage. Bad news in the spare bedroom - the ceiling is cracked and covered with popcorn. The popcorn will have to come off for the repairs. Dinner was Thai shrimp and Shiraz. It was spicy and good but not very filling. There wasn't much food there. I tried to do a recording of Boito Mefistofele from the Met but the satellite receiver was programmed to turn off in 45 minutes. I forgot about that.

Worked on the bathroom today. Changed the outlets and switches, put back all the towel bars and shower curtain, hung the pictures. Went to Home Depot for ceiling paint and get a lock rekeyed. They couldn't rekey the lock because their locksmith was not in. Told me to come back tomorrow and see Albert. We went home tired. Had a dinner of Salmon, salad and Yam with water, no wine. Left at 8 for the "Secret" party at Carolina Ballroom which was kind of fun. Andrew opened the ballroom for friends of his parents that wanted a place to dance. We were glad we came since it wasn't so crowded. Had a nice time dancing, still not getting it but we must be getting better. met the owners of the Cary Pub.

It's raining outside. I removed the sink and counter from the downstairs bathroom. the caps we bought didn't fit the pipes so I ended up putting the faucet back in after removing the sink. With Libbie's help I tossed the sink out the side garage door for a future dump trip. There was a ridge of caulk on the wall that I scraped and sanded then Libbie painted the room while I Painted the ceiling in the foyer. I'm pretty unhappy with the paint job. I'll need to go in there with plaster and sandpaper to fixup the pock marks and bumps. We were so tired by the end of the day that we chose to order Chinese takeout and an eggroll which we had with water. It was a tiring day.

We watched the Rose Parade this morning which started at 11 AM. Lib had to pause it midway so she could call her parents. This was a good break since we were watching it on HGTV which had no commercial breaks. The announcers were not plant people, they did not know how to pronounce anything for the floral materials. This was too bad since it is the garden channel. Watching the parade made us both wish we were there again. Mary and John called about some trip planning they are doing for Costa Rica. We told them about a Groupon I found which seemed to be pretty good. I'm not thrilled about traveling again, I was hoping to stay home in February. Dinner was leftover ham slices, yams, peas and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. We went out late in the afternoon to get home Depot pipe caps then Kroger for wine and salmon for tomorrow.

This is New Years Eve. I lightly sanded the bathroom patches for painting and Libbie went out to Home Depot to buy paint. In the afternoon Libbie made her Tex Mex dip which we brought to the party. We had the Tex Mex for dinner with tortilla chips. We listened to Die Fledermaus live from the met then left at 9 for the party which started at 9. When we got to Carolina Ballroom the parking lot was empty. We didn't think too many would come but eventually the ballroom filled up with all the regulars. I think we did much better at the waltz but I still regret we can't do much more than basic steps. Robert had a TV in the ballroom so we could watch the ball drop at midnight. We danced until 12:30 then left while the party was still going on. Not sure of the ending time but we were done. We were pleasantly tired and fell asleep right away when we got home.

I tried washing the foyer ceiling but eventually ended up sanding it. It doesn't look too bad. It may need plaster in a few spots. That was the extent of my labor for today. I downloaded some movies from torrents. Libbie and I watched "The Silver Lining Playbook" which was excellent. Dinner was BBQ on a bun with a salad. Nice.

It's pouring rain today. Rain gauge shows 1.73 inches before it was all done. The sun came out later in the afternoon. It was another day off from scraping the ceiling. I worked a lot online and ended up downloading Saving Mr Banks with Tom Hanks. I stayed up until midnight watching it but thought it was about 30 minutes too long. I would rather see the movie about 90 minutes long instead of 120. I also had a hard time understanding the British accents, they tend to mumble to my ear. Dinner was another wonderful Libbie pizza. She used the parmesan garlic olive oil we received from the Benzigers for Christmas.

I took a day off from scraping the ceiling. I didn't feel like getting all dirty and covered with white powder from the ceiling. I added the photographic index to the AVSA website and heard from Terry, the person who now is doing the annual index. Went to the Cary mall around lunchtime to look at mattresses. We visited Macy's then bought a Serta Posturepedic in Sears. We got an additional 10% off from some promo they had going. We also get two pillows free with a mail in certificate. Cost was $840. Delivery in about a week. The mall was surprisingly easy to navigate. Dinner was a ham and pineapple stirfry with peppers and rice that Libbie found online. It was quite good. We had it with Shiraz.

I worked on getting the ceiling scraped around the edges. This is a messy job. Dinner was 15 bean soup with cornbread and shiraz. Libbie used the ham bone to make the soup. Very good.

I spent all morning loading spreadsheet files into the AVSA database for the annual magazine index. I got all the years loaded. After lunch we went over to Home Depot and ordered a countertop for the bathroom. It will be around $750. I also need to order a sink and faucets. I resumed scraping the foyer ceiling. Arlene called to tell me Ed Glembocki died which I knew. She heard from Dotsy Hughes. Also dead are Linda Cook, Joan Cook's daughter and Albert Stanski of Skillman. We made ham sandwiches for dinner but got delayed because Joe called about his Christmas.

Libbie went down first and made the coffee. We had ham and eggs for breakfast then opened presents later. It was a quiet Christmas Day. It was also cold but we went outside anyway for a walk around Seagrove Farm. Dinner was ham, sweet potato and Shiraz. After dinner we drove around the neighborhoods and even went up to Dr Pauls house on Green Level Church Rd. We parked the car and walked around the front yard admiring the hundreds of inflatables and spotlights everywhere. What a show. We tried driving out Olive Chapel later looking for Judy Howells place but never found it. She too has Christmas lights most years.

The UPS guy delivered the LED lights this morning for the garage fluorescent fixtures. I started working on the fixture after a Kroger trip for senior day on Christmas Eve. The first light went up easily but the next one had problems because the lamp holders are shunted instead of individual wires. I went to Lowes one hour before the early Christmas Eve closing and found non shunted lamp holders. Bought them and hooked everything up in the evening. While out today I also bought some Russell Stover to be from Santa. I stayed up pretty late working on the AVM indices for the AVSA website. Dinner was Spiral ham with sweet potato and Shiraz and broccoli.

I started working on removing the popcorn ceiling in the foyer. It seems to be going well. I had to run out to Home Depot to get another plastic tarp to cover the floor and also a sponge. It's pouring rain today but warm. A good day for indoor projects. I did some research today on the Infocast I bought a few years ago and how to replace the firmware to repurpose it. I want a digital picture frame with big numbers to represent greenhouse, plant room and outdoor temperatures and possibly a few other parameters. It may be more worthwhile to build a stand for a nook and tether it to a power cord instead of repurposing the Infocast. Dinner was leftover chicken and pasta casserole with rice mixed in. I picked up Spinach today to go in this mixture but Libbie forgot to put it in. We now have 2 bags of lettuce and a bag of spinach in the refrigerator.

This morning I got a copy of Saturday Night Live and we watched it over the Chromecast. It had quite a bit of stuttering. I plugged the drive into the router and tried streaming from there and all the stuttering was gone. I can only think the issue is between my laptop and the router. Too much stuff going on in the laptop. We did soome garden work, I worked on the FM antenna and managed to trip with the 20 foot pole and destroy the thing. I put it back up all mangled. Came back in and watched christmas Vacation streaming it from the router which worled very well. It never missed a beat despite being in high definition. Dinner was Libbie's wonderful pizza. I finished my Christmas cards after dinner. Sadly I found that ed Glembocki had died in March. I looked up his obituary when I had not received a card from him.