Started the day with a trip for groceries and also Cary Walmart for a filter and generator oil.
It has been 24 hours since the countertop install so I installed the faucets, supply lines and drain. Once this was done I was ready to do other stuff. Headed out to Walmart to pick up a bicycle but stopped in the Apex Bike Shop first on 1010. Looked at a used $200 frame but ended up buying something from the back room which was a Nashiki American made mountain bike in rough shape. I need a seat and luggage rack for the thing. Managed to take the front wheel off and remove the tire and tube and re-install it on the electric hub wheel. I researched batteries on the web and found a Greenworks 40V at 4 amp battery. I ordered one for $79 which is outstanding. I want a second one. These batteries were made to run electric appliances such as a Greenworks lawnmower or Greenworks blower. Two of them will give me 8 amp hours for an eBike which may be enough for now. The laptop batteries are so far disappointing. After a spaghetti dinner we went out to dance. It was Foxtrot Amalgamations and Mitzi taught the class. I learned a lot. After a good dance session we went to Trader Joes for supplies. Wow, what a good time to go there since it was empty.

The installer came a little late this morning. He was supposed to be here at 9 but showed up a little after 11 in the pouring rain. He would not mount my faucets, said I had to do this after the glue sets up which would be 24 hours. The cabinet and the Silestone top looks great. It's a crappy day, I was going to pick up a bike at Walmart but stayed home instead. Dinner was Panko breaded Tilapia with veggies and a salad.

Watched the morning shows and then got out the torch, turned the water off and began installing the faucets. The first faucets were sweat fittings. When I was done they leaked along the shaft. This was probably because of too much heat. I went to Home Depot and picked up some male thread adapters and 2 more faucets that screw on. Did the soldering then attached the faucets. This worked a lot better and did not leak. The Super Bowl is tonight but I'm not a viewer. Libbie made her excellent pizza once again. I really need to lose some weight. My clothes are a little tight than before Christmas.

I did not do the plumbing today as planned. I guess I'm just lazy. Did some work on the LSAVC convention page and tried to get a standalone CKFinder working for avsa.org but no luck. Dinner tonight was chicken pad thai from a box from Whole foods along with a Paul Newman Cabernet and a small salad. I worked on my computer most of the night organizing files and synching to the server.

Last day of the month. I was contacted by our only Bridezilla for her album and also by a guy wanting some AVR consulting work. We got a lot of snow melt today but the road is still snow covered. The FedEx guy walked my electric bike motor up the driveway. He parked his truck at the corner of Downing and Buckingham. He didn't want to drive down Downing Place. The battery also came but not the battery charger. This is disappointing. I need the charger more than anything. We had a dinner of Salmon, rice and salad with one glass of the leftover Merlot from Florida. We skipped dancing tonight even though we were in town.

We finished cleanup this morning then loaded the car to go. It's cold and rainy this morning. Saw both Peter and Mark in the hallway and chatted a little. We got going at 9:12 and had light rain all the way to Gainesville. Traffic was moderate or average. The new wipers worked well in the rain. Rest stop just before Gainesville then lunch and gas in Baldwin. It was 44 degrees and the McDonalds was not heated. Brrr. We got on 10 then 295 and all was well. Did the next stop in the middle of SC where we got gas for 2.99 and dinner. Started seeing ice on trees just before Florence then snow covered ground all the way to Raleigh but the roads were mostly dry. We arrived at around 8:30 pm, Buckingham Way and Downing Place were awful, the driveway was snow covered but we made it into the garage and closed the door and unloaded the car. It was a pretty decent drive home except for the cold and the light rain at the beginning.

FedEx tracking says the motor will arrive in Apex pn Friday. We'll see how that goes. The charger is already here. Started cleaning the condo in earnest today. It's rainy and cold out today, only in the fifties. The snow wasn't too bad in Raleigh - 1.4 inches at the airport. Oh well, they predicted more. Florence also got well under prediction. We'll leave Thursday (tomorrow) for our trip back. Finished most of the cleaning, ready to go in the morning. Pub night tonight was turkey with potatoes and cranberries. Coastal Ridge Cabernet rounded out the dinner. Listened to L'elixir live on Sirius tonight.

I replaced the screen today, not too happy with the flat splines that I tried to put into the grooves. Google said to use silicon lubricant and a wide roller. I didn't have the roller or the lubricant. I ordered a 36 Volt 500 W motor today. We may delay our drive home because snow is predicted for Tuesday night into Wednesday. The forecast for the South looks pretty bad. We went to dinner at the clubhouse tonight. I had horseradish crusted COD which was very good. We had the Coastal Ridge cabernet again. Very good. Came home very hung over. Too much wine.

The winter storm for the Southeast has caused us to delay our departure by one day. We took the time to take a walk out to the front wetland area. For lunch we decided to go to the Spanish Point Pub out on the dock. We had Fish and chips with a Yuengling. It was truly a beautiful day. Our waitress was a delightful young girl named Vanda. We only had wine and cheese for our sunset celebration and didn't do anything else for dinner. In the evening I listened to Rusalka which I like very much. It's going to be hard leaving here the weather is so nice. We heard from anne nicholas that richard is going to retire May 1. Wow, it's about time.

I went out to Publix this morning for donuts and the paper. We need some paper for the painting. Libbie volunteered to paint the bathroom molding while I untangled the furnace closet. I tidied up the wiring and removed the extras including the slingbox. I'm going to sell the sling box on ebay, it may be worth as much as $100. We watched the Woody Allen movie "Blue Jasmine" this afternoon. It was interesting, I can see why Kate Blanchett has most acting awards for her performance. We ordered a pizza from Valentinos for dinner and then settled down to watch the Grammys. Nice. Loved all the performances. Perhaps it's because we've been exposed to this music at the dance studio.

At 9:30 we left for Punta Gorda. We had a nice lunch wit Bill Barb, Corrie, Shane and the baby. We had chicken salad croissants. We walked the marina which was lovely. The weather was perfect and the marina which has a sidewalk all around it was very scenic. this is a very attractive location. Bill's condo is spectacular with floor to ceiling windows and 9 foot high ceilings, all of it overlooking the Gulf. We chatted a little then left the building around 4:48. It was a quick drive back to Sarasota. We stopped in the clubhouse and had a blackened rib eye for dinner with a very nice Coastal Ridge cabernet. Excellent.

I added 2 more years to the photo index and 2 more names to the committees on avsa,org. I spent the day getting the stereo and VCR put back in place. I had to run out and buy two packages of audio cables to finish the job. We found a yoga DVD somebody left in our player. It was great to use as a test. We went to the WI party at 6 and sat at a table with an older couple, Joyce and john. The WI people were very friendly and we did a lot of dancing. We got complemented on our dancing. It was amazing. The dinner was a buffet of a mustard covered salmon and prime roast with all the trimmings. I added a salad and sweet potato. We had house Cabernet. It was nice.

I spent more time researching eBikes and reading about batteries and motors. At 12:30 we went over for our 1 PM gold lesson. Thanks to susan we did much better hitting the ball. In the evening we went over to rib night. It wasn't too crowded. I ordered prime rib with baked potato and veggies. We had funnel cakes with a chocolate dipping sauce for dessert.

This was a day of doing little. I learned a lot about batteries watching videos. I'm confident that I can build and eBike and battery pack. In the evening we went over to pub night where I ordered pot roast with mashed potatoes and veggies. It was beef yet again. I'll have to make up for this when we get home with some serious diet and exercise as well as more Salmon.

Bill and Barb arrived this morning at 10 AM. I previously removed the bike carrier and also attempted to install a wiper blade which was not successful. The Michelin 16 inch wiper I installed slips off too easily. I can't trust it. We had a nice drive to Dunedin and did the fabric shopping. We stopped for lunch on the trail in Dunedin opposite the old train station at La Fresco. Libbie and I split a cuban sandwich which was incredibly yummy. I enjoyed the day in Dunedin - it rained while in the Fabric shop but the sun came out when we got outside. Bill and Barb were delightful to be with. I enjoyed the woman in the shop who assisted our cutting. She knew where every fabric was in the store, mainly because whe puts the bolts back after people cut them. She also loves her job very much. On the way back we stopped in Siesta Key for a sweater Barb left in Bradenton. Cort left it with a friend. At Stoneybrook we took a 2 mile walk and then the Condon's left for Punta Gorda. Dinner tonight was spaghetti in the Condo with Raspberry Chip frozen yogurt which was excellent.

Today is MLK day. We went at 10:30 to pick up our eBikes and learn how to drive them. I love them. The power switch is wonderful to add an assist when needed. We took them to Myakka via I-75. Warm day so i changed to a short sleeve shirt and we were off. Fist stop was where the road crosses the river and many gators are on the bank. Very pretty. The park was crowded with visitors since it was a holiday and school was out. Next Libbie led us off trail down an unpaved road with cabins. we easily did a combo of pedalling and motoring. Many more stops along the way for pictures, bird watching and to the front gate. We had lunch at the Outpost, splitting a turkey and swiss sandwich with a bottle of water. Then it was time to head back. We had been out 4 hours. At the visitors center we let another couple ride our bikes - they seemed delighted. We had some troubles going home - the bikes kept getting loose on the rack. We made some adjustments each time we stopped alonside the road. Discovered that Bee Ridge goes to the park without taking I-75. Nice. It was a great day. In the evening we went out to Spanish Point Pub and Marina across from Walmart. Pretty cool dump on the water - it;s on the dock with a Tiki Bar roof. We both had fish and chips with a Yuengling. It fit our mood.

This morning we went to the ballet live from the Bolshoi at 10 AM. The performance was the Balanchine jewels which we enjoyed thoroughly. Katarina once again was the host and conducted interviews at intermission. The dancing was pretty spectacular. I couldn't believe it was over so fast. I thought getting in would be a problem since the manager got there at 9:50 to unlock the theater. What a surprise. he let us in and told us to settle up with him later for the admission price. After the theater we met Bill, Barb and Cort at a Perkins between his place and the theater which was convenient. I had blueberry pancakes which were excellent. We drove back down Tsmiami to get home. We went out later in the evening and picked up a carry out pizza from Valentinos which we had with Trader Joe Shiraz.

We did a series of stops today. First up was dropping the old vacuum cleaner off at Goodwill, then a trip to Yoders looking for Honeybells. No such luck. Next stop was the Freedom Bike shop to check out electric bikes. They are going away on Tuesday to the Dominican Republic for 2 weeks so the next few days is it for them. After talking about a guided tour of Myakka we decided we would rent 2 bikes on Monday morning. There are 2 types, the Pedego is full time power or full time pedaling and the EZ Ride has a power assisted pedaling scheme where you can pedal or have it assist your pedaling. This what I thought I wanted as a personal bike - a power assisted bike. We came back to the golf course and did the driving range for about a half hour. I used the #3 driver and didn't too bad. I was happy with how I struck the ball. Most of the time the ball went airborne and a distance which was satisfying. After golf we had a large lunch which we are calling lunch and dinner. I had the half rack of baby backs with potato salad and a large Yuengling which was very good and a lot of food. We had cheese and pita crackers with wine for the sunset but did not have dinner this evening. Libbie spent some time on the phone with Bill making arrangements to meet him and Cort tomorrow in Bradenton for lunch after the ballet.

It's chilly today but the sun is strong and there is no wind so it's fine. I wore my new Christmas pullover for a walk today along the bayfront. The Season of Sculpture is now on until May. There are 18 large scale sculptures on display. After walking the bayfront and taking lots of photos of the sculptures we came back and had lunch. I had the leftover Pad Thai from earlier in the week. It was still quite good and made a very nice lunch. I worked some more on the computer until it was time for us to go to dinner. We had a 7 PM dinner reservation and a very nice table away from the band and the speakers but still close to the dance floor. I had the pot roast special with mashed potatoes and cabernet. For dessert later I had NY Cheesecake with berry compote and coffee. Nice. The band was the Royz Duo which were quite good. A husband and wife provided some very good vocals in a wide range of dance music. We had enough room to do Rhumba and Cha Cha, even our Cuban walk. It was a fun night, made more fun by the fact we were able to really dance instead of hang on and sway. I'm so glad we signed up for dance lessons a while back.

After breakfast we went onto the driving range and tried chipping a few and then we did some driving. We were pretty terrible. It's a little chilly today but sunny. We went back at 1 for our lesson with Susan and it made the difference. She critiqued what we were doing wrong and for me it made the difference. I started having pretty good hits lifting the ball and getting some distance. After our lesson we had lunch at the clubhouse. We had a Yuengling and a BBQ Chicken Quesadilla which was outstanding. We went back to the condo and read while I worked on the FC for Android program.At 7 PM we went over for rib night. I had the Prime Rib with baked potato, rolls and a glass of Cabernet. Came back and listened to Butterfly while working on the computer. Before we went out to dinner we saw the AMI truck at our parking spot. An employee named Alex had patched the hole with a few bags of cold patch. Although the material is a loose fill it does a nice job at preventing tripping. The fear is tar on our new carpet.

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.