Since we're going to the theater at 1PM I didn't push doing physical stuff today. I worked on the AVSA site a little. Need to get this transferred by May 26. Libbie made tuna sandwiches and we took off for Centerola. Loved the opera. Both Juan Diego and Joyce diDonato were outstanding as well as the rest of the cast. Met Jim Fatata at the theater. He had commented about how the host Deborah Voight had gained back a lot of her weight. I agree. Loved the opera very much. Dinner was ribs with Shiraz and spinach and a sweet potato. I seemed to have some kind of asthma issue during the meal and had difficulty breathing. Don't know what's up with that. It was miserable.

This was a busy day. Worked on the cornice of the greenhouse roof which has never been completed. I finished this task and it looks pretty nice. Before lunch Libbie and I went to the Farmers market. I bought a Dahlia and two more mints. I'm going to plant these two next to the grow boxes where all the hoses come together. We stopped by Northern Tool and bought a 50 foot hose for the pressure washer. I need this hose to reach all of the siding above the greenhouse with the pressure washer on the ground and me on the roof with the wand. We had lunch, the usual BLT, then went out to Home Depot to get our Glidden Historic Tan paint matched up. We have the formula but Home Depot said they don't use those numbers anymore. They were able to look up the formula and got us fixed up with a new gallon of Glidden Historic Tan. I came home and relaxed by laying down and reading a little. I finished my book, Escorted, and am now reading the epilogue.
We had a dinner of spaghetti with chunks of tomato and fresh basil topped with cheese. It's a warm evening, we went to the dance party and were surprised at how lightly attended the party was. People started drifting in later, we had fun dancing anyway. The studio is nicely air conditioned now. After dance we went out to the Cary Pub for drinks. We ordered Yuenglings and chicken wings which were very good.

Went out on the ladder today and worked on the Fascia board. I spent the entire day doing this and finished up the Fascia work. Now the only thing remaining is the greenhouse corner which has never been done. I did a Kroger run and picked up Salmon and a few things. Dinner was Salmon with a salad and sweet potato and also a glass of Shiraz.

Back home where I started downloading and labeling photos. We went to dance lesson at 3:30 which was excellent. Robert has the AC working again. Our lesson was concentrated on Foxtrot and a few nuances about the dance. I was doing a few things wrong that robert corrected. Dinner tonight was leftover pulled pork sandwiches with the leftover potato and macaroni salad. Good stuff.

This mmorning we went down for coffee at 7:30 but Jo is off today and her substitute Kathy didn't have an early breakfast ready. We went back at 8 then packed the room after breakfast and headed out to the conservancy center on our golf Cart. I almost missed a stop sign going down hill with another golf cart going through the intersection. I had to slam on the brakes hard. We paid our $40 at the center and went off in the golf carts with Kendyl and Toby, her intern. Stopped at a large pond looking for a gator, did the marshland trail next. Saw the baby hawks in their nest and also a painted bunting. Kendyl was using an app on her phone to call the bunting. Next stop was down the dirt road on the middle island. We had a great view of a pianted bunting that came close to us. We had to leave the group at 11:10 since the tram was going to pick us up at 11:50. Got back OK, checked out and took the tram without incident. We sat on the lower deck of the ferry. Waves were crashing over the boat and spraying us lightly but we remained. In Southport Libbie got the luggage while I walked to the parking lot to bail out our car. It costed $16 which wasn't too bad. Off season rate is $8 per day. We stopped at a smoke house we passed in Southport. Turned around and went back, it was a delight. It's newly opened, the owner treated us well. We had pulled pork sandwiches with slaw topping and baked beans. We ended up buying a pound to take home. they packed 4 buns in the bag for us which was nice. Got home at 4:00 which wasn't bad considering we left the island on the 12:30 Ferry. Dinner of course was the pulled pork.

I drove around the Island today. The lighthouse was closed, went to the Turtle Conservancy and found about birding opportunities. We'll come back tomorrow for a nature tour. We stopped at the market Cafe for lunch of ham and cheese on a sub sandwich. They were out of whole wheat. It came with chips and a pickle. We split the sandwich. Stopped at a Maritime Forest where I got eaten to death by mosquitoes which prompted us to buy an insect repellent. It's a deet free cedar smelling non toxic repellent. I like it. We went out to Delphina Cantina for dinner. I had a ranchero quesdadillo whihc had flank steak, onions, jalapenos and black beans. It's Cinqo de Mayo so we had $5 Margaritas. Went to the gazebo on our street on the beach and watched the sinset at 8 PM. nice.

Put out the shade cloth today, packed a suitcase and left for Bald Head at 11:30. Lib made tuna sandwiches for in the car. Gas stop when we got off
I-40 then made it to the 3:00 Ferry at 2:10. Parking is pretty far away - a long walk. Once on the island we got a Golf car. Went exploring - bought ice cream at the Pelicatessan at the Bsld Head Island Club. Really enjoyed the scenery around the pool including a well sculpted girl in a skimpy and toned bikini. It barely covered her ass and was a tiny G string in front. Nicest I've seen in a while. Libbie drove all the way around the Island with several beach access stops. We walked to dinner to Mojos and sat outside. They forgot to take our order. I had flounder and oysters with French Fries and a pale amber called Wildflower which was very weak and not good. The Seafood was good.

I finished up the cameras today with RJ45 connectors, added the switch and tested everything. It all worked, found a server program, added it to Traviata and bought an Android app to control it. All works well. Dinner was Target ribs, spinach and ravenwood cabernet. nice.

Took down the upper Fascia boards then went to both Lowes and home Depot to buy new PVC 1x6. Lowes was out so I had to go to Home Depot for the boards which they did have. We went to the Farmers Market after Libs haircut where we got $48 worth of plants from Longwood Nursery, mostly perennials. I never got back to the siding. Libbie got an eMail from Joann Raymer inviting us to her gallery show at Litmus. We left for there at 6:30 and found there was a rock concert going on downtown at the amphitheater. We made it through there and found a parking spot at the gallery. It was amazingly well attended despite the difficulty in getting there. We drove over to Carolina Ballroom and made it there before the 8 PM party started. After the party we went out to the Cary Pub and split a chicken salad sandwich with a glass and a half of Yuengling. We got home at 11:00 after a very nice evening.

Got up at 5 and packed the rest of my things. I was out the door at 5:30 after having a bowl of cereal and filling the thermos with coffee. I made a rest stop at Gainesville just before the exit. Traffic was easy to here. Had no trouble through Waldo but 301 was lots of truck traffic. I discovered a new way to bypass Baldwin using Normandy Blvd. The sign says it's a future 23 N toll road. It was wonderful and hits I-10 where the three lane portion starts going to JAX. I stopped in Brunswick for gas and picked up a Wendys single and small fries which I ate while driving. Next stop was just North of Florence to top off the tank. Traffic became very heavy. The sky through Georgia was black and angry looking but no rain. The Met was doing back Stravinsky but I was happy with Classical pops and listened to Dvorak Cello and several other long works. I got home at 4:30. The trip through Crossroads was light even though it was rush hour in Raleigh. Libbie prepared a nice coming home dinner of Salmon, wine, Spinach and Strawberry Shortcake.

Took a look at the keyboard handling for First Class 4 Android but didn't implement anything. Amy sent the links for the shopping cart downloads which I added to the website in the late evening. For dinner I went to Publix and picked up some Chinese takeout consisting of brown rice, noodles and sweet and sour chicken. I vacuumed, cleaned the counters, packed everything and remembered at the last minute that I need to get gas. Went out to Walmart after dark and topped off the tank.

This was a lazy day. The condo looks great. I spent some time on AVSA stuff getting the new site purchased by Amy in Beaumont. We accomplished this task, the site is now good to go for 3 years. I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch and a subway $5 special turkey and ham foot long with the Rodney Strong Cabernet from last night. Listened to the Met live, I Puritani, and fell asleep early. The wine did me in although I didn't do much today.

Left home at 7 under cloudy skies which cleared South of Fayetteville. The drive was easy, traffic was light. i even sailed through Tampa at 5 in the afternoon. I arrived at the condo at 6:20. Went to Publix for Chinese but they had closed the hot foods area at 7. Went next door to Golden china and ordered Szechuan chicken to go. it came with an eggroll, neither was very good. Our Apex takeout is much much better than this. My gas stops today were Florence and Baldwin, FL where I also stopped at Burger King for a whopper Jr and small fries. I had a rest room stop just after the lake in Santee, SC.

After the morning shows I went outside and worked on finishing up the Fascia boards. Got the remaining boards installed on the rear cornice and caulked everything. Now I have to tackle the upper greenhouse roof fascia and check the fascia boards all the way on top. Next step was to run the conduit and wires from the knee wall to where the cameras come into the garage. Got everything wired up and working. I discovered I had a junction box in the knee wall with a feed in it from the breaker panel labeled Tom's Office. This apparently was destined for me to install a dedicated power line to the office area but has not been implemented yet. Lucky the power was there!!! While running power I also ran an Ethernet line to the garage corner from the knee wall which will eventually go to my switch in the office closet. I also ran two lines for the telephone from the crawl space to the knee wall. A very full day. We had a visitor this afternoon who is moving into this area from NY City. Her husband died so she sold her NY apartment and has the house in Carolina Trace and also a house in VT. Libbie had to run out for flour for the pizza. I was too tired to do this. Dinner was her very nice pizza. I packed a suitcase tonight in prep for my drive tomorrow.

This was a tiring day. I got the light set up on the back cornice and the wire run to inside the house. After lunch we went to Home Depot and got 5 bags of bark for the garden and a new transformer for the back spotlights. I planted my Early Girl tomatoes and the eggplant which finishes up the grow boxes. Now to sit back and wait. The LED Matrix displays came today. There doesn't seem to be a power connection. this may need some work.
Libbie cooked the uncooked ribs from our freezer most of the day today. For dinner we had the ribs with a glass of Mondavi Cabernet and Steamfresh peas. I checked the light pattern after dark and it's perfect. We now have LED lighting all the way down the sidewalk.

I worked on the fascia boards some more and finished up around noon. Next we went to the Farmers Market before lunch and bought lots of bedding plants and perennials for our garden in addition to strawberries and veggies. We stopped by Walmart and bought pajamas for tonight and Libbie also made a deposit into Scottrade of her excess funds. I had a quiet afternoon and actually fell asleep reading. It was a nice nap in preparation for tonight.
We had a nice dinner of bean soup, wine and cornbread with strawberry shortcake for desert. We left a little late for the Pajama party. We watched some nasty storms from the back porch before leaving. The party was great, everybody had Pajamas. There were no sexy negligees unfortunately. After a night of dancing we went out to the Cary Pub in our pajamas. What a hoot. I had a Yuengling and ordered a plate of something called the pub basket which had Onion rings, poppers,cheese rolls with 3 kinds of dipping sauce. too much fried food but it was a fun evening.

I went outside early and tore down the rear Fascia aboard. I did a home Depot trip and got more PVC siding boards and misc electrical supplies to put up two more LED spotlights in the back corner. This will light the sidewalk to the greenhouse. I was pretty tired after all this today. We had 15 bean ham soup with the leftover ham bone. Libbie ran out of corn meal for the corn bread but the half batch she made was good. We left a little late for the Five Points dance tonight. The dance was terrific. We had a 19 piece big band and 2 vocalists. I really enjoyed the evening. We go home around 9:45.

I cut the plywood to fit the soffit but didn't bolt it down since I didn't have any lag bolts. I ran to HD to get some bolts and bought the LED spotlights for the back. Got cleaned up and went to dance this afternoon at 3:30. Robert concentrated on us doing posture for Tango. I'm not happy with how we are not progressing much. Dinner was spaghetti and a salad.

Another day of fitting cornice boards. I went to Kroger for the Tuesday groceries then continued on the corner. With the exception of the soffitt, the carpentry in this corner is complete. Dinner was ham chunks with pineapple, green onion and mustard sauce over rice. It was very nice. It's quite warm today at 83 degrees.

I spent the whole day working on fitting the cornice boards together in the front. I mounted the spotlight in it's permanent home. During Cenerentola tonight I went out to the driveway and checked the light coverage. It's better than before. Dinner tonight was a ham sandwich. I listened to Cenerentola live tonight - it was the season premiere and will be in HD in a few weeks.

The sun came out today but it's quite windy. After the Sunday morning shows I went outside and ran the wiring for the cameras by putting a piece of water pipe in the hole for the wires then locating appropriate patch cables and power cables for the two cameras. I also reran the spotlight wiring making the job much neater. I put up the first of the compound mitre cut fascia boards. It didn't come out too bad. This may have been my most difficult cut but there is a similar cut directly over it with the 1x4 upper board. I did not get out on my bike today. Too much other stuff to do. Libbie made her fantastic pizza again today. It really came out well this time.

It's a rainy day - it actually started raining last night when we were at Dance. I went out a few times in the rain and worked on taking down pieces of molding so I could get a measurement. Got all my measurements and went to Lowes where I picked up PVC trim and conduit for the cameras. I'm going to run power and Ethernet into that corner then put up a switch to support a few cameras and possibly some other "Internet of Things" devices such as a garage door monitor, maybe a garage camera and a garage temperature module, possibly a car present or not there detector. I came inside around 12 and listened to Arabella live on the Sat afternoon broadcast. Dinner was ham, sweet potato, salad, apple sauce and shiraz.

It's a beautiful day. I went to Home Depot and picked up a PVC board for the cornice work then proceeded to rip down the rotted cornice work. Took a ride on the eBike and later worked on preparing the grow boxes for planting. Libbie and I picked up a flat of plants for our gardens and growbox at the Farmers Market. Most people have off today, Good Friday, so traffic was heavy everywhere. It's going to rain tomorrow so we want to do this today. The PH kit came today but results were inconclusive since all I ended up with was dirty water that didn't show any color change one way or the other. Dinner was a ham sandwich but we ran out of bread. We went to Country Western night tonight and did some 2 step dancing which we seemed to have mastered. Afterwards we joined the Studio at the Hibernian on Kildaire Farm Rd for a beer and some chips. It was a nice night. We learned a few surprising things - Duchess has Jordan as her daughter. Her Mother Helen was also visiting. The nice looking Laurie isn't married, she hangs out with Pete who is not a very good dancer.

I did some outdoor work today. Cleaned the driveway, trimmed the Spirea plants, filled the mower tires with air and mowed the front lawn along the street. I finished my Ventura County blog and posted it on Road Scholar and shared it with one of our participants, Mary Byrne. I heard from her that she enjoyed my Death Valley and Bryce writings. It was fun going back and reviewing. I pumped up the bicycle tires but didn't go out today. Maybe tomorrow. I tried the lights in the Wallbox. The 5 cent credit works well but none of the other mode lights are doing their thing. This is a good debug aid since I should get a prompt to insert money which isn't working. I'll get this figured out. Dinner was baked yam and the easter ham with a bottle of Shiraz. We practiced our 2 step in the house today and am finally getting the turns figured out.

It was nice to get back to our dance lesson today. We did a lot of the tango then Robert straightened out our two step a little. We went back in the evening and attended the Bronze two step group lesson. Laurie, Terry and Libbie were the girls. We learned some nice double turns which we need to practice. I also renewed our commitment this afternoon, purchasing 15 more lessons for $1150. We had 3 leftover from December so we are set for a while. Dinner was ham sandwiches from our Easter ham. Libbie warmed the ham we put on the sandwiches. I continued working the Travels by Tom blog entering our Road Scholar trip.