After finishing the Mine last night I went to Amazon and ordered the second book in the series by John Heldt, "The Show". It follows the tale of Grace leaving 1941 to seek out Joel from the first book. I debated a long time about getting this one. Libbie and I went out in the morning, put gas in Joe's car and went downtown. We walked Main Street then the pier. It was cloudy and cool, I had long pants on. We parked up Main Street past the parking meters but in a 24 minute space which we exceeded. Joe and Christa went out to Hurricanes in the evening since it ws Monday Night football while Libbie and I did babysitting. Joe previously made some nice sliders for us from ground up tri tip. We had them with a bottle of Ravenswood Zinfandel.

After a slow morning we packed up and went to Lapworths for a picnic. We had some delicious chicken salad and cranberry on sandwich bread from Costco and then some snacks. Craig showed his movie of Paige first few weeks which is way too long at 32 minutes. The ladies went to a jewelry demonstration party down the street. It was warm in Whittier today, almost 100. I enjoyed it. Craig cooked some nice Carne asada beef and chicken which I had on a flour tortilla with lettuce, sour cream and salasa. Yumm. Topped it off with a Pacifico beer. For desert we had banana pudding. What a nice picnic. I stayed up in the evening and finished reading the Mine. It was a 10 in my book.

Joe went to the beach this morning . We found there was no cereal or milk so I went down to Stater Bros and got shredded wheat and skim milk for breakfast.
Christa and Joe picked up sandwiches from Meatheadz in Huntington Beach for lunch. Wow, easily the best sandwich I ever had. I had tuna with their own sauce. Really nice. Tonight for dinner we had a bottle of beringers cabernet with the leftover sandwiches. Joe and Christa took off to a music and food festival on the beach but they stayed outside the fenced, pay for admission, area. I'm really enjoying the Mine by John Healdt, a free eBook from bookbub.

Up at 5:30 Pacific time, hung around in bed then took a shower at 6. Joe made waffles for us which were incredibly good. We saw Christa off then I started transferring the MAAVS files. The electrical inspector came this morning. I went on the roof to see Joe's installation while he inspected it. Everything passed except Joe didn't have a ground bonding system. We chopped a hole in the sheet rock in the garage looking for an electrical ufer ground but didn't find anything. The alternative is to drive a stainless steel ground rod below the electrical panel. Libbie and I took a walk around the neighborhood while Joe went somewhere with Paige. When Christa came home from work we were going to have BBQ at the beach but we went down there and the parking was miles away and Christa has a broken ankle that's healing. We went to Mama Mia in Newport Beach instead. This was an outstanding dinner. We ordered a bottle of Avalon Cabernet Sauvignon with my Chicken Parmesan. The bread and olive oil was also outstanding. It was a nice night out but the bill was $166 with tip. Ouch.

I woke at 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. It's 7:30 Eastern time. Had a shower at 6 to begin the day then caught up on email and stuff. Joe made bacon and French Toast for breakfast which was yummy. Paige is quite a handful. She needs constant attention. After a restful day of playing on the computer and writing the NCID client in python, Christa came home early. She had a Doctor appt that Joe went to with her. We left in the late afternoon for the La Copellia happy hour. I had a Magarita and two of the specials - a cheese quesadilla and a tortino. The specials were 1.49 eeach. Paige was incredibly good through the meal. It was a nice dinner.

Up early after passing out early. We finished packing this morning for our trip then left at 10 AM for the airport. Everything went smooth. We were in the new terminal for Southwest. Security was a little different in that our palms were swabbed. Mine were done twice. The flight was totally full to Phoenix. It was a relatively smooth flight. We had a nice young girl between us. for the first time in many years the stewardess was very attractive. This was quite a surprise. Landed in a very hot Phoenix where we had our peanut butter sandwiches. Couldn't have them on the plane because there was a person aboard with peanut allergies. They didn't serve peanuts either. I liked the snacks though. Arrived a little early in OC. Joe picked us up with Paige in the Chrysler. It was very cold outside on Joe's patio where we had Thai takeout and a Sam Adams Oktoberfest. This was good food after a very light eating day.

We did a little light cleaning, I blew out the garage and the driveway and the violet club folks started coming at 10 am. Joy was here at 9, they all were grooming and caring for plants before the meeting. We started the meeting at 11:30 then went to the main program which was the AVSA convention DVD. I showed the Main show as well as the Holtkamp tour. It was well received. We tried some more packing and then picked up a Chinese takeout which we had with Shiraz. That finished me for the evening. I fell asleep early and was out for the night.

Labor Day. I put the package together to protest the chargeback from the McLaughlin's in Alabama. I'm afraid we'll lose this round and over $200. I had quite a bit of success today at descreening the door frames and also programming the fullscreen buffer of the Raspberry Pi. Dinner this evening was spaghetti.

This was mostly a day of relaxation. Watched the morning shows then went outside and did a little outdoor work trimming of the lawn in front before going out for a bike ride around the neighborhood which I enjoyed. The new helmet is nice and secure feeling especially when I go a little faster. Did a bunch of web updates for AVSA by adding the new magazine, etc. Libbie made her excellent pizza once again for our sunday night dinner.

This morning Ken and Anita came over to see the Violets. We had a nice visit, they were amazed with all the projects and we were glad they came over. I worked some more on Nieto II and finally was able to retrieve temperature and solar data and display it. I learned quite a bit about pygame and python which was great. Dinner was ribs with corn on the cob from Kroger and a bottle of Shiraz. For desert I had yogurt with cherry and dark chocolate. Very good. We had our last glass of wine and yogurt on the back porch, enjoying the evening. For August, it's remarkably comfortable.

Went to Lowes and got a new spark plug and a 2.6 oz bottle of 2 cycle oil. Stopped by Lowes food to get a fresh gallon of gas to which I added the oil. Put everything in and on the chain saw and started it up. After some rough running it straightened out and ran pretty smoothly. Took the saw to the back and cut down all the pine trees which were blocking my path and also growing in front of the bird house. Next step was to hop on the bike and ride around the block, coming across the dam and through my freshly cut path. Success! After a dinner of Lloyds pulled pork BBQ and the remnants of the baked beans we went to dance at 8. It was not a bad night, we tried out some of the new patterns we learned with Mitzi this week. Afterwards we went to the McGregor Pub at McGregor shopping center. We had wings and beer. This pub is much quieter than Cary pub and was nice. I like the waitresses in the little short shorts.

Went out to the greenhouse property on Jessie and using the map we went looking for the corner stakes on the golf course. We had success and located both irons. Did not find a stake near the Wrenn driveway but there is one on the corner where our driveway comes in. We got covered with mosquito bites and sticker pricks from the dense brush. Took a walk down the pipeline and found Levi or Raymond Wrenns old electric fence line which approximates the boundary. Dinner tonight was spaghetti with pieces of tomato and cheese.

I stayed somewhat clean today since we had dance this afternoon. Worked on understanding pygame on the Raspberry Pi. This should work for me. Updated the AVSA web site with the 2014 convention DVD info. At dance today Robert helped fine tune our Rumba. For dinner we went out to mariachi night at La Cocina where we had the usual of a Yuengling and Quesadilla La cocina.

Took all the stuff in the side yard tothe dump then went to the greenhouse and got all the scrap aluminum. Hauled it all to the scrap metal place and got $70 for our efforts. Stopped by the farmers market and picked up fruit and tomatoes. dinner was spinach salad and tuna. We had a Rumba almagamation class with mitzi tonight. I learned a proper cuban as well as a box step rock step. I also learned a proper cross body lead which I was doing wrong.

Got the tractor going and mowed some of the front and back. Visited KW offices in Cary and talked about land value with Ann. She stopped by our home at 3 and we listed the property with her firm. She was nice. We won't get as much as we wanted out of the property but it has several problems. I went to Walmart and bought 2 quarts of oil for the tractor. Boy, this stuff has really gone up. It's 4.54 a quart. Dinner was skippers Fish Fry. I had the 2 meat platter which was flounder and clam strips with slaw, hushpuppies and fries. It's a lot of food.

I finished painting the back of the house this morning. It actually was cold outside and felt as if it was gooing to rain any minute. This was a big job finally finished. Hooray!!!! Came in exhausted and lay on the bed for 2 hours after taking a shower. Talked to Anne Kane about going to her office at noon to list our property. Worked on Pygame tutorials in the afternoon. I think I'm getting somewhere with this stuff. Need to try it out on my monitor with HDMI output. I mowed down the Irises which were covered with weeds. I also did a little mowing the backyard and much to my dismay I saw that the septic is leaking again. I need to pull the pump and look into this. Ugggh. Dinner was Libbie's wonderful pizza again, from scratch this time. She really outdid herself today. The floors are all clean and waxed. I tried spraying with the Ortho Max product but had to stop 75% of the way through because the sprayer was clogged. Not sure why.

Went outside and painted 2 more doors in the back. I found the center swing door needs replacing. Lowes said it would be about $350 to order a new one. I was pretty tired when done. We had a pretty good rain, one inch total only a few hours after I finished but the paint seems to be OK. Picked up groceries in Kroger but they didn't have any ribs. Lib and I went to Lowes to return wood, buy a heavy duty electrical cord for my shop and look at choices in doors. We then next door to Target and got our ribs as well as a 50th anniversary card for the Guenthers. Target was crowded. School starts Monday and there were lots of back to school shoppers with long lines at the cash register. Dinner was ribs, baked beans from yesterday, Primal Root wine from Kroger and a yogurt for desert. Yumm.

This was a day off from painting. I spent some time online learning about the Pi then went to my eye doctor appt at 10:45. Surprisingly I passed the Klingon test in my right eye. I never thought this test was valid with the right eye which is not corrected fully for 20/20 vision. I talked with Atkins realty and did not like the guy on the phone. In the afternoon we made the baked bean mixture for the party tonight. Went to the party and participated in the surprise birthday present for Robert - a big motorcycle that Mitzy bought him. He was happy. I ate too much and couldn't get a lot of the dancing straightened out. I don't know what it is but what a mess. Need to really do something since we put a lot into htis and get not much out. Talked with anne of Anne and Paul about listing our land with her firm. The party was nice I had Italian sausage with onions and pepper and some potato salad from the Pub as well as my own baked beans topped with a chocolate cheese cake. It was Dan's 50th birthday and also Jordan's 16th birthday. We signed cards and had birthday cake which wasn't needed after the other food.

Went outside and did the second coat on the new slider and the fixed window. Next step was to set up the ladder and start painting the rest of the doors as well as the soffits and fascia boards. Got two doors done. No work tomorrow since I have an eye doctor appt in the morning and we make a honey chipotle bean salad in the afternoon. It will be good to have a day off. I need to call a realtor and also do the PCI compliance for Bluebird. Dinner was leftover chicken with Lima beans. After dinner we went to Tango foundations. I learned a few good styling techniques from Andy. While at the studio I got my spoon back from Mitzi. We left it at her house when we brought bean salad to the graduation party.

Went outside and painted the new slider trim on the inside and the outside as well as the fixed window. This was not too bad of a job. Libbie was at quilting class all day while I did this. I also went to the greenhouse to recycle a circuit breaker for my solar panels. Unfortunately there was a big wasp nest next to the breaker panel. I went to Harris Teeter on 1010 and bought a can of hot shot wasp and hornet spray. I let them have it for about a minute from behind the door. It worked well and I was able to remove a few breakers for recycling. We need to kill the power feed to the greenhouse since this is costing money. The bill this month was $34 for 8 kw. which is too much. Libbie came back in time and we went to Rumba class with Robert. Today we focused on the bronze pattern and also some spiral turns. We did well for this. When we left Robert was calling a carpenter about a screen enclosure over his deck. On the way home we picked up a rotisserie chicken and had it for dinner with baked beans. I put the correct breaker, 20 amps, into the breaker panel for the solar panels. Still need to label this.

After a lot of work and trials over the past several days I finally got the Mozart 2 controller taking commands from the Honeywell WiFi thermostat and sending out IR signals to the AC across the room. I finally ended up hooking the current sensor up to the ADC 0 input and programmed the Arduino to measure the pin voltage. This is working well. I eliminated the state machine and used a simple timer to hold off retry cycles if the AC toggle did not activate or de-activate the AC box. I caulked the new trim work but did not paint since the wood was still wet. Joined Esquires today by filling out the application and sending a check for $100. We went to amalgamations class at 7:15 but Andy didn't show up, only Jennifer. Duchess and Gustavo came as we were on the way out. We went back in and hung around a while trying the Rumba bronze routine. After a while we finally got it figured out. Before class dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese. We had yogurt for dessert after we came back from our non-class.

I finished up the trim on the sliding door this morning. it involved a trip to Lowes to pick up some more 1x2 trim boards. The work was hampered by on and off raindrops but I eventually finished the job. My Davis solar Sensor arrived today. I found that it was not made for the Vantage Vue, only the Vantage Pro weather station. In the meantime I had climbed on the roof to take the station down. I ended up putting the station back up and requesting an RMS from Rainman weather. This is too bad since I wanted the solar sensor. I found that the Xbee wasn't working anymore on the plant room AC controller. I decided to hardwire the AC status reporting by putting a current sensor inside the circuit panel in my tool closet. I ran cat 5 up into my workshop to try some test circuits. With a 500 ohm burden resistor across coil I measured about .5 volts with the compressor running and 0 volts without it. I need to interface this to the Arduino. Dinner was salad with tuna over it, a light eating day. We had a sudden burst of rain around 8 PM. It got dark, windy and the heavens dumped on us. I measured one inch of rain in this single storm. We sure have had enough rain this year. The nicholas's sent an email saying they received the DVD. I cringe that everything on it has come out OK.

This morning I tried debugging the thermostat interface I started working on yesterday. I first discovered I hooked to the wrong set of wires in the thermostat. I need to get on the Y and common leads. I now get 24 vac when it calls for cooling. Interfacing the HCPL3700 opto turned out to be difficult. The 10k series resistors didn't work. I lowered them to 5 k but still no output change whenn 24vac was applied. Removed the DC filter cap on the front end and was able to get AC out when 24 vac was applied. Added a simple lowpass filter output consisting of a 1 mfd cap and the avr internal pullup resistor. It's solid now but the AC only ran shortly. I found out that the Xbee is not working. I looked through my parts box from Adafruit and found I have an Xbee. Now I have to figure out how to program it to the correct channel unless it's already correct because this was used as the monitor. Libbie made her nice pizza which I doctored with thai pepper, onions and had it with a bottle of Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest. Yumm.

Worked outdide on the patio door and fixed glass window trim. Had to do a Lowes trip to get some 1x3 instead of the 1x4 I had on hand. Finished this job up and also moved the old glass around to the side yard along with the aluminum frames. We left at 6 for the Lauau at the Shriners which was over the top. I overate. We started with cheese, crackers and salasa chips along with a glass of wine. Talked a little to bill Price who stopped by the table. We sat with charlie & terry, Anne and Mike as well as Adrian and Marie and their friend Betsy. I danced a waltz with Marie who is very nice. Dinner was fried and boiled shrimp, salmon, fried fish, pulled pork, clam chowder and an array of salads, chicken and other stuff. I felt way stuffed and couldn't function well on the dance floor. I had a nice time but was clearly impaired.

This morning I worked on the door hardware and the latch. This took a lot longer than I expected, almost all morning. I had to run out to Lowes to get more door trim wood and PVC. Worked all afternoon fitting the frame to the door but didn't finish. We made crab cakes for our contribution to the Ballroom beer and wine tasting. I took an extension cord and a hot plate for the food table. We left at 7:45 and got to the studio at what I thought was early but we were among the last to get there. It was a fun evening, I tasted some beers I would seek out such as the Yuengling Porter and the Don Equus. I also liked the Carolina Pale Ale and the Sierra Octoberfest. The party seemed to go on past 9:30 but we left at 9:40. We met two new people, Rebecca and Marlin. Father, daughter that seemed nice. Hope they stay with the program.