This morning we took a walk up Broadway and visited both the Hershey store and M&M World. It was incredible that you can have a store devoted to one candy product. It's freezing cold but my scarf and hat did me well and kept me warm. At 11:00 we walked to 42nd street and got onto a subway going to Linclon Center, 66th St. Once there we walked over to the Europa Cafe which was a little deli restaurant where we split a turkey panini. This was a good lunch. The first opera was Donna del Lago at 1. When Joyce came out and started singing I got chills her voice was so pure and beautiful. Juan Diego appeared and got a good round of applause. We were underway. The second act is brighter with the full chorus in light colored outfits singing powerfully. This is a beautiful opera of Rossini music. We next went back to the hotel and encountered the biggest crowds of our stay here. Wow, what a mass of humanity. Before the next opera at 8 we walked up into restaurant row and went to the Bourbon Street grill where we each had a shrimp po boy. This too was excellent. The sub roll was typical NY City quality bread, the best in the world. We did not have alcohol with the meal because we needed to stay awake for the opera until midnight. It was an easy subway ride back to Lincoln Center. Hoffman started promptly at 8 with James Levine conducting. We were in the second row of the Dress Circle, center of the theater. Great seats! We enjoyed this version of Hoffmann better than the HD one 2 weeks ago. What a great cast. We thought we were getting 2nd string but it was the better cast. Got out at 12:15. Decided to do a nightcap at the View lounge. We each had a drink while the restaurant rotated. Went to bed at 1:30 AM.

It's darn cold today. After a McDonalds breakfast we walked to Rockefeller Center and bought tickets for the 10 am art tour. We were surprised the entire tour was outdoors. It was fascinating seeing all the art purchased by Abby Rockefeller most of it hated by her husband John D. After the tour we sat in the plaza and picked up a coffee and scone at starbucks and sat inside in the plaza and warmed up. I lost my hat but retraced my steps and found it laying on the floor. We next walked up 5th Ave, noticed a Huntington Beach store playing waves and surf pictures. Continued walking in the cold and found FAO Schwarts and the Apple Store. Enjoyed the toys. Got onto a Subray at 59th and went to Grand Central terminal. It's fabulous. Had lunch there at the Eata Pita. I ordered a shishkabob chicken pita and Libbie ordered soup. Surprisingly they were slicing the chicken right off a rotisserie. Very nice. On the way back we stoppe into the toys r us and enjoyed the exhibits, dinosur and ferris wheel as well as the peeps exhibit. Amazing. Got onto a very very long line at the TKTS booth and bought tickets for On the Town, a musical on 42nd Street. We walked to a very nice Thai restaurant on 9th called Yum Yum Thai and had a nice Pad Thai dinner and Spring Rolls. Walked to the theater and thoroughly enjoyed On The Town, a musical featuring the music of Leonard Bernstein. It's old Broadway complete with music, signing and dancing. Incredibly good. After the very long show we dropped off our coats in the room and went to the rooftop lounge for drinks. Had another Down Home Aplle Cider which is very good while the restaurant rotated showing off the city. Nice

Went across the street to McDonalds for breakfast. Inside is surprisingly calm. We took a walk to the GMA studios but they were packing up. We saw a celebrity come out the side door aa papparazzi held back by the police barricades. Some blonde got into her limo and drove away. Not sure who she was but there was a clamor over her presence. Next we bought subway passes then used them to go downtown for the Wall St walking tour. /visited the Federal Reserve, Ground zero. Stopped into the old Wintergarden and ordered hot chocolate at a place called Olives which was unreal. They made the chocolate from scratch. Very very good. Back outside in the tunnel over the road which was a remnant of 9/11 and saw the Wall St bull. Missed the turn for Wall St so we went directly to the Ferry terminal for Ellis Island tickets. Was accosted by a hawker trying to sell cruise tickets. I knew I wanted Natl Park Service tickets. We boughth $28 worth of tickets and got on the ferry after going through security. Had to remove coat, belt, wallet, everything in order to go through security. At Ellis Island we saw the 30 minute movie which was fabulous. Toured the whole facility and then went outside to view the Glembocki name plaque somebody apparently has purchased for panel 165. There is an Emily Glembocki and a Joseph Glembocki Family.
Got back and bought tickets at the TKTS booth in front of the hotel. We got great tickets to Mama Mia. Had dinner at Johns Pizza before hand then went to the theater at 7:30 PM. The show was fabulous!!! Really enjoyed the acting, dancing and music. It was so good. Afterwards we went to the View lounge on top of the Marriott and had 2 drinks each for $84. Ouch.

We checked the schedule for Amtrak and it was on time despite the snow. We left early to make sure we had time on icy Lake Pine Rd. Arrived at the station at 7:20 am and found the train was one hour late. Uggh! We chose to go to McDonalds near the mall which the phone said was 1.3 miles away. We sat there and had coffee and biscuits and killed some time. The roads were really icy and not many customers came there while we were seated. They made me check my bag which I didn't think was necessary since it adds to the headache at the other end retrieving it. The train was very comfortable and went pretty fast. There was no dining car. Instead we had the snack car where they served pretty awful microwave meals. I had a chicken ceasar salad for lunch which was iceburg lettuce covere with microwaved chicken strips. For dinner I had beef chunks with mashed potatoes. It was OK but not the greatest. At Penn Station I had to wait about 20 minutes for my suitcase which was a pain. Got the case and went up to 8th Ave and got into a taxi driven by a guy from Ft Worth. The trip was $15 with tip. I didn't know how to work the credit card machine in the cab but with help got it figured out. Once settled in the Marriott we walked the neighborhood then decided to go for pizza. Found Johns pizza on 44th which was outstanding. It was a very thin crust wood oven fired pizza.

We had snow overnight snow which was a surprise. We're gathering our stuff today for the weekend trip to NYC. I upgraded our return ticket to business class after reading some online reviews. I'm happy with my weight which was finally at 228 after days of 230. I forgot I needed money for the city so I went out on the snowy and icy roads and went to the credit union. They closed at noon because of the surprise snow but the teller lobby was open so I picked up $200. Dinner tonight was a salad and spaghetti.

This is a light eating day after the weekend. I'm holding at 230 which is disappointing since I thought I was doing good except for the wine. I spent the day researching the NY trip some more. I ended up upgrading our return trip to business class instead of coach because we don't have a roomette. The business class seats are more comfortable for the 11 hour trip as well as having power at each seat. Included is a newspaper and beverage which I don't care about. The whole train, both coach and business class have WiFi. We watched some Times Square cams and decided we need warmer clothes so went to Target in the evening but no luck. I did buy a $2 cotton cap. Next stop was Dicks Sporting Goods where I got a very nice pair of gloves for $30. Dinner tonight happily was a salad with some tuna across the top.

We slept in this morning. I didn't get up until 7:30. Surprisingly after a night of dancing my knee felt pretty good. It's also back into the 50s outside which is good news. I dragged the roto tiller into the garage to replace the magneto. Unfortunately the mounting holes don't match the engine. Did some online research and found the correct model number for the solid state ignition magneto replacement. I will order it and try again. Too bad. I've been tracking the ontime performance of the Silver Star. It hasn't been good, being late from anywhere between one hour and 6 hours. I worked some more on the new server adding the second copy backup profile for the new uniserver and moving Apache to port 2206. Libbie's pizza really came out well tonight. I stayed up watching the Oscars until the end which ended after midnight. I also organized the Music folders and other files, including a rescan of the Logitech Media Server files for the database.

I was a little sore this morning but soon got over it. We were out of milk so i made a morning run to Kroger to get milk, wine for tonight and carrots. It's nicer out today. I removed the covering from the Irises after Don Giovanni which was the live Saturday afternoon matinee.
We got ready for Shriners and left the house a little after 5:30, arriving there at 6 PM. We had a nice table, table 4, up by the band and the dance floor. The studio was at tables 19 and 20. The food was great, the band was really good. i especially the tall slim lead singer. She was good and we had a chance to talk with her during one of her breaks. We complemented her on the excellent choices in music. What a nice night. At our table were Steve and nancy, Harry and Terry and Ken and Anita. I'm finally starting to get the hang of the Waltz.
We got home after 11 PM. The thawing is finally taking place, Hooray.

We woke this morning and it was 7 degrees out. Brrr. Disappointingly, I did not lose any weight in the last few days. Holding at 230. I need to get very serious. It didn't get too far into the twenties today. It's a real cold one. Yesterday we covered the Irises with drop cloths to try to protect them. After only a salad for dinner we went to dance at 8 PM. The parking lot was an icy mess and pretty treacherous to walk on too. We met Lori from the studio all the way in the back lot and walked in together. We had fun at the party tonight. Afterwards we went too McGregor Tavern where Libbie and I shared a plate of wings and had 2 IPA beers. She had Yuengling. We sat with the Rumleys and Anne and Paul Cain. To pay for it all ($28) I used a $70 Michelin rebate card which came in the mail today. At the Studio we heard from Mitzi about why we don't want to sit with the studio at Shriners tomorrow night. We told her we made these plans months ago. Harry Rumley heard the same thing from Mitzi.

It was darned cold this morning! Overnight low was 13, tomorrow even colder. The only thing I did outdoors today was a Kroger trip for lettuce and Green tea and later in the day I took the garbage to the street and froze every part of my body. Libbie and I covered the Irises with the paint drop cloth and two sheets. I covered the corners with 8 bricks from the brick pile. They weren't easy to free up since they were frozen to each other. This is hard to believe in NC.
Dinner tonight was a nice salad but this time with Ranch chipotle then spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese. The ranch chipotle is OK and with a hot aftertaste but it doesn't have the spicey taste of the spicey ceasar which I like a little better. This was worth a try and I'll finish it but I'mm going back to spicey ceasar. After dinner tonight we watched Birdman, another nominee for Best Picture this Sunday on the Oscars.

I called Cap One late last night to ask about some suspicious charges on Libbie's card. There was a $450 online purchase on the statement and they said there were 2 more online Walmart website purchases for over $250 each. They shut the card off and are issuing a new one priority since we are traveling next week to NYC. Weight was a little disappointing, still holding at around 229-230. I have a long way to go but will keep at it. I went out today to the Credit Union to deposit a check. This is their first day back in 4 days and it showed since they were so crowded. I waited a long time at the screen for a teller to appear. We went to a very good waltz lesson with Robert. One of my biggest problems was not turning enough in the line of dance. He tried to fix that and I think it was a successful lesson. I really killed my knee doing the turns this afternoon but I think it was worth it. Mitzi closed the studio shortly after our lesson since the fear was the melted snow on the roads would freeze in the evening leading to problems with black ice. Dinner tonight was a salad and a side of a leftover piece of chicken from the rotisserie chicken. It was kind of bland so I added some Tapatio sauce to it making it pretty spicy and good. We're going into an extended period of cold weather starting today with nights in the single digits for the next two days.

Woke this morning and went right to the window. Somehow the ice never happened. The trees look great but there is about an inch of white stuff on everything. Unbelievably a snow plow went down Downing Place, this after we got brined yesterday. Wow. We waited until after lunch then went to the grocery store. There was no problem with the roads. They were mostly wet where they were plowed. The worst was our driveway. We brought home a rotisserie chicken for dinner. I put it in the over with the light on to keep it warm. The walls of the oven were at 110F as measured by the IR thermometer. We had the chicken with a salad for dinner. I added a yogurt for dessert as we watched the 40th anniversary show of Saturday Night Live. It was quite funny and a great reminder of all the talent the show has gone through and spawned.

I tried calling Blue Pay this morning about the PCI fee they assessed us. They couldn't help me. Will try later. Meanwhile, I booked our European plane tickets, RDU to Zurich for June. I added travel insurance while I was at it. They are predicting 1/2" of ice tonight. This isn't good for the trees.
We had a salad with tuna over the top for dinner. I'm trying to get back in the swing of losing weight again after the weekend meals. It's sleeting as we went to bed. I tried recording La Donna Del Lago from Sirius using Mp3MyMp3 to record it but failed. At this point I'm not sure what's wrong.

After the morning shows I went out to deal with the generator. Of course the thing started right up as if there was nothing wrong with the battery. Because of the age of the battery, 5 years this summer, I decided to replace it. Went to Walmart and picked up a new Model 26-3 battery. The store was pretty busy. I had to stand in line twice - once to buy the battery and again to return the core to get my $12.82 back. I also picked up new post bolts and was glad I did since the old bolt on the positive terminal was in pretty bad shape. Put it all back together and ran a test cycle. Now we will have a test cycle every Sunday at around 5PM. I forgot to coat the terminals with Vaseline. I will do that tomorrow. It's incredibly cold outside, I worked on the generator while it was in the 20s. My feet and my fingers were numb. Today my knee feels pretty good. I attribute that to resting in the theater yesterday and keeping it taped the last few days, allowing it to heal. Libbie went to Mardi Gras practice today at the studio although the parade looks doubtful since we're supposed to get an ice or snow storm on Tuesday. We'll just have to see. We had Libbie's homemade pizza tonight.

This morning I looked at the generator since we had not heard it start and run a test cycle lately. I tried to manually initiate a test cycle and it just clicked like the battery was dead. Removed the battery but with it still attached and looked at the water levels. They were fine. The red charging light was on and the green charging light was blinking indicating the charge was between 80 and 100%. Tried another test cycle and surprisingly it started. The battery is 5 years old this year. I will replace it since it doesn't have much life left anyway even though it will start the generator. Put everything back together because the opera starts at 12:30 today.
The theater parking lot was full. This is the premier of 50 shades and they were running 4 screens with this. We were moved down the hall to the smaller screen 15 instead of our normal auditorium 20. This was a first time viewing of Iolanta and Bluebeard for us. Both Operas were surprisingly great. I couldn't believe I enjoyed Bluebeard as much as I did. Soprano Nadja Michael was terrific. Not only did she have a good voice but her physicality was wonderful. She threw herself to the floor, did all kinds of contortions with her body including getting totally nude then standing up and putting a white robe on. The next act her she had on a white slip which was soaking wet and clingy to her ample erect boobs. She has a nice body! The opera did not have a happy ending, she joined Bluebeards other dead wives in the end in the 7th room. After the opera Libbie dashed into JoAnns while i waited in the car. I had my knee all taped up and an Ibuprofen in my wallet just in case. It was fine throughout the day. We stopped by Kroger on the way home and picked up one pound of shrimp. dinner was shrimp, broccoli, salad and shiraz. It was a nice Valentine evening to celebrate.

It was a rough night last night. Lots of knee pain and I couldn't easily fall asleep. I seemed to be wired up, maybe from the diet hot chocolate. I couldn't figure it out. I weighed in at 230 today. Better but still not satisfactory from my weight last year or even last Fall. A long way to go.
I decided to get the tiller out of the shed. this was a major job since it was in the back and required moving the garden cart and the lawn tractor. The tractor battery was dead so I rolled it backwards and Libbie helped me push it uphill back into the shed. I topped off the battery and hooked up the charger. The tiller wouldn't start, even after a trip to Walmart for a spark plug and a trip to Kroger for fresh gas. I did some diagnosis and found there was no spark. This is an old Briggs engine with a points and condenser ignition. I found I could order a magneto with solid state ignition to replace the old points. The official Briggs part is $45 but I found an oem version for $17 on eBay. My knee is killing me today so I wrapped it tightly and took an Ibuprofen before leaving for Esquires at 5:30. We left early since it took 50 minutes to get there last time but it only took 30 tonight. We sat in the parking lot for a little time then went inside at 6:15 and claimed a table for our group in the corner. It was a very fun evening. I did not have any alcohol. dinner was a salad, roll, potatoes, chicken pepperocina and a piece of fish. Desert was a yummy cream cheese cherry tort and a piece of Key Lime pie. This was quite a bit of food compared to what I normally have been having. Libbie and I did quite well with our dancing, even Tango and swing. We got home around 11 PM.

Libbie and I went to the greenhouse with the chain saw and cut down the two sign timbers and brought them home in the trailer. This will be the base for the shed extension laid directly on the ground with a layer of rock salt under them to protect against termites. This went surprisingly well. Before I did this I went to Lowes and purchased some 12 foot 2x6's for the decking and to obtain a plastic red flag to nail onto the portion of the timbers hanging out the back of the trailer. Only about 2 to 3 feet was hanging off the end which was less than I thought. My knee really hurts today so I'm trying to take it easy. Went to Krogers for a 9V battery for the low temp alarm in my office. It peeped all night long letting me know the battery was low. While in Kroger I ran into Janet Covington in the Valentine candy aisle. She stayed in Lautterbrunnen when she was in SWZ only at the end of the valley. She said they walked to the train station to do their journeys around the Alps. Dinner tonight was spaghetti and salad. The salad was normal size but only lettuce and tomato with dressing while the spaghetti was smaller sized with tomato sauce and a sprinkling of cheese.

Libbie and I went to the greenhouse with the chain saw and cut down the two sign timbers and brought them home in the trailer. This will be the base for the shed extension laid directly on the ground with a layer of rock salt under them to protect against termites. This went surprisingly well. Before I did this I went to Lowes and purchased some 12 foot 2x6's for the decking and to obtain a plastic red flag to nail onto the portion of the timbers hanging out the back of the trailer. Only about 2 to 3 feet was hanging off the end which was less than I thought. My knee really hurts today so I'm trying to take it easy. Went to Krogers for a 9V battery for the low temp alarm in my office. It peeped all night long letting me know the battery was low. While in Kroger I ran into Janet Covington in the Valentine candy aisle. She stayed in Lautterbrunnen when she was in SWZ only at the end of the valley. She said they walked to the train station to do their journeys around the Alps. Dinner tonight was spaghetti and salad. The salad was normal size but only lettuce and tomato with dressing while the spaghetti was smaller sized with tomato sauce and a sprinkling of cheese.

This morning I worked on getting the updates ready for the Bluebird site. I needed to change prices on trays and delete the the 5 inch pots plus some misc updates. Messed with Manon to do this stuff then turned on my new server to do a little more configuration. I deposited some checks in the CU this morning as well and then went with Libbie to get gas at Krogers. I was really out and have a few trips to dance scheduled as well as the greenhouse tomorrow to get the timbers for the new shed extension. Robert was sick so Mitzi did a fantastic job in teaching us how to Cha Cha. We learned a few more patterns beyond the basic that we know. Went to Trader Joes then returned home for a dinner of salad with turkey sprinkled over it. This is still part of my eating light program which I think is excellent. Andy did both the Rumba and the Tango class tonight. We learned a lot today. My knee was killing me during the 8 oclock Tango class, i considered stopping part way through but made it to the end. I was really tired.

Went out this morning and purchased all the groceries as well as food for the violet club. It's a cold day after raining overnight. We had a nice meeting about soil recipes. We served turkey and cheese sandwiches with creamy cole slaw buffet style. After the meeting I studied transportation costs in Switzerland vs the various rail passes. I settled on a half fare card and ala carte paying as well as the Bernise Oberland Region card as the most cost effective. Dinner was a salad with a little shredded turkey cold cuts over the top and the leftover cold slaw on the side. I was hungry but resisted all day. I'm really determined to take this excess weight off. My knee bothered me all night. I woke several times with throbbing pain. I wish this would heal. After dinner I listened to Iolantha live as well as Bluebeards castle. I like Iolantha but not Bluebeard s so much. I listened to it all the way through until 11 PM. During this time I researched the Austrian portion of our trip. A taxi from the airport to the hotel looks like the best option for $30 to $40 Euros. An Austrian rail pass is $384. I haven't added up the costs of our journeys yet for the Austrian portion.

Libbie worked like crazy today packing her orders for shipping. It was mostly leaves though. The drive and memory came for the server today so I worked in my office getting that thing running which also included installing Windows 7. I have a long way to go with getting this machine running. I sure hope it has the performance I'm looking for. The price was certainly right. The doctor pushed up my appointment from late June to April 2. This means I have to get busy losing weight since I have a personal goal of weighing less than on my last physical where I was down to 222 with clothes on. The scale said 236 today. Too much good and bad eating. I want to see something around 210 and then eventually 200 pounds by the end of the year. Dinner was just a salad with tuna sprinkled on.

I managed to get all the hotels booked and am now fine tuning our trip with regards to transportation. This is going to be an expensive one. I came up with $3,000 in hotel bills alone. I canceled the Berne portion of the trip and substituted a 3 day trip to the Alps which I'm hoping is going to be pretty nice. Libbie made her fantastic pizza from scratch this evening after going to the studio for Mardi Gras practice. Great job.

I spent the day doing a lot of trip planning learning about rail passes and pricing flight options. I worked outdoors today blowing out the garage and the driveway. I also managed to change the oil, the oil filter as well as the cabin air filter and engine air filters that came from eBay. Dinner was shrimp with squash and the dry zinfindel from Ravenswood.

I did some serious trip planning today including a trip to Barnes and Noble in Cary for guide books about Austria and Switzerland. The trip is is finally coming together. We can't do everything so i limited the trip to Lucerne and Bern in Switzerland and Salzburg and Vienna in Austria. Side trips to the Alps, Glarus and Peter and Christa will round out the trip. Dinner tonight was the last of the chicken Parmesan along with a yummy salad. Out to the studio party at 8 for a nice evening of dancing. We did Brewstersv pub after dance until 11:45.

Did more planning today for Europe. I'm in a quandary with so much ground to cover. Did a Walmart trip for a heating pad which didn't help my knee. I also picked up coffee, cereal and salad dressing. In the PM Libbie made the Chicken Parmesan recipe from Cooking Light. Dinner was a salad with the Chicken parmesan.