I went out and took a few wheelbarrows of dirt out of the shed area. Before this I took some empty pails to the gravel place and bought 284 pounds of rock for under $6. It's 20 cents per pound. Finished cleaning up the dirt under the floor area and got the timbers situated. I bought water softener crystals before it rained so I could line the bottom of each side of the timbers with salt as termite proofing. Poured the gravel over the salt. Now I'm ready for the wood floor joists to go over this, probably tomorrow. while i was at Lowes i found a Scott lawn patch kit which has mulch, seed and fertilizer mixed up to repair grass areas. I put this over the new dirt I put down between the flagstones on the path in back. In a few weeks I'm hoping this will be grass growing between the flagstones. Dinner was BBQ chicken and southern potato salad. Did some more portfolio adjusting today. I need to withdraw money to pay the credit card bill. This bill is over $9,000 and has the European trip, some Stoneybrook charges, and the New york trip. Even more amazing the credit card balance is over $10,000. Ouch!
Listening to Merry Widow tonight from the Met. I'm really enjoying this, it's nice light music with good tunes.

I got the middle timber set today on the shed project. I also attempted to use the level and get them leveled. Probably need to buy some gravel to level these timbers. It's a beautiful day. Libbie is really sick. i decided to inquire with Cary medical about walk ins and took her there to see a nurse practitioner. the diagnosis was a sinus infection. He prescribed an anti-biotic and ann $89 bottle of Codeine. I had several calls about the FC update status. I need to really get to work on this. Dinner was baked BBQ chicken and potato salad wit a bag of chips. This is not good anymore. i need to slow down on the eating. I listened to and recorded Donna del lago from the Met this evening. Margaret is still out. Wonder what's wrong with her? I also did some portfolio adjustments today. Added a few more FGP and KMI. Breitburn has really gone south with the oil prices being depressed.

The tiller is working much better today. I guess the carburetor seals needed to be lubricated by running a little. i tilled the area some more and installed one more timber. libbie is pretty sick. i called Joy and told her no shipping this week. Dinner was a salad with tuna fish.

I took the roto tiller out and tried to do some leveling behind the shed. The tiller still has a problem in that it stalls out when the governor demands power. It jut coughs and dies. Not sure what's wrong. It may be time to replace the motor. A new one is $250 at Northern. I just need to know the diameter of the shaft. Some disassembly required. I managed to cut one timber and lay it in the ditch i made but did not level or secure it. I will have 3 timbers total under the shed extension supporting the 2x4 floor joists. Libbie is pretty sick. I ran out to Kroger and picked up 4 cans of Chicken noodle soup which was a clear broth with noodles in it so she can have warm soup for her cold. I spent some time this afternoon learning about Drupal entities. Dinner was bits and pieces. I had a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a salad. Later I had a glassful of chocolate chip cereal which was not a good idea. Need to deep six the sweet cereal which I thought was a good idea at the time since it owuld be a low calorie snack. It doesn't work for binge eaters which I finally decided was my problem.

The scale is cooperating. If i held my breath i can get it to just barely read 226 which is another pound down but I suspect it's not real. Doctor appt is at the end of the month and I want to see 215. That's only 11 pounds but it will be difficult. Maybe when Libbie goes to her parents next week I can really throttle back to just a few hundred calories per day. I estimate I'm doing around 1250 to 1500 now. Went to Kroger and ran into Anita and daughter Rebecca. Daughters Rebecca and Lisa are going to cook dinner for Anita's birthday which is today. I picked up my Friday Freebie which was a Hormel wrap.
Libbie and I went to Home Depot. She bought a new bird bell and worms. I got some Dahlias and pepper seeds. This completes my seeds for starter trays. The Rototiller Magneto came this afternoon in the mail when we returned from Lowes. I installed it and the tiller started right up. It's running a little rough but smooths out when I loosen the air filter. I went to Town and Country Hardware in Parkway Point and bought an air filter which matched my old one. I brought the old one into the store in a baggy. Came home and installed it but did not try running the tiller. It's supposed to be 65 tomorrow so I'll prepare the ground for the new shed extension. Dinner was the leftover bean soup with corn bread. i had a salad with my soup. I hope I lose some more weight. this afternoon I listened to the Sat Met broadcast of Carmen live. Recorded it and then in the evening I used Audacity to split the file into acts and intermissions.

I was happy this morning because the scale finally budged. I was at 227 finally. I never should have gained all this weight. Looked up the Time Warner history today. I have contacted them 3 times about getting the $18 removed from my bill. It's still there.
Went down to the Cary office TWC. They assured me the $18 charge will be removed by a supervisor. I told him that was the story last time and it's still there. My tiller magneto didn't come today. It's coming from IN and the midwest is undergoing a winter storm yesterday and today which may impact delivery. It's too cold outside anyway to deal with it but I want to see if at least the mounting holes match up. Libbie is sleeping this afternoon. She has a bad cough deep inside. I filled a tray with dirt today and watered it from the bottom hoping to plant my tomato and pepper seeds. Spring will be here one of these days. Spent some time this afternoon editing the Tales of Hoffmann ?i recorded live last night from the Met. I'm finally getting the hang of using Audacity. It's a pretty nice program if only I understood the UI better. I also did soome work on the AVSA website adding the feedback requested statement on the education pages and adding a News item.

I got the Foxtrot DVD from Steve last night and proceeded to use the Handbrake program to rip it. I also did some future research for NY hotels. I loved the Marriott but also looked for alternatives. There is a Hilton Garden Inn around the corner on 8th and a Hilton on 42nd St near 7th which was across the street from the Lyric theater which is where we saw "On the Town". My weight this morning was a disappointing 229 but I'm back in the groove and working on it.
We practiced a little Bolero this morning but had trouble remembering some of the steps.
Spent the afternoon scanning playbills and filling out the traviata life bits and blogs. Libbie is under the weather today. This is not good. Dinner tonight was 15 bean ham soup and corn bread. The soup was made with the Christmas ham. I hope the meal doesn't make my weight go up. I only had cereal and soup today plus apples and carrots. Listened to and recorded hoffmann tonight. This is the cast we heard this past weekend in the house. They are good.

It's a warm one today. Spent some time cleaning up the Learning section of the AVSa website then did some scanning of programs from our trip. At 3 we went to dance and had a great lesson with Robert doing waltz amalgamations. This is another eating light day which meant a dinner of salad with tuna over the top.
We went back for Tango with Andy and then Bolero with Robert. It was my first exposure to Bolero. I had a lot of fun.

It was a slow start to get back. I did a Kroger grocery run for the normal Tuesday groceries. I also went to Lowes to look at the cultivators which are smaller roto tillers. The one I looked at was made by Troy Built and included a port to electrically start the thing with a drill. Price around $200. I also picked up an armful of treated 2x4s for the shed. Had to deposit a check in the Credit Union. For some strange reason I got a check refund from Cary Medical from 2 years ago. Wonder what was up with that. Dinner was spaghetti with sauce and cheese.

I was up at 5 and quickly jumped into the shower. Packed up our things and walked to the deli off times square at 5:30 in the morning. The clerk wanted to know what we were doing there so early. Told him we had a train to catch at 7 from Penn Station. They had egg, bacon and English muffin biscuits prepared. They weren't very warm but acceptable. We also had them make some sandwiches for the train. We ordered a ham and cheese and a turkey and cheese on wheat bread. They sure put a lot of meat into the sandwiches. This is NY Deli style. At the hotel the doorman got us a cab at 6 AM. We didn't see any but he had his whistle and Walkie talkie and a cab magically appeared. The roads were surprisingly clear on the way to the station. He let us out at the corner on 8th ave where we got to step into the slush puddles to get to the station. There is a ticketed entry waiting area with airline style seating that is nice since they keep the street people out. The train left on time. Our business class tickets were well worth it, we have comfortable seats, drink service and AC Power.
We arrived about 15 minutes late in Cary which was acceptable. Temps around 40 felt pretty good to us. There also was no snow on the ground. We went out tonight to la Cocina for dinner. The mail was waiting for us in the mailbox since we had the held mail delivered.

This was a lazy start to the day. We watched most of CBS this morning show except for a trip across the street to McDonalds. We decided to go out to the Old Stone House but first I had a bagel with Cream Cheese from a 24 hour deli I found around the corner from our hotel.
As we got onto the 49th St station there were a few snowflakes in the air in Manhattan. 40 minutes later we came out of the underground in Brooklyn and had a big surprise. The ground was snow covered and it was coming down pretty hard. WE ducked under a bridge for a little bit with our cell phones and got our bearings so we could do some GPS navigation to the Stone House. The neighborhood looked pretty safe although I told Libbie I never in my life have gone into Brooklyn intentionally. The GPS led us well along 4th Ave from Ninth St until we reached 3rd or 4th Street. There we could see the dark outline of what was obviously the house sort of visible in the ever falling snow. By now there was one to two inches on the ground. We took photos outside then went in to the visitors center. We met a verynice young girl inside at the desk who welcomed us. After explaining who we were and why we were there we explored the one room visitors center. There was a model of a battle in the middle of the room and photos around the outside. A 5 year old birthday party for 40 kids was in progress upstairs. After a while it was back outside in the falling snow to capture more pictures before making our way back down 4th Ave to the subway. WE got on the R train for our trip back into Manhattan. The snow was falling in midtown now as well. WE were entertained for the longest time watching the small army of munchkins attack the falling snow with brooms, shovels, a tractor blade and walk behind salt spreaders. IT was a spectacle watching them try to keep ahead of the storm but it was overwhelming them. Libbie likened it to watching the downpour last summer in Toronto where we ducked under an awning and watched people dealing with the deluge of a summer shower. We decided against going out again to another theater because if the performance was canceled we would not be able to get our money back until tomorrow which is too late since we would be gone.
I studied the listings for restaurant row looking for a steak place. Broadway Joes had horrible ratings. I looked at Tapas bars but decided on Orso, a small family Italian restaurant. I made a reservation online. I wanted 6 but 7 was what was available. We went out into the snow and trudged up 46th. Many businesses and theaters had cleared their walks but on restaurant row the snow oath was narrow since the previous snows were piled at the curb and occupied part of the sidewalk. Fortunately Orso was only a few restaurants down on the block. They had our table ready and took our coats when we entered the place. We had a very nice corner table with a good view of the room and out of the main path. Ben Stiller was opposite us and Martin Short was next to us. There were only about a dozen tables here.
We ordered an Italian dry red blend suggested by the waiter. It was merlot, cabernet and syrah with a full body. The menu had headings like Primi, Secondi, Antipasti and Deserto. HE explained you order a main course and a second course. We had a half plate of spaghetti and eggplants served family style as our pre entree. Then had the salmon with greens, pomegranate and risotto. IT was out of this world delicious. Our salmon at home has a new standard to live up to. I wouldn't mind learning this dish at home. For dessert Libbie had a chocolate torte with chocolate and raspberry sauce. I had the Tiramisu. Presentation was over the top with flakes of chocolate on it, coffee accompanied dessert. They brewed fresh decaf for Libbie. Our bill for the evening was $190. I had warmed up quite a bit and actually felt pretty good stepping out into the cold once we bailed out our coats from the coat check. We packed our suitcases for morning takeoff. While Libbie went to bed I spent a few hours resetting her Nexus 7 to factory settings. She had taken an update which made the device very unstable. You could hardly do anything before it immediateley crashed or froze up. Google has some very good account backups which utilized the account info from her cell phone to do an NFC transfer, then the data from the apps was restored. All restored except the books. I played around and got it to connect to Calibre where I downloaded her current book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Bedtime at midnight with a wakeup at 5 AM. It'll be a short night.

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.