Up very early this morning. Watched GMA while working on this journal. I had not put in an update since last sunday. Did all the catchup. Forgot to mention that yesterday I erased all files in the glembocki.info web site and installed PMWiki which seems to be a wikipedia clone open source software. I'm probably even going to use the mediawiki theme to really look Wiki like. It's still raining outside this morning.
Got a good deal of work done with the AVSA DVD. I was wavering over whether to go home tomorrow or not. In the end I decided to go and packed up a suitcase. I purchased fruit earlier in Walmart for the trip. Dinner was the other half of a BLT I ordered for lunch from the grill. The side accompanying it was apple slaw which seemed like regular slaw but a different dressing, not sure what apple has to do with it.

The rain continues. It's coming down pretty heavy, Anne called and said she heard Sarasota will get 8 inches. Tampa already has over 10 inches. Went out in the afternoon to Venice and also to Walmart in Osprey. Had a nice time, visited the auction market in Venice on Tamiami. The place has eclectic furnishings. I liked the carved wood pelicans all over the place. If there was a carved wood Flamingo I would have bought it. I did find a metal sculpture of some Sand Cranes that I really liked except it was $229. I have been looking for a sculpture or painting to I might measure the wall and go back and measure the object again. Dinner tonight was cheese toast with some of the garden tomato I brought down with me. I had Raspberry-Chocolate Roadrunner ice cream for dessert.
It was a Wagner day on the radio. While working on pictures I listened to Walkure from the Met. In the evening they played Parsifal. I was transported!

Rain today all day. It's pretty miserable out. Stayed inside all day reading online. Discovered the You Now app where kids broadcast themselves live. It's amazing, it seems to be mostly young girls. I like the dance channel since some of the dancers are good, others are horrible. Most of them are very young, 13 to 16 with a few 19 year olds. Dinner was the rest of the ribs from yesterday. I accompanied it with a Klondike bar for dessert.

Not much going on today. Set up my computers and copied the flash stick with all the AVSA show pics onto the old laptop then started a ProShow project for the pics and audio. Took a walk outside today. Dinner was a full rack of ribs which I only had half of. It came with house salad, veggies, baked potato and rolls. I picked it up at the bar and they did not ask for my card which was good because it's at home. I finished the wine from yesterday which I had with the meal. The ribs were tender and delicious.

Got going a little after 7 after having a normal breakfast. Loaded the car and took off. Did a gas stop just before Florence. Next stop was in Baldwin, FL where my card was declined at a Pilot truck stop. Used the CU card to make the purchase. Arrived in Sarasota at 6:15. Got on the phone with Cap One and found out that Pilot pre-authorizes a $150 purchase which cap one doesn't allow. The theory is that it's a truck stop and gas purchases are usually for higher gas volumes. Went to Walmart for supplies then to Publix for a chinese dinner from the buffet. I had gen Tsao chicken, some sweet and sour and an egg roll with some rice. Also picked up a bottle of St Michele Cabernet Sauvignon.

I still wasn't keen on traveling to Sarasota. Did a little more work organizing the pictures for the AVSA library. Took the other bike out of the shed and pumped up the tire then I did 2 rides around the block. The first time it was with the Walmart bike. The second time I used the mountain bike. I certainly prefer the Walmart bike and will look at getting another one. The mountain bike has more power, it probably has something to do with the homemade battery pack. The only problem with the homemade pack is the lack of a BMS which can be detrimental to the batteries over time. Dinner was cheese on bread with tomatoes. This was the same thing I had for lunch. Packed up everything for the trip tomorrow.

Went to REI and got rim tape for the wheel. I also went to the DMV offices and stood in line for a long time to straighten out my lost registration.Came back and fixed up the front tire with the new tube then did a test run. All is well. For dinner I got some more of the imported sauce and sausage and made some Rigatoni. It was pretty good.

Took Libbie to the airport this morning for her 9:55 flight to Rhode Island. Meanwhile I continued working on the bicycle and replaced the front tire. Took it out for a test run around the block. In the evening the tire was totally flat. Discovered the rim wrap is important, it wasn't there so I got a hole in the brand new tube. Dinner was BoJangle chicken dinner with dirty rice, biscuit and iced tea. Dessert was breyers vanilla with hershey kisses ice cream. didn't feel too good after this combo. Ran out to Walmart at 11 PM and bought two new tire tubes.

Worked on the bike and did the first test runs with it. Not happy with the rattle in the back which is the battery compartment and a really bumpy ride on the front tire. Measured the front tire with calipers and discovered a 1/4 inch difference from one side to the other. Will have to replace the tire which is hard since I tied the cable down with cable ties. The cable goes from the controller to the wheel hub. Dinner tonight was leftover Rigatoni with the nice pork and wine sauce.

Worked on building my eBike today but stopped in the afternoon to rest and clean up. We went to dance tonight for the first time n a long time. there weren't many people there this evening. We had a salad with tuna on it before leaving. After dance we went to Brewsters and had a beer and wings. Got home around midnight.

Started building the eBike in the garage. It's kind of hot and I'm not really that much into it yet but i'll recover. We wanted to use some garden tomatoes so for dinner we had tuna fish sandwiches with tomato on them. The heirloom tomatoes are awesome and plentiful. Changed the oil in the Corolla today along with the filter. This is in preparation for my Florida trip. While looking up the number of quarts in the manual I discovered that I only to change the oil every 10,000 miles.

Worked outside tying the tomatoes. They're getting big and we have a lot of ripe ones. Practiced a little Rumba today then went to our lesson with Robert. We did Foxtrot promenade spot turns and also some Rumba open breaks leading to a spot turn. This worked out pretty good and we thought we had a successful lesson. Dinner was imported rigatoni and imported sausage, wine and cheese tomato sauce I bought with a couon. It was really good.

Finished up the photos today for AVSA then posted them on a new subdomain I created. Did a short grocery run then we had spaghetti for dinner.

I hooked up the new computer again, disconnecting Manon 2 and now running Manon 3. I installed Photoshop 5.1 and a host blocker file to prevent the program from calling home then started on the AVSA photos. I first thought the photos came out horrible but then realized the monitor was tilted at an angle to stop reflections from the light stand. The photo exposure is quite good although I am glad that I used bracketing. It was not necessary to shoot the raw pictures that I did but I left them in the mix anyway. I may move them to a separate directory. I worked all day on photos but only got a third of them done.
At 6:12 PM we left for the Roadhouse in Pittsboro. Mr Wonderful and a 5 piece band were playing. We went for dinner and met Ken and Lana there. I had a fried flounder sandwich and slaw. 1 1/2 beers topped it off with water for the rest of the night. It was a nice evening of mainly foxtrot and a very easy drive home.

Went outside and put up all the remaining trim on the shed. Later I used caulk and finished the job. Now it needs some touch up paint. Libbie made her super pizza from scratch today. When we were lying in bed tonight an eMail came from Richard with the list of plants attached for the convention DVD. Here we go again!

Went into the attic this morning to diagnose the blower which is not working on the AC. I swapped the old blower for the new one I installed 5 years ago. It didn't seem to work. Checked the web and found the RE Michel closes at noon on Saturday. It was 11:05. I cleaned up and jumped into the car and drove down Tryon to Garner and got there in about 20 minutes. I picked up 2 caps - one for the old blower and one for the new. While it was out I tested the blower in my shop by hooking up a line cord to the leads. It started immediately. In the middle of the afternoon I went into the attic wearing only jockey shorts and swapped the blower yet again. It was pretty hot and I dripped all over the floor. After about an hour I got it all wired up again and sealed up. The blower worked with the new starting cap! yeah. I took a shower to cool down then lay on the bed while the AC cooled the upstairs which had only gotten up to 82. Inn a while it was cold while I continued laying on the bed nude and reading a book on the iPad. Libbie had a great plan for dinner. I had previously purchased Shiraz at Trader Joes. She suggested we have Chinese takeout. We picked up Szechuan 3 flavor and 2 eggrolls from the Chinese takeout next to Kroger. After dinner I went to bed early with the AC upstairs working nicely, it was pretty comfortable!

I painted all the trim boards with 2 coats of paint then left them be. Got my new PC back on line and decided to look at the interviews Marjorie sent me. The audio is pretty low and not too discernible. Went out to dance tonight for the 8 PM party after having a sausage split in two with corn on the cob, Dance attendance was light this evening. We went out to the Italian restaurant in Waverly place with Paul and Ann after dance. Libbie and I shared a pizza with a beer. When we came home we found that the upstairs AC wouldn't turn on. Uh oh. We slept in an 81 degree room all night long which wasn't too bad.

Nancy came over today to help Libbie. I worked outdoors and installed the missing hinges as well as all the screws in the corners of the doors which serves to hold the underlying frame together. This was a lot of screws and bolts but I finished the job. It is pretty humid outside. I got totally soaked. Now I have to paint all the trim boards. Will leave that until tomorrow in the morning in the shade. Dinner tonight was sausage with peppers and onions and corn. Libbie had gone to the Farmers Market after her afternoon quilting group to get corn and melons.

Went outside and built another shed door but did not have a hinge to install it. Apparently I only bought 2 hinges this week. Need to go back and get more. We resumed our ballroom lessons with a wonderful Tango tuneup with melanie. We showed her all we know and she critiqued us and gave us pointers to improve. It really was a worthwhile class. We had the leftover Pasta and Sausage from yesterday. After dinner I went to Home Depot and got the missing hinges and a bag full of screws to finish the job. Anne called today about the DVD. She also requested a second DVD, this time one with the Mary Corondan Cimera presentation.

Did not feel like doing much today. I had difficulty breathing and was listless all day long. Libbie blamed it on being out last night. I picked up the Tuesday groceries including sausage and ingredients to make the Italian sausage and Penne Pasta with cheese. The credit card closed out yesterday. Our total is over 8,000 and includes all the European trip expenses.

Went to Home Depot today and picked up the siding for the two shed doors. I got particle board and am still debating whether that was a good choice vs compressed board. In order to seal it I painted both sides of the boards as well as the Hardi siding which was installed yesterday. I also purchased new hinges and screws but forgot to get the few screws that need nuts and washers. These are the ones that do not have a 2x4 backer. Possibly I can put some wood behind the hinges in those spots. I did a little more blog work, this time working on Wagner but did not complete it. Libbie started packing plants again today after a month off. She shipped around 100 plants which took all day. We left at 5:45 to go to the Roadhouse in Pittsboro. Tables are available starting at 6:15. We didn't see the parking lot across the street from the Roadhouse and parked down the street in front of an ABC store. Next time we'll know better. We ordered dinner which was pulled pork and slaw for me. Our friend Bill said he is partial to the catfish nuggets so we ordered a plate of those to share. They were incredibly good. The NC Revelers had 18 musicians and a vocalist and were quite good. We danced quite a few foxtrots, a Rumba or two, one swing and 2 waltzes. Ken and Lana also joined us at the Roadhouse. It was a delightful evening. It went on until 9:30 then we had a pleasant drive home. I only had one beer and drank water the rest of the evening.

I put the Hardi siding onto the shed today in two phases. It really ran me down. Now I need to purchase the material for the doors. I had trouble with the printer on my new PC. I'm once again blaming Win 8.1 since it only allows me to have something called a home group and the upstairs PC is using a work group but upstairs is win 7 pro. Libbie made her pizza again. The Bluebird website is getting orders since I put it online yesterday. Dinner was homemade pizza and home made peach pie which Libbie made earlier today.

I changed the front page of Bluebird to reflect the new pages I put up this week. The site is now live. Libbie wants to sell down the violets until they're gone. Work continues on my travel blog but it's a slow process. I managed to get all the old siding off the front side of the shed today. Now I get to reside the building. Of course we had 1 inch of rain after i took the siding off. I read in the WSJ yesterday that the Holly Madison book about the playboy mansion is the surprise best seller of the summer so I found it on a torrent and downloaded it. I also found the USA Today top 20 and added them to Calibre. Calibre nicely tells me which ones it already has and adds the missing ones. I ran over to Kroger today and picked up ribs which we had for dinner along with some small potatoes that Lib picked up in the Farmers Market. We had this with a bottle of Shiraz and I had watermelon for dessert.

Today's task is to get the new Bluebird inventory online as well as several other changes such as removing books and memberships and events from the menu, This is not straightforward and may involve program changes. I set up the old Manon2 computer, moving the monitor, keyboard and mouse over from Manon3 to compile the website using VB6 which doesn't run on Win 7. I may permanently set up the new computer in the back shop using one of the old 19 inch CRT monitors laying around. I want to get started on the shed but held off until the website is finished. I finally got it all figured out and installed a site for review but changed the index page so you have to use new.htm to access it all. We went to the Farmers Market today. Wow was it crowded. We got watermelon, canteloupe, corn and tomatoes. Dinner tonight was the leftover Italian Hot sausage on buns. I took 3 peppers out of the garden and sliced them up with onion and stir fried them on the stove in Olive oil. Buy was this good. Accompanying this was some Farmers Market corn which was not very good. It's still too early for corn, the ears are not fully filled out. We had this with a bottle of Shiraz which came from Trader Joe today on the way home from the Farmers Market.

I hooked up the trailer and picked up the Hardi siding at Lowes. They didn't have the Masonite for the doors but I have enough to get started with the Hardi Boards and the trim boards. I tried installing VB6 on my new Win 7 desktop but it wasn't happy. I couldn't get the compiler to run so I switched to the old Manon2 computer which has Windows XP. The database compiled smoothly. I also tried copying some of the Manon2 files to my flash drive but after copying all day something failed and I got nothing on the drive. I will probably set up Manon2 in the back workshop for use like this. I have an old keyboard and mouse and I could use one of the old monitors laying on the floor back there. It may not have an Internet connection back there. Dinner was leftover sausage and Penne pasta along with a salad. It rained pretty good this evening while we had dinner on the back porch. Total was 1/2 inch this evening.