The weather station is performing as expected. Very good. Finished assembling the smoker and wheeled it out to the porch. Plugged it into the house and did the sizing run for 3 hours to burn off oil. The last 45 minutes were with the hickory wood which really smoked the back porch so that I had to close the deck door slider shut. Temp control doesn't seem too bad. This will work well for us. I started mounting an electrical box on the rail post of the deck. Next chore is to drill a hole into the brick foundation wall to run the conduit. I ordered a hammer drill to assist with this and a few other holes I have to drill in the greenhouse foundation to run a garden water line and electricity to the fence charger.
After a dinner of salad and tuna we went to the 7:15 group class teaching Annie's Cha Cha. Erica was the teacher. I like her style. She was dressed as Lucille Ball and won the staff costume contest. We sort of learned Annie's Cha Cha but will paractice maybe tomorrow at Shriners and once again at her class next Friday. Ken and Anita didn't come so I was showing Anita a little about how Annie's cha Cha is done although i don't have it down pat.

Carried the new Davis sensor assembly up to the roof this morning. I didn't have any problems with carrying it or mounting it. It seems to be well made although the pole I have it mounted on does not seem very stable. It flexes too much with the weight of the sensor assembly but for now I'm going to leave it. If we were in a location with more wind it may be an issue. Next I compressed the newbie interview which resulted in a file size 10x smaller and added it to DVD Style with a button to select it. Made the image and tried to burn it but discovered my new PC does not have a burner and neither does the server. The small multi media PC I use for MP3 recording does have a burner so I transferred the image to a flash stick and burned a few DVDs for Marjorie, Anne and myself. Sent it all out priority mail but I missed the local mailman so I drove it to the post office. Tried to go to Lowes and buy a smoker but found thery were sold out except for the floor model which had a huge dent in the corner. The nice floor person looked it up on his smartphone and saw that Lowes in Garner had 2 of them. Lib and I used the Prius and went to Garner and picked up the smoker. While there we stopped at a dollar store in the same shopping center and bought a sheriffs badge for my Wyatt Earp costume and a hair band for Libbie's Janis Joplin outfit. Stopped at Smithfield BBQ on the way home and purchased chopped barbecue, slaw and hushpuppies. We ate a few of the very hot hush puppies on the way home, much later in the evening we had the BBQ on buns with slaw and baked beans from the other night. After dinner I went to work assembling the Smoker but didn't finish.

Talked to Anne this morning and we finally have her convinced that the second DVD is not a good idea. She was going to try to recall her article from Ruth at the magazine. Good deal since I didn't want to do the second DVD at this time. We have enough to do already. Continued working on the DVD while Libbie reviewed the resulting video files. We went to dance in the afternoon. I want help with the Foxtrot back turn. Robert was incredibly happy that Libbie told him we wanted to sign up for the Halloween showcase. We spent some time with Mitzi and gave her $750 for 11 lessons. That's on top of the $100 last week for sponsoring the festival. She said we had 5 lessons left on our previous bill. We're going to do Foxtrot for Halloween and so spent quite a bit of time selecting music and practicing Foxtrot routines. Stopped at Trader Joes and then Kroger on the way home. Dinner was spaghetti. I chopped up a sweet pepper and a Jalapeno for my bowl. I used a paper towel to protect my fingers. Richard sent the redo of the audio files which I stayed up late adding to the DVD. Amazingly, MS Movie Maker reduces the camera movie files by a factor 10x. I'm going to add the interview with the newbie to the DVD.
The new Davis weather station arrived late this afternoon. I'm amazed at how huge it is. It also needs assembly which I did before bed. I'll put it up tomorrow morning.

We moved the rest of the furniture out of the bedroom and the family room right after breakfast for the carpet cleaner. He was supposed to come between 11 and 2 but didn't get here until 2:15. We had Hank the owner of Chem Dry. He was very conscientious about getting spots out and did an incredibly good job. I'm happy with how good the carpet looks. It's pretty wet so we have to camp out a while without the furniture. For dinner we went to La Cocina where I had a Yuengling and a Quesadilla La Cocina. It was too much food but I enjoyed it. It was pouring rain when we left the restaurant. This is good since it hasn't rained in a while.

I spent all day on the AVSA DVD. I hate it that in other years when this one was done I was done with the DVD. Now Anne wants a second DVD which will be difficult because the walk through is split up over many sections. We decided to go out tonight to see Mr Wonderful in Pittsboro. We had dinner and beer, I had the fried flounder with slaw. It was fun dancing on a less crowded dance floor. We left early and when we got back we moved a little bit of the furniture for the carpet cleaners tomorrow.

Did the morning shows as usual then discovered I forgot about the squirrel we caught yesterday. He was still alive so I drove him to Kroger and let him go. The rest of the day was spent working on the new introduction section of the DVD. For dinner Libbie made her wonderful pizza and I chopped up an onion and pepper from the garden and dressed my half of it. Wow was it yummy.

I had a hard time getting up today after our dance last night. I worked outdoors and helped Libbie with the Iris transplanting by rototilling all along the fence. We mixed compost into the soil and mixed up pretty good. I will eventually put fence posts in along this garden to more permanently protect from deer. For dinner tonight I went to Kroger and got a pound of shrimp and a pound of green beans which we had with Chateau St Michelle Cabernet that I brought back from Florida.

Organized library pics. Didn't want to exert myself since we were going out tonight for dance. We went to the party and struggled with some of what I thought we knew in the cha cha and foxtrot. Couldn't remember the Tango routines. We had a salad beforehand and then went out to Brewsters and chips with queso and a craft beer.

We practiced our ChaCha quite a bit even though we didn't cover this in yesterdays lesson. I spent a lot of time planning the AVSA DVD. There is a lot on my plate between the now two DVDs, some web work and making a new update for First Class. Dinner tonight was the leftover hamburger and leftover buns. It came out pretty good. We ate late, almost 8 PM since we both were quite busy.

I spent time organizing files on my PC. The backup drive is full and needs help. I may employ a second drive to backup movies which will significantly offload the backup drive. There is no need to bring the movies file to Florida for offsite storage. We went to our dance lesson at 3:30. It was a success, we tuned up the cha cha turns a little, both the spot turn and the traveling turns. We then switched to Foxtrot and practiced the back turn which I was doing wrong. I also taped this turn for practice. Robert tried talking us into the showcase but Libbie is not interested. The cost would be $250 plus $25 per heat. This would come out to around $350. This is steep for a day of dancing. Dinner was spaghetti. I jazzed mine up with banana peppers and jalapeno. The jalapeno was a huge problem. I used my bare hands to cut it up which was no problem but when I went to pee my penis was burning with fire. I went upstairs to the bathroom and used soap and water and a washcloth to try washing the stuff off. It really burned. Later at night I tooke my left contact out and screamed in pain with a burning eye. I used a glass on the sink to flush my eye. I washed with soap for a real long time and tried taking the other contact out and had milder but still stinging burning that I flushed with water. We googled and found that water doesn't work on Capicin, the spice in peppers. I went downstairs and washed my fingers in vinegar which is supposed to be better. Milk or olive oil is also a good neutralizer.

Libbie did her jury duty appearance while i stayed home and got my actions loaded into photoshop on the new machine and completed the 2 missing photos for the horticulture section of the convention DVD. This was the tour slide and the library group shot. I added Penny, Marjorie and Janet to the mix. She was excused from jury early and brought back goodies from the farmers Market. for dinner we had hamburger with fresh tomato and watermelon for dessert.

Looked at another bicycle in Walmart to switch my bike over but didn't make a decision. Finally got around to mowing all the grass today including using the small mower to do trim work. Now I need to put down some herbicide. We went out to Pittsboro at the Roadhouse for dinner and the NC Revelers, an 18 piece band. The dance floor once again was very crowded. For dinner I had the fried flounder with bacon and remouloude and slaw. Very tasty. I had 2 beers with dinner. We left early since I was tired and Libbie had jury duty.

I have a squirrel eating my tomatoes. i ended up putting up netting covering the plants but it didn't work. He was sitting on the fence eating another tomato after the netting. This is unhappiness. I set up the trap and finally caught a squirrel. Late at night I went out and dumped him at Kroger. Dinner was Libbie's wonderful pizza. On my half of the pie I put pepper and onions. Yummy pepper from the garden!!!

Rode my bike some then updated the Bluebird website which meant having to switch the computer over from the new one to the old one because Vbasic doesn't run on the new one even though i tried. Got all the updates done. For dinner we had shrimp with corn from kroger and a bottle of red wine they were sampling in Krogers.

Finished up the design section of the AVSA DVD. Now I need to review it and the horticulture and make notes. Still have to edit 2 pictures in the horticulture. Kroger's Friday Freebie was awful. It was a Yummy Tummee which is a red fruit punch with no fruit juice and all chemicals.
Went to ride my bike around the block through Vintage Grove. Love the bigger bike from Florida but the motor may not have enough battery power behind it because it keeps cutting out when I demand power at low speed or standing still. After a salad for dinner with tuna over it we went to Dance at 8. It was a fun night, we did a lot of dancing then went out to the Cary Pub afterwards. Our wings and second beer order got lost somewhere so Tom took it off our bill which was nice. I kept our tip the same $6 for 2 beers since I didn't think the waitress should be penalized.

Fence not working again. I cleaned up the contacts of the plug on the back porch and got it working. Finished up the horticulture section of the DVD with the exception of 2 pictures, the library group shot and the tours shot that needs the Truman library added. It's pretty hot and humid outside. I was disappointed that my order from ambient weather came and it only included the soil moisture sensor. The temp sensor which I really need is drop shipped from elsewhere. Dinner was Rigatoni with the good imported wine and sausage sauce. Earlier today I ran out to Lowes and got a new shop light for my workshop which i installed and also a 6 outlet wall outlet for behind my night stand which is now in place as well. I feel productive!

Had a normal breakfast and worked on AVSA some more. Lost all of yesterdays debugging Mel's addressing problems with earthlink. I think everything is now fixed. Picked Lib up at 10:15, her fight was early. She kept texting me from 6 AM on as to where she was. We went to our 3:30 dance lesson with Robert and once again it was another good one. We brushed up on the spot turns and chase turns. After dance we went to Staples to look at desk chairs. I bought one for $129 that looked cheap but it was comfortable. I have to put it together. Dinner was leftover chicken rotisserie with a can of bourbon and sugar baked beans.

It was hard getting going today after the long drive yesterday. Worked on the electric fence since there were deer inside the azalea fence yesterday. Cleaned the charger, used WD40 on the terminals and assembled everything again. Plugged and unplugged the main power cable on the porch which seemed to be the real problem, not the charger itself. Dinner tonight was the rotisserie chicken and beans and also a few Klondike bars as a treat. Threw the rest of the package away. Need to stay away from that stuff.

Up at the normal time and started packing the kitchen. Watched GMA and waited for 8 AM to avoid Tampa traffic. Took all the icemaker ice and put it in a kitchen garbage bag and tied it at the end for my ice chest. Filled the thermos and put the ice chest with fruit in the front seat and got going at 8:21. Up around Tampa it was raining so hard I could hardly see in front of me. When I got to I-4 I decided to go East immediateley to try to get out from under the rain. It worked, the drive was good and the sky was blue and sunny. Had a problem at Disney World. all lanes were stop and go due to an accident in the left lane. Once clear of that it was flying all the way. Did a rest stop before Jacksonville and a gas stop around Brunswick. Hit heavy downpours of rain once again in Brunswick where I couldn't see in front of me. A few miles of this and it cleared permanently. The temp hit an even 100 in Manning, SC and stayed there for several miles or about an hour. Next tank of gas was at a BP around Florence where I paid too much. Pilot across the street was cheaper since they don't have a surcharge but I was staying away fromPilot. Got home at 7:45 without any problem. Bought a rotisserie chicken in Kroger along with baked beans and potato salad for dinner.

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.