Spent the morning making a template for the corner TV bracket then cutting the 2x12 and sanding it to fit. It took several tries to get it to fit properly. Tacked it in place then used the drill and 3 inch deck screws to permanently fix it to the wall brackets. Unfortunately I was short by 3 screws. Will do a Lowes trip after dinner.
We had an excellent dance lesson with Robert. We taped the whole choreography, it's pretty cool, especially the grapevine where we both dance in parallel. It's going to be fun!!! Stopped into Kroger on the way home to get Libbie's prescription as well as some carrots. She wanted baby carrots for snacking, I tried them but like the long ones better since they're easier to handle. Tonight Turandot was live with James Morris. I enjoyed it but missed the first part since we went to Lowes and picked up the screws for the TV corner support. We also made our bulb selections for Fall planting and bought around $100 worth of daffodils and crocus bulbs. Dinner was spaghetti with the leftover chicken from yesterday.

Libbie got on a plane at 7:25 this morning coming home. I watched GMA then took inventory and went grocery shopping. I just barely got back when I noticed her plane was early. I started out and got a text from her that she landed. It was good timing that she texted me again to come get her just as I got off the I-40 exit. I went straight to the terminal and picked her up.. Once home we had a BLT with the fixings I picked up this morning. After lunch I finished scanning my Mother's album. That's another one in the digital vault. I still have lots more but Libbie brought me 2 albums from her Mother's shelf that I am going to scan. One is really falling apart. Took a little nap where I essentially passed out but woke in time to start dinner. I made chicken with Basil pesto, Roma tomatoes and mozzarella cheese in the oven. I served it with Ravenwood Zin which I bought for her coming home.

Put a new chain on the saw and worked outside for several hours today. Cut the rest of the dead tree up from yesterday and attempted a repair on the Azalea that it fell on. I also removed the dangling old spotlight from the pine tree next to the driveway. The wires tested live so I may hook an LED spotlight up to it or possibly a few trees over. I then went down to the front of the front yard and sliced up the two dead trees laying there and hauled them away and did a little trimming on the Maple tree. This completely wore me down, took a shower and lay on the bed a while reading on the laptop and cruising BP and YouNow. Dinner tonight was hamburgers off the grill. Earlier for lunch I had the rest of the Asian salad mix.

Mounted the supports onto the wall behind the TV using 3 inch wood screws. This will make it easier to remove if I ever have to. I tied a mason string across the supports and traced the angles for the 2x12 piece. I want to transfer this to a piece of cardboard before making the real cut.
I went out and cut down the dead tree in our coral bell azaleas. It was still pretty solid and heavy to move. It fell onto the white azaleas across the driveway which is not what I wanted. I moved all the logs off the driveway and stacked them down by the creek. Libbie suggested taking them to the street but I would have to cut them up into smaller sizes so I didn't. The Chain saw needs a new chain. Came back in and lay down for over an hour. This wore me down and I only moved half the tree. I'll do the rest tomorrow. For dinner i made a couple of hamburgers. I used smoking gun sauce on the first but it was weak so I used plain ketchup on the second. Watched a little of the Emmys this evening but I wasn't very into it. The dresses were modest and I never saw any of the shows nominated.

Outdoor work today. Mowed all the lawns and then cut the 2x4s for the TV corner bracket. While the chicken cooked for dinner I painted the 2x4s white. One small problem is that the lid is too rusted to go back onto an almost full can of paint. Will see if there is a solution in Home Depot. Dinner was the basil chicken I oven baked. It was quite good but light on cheese compated to last nights chicken. During dinner I watched Gigante Sabada, It's their last show and ran over for 26 minutes saying goodby to everybody. They had the usual collection of gorgeous babes in slinky form fitting clothes. I'm going to miss this show. I watched it all the way from 8 till 11:26 and also recorded it.

This was a lazy day, I didn't accomplish much. Did some reading of nnon technical things then marked the wall behind the TV to mount the TV in the corner. I don't have any pieces of wood to support the 2x12 so I went to Home Depot and picked up a fairly clear 2x4. I also took a look at Hardwood Flooring. The only thing they have in stock is prefinished flooring. The lady explained the microgrooves help to keep dirt off the floor surface, thus protecting the finish. Sounds like marketing to me. Dinner was chicken with basil pesto and Mozzarella. This came out incredibly good and was delicious. I made it in a disposable aluminum pan which made cleanup easy.

Packed up the old siding into the trailer and 2 of the bags of shingles and took it all down to the dump. Two Hispanic guys helped me unload. The biggest part of the help was they picked up the two bags of shingles and tossed them in the dumpster. What a big help. The Timer appears to be doing it's thing on the septic pump. This was a project I really wanted done and it worked out so well. Libbie is thinking of bringing 2 of her Mothers old albums home. I'm sure I can handle it with all the MAAVS stuff I have to do. Dinner was a hamburger on a bun with ketchup, this was the last of the hamburger package but I still have an unopened package of burgers I bought Tuesday. I also have some chicken breast tenders I want to use.

Worked on the FC4A updates this morning. As usual it took a lot of learning to do it but I did a test run which was successful so I went and did the real thing and put it out there. I also painted the board for the hole over the electrical box in the garage. The board will mount a timer which will tap into the wall cables going to the spetic and the power box. Dinner was beans and a hamburger.
I had a dance lesson with Melanie. She had to ad lib quite a bit since she wasn't sure what we were doing. I feel it was useful though as a review of Foxtrot. I enjoyed it anyway, she's a lightweight dancer easy to move around.

I cut into the wall above the power box to mount a timer I picked up in Home Depot. It's a 220 volt 40 amp timer and will be used for the septic pump. This was old geezer day at Kroger so I went and bought the ingredients for Chili featured on Lifehacker. it's pretty good and easy to make. Chili with a few bread slices from hamburger buns was dinner. Had a good check up with a new hygientist, Deena and chatted with Dr Paul. I'm convinced he doesn;t work their anymore, just walks around and visits. The 6T drive from NewEgg arrived today. I hooked it up and began transferring files over to it. It's a long slow process, but it's almost 5 T of data.

Worked with the irKit that came yestrday. This time I used the IOS software to set it up and was successful. Then I used Curl to read the latest IR command which was also sucessful. Hamburger on a bun for dinenr along with Asian Sesa,e salad. Updated the Field of Dreams blog to add the IRKit to the mix. This will serve as my personal documentation

Did some catchup on files, my travel blog and general house keeping. Everything is going well. Did some reviews for trip advisor then reviewed some of the entries on BP. Dinner once again was a hamburger which was nice.

Got up at 4:15 AM, took a shower and did bathroom things then packed all and left Libbie in bed after kissing her good by. Returned the rental car and rode the shuttle to the terminal. TSA went well, I was through check in, TSA and the train to the C concourse in 36 minutes which isn't bad. This was my first time using the texted boarding pass which worked. Once at concourse C I stopped at Einstein Bagel and ordered a Cinnamon Raisin with Cream Cheese and a coffee and ate it at the gate. Denver has free Wifi so I worked on this journal at the gate until boarding time. I hit the lottery and got the exit row and the seat with no seat in front of me. I was able to stretch out a good 4 or 5 feet in front of me. This is a 2 legged flight, one to Houston and then Houston to Raleigh. One the second leg once we got over Pensacola, FL the air became unstable, very cloudy and the plane rocked back and forth for a very rough flight. Surprisingly it was smoother near landing when we were cruising at 13,000 feet about 20 miles from the airport. I was glad for that. My bag was first on the carousel which was a first then the Park N Ride took me to my car first which was also a first. What a great travel experience except for the rough flight which can't be helped. Storms are predicted for Raleigh this afternoon as a cold front arrives. Too bad I was flying in it.
The house really smells moldy. I set up the fan up for 100% exhaust. I need to do something more permanent. May have to purchase a second 20 inch fan and suspend it in the back of the crawl blowing towards the door.
Went to Kroger for milk and fruit. Bought Lloyds Pork BBQ and some buns. Had BBQ on a bun for dinner. The glasses from our SD wine tasting came back in the suitcase in one piece.

We had the B&B breakfast of baked oatmeal and a fruit plate. The oatmeal had pieces of Apple in the baked brick of oatmeal. It was quite good. We packed our bags to go and said our goodbys. We drove to Custer State PArk and paid the $15 admission. The needles rock formation exceeded my expectation with a tunnel cut in the rock and lots of cathedral spires surrounding it. There was a climber climbing the needle when we were there. Also a tourist van of ladies from Adventure tours. We continued the drive through the park stopping at many overlooks before getting on the wildlife loop. Our wildlife total was a coyote, a herd of antelope, some elk, a herd of burros and then a hige herd of buffalo, On our way out there were even some standalone bull buffalos, one right next to the road grazing. He was huge as my car. We stopped for lunch in Hot Springs at a DQ where we had chicken wraps. The Wyoming prairie is beautiful and is an 80 mph road but hardly any cell signal. The traffic was terrible from Fort Collins to Denver, it was stop and go on the Interstate. On the Denver outskirts we chose to take the toll road which was excellent and went right near our hotel. The Holiday Inn was a beautiful new hotel. We went next door to gas up the car at 7-11 and then on the other side of the hotel to an Italian restaurant named DiCicio. It's family owned and has old world charm. The inside is like an opera house with multi level box type seats. We were downstairs. We had a bottle of the house Cabernet which was by Canyon Road for $25. I had the sausage Canneloni which also had an individual sausage. It was very good. Libbie had the eggplant Parmesan. We both ordered a salad with the meal and some kind of heavy bread was served which reminded me of sourdough. Went back to our Denver airport Holiday Inn stuffed. I'm glad it was close by. I have to get up at 4:15 AM so I went to bed at 9 PM. It was a good day.

We had a huge breakfast of a tapioca cup to start followed by a plate with eggs, kielbasi, pancakes and syrup. I can't keep eating huge breakfasts like this. It started out as a cloudy day but the sun came out later. The Crazy Horse monument was huge. Rushmore would fit into the face of Crazy Horse. We did the bus tour which was $4 each and well worth it, we went to the base of the monument. There were only 4 people on our school bus. The driver was pretty friendly and knowledgable. A great guy. The Indian Museum was fasntastic and huge, it far exceeded expectations and was well worth it. I enjoyed the artifacts of all the tribes, the museum rooms seemed to go on forever. We had an Indian Taco for lunch in the very nice cafe where our table had a beautiful view of the Crazy Horse monument. Our server was a retired guy who lives out of an RV and will be going to TX next to help Amazon Christmas deliveries. Interesting life these retired folks carve out for themselves. When we got back we had wine and cheese on the deck but I knocked the bottle over which dumped Libbie's glass of wine all over the place including on her white jacket. What a mess I cleaned up while she cleaned her jacket. For dinner we went into Keystone and had Pizza and beer at an efficiently run family restaurant. The wait staff was small and running ragged, they were short handed. We had a nice fresh mushroom pizza with a Moose Drool beer.

Our B&B served a delicious cinnamon pear as a starter then a quiche bowl and a side of fresh fruit. Both were outstanding although I'm not sure I liked chicken in my quiche. It also had egg, cheese and bacon. A toast with tomato and cheese was also on the side. The coffee was a little weak. We could not get WiFi this morning so ended up driving down to Keystone to use the free public WiFi in the street which was amazing. It was quite good and allowed us to get our mail. NExt we took our stuff and went over to Mt Rushmore. Hiked the Presidential Trail and admired the sculpture, visited the sculptors studio and watched the movie in the visitors center. It was all interesting although I'm not sure I would return. Been there, done that. We attempted a drive into Custer PArk but turned around after 5 miles of twisty turns driving. Loved the tunnels that have views right out to Rushmore. Such a treat. I was tired so we bailed and drove into Hill City where we tasted wines by Praire City Winery. They were not worth the price so we ended up in the city at a food market where we bought Calif wine as well as crackers and cheese. It was a very nice day. When we got back the WiFi was working. We had the wine and cheese with crackers on the porch and then went out to dinner at the Himalayan indian Restaurant. When we went inside the smell was heavenly, we smelled curry or spices. I wanted Briyani but the waiter suggested chicken Tika Masala which was delicious. It's chunks of chicken with an Orange Curry sauce along with Basmati rice. We shared the entre which was more than enough food. We had water to accompany. Quite nice. We told our neighbors from England, Peter and Jane, about the restaurant. They were interested.

Joe was up early working in the kitchen. Christa came down to say goodby then we headed out the door at 6 AM. We were TSA Pre and had no trouble at all at John Waynce, we breezed through. The flight was full but I scored an exit row seat. Libbie was in the same row but across the aisle in a seat that was not in a wide row. We got in early in Denver but landed in Terminal C. Had to take the train all the way past A & B to get our baggage then the shuttle to the rental car lot. We got a Red Toyota Corolla with quite a few miles on it but it was fine. We had to wait since all they had ready was SUVs. IT took a while to get through Denver traffic, at one place the Interstate narrowed to 1 lane which was a long bottleneck. Eventually we hit the Open road and drove through Wyoming for the first time ever. Speed Limit was 80 which was unreal but not terribly different from 130 km/hr in Austria. Found our B&B in Keystone then went out to dinner in Hill City. We ended up in the Alpine Inn which has Filet Mignon for 9.95 which includes baked potato and salad. We had a 1/2 litre of very nice house Cabernet and enjoyed our dinner. The place was recommended by our hosts Lesley and Ron. The road to Hill City as well as the road to Keystone is covered with wandering deer.

Busy start to the day. I updated the MAAVS website with commercial vendors attending the convention, communicated with the LSAVC folks about adding the newsletter to their website then did the check in to Southwest at 7:45 for our Denver flight tomorrow morning. We got B20 and B21 but it was TSA Pre which was pretty cool.
We took a walk on the beach in Huntington Beach with Christa and Paige while Joe went off on his own to ride his bike, I got a pretty good sunburn, didn't expect it. We then went to Whittier for the Lapworth Labor Day picnic. It was almost 100 in Whittier which was surprising since it wasn't that hot in HB. Craig made Tortillas with chicken and beans, sour cream and lots of fixins. It was quite good. Packed up our suitcases when we came back ready for an early morning takeoff.

I finished the European trip blog today. Hope we go back soon, looking back it looked like so much fun. Joe's coffee maker failed this morning so we used the Keurig machine. It still tastes like instant to me. I have no more cold symptoms but am very lethargic. I vegetated most of the day. We had the leftover Pad Thai for lunch and then went to Central Park for the afternoon performance. We did a photo session under the trees while in the Park for a family portrait then participated in the swing lesson being offered. It was a little different, turn right, turn left then rock step. We danced a few numbers with the band throughout the evening. On the way home we stopped at La Capilla. I had a Blue Moon and a Shrimp Fajita which was way too much food. Later in the evening I helped Christa set up the new coffee maker she bought at Costco and ran a pot of hot water through it before bed.

I'm starting to feel the effects of a cold. It's too bad but I seem to be catching Libbie's cold and have a sore throat. I took some Vitamin C today and I will continue to take it all week. It's supposed to help shorten the after effects of a cold. We shall see. Once again I spent a lot of the day updating the European trip blog. I'm now down to the final day in the Wachau Valley where I will end it. Christa went out to get her hair done and wants a family picture, probably tomorrow. Paige is pretty busy today, we played with her all day. For dinner we ordered Thai from the little Gulf Thai place. I had Chicken Pad Thai as well as Joe and Libbie. Christa had Chicken Su sui or something like that. We had it accompanied by a beer.

I slept until 6:45 which is unusual. Paige woke up very happy this morning. Anne announced the DVD is now ready and was looking for suggestions for next year. Not sure what to do since DVDs are not mainstream anymore, however the conversation from the rest of the library group was entertaining. The amount of discussion was amazing and pretty educational. I think we should try to put some of the older videos on the YouTube pay channel. Libbie and I didn't do anything all day which was relaxing and amazing. For lunch we had ham and cheese sandwiches and for dinner Joe made delicious hamburgers and sausage hors d'oeuvres which we had with a beer. Joe uploaded several thousand images onto Picassa and configured his Chromecast device to show the pictures as a slide show.

I went back to updating the travel blog. It was great having this block of time to do all this writing. I'm still not sure why I'm doing it but it has been a lot of fun. For lunch we had the leftover tri-tip on bread. It is still as yummy as ever. I'll have to seek it out. I tried Pandora and found that the ads are blocked by Adbock Plus. It's pretty nice.
Sometime during the afternoon Paige got hurt. She got into the pantry and a large can of beans fell on her toe causing it to bleed. She screamed for quite some time while Libbie and Joe washed her toe and applied pressure to stop the bleeding. In less than half an hour she was back to her playful self.
We went to Debbie's house for a Lapworth family party. The menu was pizza and other things with beer, etc. It was a nice time with the Lapworths.

After breakfast we went to a Splash Park in Garden Grove. Admission was $2 each for adults. We met neighbor Shelly and daughter Charley there. Shelley is a tattooed lady but very nice. Paige doesn't like splashing water, just still water and puddles. On the way back we had Vietnamese sandwiches from a drive through. They were delicious. It was spiced pork and cucumber on a toasted baguette. In a bag there were pickled carrots and pickled Jalapenos to put ton the sandwich. It was delicious. Paige cried almost all afternoon. She's getting sick, a cold or sniffles. She finally settle down when Christa came home. Joe made Tritip steak on the grill on Hawaiian rolls with cheese. This was yummy. We accompanied it with beer. After dinner we took a walk to the school down the street and watched Paige while Joe and Christa played wall ball with tennis rackets. During the afternoon I set up the sub-domain ls.avsa.org for the license server and added an A record to the DNS so that when you access it, the request goes to 204.209.44.220

Paige was a little tired this morning after breakfast. We went to the beach at Corona Del Mar and walked along the cliffs then down the stairs to the rock formations on the beach. We spent a few hours walking and enjoying the sea breeze and sunshine. Came back and had ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. I then continued working on the travel blog, Travels by Tom.
When Christa came home we went out to the downtown festival night where Main Street is closed off and a Framers Market is running. We took a short walk out onto the pier then went to the HB Brewery for dinner. We all ordered the do it yourself Tacos which is 3 Tacos. I had pork carnita, carni asata and fish as the base for mine. Put some lettuce, cheese, sour cream and jalapenos on it. I drank a brown beer along with the dinner. They were featuring two beers: brown and blonde along with a host of others. We walked up Main after dinner and listened to some of the musicians along the way. Libbie bought a tied dye skirt for dancing that a vendor had on his racks.
This afternoon Craig stopped by to visit. He had his brother Gary and Gary's Son Kevin with them. Gary lives outside of Seattle and came down for a visit.

Spent more of today catching up on the travel blog. it's slow going but I'm determined to finish. We went to the Long Beach Aquarium today which was a lot of fun. Didn't bring lunch so we had the leftover subs from yesterday for lunch. This made me pretty tired. I posted a pic of Libbie reading to Paige as well as some pics from the aquarium. Over 40 people like the pic on Facebook. We bought $48 worth of groceries in Albertsons which gave us a nice chicken dinner grilled which Joe did. It was chicken, black beans and beer for dinner. Appetizer was sausage and some veggies with ranch dressing or hickory BBQ.

Woke up pretty early this morning because we're in Calif but our body is still on East Coast rhythms. I had a bowl of raisin bran crunch for breakfast which was good but I found out afterwards it was laden with sugar, 19 grams compared to shredded wheat which is 0.
Had a nice relaxing day catching up on my travel blog from Europe. In the late afternoon we picked up some subs for a picnic at the library where there was a big band playing Gershwin, Sousa, Bernstein, etc. We sat in the shade with Christa's cousin Pam and her grandchild. Libbie and I split a Turkey, Bacon and Avocodo sub. The sub shop was closing but we got our order in after closing and they filled it. The bill was $31.