I had intestinal pains today. For a while it was so bad I thought I had appendicitis. I googled this and decided I didn't have all the symptoms. We had a nice bike ride this afternoon and admired the sunflowers lining a driveway down by Laura Duncan Road. We came back via the Shepard Vineyard greenway which was a nice ride. Dinner tonight was Salmon, corn and Rodney Strong Cabernet. I didn't feel well enough to finish the wine which was a surprise.
I got the water line hooked up and turned it on without any problems. We now have a spigot outside the greenhouse door.

I wired up some IR LEDs and a receiver to the Smartthings shield. This is going to be a smartthings to IR bridge so Alexa can control the TV and other devices. We tried to get peaches today at the Apex produce stand but they were closed for the summer. Too bad, it was a good source of local veggies. We had eggplant parmesan in a wrap for dinner. Libbie grilled eggplant and onion on the cast iron grill. We heated some tomato sauce and coated 2 pieces of Italian flatout bread, covered it with Parmesan and pizza cheese then rolled it up for dinner. I packaged up the 10 new DVDs I made for Robert then we went to the dance party. Afterward we went out to McGregor tavern where Libbie and I shared a plate of wings and had 1 1/2 Yuengling beers.

Libbie was out at quilting all day so I took advantage of the uninterrupted time and worked on the open and close sensors on the garage door. I hung a Hall effect sensor from the ceiling and glued a magnet to the door top for the open sensor. The close sensor is a hall effect device on the wall which detects the same door top magnet. This works well and replaces the magnets which were glued to the belt. The issue was the belt with the open detector magnet would twist over time. Libbie brought home some leftover Pizza slices from her quilting today which we had for dinner. Lunch today for me was a PBJ sandwich since Libbie was out quilting. The Smartthings hub came today. When i tried to activate it I got an error message that the hub had been previously been activated. I contacted support and had them reset the activation once i sent them a picture of the serial number and barcode on the hub bottom. I'm not too happy with the eBay vendor who sold it as new in the box. I'm not sure what to do other than give them a negative rating. Once I got it activated I hooked up the GE/Jasco outlet which also arrived from eBay. The outlet is plugged into the porch tree socket. I can now command Alexa to turn the tree on and off by voice. We did a video with me and then Libbie commanding Alexa to turn the tree on and off. I emailed a link to the video to Joe.

We had a good dance lesson today. Robert took us through the various turns for the Rumba. We learned a lot of good tips and techniques. I finished up the water for the side spigot and turned it on. This will be useful. Dinner tonight was hamburger with onion and tomato on a bun.

No breakfast today. We left at 9:20 AM for the colonoscopy which was running late. I was rolled into the OR at 11 AM instead of 10:45. They couldn't do the procedure because the prep was inadequate. I suspected this because i couldn't get the liquid down. The Dr said they will schedule a recall in 6 months. When I came home at 1 i had a bowl of tomato soup and a peanut butter sandwich. We went out to the grocery store today at 3. Libbie drove since i was still woozy. We bought some ingredients for veggie wraps which we had for dinner. They are delicious as usual. After the grocery store this afternoon we both went next door and had waffle cones. I had a raspberry truffle which was good as usual.

I worked outside in the greenhouse on both the outdoor water spigot and the electrical conduit. The water is complete but not tied in to the main line. The electrical job needs some wood around the outlet to staple plastic to and also needs a hole in the foundation to tie it to the house wiring. I'm on a liquid diet today so i only had a bowl of french onion soup but without the onions. I started the prep today at 4 but had great difficulty getting the liquid down. I spent 6 hours and only got less than half the liter bottle of prep down. I kept gagging on the stuff. One of the issues was the amount of liquid. I had too much to drink today with soda and iced tea mix as well as the soup so i couldn't take any more liquid. I finally gave up around 11 PM and went to bed.

I watched Croquis Cafe video and a few others from my subscription and stumbled across Bruce Winter's videos. He is the Mr House guy from years ago. He's an IBM engineer still working in MN but telecommuting. I got inspired by his Smart Things videos in his new house in Alabama. After doing some research I ordered a hub on eBay and also an Arduino Smart Things shield and a GE smart outlet. The GE outlet plugs into the upper outlet of a duplex pair. It reminds me of the old X10 appliance modules sold by the old Radio Shack. The reason for Smart Things was because it uses the Z-Wave standard so i can get it from many vendors and the appliance modules look decent enough to use in a room. It has an interface to both OpenHab and Alexa. I can use Alexa to control it immediately.
The weather is fantastic. There is no humidity and the temperature is perfect. I started running the conduit for the outside outlet at the greenhouse that the fence will plug into. Libbie and I also worked on the pond to get the water clear. We ended up going to Lowes and purchased a new 560 GPH pump which is an exact replacement for the old one. I also picked up some glue for the conduit

I mixed up the gallon of stuff i need for tomorrow's colonoscopy prep. It has to be refrigerated to make it more palatable. Dinner was Lib's excellent pizza with fresh garden basil.

I got a surprise this morning when Bill Spencer informed me that we didn't sign up for the Shriner dinner-dance. Later in the afternoon he sent an email that he got get us in as a replacement for a cancellation. I spent most of the day trying to get the Moteino working as a timer-controller for the foundation fan. I eventually started over again from the ceiling fan Moteino base and had some success. I need to replace the Moteino framework although for now it's functional. I have some choices - I can adopt the OpenHab environment or I can roll my own. OpenHab seems so complex for my needs, however it integrates with Alexa which is what I want. We left for Shriners around 6 and got there when Ken and Anita were arriving. We had it pretty good since we were assigned to table 7 and the gang had table 6. Steve and Beth were also at our table. It was Nancy and Harry's birthday so Terri brought champagne to celebrate. Our gang seems to have the most wine bottles at the dinner. We stayed until 10 and left because I was pretty tired. The DJ tonight was quite good, in addition the food was better than usual although the caterers salad dishes seemed to be quite dirty.

I worked on the moteino for the foundation fan. I'm having trouble where it's hanging after reading the eeprom and trying to print a double number. It threatened rain today but didn't rain. I mowed the backyard with the hand mower. The grass was getting long in front of the Irises and Libbie wanted to weed the irises. We made the veggie wrap again, this is delicious. At a little before 8 we went to the studio and danced many dances then went out afterwards with a group to McGregor Tavern. Came home a little after 11.

Nancy came over to work with Libbie today. I bought some large paving stones and a frame and laid them down where the water from the garage valley comes down. We had 1/2 inch of rain last night and the water had puddled where I did not want it so I'm going to try the patio blocks as giant splash blocks. We reheated last Saturday's other half of the rack of ribs amd had it with Lima Beans and Ravenwood Zin for dinner.

Went out to get the car inspected first thing. They took me right away. As part of their maintenance they checked the battery and determined the capacity was only half of the 550 CCA. They would install a new Interstate battery for $99. Costco sells an Interstate battery for $65, no installation. Online Walmart has a 550 CCA battery for $100. Wonder what the in store price is?
I only moved one load of clay this morning so I could be rested up for dance. At 3:30 we went over and had our lesson which was excellent as usual. We ended up doing some tune up work on Rumba which we needed. We did the backspot turn, open breaks, cross over leads and a break for the Cuban. We came back and grilled some veggies and had them over a layer of hummus on a flatout bread which was an excellent meal from Cooking Light. What a nice meal. We had wine with our grilled sandwiches.

Back to the wheel barrow work. I moved 4 more loads of clay into the front area and cleared out a little more around the Maple tree where the soil had formed a large hump which is blocking the water from flowing away from the foundation. it's supposed to rain tomorrow but the job is still not done. We went over to the Whisk store and bought a cast iron grill with ridges to make grill marks in veggies. i have a recipe for veggie wraps which I bought the ingredients for. Can't wait to try the grill on the veggies and make a wrap.
I used some scrap 1x4 and made a little box for the moteino and power relay that will control the foundation fan. Took it out to the woods and painted it with aluminum or silver colored spray paint that I had. Dinner tonight was spaghetti with a little sprinkle of cheese and some of the leftover tomato pieces.

I rototilled along the front porch and moved the roots and decomposed organic material. I moved 3 wheelbarrows of the stuff and replaced it with 2 wheelbarrows full of clay from the backyard future pond site. This wore me down. We had another of the WSJ Ice Cream Sundaes this afternoon on the back porch. I tried the new Repel non deet mosquito repellent today while tying up the tomato plants. The stuff has no scent and actually works. I had no bites.
We left at 5:45 PM for the Roadhouse in Pittsboro. Curtis taught a Foxtrot lesson at 7:15 then at the 9 PM break we had a swing lesson. i learned a few things in the Foxtrot lesson such as walking sideways and some help with the sway move as well as an underarm turn. I danced with Tess a few foxtrots and a cha cha. She has a nice frame and is a good follower. She also was wearing a little dance dress that she swished around a few times showing her black boy shorts underneath. We left a little after 9 since I was very tired. The one waltz of the night, the Tennessee Waltz, was a mess. i didn't make it through it was so bad.

Finished up outdoors by cleaning up the brick shards where I punched a hole in the foundation then put some clear silicone sealer around the shutter frame. This concludes the foundation fan outdoor work. I also replaced the chewed up insulation on the AC pipes. It was deteriorated anyway but an animal made it worse by chewing through to the copper lines.
i worked on the MAAVS website today. This time I made archival copies of the files and the database which I ended up having to use several times to make the website functional. I ended up erasing the panels directory and the ctools director and replacing both manually using FTP. The replacement was the latest copy. I then somehow got the database updates function to work which enabled the newly installed directory with their files to become functional. Once I got to this point I took a snapshot of both the database and the file structure and saved it onto Traviata. I need to upload this to OneDrive but for now it resides on Traviata. I then performed the convention updates without a problem.
Libbie made her excellent pizza using fresh basil which was outstanding. Earlier in the afternoon we had the WSJ Ice cream sundaes but without the caramel popcorn.
I then turned attention to the crawl space foundation moteino program. This thing is what will control the crawl space ventilation. I managed to modify the ceiling fan program for the crawl mostly by just changing the address and improving the comments.

This morning I painted the frame around the foundation shutter even though it was PVC. Added a second coat in the afternoon then Libbie cleaned my brush for me. In between coats of paint I ran the wire and installed an outlet for the fan. I had to run out to Home Depot to get a utility box and cable clamps for the 12/2 and outlet. This wire was run into the audio closet for control by an arduino or moteino. At noon today I started the smoker with the racks of ribs for dinner tonight. While reading the WSJ I came across a cover story with photos of an ice cream Sundae. I went to Walmart and bought the ingredients to make a Sundae which we had for dessert. I didn't care for it, perhaps because I had too much to eat today and wasn't looking for dessert. Dinner tonight was baked beans, ribs, shiraz and an ice cream sundae for dessert. I had a problem this evening while updating the MAAVS website. Something went wrong and I needed to have Host Gator restore the site for a $15 charge. I let Brenda know about the problem. The original issue is that the views module won't allow editing, something is screwed up somewhere. I was hoping to update the views module but ran into trouble. I'll try again on the restored version but I will back up the site first.

Went outside to round the hole so the fan fit in. Used the last of my hydraulic cement then went to Lowes looking for more. Bought regular quick path cement instead of hydraulic because a 10 pound pail was under $7. I also picked up a piece of foam insulation for the AC pipe where a critter chewed up the old insulation. On the way back from Lowes we stopped at the strawberry farm and got peaches and tomatoes. A trip to Krogers got us lettuce and a package of ribs for tomorrow night. I finished the cement job then went back to Home Depot to get some PVC 1x4 and cement anchors. I made a picture frame out of the PVC and used it to mount the shutter and fan assembly. This went really well. I prepared the ribs by removing the membrane and using the rest of my KC rub on the ribs which I cut in half to make 2 racks. I like to rub the day before and let them marinate in the refrigerator overnight. Libbie cooked some hamburgers we picked up today which we had with baked beans and lettuce, tomato onion and a whole wheat bun. After dinner we went to the studio for the Friday night party. THere were 2 nicely dressed black ladies there and also a young couple from BYU trying to dance. It was nice to be back after our 2 weeks in ABQ. Afterwards we went to Brewsters which was great because it's near us. We had outdoor tables since it was a nice night to be out. I had 2 Lonerider Sweet Josie brews with a bowl of nachos and queso we shared. The queso nicely had jalapenos over the top.

Did some photo organizing and bill pay in the early AM then went outside and gathered my tools to put a hole in the foundation. I couldn't find the drill bit I think I purchased so I went to Lowes and bought a hammer drill bit, 3/4 inch wide. This worked well and in an hour or two I was able to get a square hole into the foundation. Libbie helped me find some foam to cover the hole overnight. I was too sore, tired and crumpled over (yes, it's true) to do anymore on the foundation. The hole is nice but needs some rounding on the high spots to accommodate a round fan in a square hole. Dinner was the leftover rotisserie chicken with beans and potato salad. I ended up going to bed at midnight. I wasn't tired so spent some time on my desktop computer. I unpacked the Navajo paintings. I really like them! Went to bed shortly after midnight.

Up early and down to breakfast in the hotel at 7. They had burritos stuffed with egg and bacon which I had with coffee. Went down the street for gas. The first station wanted $4 a gallon. One block further it was $1.99 at 7-11 where we filled up with 7.5 gallons in our Hyundai Elantra. Went to the airport and returned the car, rode the shuttle and breezed through TSA. No line and we weren't stopped for anything. We were over an hour early at the gate. Picked up an excellent coffee and Cheese Danish at Black Mesa Coffee in the gate area. Our flight was incredibly smooth as we sat in the exit row with no one in the middle seat. The flight was too short. Changed planes in Orlando and loved the new looking airport. We ate at McDonalds in the food court where I had a Big Mac. The flight to RDU was crowded but smooth as we got in on time at 6:20. Our car was first off the Park N Relax shuttle which was a rare treat. Tipped the driver $3 and started home. I-40 seemed to be blocked so we took the Cary Pkwy which was OK. Stopped t Krogers for a Rotisserie chicken and potato salad which we had for dinner. The house smelled musty so I will start the fan work in the foundation tomorrow to help ease the problem on rainy days where the crawlspace gets damp.

Stayed around the condo this morning to check in to Southwest. We had two different confirmation numbers so we each chedked in on a separate device. The tether worked well for me except I ended up buying an extra 1/2 gig of data because I only had 150 megs left. We then took a walk to Nedra Matteucci and spent 2 hours admiring the art. We then walked through the State Govt parking lot across the street and found the oldest house which we walked through. I found the RC Gorman trivets in this place for half the price they were charging in the RC Gorman library. They recommended Angels Bakery on Water St just off the plaza for sandwiches so we walked there and weren't disappointed. I had the BLT on Sourdough with Fries. The sandwich was excellent. the fries were the curly kind. We next browsed some galleries before going to the palace of the governors and picked up the Navajo Sand Paintings from the Navajo woman whose name is Nancy Price of Sheep Spring, NM. We also stopped in to a local trading post that had 2 Indian clerks. I bought more Navajo Sand Paintings there as well. Got back to the condo and began packing and cleaning then drove to ABQ. We stayed at a Comfort Inn by the airport. Just outside of Santa Fe there was a sandstorm on I-25 where we couldn't see in front of us. After checking in to the hotel we went out to Rudy's BBQ and had beans and a half rack of ribs with a Shiner Bock. Rudy's is a cafeteria style BBQ joint with picnic tables. It was popular with families.

After breakfast at the condo we walked to the Plaza to go to the Georgia Okeeffe museum. Francis and her friend from VA waved to us from the trolley as we walked to the museum. We paid the $12 admission and watched the overview movie of her life which was an excellent movie. She met NY studio owner and photographer Alfred Stieglitz and began a relationship by mail. She eventually moved in with him in NY where he created a series of nudes featuring her. They eventually married in 1924 and spent summers on Lake George in NY before her visit to NM in 1929. She eventually moved there permanently when he died in 1946. Loved the museum and seeing her watercolors and oils in real life. We then walked the palace of the governors and talked to the Indian woman who was selling Navajo sand paintings. She does not take credit cards. Walked to the Shed and had a lunch of Carne Adevada and a Santa Fe Brewing Co beer, 16 oz. Very very good meal of traditional New Mexican fare. We stopped in a few galleries on the return trip then crashed at the condo after a very tiring afternoon of non stop walking. It rained again and this time we drove out to dinner at La Choza against the tracks about a mile south of the condo. I was interested in the indian restaurant, Raagu which is rated the second best restaurant in Santa Fe according to Trip Advisor. I got the tethering app working on my phone reliably hooked by cable to the laptop.

This morning we packed up everything and chose not to do the hotel breakfast. We said our goodbys and went to mcDonalds for breakfast. Met John and Judy there then went back to get our suitcases and check out. We had a beautiful leisurely drive up the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe, stopping in Golden and Madrid on the way. We admired silver, turquoise, sculpture and paintings on the trip. We went straight to the condo then took a walk to the Plaza and bought admission to the NM History Museum which included the Palace of the Governors. The History Museum was quite good,, I learned a lot. We talked to John from the lobby of the museum, he recommended starting next door at the Governors and working our way chronologically. On our way to the Plaza we had a nice lunch at Cowgirls Taproom. I had the Carne Avocada which seems to be a New Mexico thing. It is tender pork marinated with oregano and other sauces. It was in Red Chile and accompanied by rice and beans. I washed it down with a Shiner Bock. After we went back to the condo it started raining with thunder and lightning. We went out in the rain and had a Pepperoni Pizza and a beer at Pranza Italian Grill which is a restaurant in a renovated warehouse. The crust was very uniquely thin but flavor was good. After dinner we found Albertsons and bought cereal, bananas blueberries and milk for breakfast. There was a beautiful full rainbow in the dark rain clouds. Of course the sun was shinning as well. It was a full day.

After the hotel breakfast this morning I went downstairs and set up to record Jenny and her presentation. She is the entymologist who talked about don't spray and pray. This went well although we had a fire drill in the middle of it all. We then recorded some walkthroughs and interviews before packing up everything and having lunch at the Range. I had a veggie wrap which was outstanding and too much food. We then went to Old Town and found a Mexican Band playing music. We danced salsa and Rumba with the other dancers on the square. It was fun. Returned tired and got dressed for the Presidents reception and installation banquet. They had a two piece band playing which allowed us to dance and njoy drinks. i danced with one of our violet friends from Ottawa who was teaching me Samba. Fun. After the evening dinner of chicken and veggies we went outside by the pool where another band was playing. We danced some more before I passed out tired in our room.

After a hotel breakfast of eggs and bacon I went down and set up the recording equipment to capture Bill Price for his gesneriad talk. i hope the mike worked. This was my first time and I'm not sure all went well. ll Cenci ran out of memory on his video camera so it will be interesting. At least we will have the powerpoints to see if we can do something with all this. I went to the auction luncheon which was entertaining but not worth $38. each. I watched the Penny Kerker panel but did not do any recording about how to package plants for show. In the evening we went over to the Marriott for the Murder at the Marriott dinner and play. it was fun. I had two guys assigned to me playing movie producers who I introduced to the library group. They did a good job convincing the group they were really producers. The table next to ours were convinced these two were not plants, they were legitimate. Dinner at the Marriott was fish with veggies and a salad. A mousse was dessert. After the dinner we found from Steve that we were bumped from the balloon ride, the basket was full. Oh well, we saved $400.

After the Crowne Plaza breakfast we went to the bus at 9:15 and left for the Los Poblanos Lavender Farm. This was a very small old Dairy Farm that has been repurposed into a sustainable agriculture farm. The main crop is Lavender which they harvest and then distill to extract the oil for fragrances and creams. It was quite a beautiful old farm with nice buildings and gardens that we enjoyed walking through for the morning. We returned around noon after which i ran to Walmart for more sandwich wraps for lunch. Had a quick lunch in time for the Library meeting and photography at 1:30 after which we started the show photography. This finished early and then Libbie and I went upstairs and fell asleep for a while. Got dressed and down to dinner at 6PM for the Social hour. We sat with Steve Covollo, Karen my beta tester, Bob Krazuski and wife - the hybridizer of Jersey Snowflakes and 2 other ladies. The meal was a flat iron steak with mushroom gravy and veggies. It was quite good, a surprise for Hotel food. The end of a very long day.

Up at 4:45 to get ready for getting together at 5:15 in the lobby for our van to the balloon launch. One of the vans locked their keys inside so we had to wait for that before we could leave the hotel. We launched from Mariposa park. Danny and I held the balloon open so that the thing could be inflated with cold air. Once inflated, the gas was turned on and the balloon heated and lifted. We each got in and we were off. It was so great. The lift was smooth and serene. We rose quickly. I looked at the ground and asked how high we were. The answer 6,500 feet. Wow, that was fast.
It was so serene to be gliding in the air currents, I loved every minute of it. I'm amazed at how quiet it was and how we silently drifted along. We had a touchdown in a field and were promptly picked up by the chase van. After folding the balloon and loading the basket we were driven back to the park 7 miles away where we had some breakfast snacks and a Mimosa toast which consisted of champagne mixed with Orange Juice. We had a picture in front of the van then headed back. We had the hotel breakfast late which wasn't very good compared to yesterday. Because Libbie's phone had run out of storage I went to Walmart and picked up a 32gb SD card and a sandwich wrap in Walmart for some one stop shopping. The sandwich was quite good.
Wednesday evening we sat outside with Linda and Barbara from Philly and ordered a plate of fish tacos at 5:30. By 7 PM we finally had to cancel because Libbie was working classification and needed to get back. We went out at 9 PM down Manual looking for food and stopped into a Sonic drive in. This was our first Sonic experience and it wasn't bad. I had a grilled chicken combo which came with tater tots and a drink. Libbie had the sandwich only with a bottle of water. We shared the tater tots which weren't very good but the sandwich was excellent.