Another busy day with Paige. While Libbie went to story hour I continued working on the timer. I stripped down the interrupt function eliminating a few MQTT status calls. Before reading hour I ran over to Kroger for supplies and the Friday freebie which was Idahoan loaded potato soup. I finally got the Timer functioning correctly. After lunch we went over to Seagrove Park and played on the slides and climbing wall. I actually climbed the tree ladder and then the climbing wall and went down the slide with Paige several times. There are two side by side slides. The 3.0 reeds came today so I fired one up and tried it with my tuning meter. It seems to work a little better than the 2.5 reed. Most of the notes are coming in on the green of the tuning meter.
Dinner tonight was the awful seasoned hamburgers along with baked Honey Chipotle beans and Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon. We were so tired we collapsed in bed at 8:30 PM. Paige is a beautiful little girl but she is a bundle of energy which far exceeds our level of energy

This morning I rewrote the ESP8266 program which was working in order to use the ESPEasy library. After i got it all compiled and loaded it did not work at all! Next step is to strip back all the options on the one that is working so I can get it to do timings better. I have not been having much luck with this thing. Libbie packed a lunch and we went to Pullen Park with Paige. After the playground and walking through the Caboose we had lunch on the bandstand stage then went over to the Carousel. Paige and Libbie rode before we went to the train. While waiting for the train Paige rode the boats which used one of our tickets so I walked to the ticket booth and bought one more ticket. Tickets are only $1 each. We all rode the train around the park which was not very comfortable since Paige decided she wanted to sit on the bench instead of Libbie's lap. She can be stubborn, going through the terrible threes. We drove home in the afternoon after a tiring day at Pullen. Dinner was waldorf chicken salad once again. Libbie spilled her wine which was the last of the 2 buck chuck Shiraz so we opened the bottle of Rodney Strong and had Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner. Clarinet is getting better. I'm doing scales using the tuner and am now managing to stay in the green mostly by putting more pressure on my lower lip. Today's practice session was the best so far. Earlier this week I couldn't play anything after doing the scales with the tuner.

Libbie went with Paige to the library for story time while I redid the timer program with debugging enabled over the serial port. I had to get rid of ESPhelper to do this since I have not been able to get ESPhelper to work with the serial port. I found a few errors in the program this way that I am going to fix. After our lunch of BLT sandwiches we went to Crowder Park for play on the gym equipment and turtle watching from the zigzag bridge. After the park I was really tired but we kept on going. Dinner was hamburgers with butternut Squash and a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. My Logitech hub arrived. I can control the TV with Alexa but am having trouble with the DVR. I have yet to get it to come on. During the night we had an issue with the light over Paige's bed. She wanted it on but the 60 Watt bulb gets really hot so we wanted to turn it off. Paige wanted it on. I ended up taking a 60 Watt LED and putting it in this fixture. I need to buy a case of 60 Watt LED bulbs.

We went to the library after a breakfast of pancakes. Paige had a melt down because the animals were not arranged the way she wanted them in the car. We fixed a picnic lunch then drove to the State Fair. We parked at the far end of Carter Finley in the first row. It was a long walk. We got some free hush puppies and Cheer Wine then went to the Kids Barnyard. Paige wanted to have lunch so we found the picnic area and had our sandwiches. She had an American Cheese on white bread with fruit punch juice while we had tuna sandwiches. After lunch we went over to the Sky Ride and bought $15 worth of tickets and rode across the midway. It was a great but expensive way to get back to the entrance and exit the fair. We found a pedicab and got a ride for $10 plus $5 tip back to our car. This was worth it because of having to carry Paige which neither of us could do for a long distance. Dinner was white spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese. We had a glass and a half of Shiraz since it was a very long day with Paige. I tried and failed to get the ceiling fan timer working with MQTT. I removed the interrupt without much luck. Next I will try to remove ESPeasy to see if I can make it to work. I'm quickly running out of ideas. Late in the evening we listened to Turandot live from the Met.
I had some interesting eMails with Joe regarding credit card rates. he calculated what the break even would have to be between a free card rewarding 1.5% and our $59 card paying 2%.

It's a rainy day. We tried walking to the park in Seagroves but it started raining on the way there so we turned around at the pond. Joe left around noon before lunch. We had lunch then drove over to Trader Joes for Apples. The weather was misty and cold but we drove over to Crowders Park and enjoyed the Park. This was a huge park with lots of play areas. After the park we came home and stopped at the library for a pile of books. Dinner was Waldorf Chicken salad in Pita pockets. Paige liked the chicken but didn't eat much. We had a glass of wine with dinner.

After the Sunday morning shows I went to work on the ceiling fan timer. Unfortunately I had many problems trying to get the serial port to work for debugging and status. I got MQTT working but not the serial port. In the meantime I put up the Rose Parade poster and the bulletin board in my office in a further effort to continue moving into my office. My Clarinet practice today was awful. I tried running the scales using the tuner and had many shrieks. When I switched to playing a song the shrieks continued. Worse, I couldn;t do the scale that crosses the break. I need to keep trying. We left at 5:45 PM for Joe's 6:20 flight. I chose to park in Premium parking which used to be called short term. It's $3 per hour. We ended up paying $3 after picking up Joe and Paige. It was dark when we got home but Paige seemed to settle right in to playing with Joe's old toys that Libbie dug out of the attic and washed this week. We had Libbie'a outstanding pizza with a Killian Red. She made 3 pizzas which were perfect. I had one beer which wiped me out.

Good lesson with Justin. My homework is to practice with the tuner running scales before I start playing songs. After the lesson I went to Lowes in Apex and picked up a stud sensor because the Stanley quit working. This tool worked well finding studs for me to hange the 2 shelves I bought for the Navajo art. Libbie went with me to get another shelf since I needed 3 instead of 2. I hung the last shelf and then installed the art. It looks great. I spent a lot of time looking for the Android TV box and finally found it in the Jtag container. I hooked it up and got the Sweet Adelines convention competition from Las Vegas streaming on our big TV. We both watched the finals including Sue's Harbor City chorus which ended up placing 6th. The show was enjoyable, next year they will be in St Louis. During the competition we had Chinese Szechuan 3 meat wit eggrolls and 14 Hand Red blend wine for dinner.

The garbage guy took our scrap wood. The can was super heavy but it's all gone now. I ripped all of the CDs Libbie had in a crate in the Plant Room. i finished up the Timer program for the ceiling fan this afternoon. Dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese. We went to dance at 8 and found from Robert he was going to end it at 9 PM. Not sure what's up for that. After dance we went out to McGregor Tavern. Libbie and I shared a plate of fully loaded Nachos which had Jalapenos, chicken, cheese, Olives, etc It wasn't too good. We had this with Red Oak beer.

I continued ripping CDs and working on the timer program throughout the day. In the afternoon I took the saw and chopped up the pile of scrap lumber from the flooring job and the attic stairs. It filled the garbage can to the top. I did a Costco trip today to get blueberries and wine. The blueberries unfortunately were from Argentina. I sampled a pretty good frozen Margerita pizza and a chicken wing. Both were good. I also found 14 hands wine for 7.99 which was $1 less than Trader Joes. While there I went next door to Academy Sports for the first time. Nice store but they didn't carry zip lines. Dinner was Salmon with rice and Shiraz.

I moved more stuff into the office since it's getting more difficult finding stuff in crates and tubs. I have too much junk! I fixed the garage door button finally by taking it apart and putting new wire to the junction by using solder and shrink wrap so a single wire comes out of the wall to the button terminals. i also installed the single button at the side door. The door opener is now reliable. Dinner tonight was the leftover Taco salad which we did not have with wine this time. Water only. What a disappointment.

I made 2 stepping stools for Paige with the scrap stair treads lying in the side yard waiting for a dump trip. I did a Kroger run for the weekly groceries but no dinner plan since we have the ingredients for tonight's dinner. We had taco salad with Shiraz for dinner. After dinner we listened to the Magic Flute live on Sirius XM from the Met. I ripped a pile of 30 CDs today now that the office computer is back online. I'm amazed at how many we have yet to be ripped. I'm barely at 25% of our media library.
Dinner was the Taco salad which we had with a bottle of Shiraz.

This morning I shut down Traviata and moved it to the new office. After many trips I started the Server and everything worked including the printer. Hurrah! I need to build a step stool for Paige so she can use the toilet when she gets here next week. I have some scrap lumber in the side yard that was going to the dump but I'll use some of this first. I took some time off this afternoon and read on the tablet in bed as well as viewed some phub. My favorite girl, Emma Lovett, was topless in her hot tub outside. Very nice. I went back to Staples
and exchanged the small chair mat I bought for the larger variety. While there i went into Trader Joes with Libbie and bought some popcorn that Joe said Paige likes and also picked up some two buck chuck. On the way home we stopped in Kroger and bought the ingredients for Taco Salad which we were going to have tonight until Libbie remembered that tonight is Mr Wonderful at the Pittsboro Roadhouse. We had a very nice time at the Roadhouse. Ken and Anita as well as Ken and Lana joined us for a table of 6. It was fun when we have more friends there at our table. We stayed part way through the second half of Mr Wonderful's performance. Dinner was below Roadhouse standards. The salmon had way too much mayonnaise and the sweet potato fries were very greasy. The dinner was a salmon BLT that we split accompanied by Sweet Potato fries. I had 2 craft beers, a dark porter to accompany the meal.

I disconnected my Desktop computer, Manon 3, and moved it up to the new office. I had to take a scrap of 1x8 and mount it to the side of the table to get the switch off the floor for Ethernet. This worked pretty well. I wanted the floor clear for future passes with the Swiffer cleaning pad. I spent quite a bit of time getting everything hooked up again. When it was all done I fired the thing up and it worked. Yes!
Libbie vacuumed the attic since we didn't want any of the sawdust and crap on the floor to track down the nice newly painted stairs. This allowed me to bring the desk drawers down which I washed before installing in the desk.
I did some diagnosis of the garage door control and think that maybe the wire was broken that hooked to the red terminal. Either that or I broke it removing the panel from the wall.
Dinner tonight was Libbie's great pizza which I put some red pepper on. We had the pizza with water then had Key Lime yoghurt by noosa which was the Kroger freebie. It was great but at 310 calories it's a bit rich.

I had an excellent lesson with Justin. I learned a new note, b flat, then learned emphasis on marked notes. My music is coming along. On the way home from the studio I stopped into Trader Joes and bought Apples then looked at floor mats and file cabinets in staples. Came home to help Libbie sweep the floor then went to Office Max and Lowes. Bought furniture coasters in Lowes then went back to Staples and purchased 2 of the floor mats for the office. Came home and had a nice bowl of tomato soup for lunch then went out in the rain with Libbie to Walmart and bought a table for my computer. After lunch today I also slid the big steel desk into the office and the file drawers. The other drawers are in the attic and because the stairs are painted will have to wait. Instead of moving my computer I spent some time ripping CDs from our audio collection. I did about 30 but still have literally hundreds more to do. I'm amazed that even though our online collection seems huge it barely is 25% of our CD collection. Dinner was a rib eye steak with sweet potato and Rodney Strong Cabernet. After dinner I worked a little more on organizing the CDs I ripped, transferring them to Traviata.

Libbie put another coat of urethane on the stairs then we went to Woody's furniture to look at wooden file cabinets. The one I liked was $329 unfinished. We did find 2 lamps that seemed perfect for the downstairs bedroom so we bought them for $30 each. I put 2 LED light bulbs in the lamps. Now I need to address the fan relay so I can control it via MQTT. I finished spackling all the nail holes then painted them. This concludes the office remodeling work. It's been a long 2 months but is finally done. Dinner was Libbie's Quesadilla with cheese, tomato and salsa on flour tortillas. She never made them before. We went to dance tonight and enjoyed ourselves then went out to BJ's Brewery for flatrbead California Club and 3 Red Oak beers.

I hauled the nail gun upstairs and worked on getting the base tacked down. The gun does a great job since it also counter sinks the nail. Libbie painted the stairs with polyurethane while I did this. The room is really finishing up. The extra remote button for the garage door arrived today from eBay. I'll mount this by the side door and hopefully it works along with the remote panel at the house entry door.
Freddy came out this morning to diagnose the generator surging issue. It appears to be starving for air. He replaced the air filter. This cleaned up the surging and made it run smoothly. I can't see it as being a solution but I'll try it to see. The issue was I changed the air cleaner after it was surging. He said the generic filter has more air flow. He also suggested the possibility of drilling more holes in the air filter housing. I'll do that the next time it surges. My issue is that I used WD40 one time and it fixed the issue until the next time. Freddy used WD40 so I'm suspicious as to whether this is short term or not.
Dinner was a salad with Cucumber and Tuna. I used spicy thousand island dressing which Libbie didn't care for.

I nailed the 6 steps I installed yesterday and then made a cut list of the rest of the stairs. Next I practiced Clarinet until it was time to go pick Libbie up. I left at 10:30 for her 10:50 flight. She called when she was on the ground and had her suitcase while I was just crossing under the Harrison Ave bridge, about 5 miles from the airport. After bringing her home I gave Libbie the tour of my new door opener and in the office progress. I then continued cutting stair treads and finished installing them before we went to our dance lesson at 2:45. It was a good lesson, reviewing some foxtrot steps including twinkle into forward progressive steps and also pivot turns from promenade. Stopped in to Kroger on the way back and picked up pearl onions and pork chops for our dinner plan. We made Cooking Lights pork chops and pearl onions with apple slices. It was quite yummy, served with a side of rice. Chicken broth and flour along with apple cider vinegar made a nice dressing over the top of this. Quite yummy! We had this with some Kirkwood Rutherford Meritage. We went out to Brewsters for Ice Cream after dinner.

I cut all the trim pieces for the base in the Office and lay them in place but did not nail any of them. Next I started cutting the stair treads one by one. Each one has slightly different dimensions. I got about half of the treads cut before tiring out in the evening. It was a long day of walking multiple times up and down the stairs. My knee is acting up, at one point it wouldn't support me without pain. I need to take it easy. I also ate too much today. Lunch was Lloyds BBQ on a bun. I had the same BBQ for dinner on a buun as well as ravioli and tomato sauce. I really need to cut down the eating. I'm feeling stuffed the next day as I write this. I got up earlier than usual this morning and checked Libbie in for her 6:20 AM flight tomorrow. I also did a grocery run picking up the normal staples in Kroger then going to Costco and picking up wine and blueberries. In the evening I listened to Norma live from the Met. I nowo have a different opinion of this Opera. At first I didn't think much of it but now I like it. The singing is awesome and the music and the choruses are great. I listened to it all the way to the end.

I finished the garage door install this morning by installing the control panel by the house door and also by programming the phone app to monitor and activate the door. It works really well. The door mechanism is amazingly quiet.
Next I opened the can of red paint and put two coats of paint on the risers. I was feeling stressed today because I had a lot to do. In the morning I practiced Clarinet and also finished the Sept update for First Class. I also returned Dave Kesler's phone call. All this was stuff I was fretting about. I made another pizza for dinner which I enjoyed with another Shiner Bock. This time it came out a lot better. Talked to Lib this morning. There is a glitch with the condo sale. There is no deed because the LLC for the partnership ran out 12 years ago. I didn't even know there was an LLC. Mary will have to deal with this when she gets back from Europe.

During the morning shows I spread a couple of sheets out in the Family Room and assembled the new garage door opener. I spent most of the afternoon installing it in the garage. When I was done I ran to Lowes and picked up another 1x8 board for making two more risers on the attic stairs. I cut both risers and nailed them in. Now I'm ready for paint but I was too tired and went to sleep exhausted. For dinner tonight I thought I would make a pizza using a Kroger premade crust. This was a disaster. The watery pasta souce went thorugh the crust and glued it to the pan which made a mess trying to get a slice of pizza. It tasted OK but was a mess. I had this with a Shiner Bock.

I had a good clarinet lesson today as usual. We concentrated on getting the notes to come out sounding better. Justin played a note on the scale and I tried to match him. I was not having any luck at home with the tuning meter.
I got hooked on James Bond using the Plex app. I watched View to a Kill after finishing watching the old On her Majestys Secret Service which featured Piz Gloria in the Swiss Alps.
Today I started on the risers for the attic stairs by cutting up the leftover plywood from the floor. This is a good use for this piece of wood. I ended up returning to Lowes for more riser materials. I had lots of trouble make-ing the door go down. It kept reversing itself. Eventually the door self destructed going down and bent the drive mechanism. After dinner which was pasta lasagnas in tomato sauce I went out to Home Depot at 8 PM and bought a new opener with a 10% off coupon. I alos picked up a couple of 100 Watt LED bulbs for the opener since it was all on the 10% off coupon.

Today I spent the whole day in the office closet putting down flooring. This was a harder job than I first thought because of close quarters and getting the pieces to mesh properly. Dinner tonight was Southern Fried chicken from Kroger along with a couple bottles of Shiner Bock.

Went to Lowes this morning and bought the trim for the office as well as a stack of stair treads and some 1x4. I'll paint all this before installing. i put down the underlayment in both the attic entrance and the closet. I cut both door jambs for both doors and then laid the floor down in the attic entry. This completed my activities for the day. While at Lowes I also got two 100 watt LED bulbs for the attic because the old incadescent bulbs finally burned out. They may have been the originals from when the house was built. There is one incadescent bulb left. Should have bought a third LED but they come in 2 packs. Not sure where I would use the extra 100 watt bulb. I also bought a 3 outlet outdoor cube tap for my extension cord. This really works well since I can plug all my power tools in while working outdoors. This includes the jigsaw, the Skil saw and the miter saw. I used all three while putting down the attic entryway. Lunch today was the leftover Lloyds BBQ in a pita. For dinner I had Southern Fried chicken from Kroger along with a Shiner Bock Beer. We have one more excellent tomato leftover on the window sill. I need to figure out what to use it for. I may make a chicken and tomato sandwich tomorrow. The tuner came today. It seems to be all over the place trying to play a note. i was hoping it would be able to allow me to tune notes better with my emboruchere. So far no deal.

Up at 5:45 AM left at 6:15 to take Libbie to the airport for her 7:55 flight. I got back and continued working on the floor reaching the opposite wall and the attic door before quitting. The job went well. I picked up the carpet scraps in the attic entryway and removed the lower step which is insect eaten. I used a flashlight and did not see any termite tunnels so it may have been a carpenter bee or similar. I didn't see any other damage so I don't think we have a problem. I'm thinking I can use the one sheet of plywood I have left to make risers for the stairs. I'll have to buy stair treads from either Home Depot or Lowes. Since Home Depot sent me a 10% off coupon i'll try them first. For lunch today I heated the Hormel freebie i got from Kroger. It had some kind of meat product, mashed potatoes and gravy. It was adequate but not great. Dinner was Lloyds BBQ chopped pork stuffed into Pita pockets. I like the Lloyds in a tub since the sauce is very flavorful.
I did my normal Clarinet practice today then I tried to play along with the Bacarole by Offenbach on a German Clarinet site that i discovered. My Clarinet does not sound as good as the one in the recording. I think it's embrouchere.

I continued the flooring job today and got about half way cross the room before finishing for the day. Cooking Light sent an Enchilada casserole recipe which we made for dinner tonight. Basically they put some flour tortillas in a pie dish and layered it with ground beef in onion, garlic and taco seasoning. The whole thing is then covered with Monterrey Jack Cheese. I chose the mild Taco mix by McCormick instead of the Hot which had red peppers in it. I added red pepper flakes to my serving. It was good although I could tell Libbie was not keen on it.