travel
Sunday, November 12, 2017, 06:00 PM
We had breakfast at 8. I had a Western Omelet which had peppers, onions and cheese in an engg mixture. I had bacon and hash browns with it and then a donut later. We waited around until everyone had gathered around 10. We saw Sasha and Michael and a lot of the rest of the wedding party. We said goodbye and left around 11. Sue and Bruce were staying another day. The drive back was pretty easy. I used the new Costco card in VA to get gas. We had a McDonalds stop at Exit 4 just before NC for lunch then got home around 2 PM which was good. I was a little tired and did not play the Clarinet when we got home. Libbie made her outstanding pizza once again from a crust she had in the freezer. it was quite good. Tomorrow I will deal with titling the car.
wedding
Saturday, November 11, 2017, 06:00 PM
Watched the sunrise on the ocean today from our 8th floor balcony. This is a beautiful hotel. It's brand new and has the Hyatt quality. I ordered a Southwest omelet for breakfast which was yummy except it had too much salsa for breakfast. Mary and John joined us. We made plans for going over to the Back Bay Wildlife refuge which was 18 miles south of here. Mary and John came with us in our new Prius. The center was great with boardwalks in the marsh and sea grasses that were over 8 feet tall. It was cold but the brush sheltered us from the wind a little. We saw the first of the migrating Swans. there were about 70 of them. The ranger lady said that the peak is 1000 swans that migrate from Canada and spend the winter on the VA and NC coast. We saw a nice variety of other birds including Herons and some small warblers in the grasses. The swans were Tundra Swans which i found on iBird. We had a nice lunch at Panera bread on the way back. i had a half sandwich which was a turkey cranberry that was yummy. The others got soup and half a sandwich, I skipped the soup. We got back in time to get ready for the wedding. First shuttle was at 3:20 to the art museum. The wedding ceremony of Michael and Sasha was lovely. We had some Family photos afterward then on to the reception. A little Pinot Noir with the hand passed hors d'oeuvres hit the spot. She crab soup in little glass vials was outstanding. The band was a rock band with 3 guitars and drums but they were very good. We did quite a bit of dancing with much swing, some rumba and a foxtrot and Texas two step. Dinner was filet mignon with rice and asparagus. The wedding cake was dessert with blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. A perfect cake. We did quite a bit of dancing including hold and sway then left on the shuttle at 9:30. What a nice wedding. 
drive to va beach
Friday, November 10, 2017, 06:00 PM
The garbage man came today but not the recycling guy so we'll leave it out while we're gone this weekend. FedEx overnight delivered the check from Carmax as well as my old license plate from the Corolla. I took this to the Credit Union and put it in checking to pay the real estate taxes. A quick trip to Lowes while at the CU yielded some glue on cable clips for the Sirius wiring in the Prius where it's exposed. Next was a trip to Kroger to top off my gas tank for the trip. I used the new Citi card. We got going a little before noon with a planned lunch stop on 58 in Emporia once we got off I-95. The trip was easy as we arrived at the Hyatt lobby simultaneously with the Benzigers. We hung out in Mary and Johns room a little bit and had some wine Mary had with her. At 7:30 we went down to the bar for some hand munchies and wine. While there we also ordered a "Sammy" which was grilled chicken on a bun with bacon and Fries. The bar was incredibly loud with young people making lots of noise having drinks and just hanging out. We left around 10:30 and went to bed. 
Sirius
Thursday, November 9, 2017, 06:00 PM
I practiced Clarinet a little before Nancy came then while she was here I did financial stuff. Payed the bill for Stoneybrook the Visa card and figured out how to pay everything we owe this month. When Nancy left at noon we had lunch then drove to Scottrade in Durham where Libbie deposited the proceeds from the condo sale almost 46k$. It was an easy drive up 751. We found that when the merger with Ameritrade is complete there will be a Cary office out by the old Sams club on Harrison. When we got back I started working on the Sirius XM. The receiver fits nicely in the corner of the windshield mounted to a side triangular piece of glass. I spent the afternoon hiding the various wires then backed the car out and tested the Sirius Radio. It worked fine. I had some trouble figuring out how I was supposed to select the Aux audio source but soon found the correct menu. This is pretty nice.
Dinner tonight was the leftover Chicken Parmesan breasts with a side of spaghetti. We had another bottle of Cabernet with the Chicken Parmesan. I need to stop eating like this.

Errand day
Wednesday, November 8, 2017, 06:00 PM
This was a busy run around day with little accomplished. I started with a trip to the Credit Union to get a Bank Draft for 15, 757,91 for the Carmax payoff. After this I went to Lowes an dbought 50 feet of 8/2 wire but they did not have 50 feet of metal sheatthing only 25 feet. I then went to Investment Blvd looking for the NAPA store that is supposed to be there but had no luck. I brought the wire home then left for the Carmax store on 70 in Raleigh. Hannah in the finance department was proficient and handled the transfer of the title to Carmax including the notary and payoff of the temporary loan I had to take out in Naples to bring the car home. She is mailing the title, the check and the Corolla keys to Naples via Fedex overnight. There was a Lowes next to Carmax on 70 so I went inside and found the cable in a 50 foot roll. They also had 8 packs of LED light bulbs 60 watt equivalent for $10. That's 1.25 each which is great for 2017. I came home had soup for lunch then went out again to the NAPA store on the traffic circle where Chatham St meets Old Apex Rd. They actually had the Prius 12V battery in stock. The guy said there is a person who rebuilds hybrid batteries in Apex and buys a lot of the 12 volt batteries so they stock them. I brought it home, installed it in Libbie's hatchback without any problems. Watching the YouTube installation video a few days ago was helpful. I then took the old battery back to NAPA for an $18 core rebate. The whole thing was a good deal, less than $200 for the battery bottom line. The previous cheap one i found was for $202 on Amazon. For dinner we made Chicken Parmesan from cooking light. Libbie made a side of spaghetti which we accompanied by a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. I did some diagnosis on the Sirius XM power cable and verified with my meter that 12 volts is not coming out the cable. 
drive home
Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 06:00 PM
We did last minute packing this morning and got on the road at 8:20 PM. Traffic was not bad. Our first stop was for Libbie at a truck stop just before Gainesville. A crummy place to stop. While she went to the bathroom I topped off the gas. Next stop was for lunch at exit 36, Brunswick GA. It was a very nice McDonalds, either new or remodeled. I had a Big MAc and shared a small fries. We got gas across the street at Raceway and were on our way again. We topped off at the exit 170 Pilot for 2.12 per gallon. The Prius V is very comfortable but has a noticeable tire vibration at 70 MPH. The tires may need rebalancing. We arrived home at 7:45 PM. It was a dry and event free drive. Dinner was tomato soup and cheese and tomato sauce on a toasted bread round.
Happy Birthday
Monday, November 6, 2017, 06:00 PM
This morning I decided to chase down the Prius in Naples. Google said it was a 104 mile drive. I setup an online appointment for noon and left at 10 AM. We got there without issue at 11:45 AM. We met our sales guy Joe who was an incompetent moron. He didn't know how to start a Prius and told us he would never buy one. Every step of the way he seemed to be frustrated and took us to task when we asked Carmax managers for help with some things. We didn't have money with us and did not have the Corolla title but worked things out. They financed it 100% and arranged to buy our car with the closing of the Corolla title transfer occurring in Raleigh. We have 3 days to payoff the loan without penalty It took 3 hours to do this, mainly because of the incompetence of our sales guy. The Prius starter battery was dead but they gave us a new one from NAPA. At delivery the key FOB was dead. The service department handled it nicely and replaced the button battery but the sales moron was having a hard time dealing with it. It was great to get out of there! We stopped in a Ft Meyers McDonalds for lunch on the way home. Later we went out to Evie's Spanish Point and had a nice seat next to the bulkhead next to the water. It was our own private table. I ordered the nachos to get Chili Head Fries then ordered the special which was a Salmmon BLT. We had this with a Yuengling. I picked up a 12v adapter at Walmart across the street and soldered it to the Sirius Radio but it didn't do any good because next morning it did not work. We have a nice new used Prius V for our trip home tomorrow.
traviata
Sunday, November 5, 2017, 06:00 PM
This morning I continued researching cars looking for a Prius V. I looked at the Carmax offerings as well as cars in the Raleigh area. I found two promising offerings - a Carmax in Columbus, GA and one in Naples, FL. i skipped lunch except for a banana then left for the Opera at noon. We found parking on Palm a short distance from Main St further from the Opera House. We picked up our tickets then sat in the courtyard chatting with a couple from Michigan. He's a retired fireman living in Bradenton. They do season tickets in the balcony each time. We were in the second row of the balcony. Not as great as being up front in the orchestra section but the performance was outstanding, the music fantastic and overall a very enjoyable experience. I heard Opera i a whole new way. During a duet I noticed on Clarinet followed the Soprano while another clarinet followed the tenor then both Clarinets played the duet. Very, very good.
We ordered a Dominoes pizza online for dinner - extra cheese and extra mushroom on a large Brooklyn crust for 7.99 using online coupons. Our pizza wasn't ready even though online tracking said it went into the oven as we were leaving the condo. they apologized and said they got behind and gave us free Parmesan bread twists which were delicious. The bread came with Marinara dipping sauce. Very good.

Selby
Saturday, November 4, 2017, 06:00 PM
We left at 8:15 for Selby Members Day. The parking lot was full when we got there but we squeezed between an SUV and a tree in the upper corner of the lot. Check in was at the Payne mansion where we selected our plants and turned in the slip with our plants on it. Then over to the meeting room where we were wrist banded. They ad coffee in the room. We watched the status of Selby from their CEO. Everything is going really great. Chagall brought in 100,000 visitors last year and membership was up 9%. They had a very good year. Next the plans for Selby's future were presented with a parking garage and rooftop restaurant. We then went into the tent on the great lawn and went to the members plant sale. I picked up our free plants while Libbie went plant shopping. We got quite a few members plants, mostly foliage types. We brought one batch of plants out to the car then returned to tour the mansion and the tropical house before buying some more plants. Libbie got a large philodendron and an annual type plant with pretty foliage. We then had lunch under the Banyan trees. It was a turkey wrap that we split along with a bag of chips and a cup of water. We then left pulling a cart of plants. Rather than pull the cart all the way to the car, Libbie waited in front while I fetched the car and loaded it in front of the entrance. We put the plants in the condo for now on the Lanai and collapsed on the bed. At sunset we had wine and cheese then went over to the Italian Grill where I had a glass of Pinot with eggplant Parmesan. It was delicious but our waiter really needed more training. In addition there was a birthday party going on with some rude behaving people. 
prius V
Friday, November 3, 2017, 06:00 PM
It was an easy morning. I unpacked my suitcase and spent some time online. We decided to take a walk to the club house for lunch which was nice. For lunch we had the waitress Tommie. I ordered the provolone and tomato flatbread and a Yuengling. It came with a side of lettuce, tomato and cucumber with Zinfandel Vinaigrette dressing. We then did a Walmart trip. I needed a contact lens case since I threw my old one out at home but did not pack a new one. I needed a backup wetting solution anyway, A new case comes with the Optima brand wetting solution. We then went over to Sunset Dodge where they had a used Prius V Model 5 with 52,000 miles. The car was beautiful and I really liked the test drive. It was the deluxe model with lots of stuff I do not want. Heated seats, leather and a moon roof are the things I do not want at all. The other issues were they valued my Corolla at $4050 and they wanted $800 dealer fees. The car price was good at 17k but mileage was high at 52k. The RI condo closed today. Everybody got their notarized papers overnighted on time and the closing proceeded. I am estimating each sibling will be getting $40k+. I studied some preferreds yielding a minimum of 5%. The issue is that $40k is not much money so %5 is only $2,000 a year.
For dinner we had wine and cheese on the Lanai during sunset then went over to Evie's Spanish Point for dinner because there wa music there again. I had fish tacos which came with nachos and chili head salsa which I really like. A Yuengling complemented the meal. The singer was really good with an amazing guitar. We danced a Rumba for our last song before leaving.

drive to Sarasota
Thursday, November 2, 2017, 06:00 PM
I went through the entire night without a single cramp. I can easily proclaim that the Hyland pills work, either that or it's a placebo effect.
We left this morning at 8:20 according to the time stamp on our outdoor driveway camera. We saw on TV this morning that I-95 was closed at Lumberton due to an accident so we took Rt 1 South to 501 in Aberdeen then to I-95 just before Pedros. It was a mostly easy drive but it was long. We had a Mcdonalds bathroom and biscuit stop in Florence then a lunch stop at McDonalds in Savannah. I got gas at both stops. We took 301 down to just before Ocala and then I-75. Our later start successfully got us past rush hour in Tampa although we got in later than desirable because it was dark. The time was 8 PM. We unloaded the suitcases then went out to dinner at Evie's Spanish Point. There was an old guy playing guitar to some older 60s music. Lib and I danced 2 Rumbas to his music. I ordered Fish and Chips with a Yuengling draft which was delicious. Libbie had coconut shrimp. On the way home I picked up a tank of gas at Murphy in front of Walmart because they are across the street from Evie's.

fed ex
Wednesday, November 1, 2017, 06:00 PM
I had horrible cramps in my legs last night, the most pain I have ever been in. Ii need to hydrate more. The pain continued into the morning but cleared up when I started working on the steps. I got all the ones installed that I had after going to Lowe and picking up some material for the risers. I am short 3 treads to complete the job. We heard from Mary Benziger this afternoon. Libbie is going to get the closing papers for her parents condo via email. They need to be notarized and then Fed Ex'd to the lawyer in RI but my printer doesn't work. I reinstalled the printer driver and printed the pdF directly from the Server. We then drove to the credit union and got the notary work done with me as witness. We then drove to FedEx on Maynard and overnighted the 23 pages along with a copy of Libbie's license. I chose this FedEx because it was near Lowes where I bought the missing 3 steps for the fence project. On the way home we gassed up the car at Krogers and got some wine for dinner. Tonight we will have hamburger with mushrooms, beaked beans and cabernet sauvignon. This afternoon I stopped into Walgreens and bought some Hyland Leg cramp pills. Lets see if that works.
Happy Halloween
Tuesday, October 31, 2017, 06:00 PM
This morning Libbie came with me as we returned the 6 step stringers. While in Lowes I got new HVAC filters for upstairs and down. We then bought $185 worth of groceries in Kroger on seniors day. Most of it was the fruit cake ingredients. IT's the season! I absolutely ran myself into the ground when I dug out the landing for the steps, poured the 2 bags of gravel and set the stringers in place. This stuff is heavy. The new Clarinet does sound better than the old one. The high notes seem easier to play as well.
We left for Greg and Jocelyn's Halloween Party in Sanford at 5:40. Libbie made her ham delights for the party and we brought a bottle of Chateau Michelle. We arrived at 6:10. Their old restored house is a few blocks from downtown so there were quite a few trick or treaters. They were cute, some of their parents came with them up on the porch and they were costumed as well. I wore the purple and green wig and Libbie was a flower. It was fun. We had lots of wine and then the meal of pasta and meat sauce with sides that people brought. For dessert i had a slice of Key Lime Pie. We left the party at 9:01 after a wonderful night. The temperature was perfect so we sat on the front porch which is up high. It gave us a nice overview of the trick or treaters.

Clarinet
Monday, October 30, 2017, 06:00 PM
While Libbie borrowed my car I went outside and cut the 12 foot boards into stair stringers. I ended up with 9 steps cut out. I'm 3 treads short since I only purchased 6. These boards were heavy and that concluded my activities for today. I brought them around and tried them out but just placed them there without nails to see how far they extend. We signed up for an Aetna PPO today which was a long process on the phone with the representative. My Clarinet arrived late in the day after I returned from a Lowes trip to get 2 bags of gravel. Dinner tonight was Salmon with broccoli and Mondavi Cabernet.
stringers
Sunday, October 29, 2017, 06:00 PM
I bought the 2 2x12s today in Lowes for the stringers. They were heavy and hung out the back of my trunk. I kept them in the garage since we had a little bit of rain during the evening. Libbie made her pizza from scratch, she didn't have any saved dough. We had this with the leftover Yuengling Black and Tan that Joe bought on Thursday.
stairs and steak
Saturday, October 28, 2017, 06:00 PM
It was hard getting up this morning. I did a short warmup on the Clarinet at 8:15 then left for my lesson with Justin. He taught me a Pentatonic blues scale which I need to memorize and then improvise.
I had lunch on the back porch with Libbie, it was soup today. After lunch i did some measurements of the side deck height for stairs. It's about 50 to 55 inches high. I went to Lowes and bought a pair of 6 step stringers and 6 stair treads. Unfortunately when I got them home I measured them against the deck and they seem to be 2 or 3 steps short. I will have to purchase some 2x12 planks and make my own stringers this long.
We did a trip to Kroger for dinner fixings and bought a package of steaks on a WooHoo special for half price. They expire tomorrow. Dinner was the NY Strip steak, broccoli, baked white potato with sour cream and a bottle of Rodney Strong.

dance
Friday, October 27, 2017, 06:00 PM
Up at 5 AM this morning. I set up the coffee the night before then went downstairs at 5 to turn it on. We left at 5:30 for the airport with Joe and Paige. They have a 7:30 AM Delta flight. We parked in the Premier parking which used to be called short term parking. It costs $3 per hour, we stayed less than an hour. We accompanied Joe and Paige to the check in then left them at the TSA entrance. We got home tired but happy with the 2 week visit of Paige. She is a delight but certainly has her own way.
I got a new printer installed in place of my old one which quit. I needed to print the IRA distribution request then carried it to the Scottrade office in Durham. They were helpful. I made some errors in the form and the person at the desk was helpful in the corrections. I need to transfer 17,555 to my individual account. I really don't want to withdraw anything but IRS rules force me to do a withdrawal.
We left for Esquires at 5:50 and had an easy drive to North Ridge Country Club. The band was the Continentals which had 4 Sax players across the front of the orchestra. The buffet dinner was excellent as usual. I had the top round and a piece of the seared Salmon. I really like their salad. We each had a glass of wine with dinner. We sat with Jocelyn and Greg and also Bob and Phyllis. Bob is one run on sentence but his wife Phyllis is pretty nice. She is taking jazz piano lessons which is interesting. She's also a singer and uses the singing to help her piano playing.
We left shortly after the announcements during the break. Others were leaving as well but not because there was anything wrong. We were incredibly tired.

Fans and BBQ
Thursday, October 26, 2017, 06:00 PM
Today I turned the ceiling power off downstairs and hooked up the relay to the ceiling fan and then packaged the Huzzah into another electrical box and tucked them both into the ceiling space. I put the cover on the ceiling cutout and put the fan back together then tested it. Surprisingly the Huzzah is able to attach to WiFi while inside the electrical box in the ceiling. This was my biggest worry. I did all this while Libbie took Paige to the library for another costumed story time and then Crowder Park. Joe arrived at 3 PM after his drive from Clinton, TN. He took the Northern route from Virginia and said it was better. Paige was almost in tears of happiness when she saw her Daddy in our kitchen. We took a walk in the back to the little play area in Seagroves. On the way there we stopped at the pond and fed the turtles some crackers. Joe, Paige and I drove to Smithfield BBQ on Davis to pick up dinner. We picked up a BBQ pack which was 1 pint of BBQ, 1 pint of slaw and 12 hush puppies. We added a pint of potato salad and a pint of beans to the mix. On the way home we stopped at Foodlion and picked up a 12 pack of Yuengling bottles. I only wanted 6 but Joe said he would take some home. The meal was great, it has been a while since we had BBQ.
prototype
Wednesday, October 25, 2017, 06:00 PM
This morning I used the Adafruit perma proto board for the first time and really liked it. It makes wiring so much easier because rows of pads are tied together. This means each pin of the Huzzah is brought out to multiple pad holes. At first it didn't work when I plugged the relay into the proto board. Eventually I found that the relay input had 4.5 volts floating on it when not attached. The huzzah max is 3.3 volts. I put a 2N2484 NPN on the input with a 1K resistor driving the base from the Huzzah GPIO 15. This did the trick and it all worked perfectly. This is now ready to go into the ceiling. I installed misterhouse on the Node Red Raspberry Pi. I'm going to use this to experiment with voice recognition by Alexa and voice feedback from IBM Watson.
Dinner tonight was Spaghetti with Cheese and 14 Hands Red blend wine which was great.

Natural Science Museum
Tuesday, October 24, 2017, 06:00 PM
After breakfast we headed out to the 10:30 AM story hour at the Natural Science Museum in downtown Raleigh. This is really a nice museum. Paige of course had 10 seconds of attention span at each exhibit. We spent the most time playing with the stuffed toys in the Discovery Room. We luckily found metered parking in front of the museum for $1 per hour. After the museum we went to McDonald's in Crossroads. This is a really nice McDonald's with a 2 story play area and it wasn't busy. I had a big Mac. Paige had a Happy Meal with nuggets and Ranch dressing with chocolate milk. After lunch I walked over to Lowes for wire while Libbie watched Paige in the Play area. When I got back I put the ceiling fan back on the ceiling and did all the wiring. This ran me down. The music chair arrived when we got back from the museum. I really like it as a proper chair to practice Clarinet. Dinner tonight was pork chops with rice and squash and a bottle of Mondavi Cabernet. Hoffman was live from the Met tonight. Very nice.
retirement
Monday, October 23, 2017, 06:00 PM
I had an early morning, 8:30 am, dentist appointment. I learned that Dr Paul is going to retire at the end of June. We need to get placed with a new dentist.
We had some of the leftover pizza for lunch then Libbie went to the craft store for paint for Paige and then Kelly Road Park. I stayed home and cut the opening for the timer access panel to the fan. Unfortunately I ran into the joist blocking that I had to chisel out with the oscillating saw and the chisel. This really tired me out. I didn't do much for the rest of the day. It was a cloudy and misty day and then finally later in the evening around 10 PM it started raining. This is our first real rain in 2 months. For dinner tonight Paige had some pasta bowties with tomato sauce that Libbie cooked while I went over to Chipotle Grill and ordered 2 Chipotle Bowls to go with Carni Asada, rice beans, cheese, salsa, Sour cream, corn and peppers and onions.

visitors
Sunday, October 22, 2017, 06:00 PM
Up early with Paige this morning. She is quite a handful. We still were able to watch our CBS Sunday morning program. This was a good one with a story on the Cloud. I took the ceiling fan down in the back bedroom. I decided I am going to provide an access hole with a white cover next to the fan. This hopefully won't look too terrible. I can put the timer and power supply up in the ceiling through this hole. We walked back to Seagrove Park and had a delightful walk as well some play time before Paige decided we weren't going back the short way we both wanted to. Melt down time but she settled down after a while. I think it's a phase, sort of like the terrible twos but at three. Libbie made 4 pizza crusts for our guests tonight. Cole and Emily came for dinner to meet Paige. They brought a Wolfpack tee shirt and hair bows for Paige which she modeled for me. I posted the pic on Facebook and Cole forwarded a pic to Joe. Josh commented that it was nice. Cole said best tee shirt ever. Funny. We had a delightful evening with Cole and Emilie. Cole brought Pepperoni and mushrooms as well as some shallots to top the pizzas. They came out pretty good. Paige was delightful throughout the evening. Accompanying the pizza tonight was some Killian Red Beer. Tonight I made the decision to buy the Yamaha intermediate Clarinet YLC255 which lists for $1270 but is listed on Amazon for $589 plus shipping. Bottom line was $597. which I thought was a good price. It's coming from New Hampshire.
Clarinet practice and new clarinet
Saturday, October 21, 2017, 06:00 PM
I went to my music lesson at 9 this morning. I was using the new 3.0 reed but was still having some trouble. Justin tried my Clarinet with his mouthpiece and determined that it may be time for me to move up to a Yamaha Student Clarinet. He wrote some models down in my music book. I had a little bit of a shock upon waking. Where was no hot water for my morning shower. I tried a little bit of a cold shower but not too much. My most sensitive area for cold is from the waist to my neck. My lower body and my face are not sensitive to cold water. When I came back I worked on the heater. I found an online forum that discussed the 4 flashes that my controller was putting out. Sediment in the tank causes the sensor to cause the controller to go into an over temp lockout state, the fix is to perform a reset protocol using the gas control. I posted the protocol on Google Keep for the future. After I got the heater going again I retrieved the hot tub drain hose and hooked it to the bottom of the heater and flushed it. There was a lot of sediment, rusty water and a gelatin like substance in the tank that I flushed out into the laundry tub. I kept flushing the drain until it ran clear. Libbie raked the driveway with Paige and I picked it up with the cart. Paige got a ride back in the cart after I emptied it. In the afternoon i read the WSJ on the back porch while Paige took a nap. I then took down the fan in the back bedroom. This is going to be an issue trying to fit the Huzzah chip and the relay into the ceiling. I may end up putting a false junction box cover in the ceiling for access to the electronics.
For dinner we had Chinese with Paige. She ate some rice and an egg roll. We had an egg roll, 3 meat Szechuan with rice and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Paige in the Park
Friday, October 20, 2017, 06:00 PM
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

Pullen park
Thursday, October 19, 2017, 06:00 PM
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.
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