Yay!! It's Friday!!

Today was very pretty, but it was almost hot -- 88°F. It was kinda busy at work in the morning, but we got caught up and things really quieted down in the afternoon. Quiet enough for me to look at pictures, web surf, and blog.

For lunch today I went to the Chipotle Grill on Kirkman Road. It was so-so. I don't think I will eat there again. Not really a good value for the money.

While I was at lunch my UPS delivery from Parts Express arrived. It looks like I will be doing some surgery on my speaker with the broken terminal this weekend. These terminals look exactly like the ones my speakers came with. I browsed their catalog too. Man, the price of speakers has sure gone up in the 20 years since I bought these!

The road construction on Vineland Road infront of our office is nearly complete. The road is widened and smoothly paved now. Today they were hitting the details like turn arrows and gluing the reflectors down.

The alligators in the picture are at the Orlando History Center downtown. They are made of bronze. No, they do not eat the pigeons.

Discussed the dead impatiens with Fay today. She recommends replacing them with geraniums. They like part shade and they come back year after year. I dunno. I just know that I want something colorful in that pot.

Right now I know that I have to write a check for the rent (including garage rent), pay the electric/water/sewer bill, and get some groceries. Clean the floors in the apartment and scrub my tub. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful weekend. Maybe I will have a chance to relax at the pool.

Link Fest

• An Enigma coding machine from WWII is being auctioned on eBay. I found this Flash movie that shows how it works too!
• For the perfect night's sleep.
• I kinda like this toilet that washes your ass too.
• Well that was "damninteresting". I read this story along time ago in Readers' Digest. Here is the wiki article about Lake Peigneur.
• I hope a new Florida law raises awareness of HFSC because it insidiously makes us fat.
• This article showed up three days too late for me - I had to figure it out myself. Setting up a home wireless network.
• You would be surprised how much fossil fuel goes into our food production.

That ought to keep you busy reading for a while. Took me a couple of days to save them up!

Orlando, FL

Up at my usual time. Downed my vitamins with some water and two cans of yogurt. Today was shoulders, chest and tri's at the gym. Because I am still a little sore from Tuesday, I decided to take it easy on my chest - just some push-ups.

Back to the house for my routine two eggs well-done and Canadian bacon with a glass of milk. Shower, dress, and out the door to the office.

It was a beautiful day today - a "Chamber Of Commerce Day". Cloud-free blue skies and a high of 84°F.

We got a little busy today and before you knew it, it was time for lunch. I went to Chik-Fil-A for the Southwest Salad with Spicy Dressing. I only use half of the dressing packet, because if you READ the packet, you see 120 calories per serving. Problem is, there are TWO servings in that packet!

Next I stopped at Publix to get some fruit for some smoothies. I picked up milk and went to Produce for bananas, but they bananas were green. So I put the milk back and just got a big tray of strawberries. I made the smoothies with the cleaned strawberries, 17 packets of Splenda® sweetener, and ice. They turned out a little watery.

I used one of the Blendtec blenders to make the smoothies. I heard that we are going to fire Blendtec because we can't seem to get a comission check out of them.

Now I am making hot wings in the oven (a freebie from the Test Kitchen freezer) and I am doing laundry. I found the Impatiens on the balcony completely wilted and dead. I guess I will be shopping for a hardier plant to put in that pot next. I still want something colorful.

Orlando, FL

I have been sleeping the the balcony door open at night so that I can keep the AC off. It has been cool enough lately. Lastnight I woke up around 2:30 am to the sound of my noisy neighbors in the parking lot coming and going, yelling, obviously drunk.

Up at 5. Dressed for the gym. Ate my yogurt and vitamins. At the gym at 5:35 am. Cardio, back and bi's, cardio, and back home. Breakfast. Shower. Dress. To the office.

At the office there was a red truck parked infront of the building and man pacing up and down the parking lot. I waited until he was far a way and then went in. He came right up to the door anyway. It was Craig Hotaling of Edward Don - an almost-useless salesman. He was supposed to pick up a quote yesterday, but he waited all day for the pool repairman at his house. See?

Today was not busy, but it went quickly. At lunch I went to the Bear Rock Cafe. This is a small restaurant similar to Panera or Einsteins, but a little pricier. While I was eating, a three-year-old kid at the next table was shaking his cup of water. Finally the lid fell off and he got me and his grandmother wet. The mother was apologizing and took him by the arm outside for an ass tanning. He came back and had to apologize to me. I told him it was okay.

Next I went to Pier 1 to browse. I wasn't going to buy anything, but they had a large plate stand there for $5 that would hold my big egg plate, so I got that. Now I can take the one I stole from the Test Kitchen back!

After that I went over to the Living Quarters store to browse. They had "interesting" things in there including a sofa-like futon thing that folds down into a full-size sleeper for "only" $400! Still nothing in there I really "need". Kept looking at my watch, which I left in the office on my fan drying out from the gym sweat.

Rest of the afternoon went quickly too. I gave Garrett a quick "Happy Birthday" phone call. I need to get this box of books and stuff over to him.

We got our paystubs today even though the money won't be there until Friday night.

Orlando, FL

Up at 5 am dressed for the gym. Ate two cups of yogurt with my vitamins.

Before I left for the gym I checked my email. There was a message from Nikon in there telling me to try a few things to make the camera work. I went through the motion of disabling encryption on the router, disabling both PC-cillin and Windows firewalls, and then trying to connect the camera wirelessly. No go. Then I hurriedly put everything back because now I was late leaving for the gym!

I got there at 10 til 6. Ran on the elliptical for 16 minutes, did the chest press machine, push-ups, tricep raises, ab exercises, ran 8 more minutes and walked on the treadmill for 8 minutes.

When I got back home I made two fried eggs and two slices of Canadian bacon for breakfast. Then I showered, dressed, and left for the office.

Today was a sunny and warm day, it really was beautiful. It was 75°F at lunchtime today.

This evening I will go through all of the motions of trying to make the camera connect wirelessly again, and then reply to the emailed directions. I am sure they will get this figured out eventually.

Chilly Morning

I slept lastnight with the door to the balcony open. It got kinda chilly - 48°F, during the night! It warmed up today though, it topped out somewhere in the 70's. Sunny and beautiful today.

Work today was not busy. It was very manageable. I even found some time to browse the Internet. Here are a few of the things I clicked:

• A sinkhole can open anywhere. Read about the sinkhole in NYC swallowing an SUV!
• I read about some emerging technologies that are going to change things soon.
• Britain eradicated mad cow from the food supply, but now it's in the blood supply!
• "Marriage is for white people" essay about poor single black females.
• Now, even the US Army is saying that Peak Oil is upon us. Hello Reality!

I even found an electronic parts seller online whose speaker quick-connect terminals look like the ones installed on my Audio Pulse speakers. Here is the real zinger -- they only cost 88 cents each! At that price I might even get a couple spares. Shipping and handling is probably more than the parts.

You see, I found small bottles that I am going to use to replace the old and rusted spice bottles on my spice rack on the Internet yesterday here. So, I believe you can find ANYTHING on the Internet if you look hard enough!

I would have posted a picture today, but Blogger photo upload is on the fritz. I will have more soon.

Out Like A Lion

This morning I went to Super Saver on 50 at Kirkman, right next door to Fairway Restaurant Supply. It is another discount grocery store, but it seemed a little more expensive than Save-Rite. I bought fruit, milk, sliced turkey breast, and lots of canned fruit and vegetables.

After I put that away, I went out again. I went to Lake Eola and walked a lap. I stopped at the Sunday market they have there and nosed around at the stands set up. Snapped a couple of pictures too. One of the pictures I took is here on the right. I was impressed with this planting on the west side of the park. I am sure that if Florence could see it she would "Oooooh" and "Ahhhh!" at it.

It was still kinda cool, so I left Eola and drove to the Colonial Drive Barnes & Noble Bookseller to browse. I ended up getting a hardback by Henry Petroski called Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design. Next I went out to I-4 and drove up to Fairbanks to find the Skycraft Electronics store. I want to get new speaker wire disconnect modules for my speakers -- one of them broke a few years ago and the speaker wire hangs in there loosely. I found the store, but unfortunately, they are not open on Sundays. I will get back there after payday.

Next I stopped at 7-Eleven to withdraw cash from the ATM, then I headed over to Home Depot to get the wire shelf for the laundry room. Funny, the shelf that cost $18 yesterday only cost $9 today!

When I came home I stopped the truck outside of the garage and opened the roll-up door. I plugged in the drop cord and plugged the Dirt Devil into that and vacuumed out the cab real good. Then I got my drill motor, drill index, level, chuck key, and hammer out and drove around to the apartment so that I could install the shelf.

Marking and drilling the holes was easy enough. Before I put the shelf up, I did a quick "Idiot Check" to see if the shelf would fit. Sure enough, it was too long! I had to cut about an inch off of it. I took it to the garage, installed a cut-off wheel on the Dremel and sliced that inch off in no time. Had the shelf mounted in minutes. Then I stacked canned goods up on it. It won't take long to fill that shelf up.

It warmed up in the afternoon. I got a little warm in the sweatshirt and jeans. I think it reached 70°F today. Then the sun went down and it quickly became cool again.

National Waffle Day

I did not know this, but evidently, today is National Waffle Day. I did not take advantage of any free samples today. I made my way to Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse to get plants, terracotta pots, and topsoil. Stopped at Office Depot to get a spare EN-EL8 battery for my camera too - $29.

I spent the morning potting plants and cleaning the balcony. See the results of my work in the picture on the right.

CNN reports that Buck Owens of "Hee Haw" died. He was 76.

After potting the plants, I ran the vacuum and waxed my wood furniture. I ate some hot wings for lunch and prepared stuffed peppers for dinner.

Today was sunny, but it was kinda cool - it was in the 60's all day. To cool to visit the pool. But I still might do that tomorrow.

Around noon I phoned Nikon to get help sending my System Information summary in. They had me log on to the Nikon USA website, login, and find my service history. Then I was able to upload my System Information there. Now they have it and should be able to give me some guidance for wirelessly connecting my camera.

After that I went to the Netgear website to figure out how to reset my router. There is a special "reset button" on the back of the box, and it is recessed to keep you from accidentally resetting it. Although I find that idea improbable. You have to hold the button down with a paperclip or pen for 10 seconds and then pull the power. Next you hold it in for 20 seconds while restoring power. Then you have to connect it to the computer with a CAT 5 network cable. With the cable connected I was able to login with the factory default userid of ADMIN and the password of "password", reset the password to something more difficult and then I set the encryption to 128-bit WEP with an incredibly complex and long encryption key. The router has other features too like site blocking and filters, but I never bother with those.

After setting the encryption on the router, I had to open the wireless connection on the pc, and put the encryption key into Windows too. After that it was able to connect to the Internet again! Yay!!

Since I know there is another wireless network nearby named "Raphael" and it is encrypted, I thought it might be a good idea to encrypt mine so that nobody would eavesdrop on my Internet connection or hack my computer. I just don't know how it will affect my WiFi camera yet.

I still want to clean the truck and vacuum it out with the Dirt Devil, drop off a bag of old socks at Salvation Army, and get a 36-inch wire shelf for the laundry room so I have more storage space for extra food.

Friday !!

Attached here are a few of the first pictures taken with my new Nikon digital camera. These photos were sent to the computer via the USB cable because we still don't have the WiFi working properly.

If you click on them and open them, you will find that they are very large (5.1 megapixel) images. For some reason the included software does not allow you to reduce the resolution to optimize the files for the Internet.

It never rained. I was humid when I left for the gym this morning, but it did not rain. Infact, it began to clear up. Today was very sunny, but cool.

Fay was out of the office today. Fortunately it was rather quiet. Craig had a consultant and his wife in the test kitchen. He was showing off the Convotherm oven. They made toasted cheese sandwiches, cookies, and cheese sticks. After it was over he asked me if I wanted any of that food. Then he told me I could take whatever food I wanted out of the freezer. Now we're talkin'. That freezer has bags of chicken breast, hot wings, pizzas, chicken tenders, scallops, and lots more good food in it! I might help myself to a couple of things like the scallops and chicken.

Here are a few things I clicked on recently:

• Your microwave uses more energy powering the clock than it uses heating foods.
• Pictures of the US Navy's new "bat boat".
• XMLhttpRequest - one of the cornerstones of Ajax.
• How to set up a VPN service on your home pc.
• HiRISE sends back its first pictures from Mars.
• A tortoise believed to be 250 years old, dies.
• How to witness to someone who is gay.

After work I want to measure the space in my laundry room and when I go to Lowe's for the plants and topsoil, get another shelf to mount over the dryer. This way I can store more canned food and bottled water in there. It's good to have extra food on hand incase of a hurricane or other disturbance.

Orlando, FL

Last night I pulled all of the office supplies out of the chest of drawers and organized them on the floor. Next I put an area rug down under the computer desk and chair and up under the front of the chest of drawers. Then I put the stuff back into the dresser in a more organized way. Finally I ran the vacuum cleaner before eating my dinner of frozen blueberries.

After 9 pm I phoned Nikon technical support for help connecting the camera wirelessly. I was on the phone with "Dan" for 63 minutes. We did not get the camera to connect once. They asked me to save the System Information to a text file and e-mail that to them. They will e-mail detailed directions back to me. It sure is frustrating when it doesn't really work right out of the box.

Today was a very cloudy and overcast day. Debbie came in and made chicken breast and green beans for us in the Convotherm oven. I took my usual walk. I got kinda busy in the afternoon because Betsy has returned from vacation and she is sending me quote requests like crazy now.

This evening I am going to start on organizing the books on the bookcases. That should only take a couple of hours. I pulled a few books out that I did not particularly enjoy and I am making a birthday present of them to my friend, Garrett. Some of the titles include A Biography Of Jung; Guns, Germs & Steel; Becoming A Man; and a few others that I cannot remember.

Tomorrow I will be in the office by myself because Fay is taking the day off. Hopefully it won't be too hectic. Even if it is, it will be Friday!

I will do laundry tonight too. Maybe I will start on light house cleaning tomorrow night.

Orlando, FL

Lastnight I was on the phone with Nikon technical support for 102 minutes! He had me reconfigure my network every which way, had me unplug all of my USB devices (except the camera) and eventually got the camera to wirelessly transfer pictures -- but nothing else was working. Eventually I got everything back up, but the network kept disconnecting. So, I switched the wireless receiver USB port with the printer USB port and everything settled down. Now I can take some pictures.

This morning I woke up with the alarm at 5 am, but I was too tired to get up and go to the gym. I stayed in bed for another hour and a half.

At work it was quiet in the morning. Debbie, Craig, and Fay were with Della in the Test Kitchen making food in the Convotherm oven. I got samples of grilled cheese sandwich, salmon with molasses and pecans, asparagus, chicken cordon bleu, etc.

During lunch I went to Linens-N-Things. They had dish protectors. I got a large 11x15x9 container. That one box will hold all of the china I have.

When I got home I put the rug down infront of the computer and I organized the bureau holding all of my office supplies and tools. That took about two hours. Tomorrow night I am going to begin organizing the books in the living room.

Some interesting things I have clicked in the past few days:

• Did you ever enjoy taking things apart? Here is a blog dedicated to disassembly.
• Know the airline and flight number and you can track the plane's position.
• Some tutorials for PHP beginners.
• Your very own Internet spider. Search for links devoted to any topic.
• DIY bookbinding. Very detail-oriented instructions.

This weekend I will go to Lowe's and get some terracotta pots, topsoil, and a few plants for the balcony and the plant stands. I will consider myself done at that point and relax by the pool reading magazines.

Orlando, FL

The nice folks at Office Depot were hoping I would come back with the camera box. Seems they were taking inventory and discovered that they had an extra camera! Yes, I was sold the box for the demo unit. They picked a new one out of the display case for me and I was on my merry way.

I got the camera to connect and transfer pictures with the included USB cable, but I am still trying to figure out the WiFi connection. THAT might take all of my concentration and a couple of nights studying the owner's manual.

Stopped at SuperTarget on my way home. I bought groceries and a bunch of batteries. Every remote control needs several batteries, plus I have lanterns that take big D cells. I will be ready for the hurricanes this year! The bill came to $136.

The gym has all new treadmills! They are the same brand as before, just new models.

Today is a little cooler and cloudier than yesterday. I think a cold front passed through last night. Yesterday was almost too hot!

We have Della Simpson from Cleveland Range in the test kitchen today. She is training the reps to use the Convotherm combination steamer/oven. We have Fay, Craig, Nancy, Nick, Neal, and Debbie back there. I suppose I will be getting fed today with the foods they bought to cook in the oven. Nevertheless, I want to go out at lunch today -- I want to go over to the mall and see if Dillards or Bloomingdales have the dish covers I have been looking for. No luck finding them on their websites.

Outside of my window, I can see a tree with fruit under the Bass Pro Shops billboard. The fruit is edible. Fay said they are "loquats". They taste like peaches, but they are small and they have very large seeds. Sometimes more than one seed!

This evening I will continue working to get the camera to transfer wirelessly. Maybe I will unload the chest of drawers of all of the office supplies so that I can put an area rug down under the computer desk and infront of the chest of office supplies. I can organize the supplies as I put them back in I guess.

Once I get the camera working properly, I will be able to post pictures from my day often.

First Day Of Spring

On Friday night I put the bookcases together. Boy, that Black & Decker cordless screwdriver sure is a hand-saver! It made short work of those screws.

I stopped at Wal-Mart on my way home and got the SpotBot and I got the Cruzer portable USB drive. The Cruzer is awesome! It holds 1GB and it is small enough to fit on your keychain. I was able to put a two-hour movie and the software to play it on the Cruzer!

Unfortunately I could not get the SpotBot to work. Oh, the brushes brushed fine, but it would not spray at all. So, it was going back to Wal-Mart.

Saturday morning I brought the bookcases upstairs first thing. Immediately began opening cases of books and putting them out. I filled those two cases and put some on the bookcase in my bedroom. I guess I forgot to account for the books that I bought in the past two years! As I organize the books, I will select books to give away or sell.

I made another trip to Salvation Army and then went to Wal-Mart to exchange the SpotBot.

Finally, I mounted the heavy things to the walls, things that required screws, like the spice rack in the kitchen and the CD player in the bathroom. Then I put the rest of the pictures up on the walls with nails. I had to wrap alot of wall art and photos up and carry them to the garage for storage because I really did not have space for them.

In the afternoon I went to SuperCuts around 5 pm. A guy named Gary cut my hair real short. He was very concerned about the ragged appearance of my goatee on the right side. I told him that because I am right-handed, I cannot see where the blade is when I pull away from the line. He told me to put my finger over the hair I want to keep and let the goatee fill back in. I will try that.

Saturday night I put the stemware rack up in the kitchen put the glass on it. That emptied the last box. The only thing left to do now is clean! That would happen Sunday morning.

I took two magazine boxes full of "Dwell" magazine to my architect-friend Rick. He was glad to have them. Then I went to the Full Moon Saloon for a couple of hours. I saw Omar Lucerne there. Omar does video work and asked for an estimate on converting my 8mm home movies to DVD. He said he just did 4.5 hours for a guy for $600. But he said I have to make sure they are Super 8 and not regular 8mm because his machine can only handle Super 8. I am glad the price of that work keeps coming down!

Sunday I got the house cleaned thoroughly. The SpotBot was kept busy lifting stains from my carpet. The vacuum cleaner picked a ton of stuff up of the carpet too. I noticed that the SpotBot and the vacuum are related -- they're both part of the "Bissell" family!

Sunday afternoon I went to Office Depot to buy the Nikon camera that I wanted. The one with the WiFi capability. $199 for the camera, $25 for 256MB of storage. Then I drove to Dunnellon to visit Linda and Roger before they return to Ohio. I was with them until 7 pm.

When I got home I opened the camera box and was disappointed to find that they was no camera! So, it looks like another trip to Office Depot to exchange or refund. I was looking forward to charging the battery and taking pictures today.

St Patrick's Day 2006

I took my old Canon CanoScan N670U flatbed scanner to the office and hooked it up to the USB port on my computer. Because I lost the drivers I had to do a quick search on Google to locate them for download. After I installed the drivers I had to test the scanner on something, so here is a picture of my business card.

Back and bi's today. Worked up a good sweat... I was soaked when I got home. My same, Groundhog Day-esque breakfast of fried eggs, cheese, and Canadian bacon on toast and a glass of milk. Showered, dressed, and off to work.

Almost had a collision on the way down to the office. I was making a right-on-red at Kirkman Road. This woman, on the phone, in her big SUV, changing lanes in the intersection, comes flying up at me laying on her horn. I waved at her with one finger extended, smiling.

Today was a good day. I wore green pants so that I would not get pinched. I called Linda and Roger today. Spoke with Linda. I am going to visit them Sunday afternoon after 2 pm. They have become social butterflies since their time down here is coming to and end.

At lunch I was going to get my hair cut, but there were a bunch already in there waiting - Monday or Tuesday is best for the SuperCuts. So, I went home and had a turkey and cheese sandwich with a glass of milk.

Unpacking I found a tri-fold flyer that I made for our condominium in Norfolk. I showed this to Craig and mentioned that I made it with the same software that Fay and I have installed on our computers. He wants me to show it to the Cleveland Range supervisor coming down here on Monday, and he wants me to mail a copy to Hollywood. He really digs the idea of FER making their own flyer or pamphlet.

From the office I checked my Navy Federal account balance and was delighted to find that the US Treasury has deposited my tax refund of $907! I am going to buy the SpotBot for my carpet, and I am going to buy the Nikon WiFi Digital Camera. Other than that I need to hold onto the money for bills.

Tonight I am going to assemble the new bookcases. Once I have the books put up, I can decide which knicknacks and conversation pieces will remain out. Then I can begin putting things up on the walls. It won't be much longer now.

Orlando, FL

When I got home lastnight, I changed into shorts and my oil changing shirt and went back down to the garage. I opened the package containing my small parts organizer and poured the contents out into a large sheet of paper. I spent the next hour sorting the wood screws from the machine screws, the hooks, the cotter pins, the wire nuts, the hex nuts, zip ties, Dremel tools, washers, and electrical connectors from each other. I will need some of those nails and screws when I begin putting pictures, spice racks, CD players, etc up on the walls.

That was about the extent of my move in work lastnight.

Yesterday morning as I was making breakfast, just as I was turning my eggs over, I pulled a muscle in my back. I felt a sharp stab of pain next to my left shoulder blade. I put the eggs back on the stove and laid down on the floor trying to stretch it out and relax. It was sore all day.

This morning at the gym, I chose to do shoulders, chest, and tri's so that I could spare my back. I was easy on the crunches today too - curling up hurt my back muscle and hurt my sunburn!

Today has been beautiful. Sunny and warm again. I learned yesterday that the trees that have been trimmed so far back are not dogwoods at all, Fay tells me they are crepe myrtles and that you have to trim them back to get them to push new shoots out and bloom.

Craig's computer was messed up this morning. For some reason it mailed the same message to one person at Darden 10 times (it had a 4 MB file attachment too), and another person it sent to over 30 times! They called up here very upset! I found the computer locked, so I unplugged it! When we rebooted it we logged in, cleaned up the spam messages in the Inbox, and deleted the outgoing message. It seems fine now. Anyway, Evelyn will be here in the morning to work on it.

Tonight I want to work on getting enough things cleared out of the apartment so that I can bring the bookcases in, assemble them, and get books up on to them. That will go a long way toward making the house look moved in.

The Ides Of March

I know I did not write yesterday. Blogger was up to its problems again with the server being down and a promise from Blogger that an engineer had been notified.

Yesterday, like today, was very pretty. It was warm. I went out at lunch and as I was on my way out, I saw a mobile car detailing team working on somebody's car. I drove around to get their business card. "Hey, if the truck is going to be parked here all day, may as well take advantage of that time instead of doing this on my time!"

Last night I got all of the pictures, framed and not, put into the archive (plastic boxes in the closet). I took a few tumblers out of the big dish pack box, put them into the cabinet, and then took the box to the garage. The 8mm film projectors were taken to the garage too. I pulled all of the boxes of books from behind the chaise and pushed the chaise up against the wall. Yup, a few more days and I will have the house presentable.

This morning I got a package ready to UPS to Dawn and George -- Space A travel books, a lamp and some ceramic things Grandma Florence made, and other misc things for them. Also, took the box of liquor out of the house and put it into the garage to store until I have room for it in the apartment. I noticed that the floor is not level in my living room. The baker's rack holding my stereo seems to lean to the left.

I decided to give the wire 'fishbowl' to Linda. I guess I will make a trip to Dunellon on Sunday to take that bowl and the jelly jars. I will only visit for a few hours.

After I get my new digital camera, I would like to post alot more pictures here and on the Flickr photo-sharing service.

Because Craig is in Las Vegas for the National Pizza Show, he left a Darden Restaurants gift card for Fay and me to eat lunch. We went to the Smokey Bones up on 50 today. It was very good and the service was very good too. It was sunny all day today. I think it got up to 79 of 80° F.

This evening I need to sort throught a box of old receipts and files to decide what to keep and what to trash. After that I need to pull all of the books out from the wall and get ready to assemble the book cases. With the books up on the shelves, I will be able to decide which pictures and photos to hang up and which will be wrapped in paper to store in the garage (or auction on eBay!). I have to find my drill and sort all of my fasteners out in the garage before I start mounting stuff on the walls, but it won't be much longer!

The short bookcase and my two boxes of "high tech junkyard" will have to be stored in the garage too. Since I do not think I will have room for all of my back issues of Wired in the house, maybe I can keep them on the short bookcase out in the garage? Better wrap them to keep mice and rats out of them.

The apartment will need a thorough cleaning after all of this moving activity.

Orlando, FL

Back to the office. There was a stack of new orders on the fax machine when I got in. First thing I did though was clear my desk off and clean all of the dust off of it. Next I put the CanoScan 670U scanner down at my desk and hooked up the USB cable. Although Windows XP recognized the scanner, it did not have the drivers preloaded. That would have to wait.

Today was beautiful. Right outside my office window there is a big bank of shrubs, I don't know what they are, but they have a big spread of little pink flowers on them. When you step outside you smell them too!

Mostly routine things today -- the new orders, confirmations of orders in-house, and there were no service calls today.

At lunch I went to Crispers for a salad. I placed my order at 12:38 pm. It was 12:58 when I was served. I think they were short-handed today. Nevertheless, I call the "How Are We Doing?" phone number on my receipt.

In the afternoon I Googled "Canon CanoScan 670U Drivers" and found the drivers online to download. I downloaded and installed them. Usually a camera or a scanner interfaces with a graphics editing program, since we don't have one on our computers, Microsoft Publisher fills that purpose, but we can save the file in any one of a number of formats.

When I came home I concentrated on setting up and hooking up the stereo and TV's. That took me over two hours. Then I put all of my CD's out. I am enjoying the stereo right now!

Tomorrow I will focus on getting photo albums, pictures, plaques, etc into my closet "archive" of plastic bins. I will be getting close to needing the bookcases after that. With the books up on shelves and out of the way, it will be time to unwrap the chaise and the chair/ottoman.

Tomorrow, Craig will be in the office early, then he is flying to Las Vegas for the National Pizza Convention. Just me and Fay in there for the next few days.

Orlando, FL

Well, it's been a busy past few days. I know I have not posted since Wednesday, but after I took the computer apart and moved it, I did not have an Internet connection. It took me until now to get enough stuff unpacked so that I could find the wireless LAN components and software. Now we are connected again with my Netgear wireless router.

On Thursday Fay had a new company come to the office to re-do our security system. ADT wanted way too much money to adjust out glass-break sensors. So, she brought this other company in and we took the glass-break out, now it is all motion detectors.

On Friday I got all the serial numbers entered from the invoices and I filed some orders. I still have to file the Darden Restaurants confirmations and invoices, but I think I can have that done in 45 minutes on Monday.

Saturday morning I really began unpacking with enthusiasm. Moved the computer out of my bedroom to the kitchen, moved the dresser back against the wall, began to fill the dresser with clothes. I made a couple of trips to Salvation Army with my old bunkbeds, barstools, old sheets, blankets, etc. Then I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond for bed lifters and shelves. Also got shelves at Office Depot on sale.

I have made tremendous progress in just two days, but I still have a feeling that I am going to be giving more stuff away, or putting it into storage in the garage. I took two bags of sweaters, old shirts, and shorts that are way too small for me over to Garrett Grainger lastnight. Let him pick through it for what he wants.

After I get the bookshelves in here, books onto the shelves, I will unwrap the chair, table, and chaise from their plastic wrap. I guess the last thing I will be doing is hanging pictures, etc.

Today I took a break from unpacking and went to the pool to lay out. It was so pretty yesterday that I wished I could. So, today I did. I was out there for four hours. I used sunblock, but I burned my back. It was nice out there!

When my tax refund comes, I still want to get the SpotBot for cleaning my carpet... and I want to get the Nikon camera with WiFi built in. No cables to mess with! THAT will seem magical!

I have to go back to work in the morning. That won't be so bad. I can sleep in a real bed now! Fay sure missed me when I was gone! Funny, she seems to be a lot nicer lately. Maybe I will make gifts out of some of the stuff I just don't have room here for.

Orlando, FL

Went back to work today... blehh... all of the purchase orders were in a big 1.5-inch thick pile waiting for me to enter them into the log and make copies to send down south. None of the routine things got done (like taking out the trash), Fay didn't even take the food trays back to the Corner Cafe - she left them on my table for me to take them back.

I was able to quickly get the trash gathered up and the trays taken back before Fay even came to work. It took a couple of hours, but I got all of the orders entered, an order report for last week's sales generated, copies made to go to Hollywood, and everything else that happens on a regular day here. Only have to enter all of the serial numbers from the Darden invoices into my tracking spreadsheet, update the Hooters Start-Up and Demo Tracker, and file. Especially FILING.

I left shortly after 5 pm. I was tired. Sunburned, bruised, and sore from the move-in. I went home, put stuff away from four boxes, and was in my "bed" on the floor by 7:15 pm.

Moving In

Up at 7:30 am. Made a good breakfast of fried eggs, Canadian bacon, and cheese on toast with a glass of milk. At 9:00 am I went to the rental office to ask about a garage. Tony Ann told me they would make 11D ready for me by noon.

Out of curiousity I went to 11D, climbed up on the fake column base, wiped some of the dirt off of the garage door window, and peered inside. I could see somebody's belongings inside.

I moved the truck up beside the building and began to carry stuff up to the apartment. I had to move some of the things out of the apartment that were intended for the garage (sandblasting cabinet, parts washer, car tools and oils). I stacked all of the stuff meant for the garage outside and just kept making trips upstairs with boxes and furniture.

I overheard some of the maintenance men talking about garage 11D. They had to break the lock on the door to get in and they found a motorcycle inside the unit! Needless to say, at noon my garage was not ready. Tony Ann said they found another garage I could use -- 11H, right across the street from me and they would have it ready in an hour.

"That Tony Ann is such a cut-up! Tryin' to rent me a garage with someone else's stuff in it!"

I was starting to get tired. I lost count of the number of trips up and down those stairs, and my knees were starting to hurt! As soon as I had the key and garage door opener, I began to wheel things over to the garage, stacking them up against the walls. I put the hand power tools into one of the cabinets and all of the car care stuff into the other cabinet. I put my steel shelves into the garage and began to load tools and supplies on to them.

Around 4 pm, Mike Leary and his friend Mackie showed up. All I had left was the double dresser, the chest of drawers, and the mattress and box springs to carry upstairs. Since Mike hurt his back playing golf, he could not lift, but I got a bucket of pine cleaner and a sponge and had him wipe all of the dust and dirt off of the furniture we brought up.

The apartment is packed so full of boxes and stuff it is very hard to move around. I will definitely need to buy and assemble three new bookcases to hold all of the books I have.

I called the U-Haul on Kirkman road and found they were open until 7 pm, so after I got a quick shower, we took the truck back. Then, despite the rush-hour traffic, we went down Kirkman Road to the 528 and made our way out to the airport to get my truck at the Park-N-Bark. Total charges for parking were $28. I fed it two 20-dollar bills and the machine made change with coins.

Mike and Mackie had to take off and get home so they did not take me up on my offer to take them out for pizza and beer. So I went to dinner at Panera and I had a rum and Coke at the Full Moon Saloon.

When I got back home I had to begin putting some of the packed stuff away to make room to sleep! I made enough room to push the dresser and mattress back to put blankets down to sleep on the floor. I covered my knees with Ice-E-Hot rub and I slept like a baby!

I need to take the computer out of my bedroom, fold the table up and put it in the garage, push the dresser up against the wall, put the clothes in the Rubbermaid containers into the dresser, and then I should have enough room to put the bed together.

Orlando, FL

Man, it is sure good to be home! That trip took 26 hours of driving! I figured that the truck only got about 9.4 miles per gallon, so you know it was expensive too. But atleast all of my belongings are here with me in Florida now.

Started out at 7 am, took 210 and Holly Shelter Road to I-4. Down I-4 and 133 to Martin Luther King Parkway. MLK all the way across town to Isabella Holmes Bridge, 421 to 74/76. Took US 76 to I-95 in Robeson County. Down into South Carolina. I stopped at South Of The Border to get gasoline. I looked in the store for a t-shirt, but their "x-tra large" looked kinda "medium", so I passed on the shirt.

Continued down I-95, down over the Santee Cooper Lakes... down into Georgia... across Georgia, into Florida. I passed Jacksonville around 3 pm. Continuing down I-95 to Daytona Beach where I turned west on I-4 to Orlando. I got to the last rest area before Orange County at 5:30 and I stopped here to rest and read for a while - and let the rush hour traffic subside.

As I was making my way west on SR 50, Fay called my phone to see where I was and express how much they missed me. LOL! I guess she had her hands full dealing with all of the stuff I manage everyday.

Hampstead, NC

When we got up this morning, we had to take the dogs outside to do their business first thing. Then Tony and Roger let the dogs run free in the tennis courts. After we put the dogs away, we went out for breakfast. We had a nice big breakfast and talk, talk, talk. They want me to come back when I have more time to visit, and I would like that too.

I was on the road around 10 am. Down I-95... Richmond, Petersburg, Rocky Mount, Wilson, down to I-40 at Benson, NC. East on I-40 to NC 210. Took that to US 17 in Hampstead and was at Becky and Bill's new house shortly after that.

Mom helped me carry the desk and organ inside. We discovered some damage to the desk top - it looks like it got wet and then was dropped. I think I will end up making a new top for it out of oak. Mom would like to refinish the desk. I was treated to a tour of the house and Mom had vegetable soup ready for me.

We watched TV on their big 60-inch plasma. Infact, we watched the Academy Awards. Brokeback Mountain took three awards including best original song, best director, and best screenplay adaptation. I was dismayed to see that Crash beat it out for best picture.

Washington, DC

Was up around 7:30 am. Mike made bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then he got dressed and we headed out to his Jeep. He got his Jeep from Lou Merlino at the plant.

We drove to Middle Hope, over on the west side of the Hudson River to get my big truck. I got a 17-foot U-Haul truck with an empty gas tank. It cost me $81 to fill that big 30-gallon tank! Then we drove back over to Wappingers Falls and the 9D EZ Storage to begin loading up. It took us about two hours to load the truck up. It was packed up to the ceiling! It was packed so full we had a hard time getting the door shut!

The bookcases did not fit and I had to leave them. Also, after we got the door shut I noticed the handtruck still out! I was determined to take it and I made it fit upside-down over the seat in the cab with me!

I drove down I-84 to Scranton, then turned south on I-81 to Harrisburg, after Harrisburg, I took I-83 to Baltimore, at Baltimore I got on I-95 and went to Washington, DC and Alexandria where I found Tony and Roger and their three dogs. I slept on the sofa at their apartment.

Garrison, NY

Hey, hey! I don't have to work today! Drove over to the airport this morning. Parked my truck in a $4.99 per day lot called "Park-N-Bark" -- a parking lot with a kennel. The Park-N-Bark drove me to the terminal in their little school bus.

Check-in at AirTran was not that bad, I think I waited 15 minutes. Next stop: TSA screening. Here we stood in line for about 45 minutes. I think it is just incredible that we have created a cabinet level beauracracy devoted to this nuisance. Finally I can ride the monorail train out to the terminal and Gate 105.

In the air at 9:00 am. 1 hour and 10 minutes to Atlanta. Fortunately my connecting flight was on the same terminal in Atlanta. Hartsfield International is a huge airport. Short layover in Atlanta and then onto my connecting flight to La Guardia. I had window seats on both legs of the trip.

During the approach to New York we passed over the Verazanno Bridge, and then we circled wide over Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island before descending to the runway at La Guardia. As we were braking the plane slid a little on the ice! This airport is surrounded on three sides by water, so I did not want the plane to end up in Long Island Sound!!

I stepped outside the terminal and found the almost-forgotten New York cold! I was only wearing a sweatshirt and knit cap. The bus to midtown cost $12 this time. The driver was not going to let me on, but his baggage loader told him to take me too.

The bus dropped us off across from Grand Central Terminal on Park Avenue. I went in and took the familiar S Train to Times Square, and then the 1 train down to Christopher Street to shop in the Leatherman Store. Back to Grand Central to catch the evening train to Peekskill.

It was a 45 minute ride to Peekskill. When I got off of the train it was almost dark and the wind coming off of the water was freezing cold! Mike Walker was about 10 minutes late getting to the train station. We went to Applebee's for dinner and drinks and to catch up.

Mike is living with his girlfriend, Josette. Josette has a big beautiful house on a mountaintop overlooking Spring Valley in Garrison. Just a really beautiful house. We stayed up til midnight talking and watching TV. Mike put me in the room over the garage. I slept very well, but kept waking up when the snow and ice slid off of the roof!

Orlando, FL

Last day of training seminars... overall they were very successful! Craig was giving me a lot of credit in his emails down south to Hollywood. I think Fay was the perfect little hostess for the breakfast and lunch we put out. She made sure everything was set for them.

Jack called the airline and he is going to return to Cleveland in the morning.

Weather report said that snow is falling tonite in New York. Great. I don't have a heavy jacket down here, but I will wear a sweatshirt on top of a t-shirt. I will probably be fine. Not sure how it will all work out, but hopefully I will be back here with my stuff in a few days.

I stopped at the rental office on my way home. I asked Toni Ann if they had an available garage near Building 10. Yes, garage 11D is available. It is across the street from my building, but it should keep my extra stuff dry, and I can put the truck in there too. I did not have the deposit, but she pencilled me in. Just have to bring her $50 deposit and $95 first month rent.

Ash Wednesday

Today was another busy day with our Cleveland Range Seminars. They seem to be going well. Today we had 19 people out of 21 scheduled show up. This group was a little less grateful and they were messier. We had to mop the bathroom and pick up alot after they left. I figure Craig will have spent $1200 on the food for this, but that was about the only cost of hosting.

It was sunny today and warm - 76° F. Too bad I was stuck inside all day except for taking the garbage to the dumpster.

I tried to call Mike Walker a couple times today to see if he was able to reach Cliff Gates and see if Cliff could help load my truck. When I got home I called Mike and found out that his trip fell through so he is going to be there to help me load the truck!

I called U-Haul to confirm my reservation today. The lady said my preferred pick-up point went out of business and they would call me Friday before 5 pm to tell me where my pick-up is. I told her I was travelling Friday and might not be able to take her call.

Thinking about leaving my sleeping bag here. Mike said I don't need a sleeping bag. I am sure Tony and Roger have a bed for me too. Just have one bag to carry with clothes in it while I am in The City on Friday. I want to visit a few places I liked in The City before I catch the Metro-North railroad up to Peekskill. Told Mike I would be in Peekskill around 5 or 6 pm on Friday.

After work I went to Super Target for groceries. That is when I realized that this is Ash Wednesday. There were women in there shopping with dirt right in the middle of their foreheads. I thought they might be Indian at first, then I realized that it was Catholic thing.

Spent $171 on groceries. There were alot of things I needed. Got everything upstairs and put away. Sweating like a pig doing it too. Now I need a shower.