Orlando, FL

My neck has been hurting the past few days. I think I slept on it crooked or something. Now, if I laugh or sneeze, or even move suddenly or pick something up the neck tightens up and hurts. I have rubbed Icy Hot on it tonight and that seems to be helping.

Since Sunday I have been trying to call Mom, but all I get is a female voice speaking, "Please enter the ten-digit number of the party you are trying to reach...". That pisses me off because I just finished dialing the ten-digit number in the first place! Then after you dial it, the computerized bitch says, "The party you are trying to reach is unavailable at this time. Please try your call again later."

Maybe Mom will read this and see why I haven't called in awhile.

The high drama at work this week is Curly - Fay's ten-year-old cockerspaniel. Curly has been plagued with tumors on her ears, side of her head, and a ginormous one on her abdomen. Fay took her to the vet for a physical and to prepare for surgery, but the bill is going to be over $1000. She says that is too much money and her husband says it is too much. It looks like Curly's days are numbered now.

Fay gets so upset when you talk about it. The vet doesn't want to put her down because, well, I guess because they see an opportunity to make some money keeping Curly alive a couple more years. They MUST make more money from old dogs than from puppies. If it were my dog, I think that if it were going to cost over $1000 we would have to have him put down. That is a lot of money! Besides the pound is full of other dogs who need to be adopted.

I told Fay, look, you have kept her all these years, fed her, groomed her, looked after her medical needs, and if her quality of life is declining, it is more humane to have her put to sleep. The rest of her family agrees that it is time, but they leave it to Fay to make it happen.

I am continuing to read through The Ice Diaries. Even though you know how it will end it is still very suspenseful and exciting. I am on Chapter 24 and at Page 232. I should finish it in two more days.

We finished the day today with $290k in new orders. Craig was bemoaning how much business has slowed down... Yellow Freight layed off over 200 workers in Florida yesterday... the FRA Show looks like it is going to have very poor attendance this year... yadda yadda. All I know is that we have remained very busy.

This evening I made chili with a pound of hamburger I thawed lastnight, canned beans, canned diced tomatoes, and canned peppers. While that was simmering I started a load of laundry and ran the vacuum cleaner. It was thunderstorming outside while I was doing all of this. Buddy got his walk around 6:30 pm.

Now I need to clean Buddy's feet with the Sulfodene medicine and get ready to curl up with my book again.

Orlando, FL

We got off to a good start on orders for the work week. We finished yesterday with $50k in new orders and today we have over $110k. Craig said that Buena Vista Palace had a 12% occupancy rate this weekend and all the I-Drive hotels are way down. Disney on the other hand is as busy as ever.



We are just lucky that we continue to be very busy. Some of our dealers are scratching for work and are a little jealous that our office is so busy.



Bob sent an email message yesterday saying his supervisor, Wayne, uses Sulfodene (2-Mercaptobenzothiazole) on his dog when he gets hot spots. It is available at Petsmart and even Wal*Mart. I decided to give it a try.



When I got home it was starting to thunderstorm, but I got Buddy harnessed up and into the truck. It was a strong thunderstorm and we were driving in heavy rush hour traffic to go to the Petsmart store at West Oaks Mall. At the store we found the Sulfodene with all of the soaps and other medicines. I got a 4 ounce bottle of that and some treats for Buddy and we started home.



The dog was panting so much on the way home that the truck windows all fogged up. It was very hard to see as we made our way down the highway, in the rain, back home.



I put the solution on his paws with cotton balls. It stinks so bad the dog does not try to clean it off. Even if he does, he can't remove it - it seems to stay on your skin even after you wash your hands! The label says that using the solution twice a day, the sores should clear up in a week. We will see.



Last night I began reading The Ice Diaries - an account of the USS Nautilus' arctic voyages below the polar ice in the 1950's.

Fay left today at 3:00 pm to get her dog, Curly, and take her to the vet at 4:00 pm. The dog has a bundle of tumors on her abdomen and Fay wants to have them removed. That operation, if the vet decides to move forward with it, will cost over $500.



Craig was in Virginia today and spent the afternoon flying back to Florida. We will (hopefully) see him tomorrow.



It is hard to believe it, but this weekend is the long Labor Day Weekend. We get paid Monday night. I will have a short, short week next week!

Weekend

I got up before 7:00 am on Saturday to take Buddy for his walk.

When we got back home I started making breakfast. We had leftover lasagna with toast and cups of yogurt. I made coffee too. The coffee was the first of the Pachamama coffee that we bought in Peru. This coffee was very good!

After the dishes were put away we watched the TV news for a while and read.

Later I went out the garage to work on my wood project while Bob worked on his paper for school. I had a rough time with the tablesaw... I was pushing a piece of sapele through the dado blade between a featherboard and the fence, but the piece was vibrating so badly it moved the fence back about a 1/16th of an inch. The dado ended up all wavy and unsatisfactory. A Last Resort piece.

Around noon I came in and rinsed all of the reddish sawdust off in the shower and then we took Buddy in Bob's car.

We went to Starbuck's and got iced coffee and ice green tea and then took Buddy to Eagle's Nest Park. I discovered this park on Microsoft Live Earth maps. I had no idea that a school and park was at the other end of Metrowest Boulevard! I always thought it dead ended on the other side of Kirkman Road!

Thinking of the dog we brought a bottle of water with us and let him drink for his styrofoam bowl before we got back into the car.

As we drove back up to my garage I had Bob pop the hood and I hooked my hose up to the hose bib and pulled it through the garage and then sprayed engine degreaser all over under the hood of Bob's car. We let that soak and then rinsed it off really good. Then it started to thunderstorm.

Back inside the house Bob worked on some paramedic interactive web training while I phoned Dad. Dad was out at Berlin Reservoir - they get cell phone reception out there now. We talked for almost an hour. He was layed off his job and he has decided to collect unemployment and take early retirement.

I tried to call Mom but I kept getting her voicemail.

We went to Tijuana Flats and ate burritos for dinner. The portions are very generous there and we were both stuffed. We came home and had to walk Buddy - he had to pee from all the water he drunk during his time at the park.

The turkey breast, potatoes, and carrots went into the crock pot for dinner on Sunday night.

I selected 12 Monkeys out of the three DVDs Bob brought over and we watched that Bruce Willis movie on my TV in the bedroom and went to sleep promptly after the movie.

I am letting Buddy sleep on one of my old pillows along with his old towels. He slept in the bedroom with us on Saturday night. During the night he woke both of us up with loud moaning. I jumped up and moved down to him, "Are you alright, Buddy?" He was curled up on his bed, and he woke up when I called to him. I patted him on the head and climbed back into bed. I guess he was dreaming.

Sunday morning began like most days -- with a walk for the dog. When I returned Bob had the bed made and was just out of the shower brushing his teeth. I started to make breakfast.

We had more coffee, yogurt, and slices of juicy ripe honeydew melon for breakfast.

After breakfast I was browsing the Internet looking at travel websites and travel pictures. I think I have Bob talked into going sky diving soon. We decided to drive to Deland and watch other people sky dive at Skydive Deland! at the municipal airport.

We drove up there and had trouble finding the place. But soon we saw colorful parachutes coming down and we just followed them to where they were landing. We watched a plane load go up and then minutes later coming down again. I brought the binoculars with me, but they were almost useless.

The sun was powerfully strong and we went inside between plane loads and had lunch at the Perfect Spot Restaurant.

We watched Load No. 11 go up and come down and then we left to return to Orlando.

Back home we took Buddy for his evening walk. It was cut short by an evening thunderstorm. We came home and looked through the Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook. Bob kept saying, "That's just like in people!" or "That's the same medicine we give people!" I guess all mammals have a lot of systems and tissues in common. I have to admit that I was surprised to read about animal organ donation and even doggy hospice services!

We had turkey breast roast with carrots and potatoes for dinner with beers. We worked on Bob's paper until we felt that it was in good condition to hand in. We went to bed and read our books. Bob is still working his way through The Last Days Of The Incas and I finished reading Soldiers Of Reason - The Story Of The RAND Corporation And The Rise Of The American Empire. 314 pages and I finished it at 10:01 pm.

Now we have another week of work to face. Ugghhh...

Orlando, FL

The storm has passed us and is on its way west to molest and flood the Florida panhandle. We are still getting heavy downpours of rain from the outer rain bands.

Craig was in the office during the morning and again during the afternoon. Debbie popped in to make her appearance, but I don't see how she's bringing in any orders. FER-Orlando finished the week with $434k in new orders and Hollywood brought in $312k. Another blockbuster week for FER!

Lastnight I told Bob to let himself into my apartment with his key, take the lasagna out of the freezer, and put it into the oven. I would be home as soon as I could be.

On the way home I stopped at Publix to get bread, fingerling carrots, and beer.

We walked Buddy after dinner. It wasn't a very long walk because it continued to rain, but Buddy got busy very quickly.

After the evening walk I showered and layed down to read while Bob worked on his paper for school some more. It rained periodically during the night. We experimented with bringing the dog's bed into the same room we were sleeping in and it seemed to work out okay.

Orlando, FL

It was still raining and blowing this morning when we got up. We went out for a short walk at 5:45 am and came right back in. Neither one of us liked it very much.

The earth is so soaked now from four days of rains. Some trees are just falling over because their roots can't hold in the soggy soil.

Tropical Storm Fay was stalled off of Flagler County almost all day. The radio just said that it is coming ashore again (for the third time in its life) and will be giving us yet another day of winds and rain.

Today was steadily busy at work. We are passing $366k in new orders and I think we will pass $400k tomorrow. Craig was in the office in the morning for a little while, Debbie came in while he was there, then they both went out. Craig came back in the afternoon and was with us for two or three hours in the afternoon.

Just after 5 pm Fay ran out of the building and left an overnight package on my desk that she could have put in to the collection box. She also forgot that today was Thursday and it was "Back-Up Day" when we copy our computer hard drives to portable USB hard disk drives. I will remind her in the morning.

I am glad tomorrow is Friday. I know the weekend will be short.

Orlando, FL

I slept very soundly last night. I think I could faintly hear the winds blowing outside and the rain hitting my window from once in awhile, but overall my sleep was very satisfying.

At 5:30 am I got up, dressed, and took Buddy for his walk. It was very windy and it was lightly drizzling rain. The wind was coming out of the north (wind at your back, LOW PRESSURE is to your left), so I guess TS Fay was due east of us.

Because Craig was out-of-town and we hardly see Debbie, I decided that Buddy could go to the office with me. He was up under my desk when Fay came in, but she saw his face looking up from under the front of my desk as she came in. After he settled down we hardly knew he was in there with us.

Debbie sent one of her "flyers" advertising a piece of used equipment. It looked terrible! It was poorly executed. In less than 5 minutes I made another one in MS Excel that looked much much better. Fay wonders who she thinks she's fooling. I just wonder where all of the time has gone. It's been almost three months since our marketing planning meeting and all Debbie has to show for the time is a list of used equipment and a sucky flyer. She should have a flyer ready for every piece of equipment and have her news letter finished.

I took him with me at lunch. We stopped at McDonald's and I got him a Filet O'Fish sandwich. It was raining hard periodically. The National Weather Service says that Brevard County is seeing "historic" levels of rain. Good. We can use the rain.

We went back home and he went to lay down after eating his sandwich. I think he napped all afternoon.

This evening I took him for his walk and then I started my laundry and went to the garage to work on my wood project. I plowed some 1/4" x 1/4" dados into the sapele board and then cut 1/8" x 1/4" dados into the beveled aspen surrounds. Slowly but surely making progress on it.

Now I have showered, cleaned up the dog's feet, and am ready to make my daily phone call to Bob and read my book in bed. I am almost up to page 100 in The Soldiers of Reason!

TS Fay

Tropical Storm Fay continued to strengthen and move north out of the Caribbean Sea yesterday. It crossed Cuba, it crossed Key West, and it came ashore this morning at Cape Romain. All day it has been coming up the Florida peninsula.

The weathermen are a little surprised that the pressure in the center of the storm continues to drop. Tomorrow when the storm goes back out to sea it will be continuing to strengthen!

Because the winds were starting to increase and the rains had started again, Fay and I left the office around 3:30 pm. We used duct tape on the bottom and sides of the front door when we left to stop wind-driven rains from coming in and soaking the carpet.

We stayed fairly busy all day today. More orders are coming in and we ended the day at $257k with several thousand dollars more waiting to be processed. We both stayed in at lunch and baked pizzas in the combi oven.

When I got home this evening I parked the truck in the garage to protect it. Tonight will probably bring the worst to us from this storm.

Bob had to go to work this morning and take his sleeping bag with him. All of their people were told to be prepared to be at work for the next 36 hours. Ugghh!

I need to get Buddy walked. Do you think he'll "hurry up, get busy" quickly? Yeah, I don't think so either.

Weekend

We got up around 7:00 am on Saturday morning to get Buddy harnessed up and out for his morning walk. We walked over to the Panera Bread on Lake Eola and had pecan rolls, spinach/bacon quiches, and hot coffee for breakfast.

Together we resolved to stay inside or within walking distance of the house all day.

For lunch we had leftover polenta and beef stew.

I made more progress on the book I was reading and moved from the living room floor to the bed. Bob came in too, but he was asleep before too long. He likes to nap (and he's good at it!).

News 13 brought their meteorologists in for a weekend of reporting on the progress of Tropical Storm Fay. I was getting sick of hearing her name.

I looked up "canine hot spots" on the Internet to learn about this "acute moist dermatitis" that afflicts dogs in hot, moist climates. One of the treatments is Domeboro solution, as well as antihistimines, Witch Hazel and hydrogen peroxide.

We went to Walgreens to get some solution for Buddy. Next we stopped at American Pie Pizza Company to get dinner. We got an 18" large All American pie and took it home.

On Sunday we ate breakfast at home. Bob had yogurt and a bagel. I had leftover pizza for breakfast.

We treated Buddy's feet again with Domeboro solution and Gold Bond powder - his feet looked like floured chicken legs! Then we left Buddy in the house while we drove up to Daytona Beach to visit Bob's parents.

Lunch was at Crisper's and we both had nice cool cleansing salads. We stopped at his Dad's house and we mowed the lawn and sprayed more RoundUp to kill the poison oak.

Our visit at the nursing home was like most of the others. Tom walked all the way down the hall. He said they are giving him Dantrium three times a day now, but he complained that he had not been shaved in two weeks. Louise complained that she wanted to go home, but she just kept puffing away on her cigarettes.

We were back in Orlando around 7:00 pm and we put hamburgers into the oven to bake while we took Buddy for his evening walk. Dinner was leftover polenta, hamburgers, and mashed potatoes. We had strawberry cheesecake for dessert.

After dinner we loaded up the dish washer, cleaned Buddy's feet and powdered them again, and then I ran the vacuum cleaner. We took Bob's patio furniture in as a precaution against Tropical Storm Fay.

I finished reading The Money Game around 10:00 pm and we went to bed. It was a long day.

Orlando, FL

Today was the last day Frymaster was taking new orders before new (increased) pricing takes effect on Monday. There were several orders in at the last minute that had to be processed so that they were acceptable to the factory and the dealer. Ugghhh.

Bob Keller of Frymaster Service will be flying to Orlando on 8-25 to assist with the installation of the new Protector fryer being tested at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon. Bob phoned the contact person at the park and she became confused thinking he was flying in the next day. This caused a phone call to Betsy Hummel and then a phone call to me. I had to set everyone right.

Fay was cackling down the hall about a tropical disturbance making its way into the Caribbean named "Fay". If it strengthens, this will be the sixth named storm of the 2008 season.

I went home during lunch to eat cold cuts from the refrigerator. When I returned to the office I found Post-It Note stickers on my phone. Fay said that her daughter was hurt at work and she was going to the school to get her and that I would not see her for the rest of the day!

The phones went crazy after that and then a technician from Nass Parts & Service showed up at the door unannounced to get the Delfield 4460N-30M to take over the Red Lobster Culinary. Because they sent one person I had to help him load the salad top. Meanwhile the phone continued to ring its head off. Ugghh.

FER-Orlando processed $267k in new orders this week. Hollywood had a little bit better week (for a change) and brought in $1.3M!! A real banner month for FER!

At 5:00 PM I wasted no time getting out of the office. I headed home to pack up Buddy's bag. His tail was wagging happily -- he knows that when I pack his stuff up in a bag that he is going somewhere. We went to Bob's for the weekend.

Bob made a beef stew in the crock pot and a side dish of polenta with fresh diced tomatoes on it. Very interesting meal! We took the dog for his walk and then settled down to watch "The Dog Whisperer" on National Geographic network "Nat Geo". During the Friday night episode we saw a dog with "hot spots" on his legs and I immediately recognized it as the same affliction Buddy has. We resolved to research it on the Internet in the morning.

With less than 100 pages to go in The Money Game I am determined to finish this book this week. I have to. New books are stacking up on my dresser waiting to be read!

Orlando, FL

DRAMA. Huge drama at work this morning.

Two more of the partners weighed in on the verbal quote issue and kissed up to the jackass dealer who tattletaled on me. Fay was furious about it - so mad she broke down and started crying on the phone with Craig this morning!

Next thing I know Gabe Puerto is phoning to try and calm her down and tell her "not to take it personally". To add to all of this it was just extremely busy too. What an exhausting day!

It rained very hard today. It started raining around lunch time. During lunch I came home to walk the dog. While walking around the building we saw the little beagle in Apartment 1012 and it appeared to be barking at us, but - and her is the strange part, NO SOUND WAS COMING OUT OF IT! I don't know what they did to that dog, but they HAD to do something. That dog was just too loud!

Other bizarre things I noticed today -- Julia Childs used to mix covert surveillance activity for the OSS with her cooking back in the 1940's! Who would have thought?

Truly, these are signs that we are entering The Last Days.

Anyway, I am tired now. I am doing laundry. I ate a Lean Cuisine meal for dinner. I need to walk Buddy after I get the laundry into the dryer. Before I go to bed I need to run the vacuum cleaner.

Today is my Dad's 62nd birthday. I tried to call him, but it went directly to voicemail.

I am glad tomorrow is Friday. This week cannot end soon enough.

Orlando, FL

There are not enough hours in the day for everything I need to do or want to do.

It was yet another hectic day for us at the office. Our sales have slipped a little this week - by the end of the day we had about $150k in orders.

Debbie popped in for a few minutes to get a combi training video. Then she took it home to learn how to do the combi demo she had at Robinswood Middle School this afternoon. I asked Fay, "Why is she taking that home to watch? She could watch that right here and practice on the real oven in the Test Kitchen. Hell, she needs to make lunch for you and me!" Fay, of course, agreed wholeheartedly with me.

Toward the end of the day I had a dealer become irate with me... It has been our policy for the past year to not give verbal quotes over the phone (actually it has been the rule that Vince never gives out pricing on the phone since day one at FER) and not take quote requests over the phone. There are too many opportunities to misunderstand when making verbals.

Well, a pompous little man who used to be a big bad Enodis vice-president and now has his own dealership phoned asking for pricing on the phone and I gave him the rule. I asked him to make his quote request in writing. He got mad and said that he was telling Greg Olsen on me.

Sure enough he sent an email to the four partners about me. Gabe Puerto writes back to all of us, "I am not aware of this policy..." Yeah Gabe, like I just sit at my desk and make up shit to tell people on the phone to get out of doing any work. Now Craig wants us to start making verbals again on the phone. I think I am going to refuse to do that. They can get their prices from Fay.

This evening I washed my crock pot, dried it, and put it away, loaded the dish washer, walked Buddy, and then went to the garage to work on my wood project and sharpen and hone my bench plane blades.

I got those blades razor sharp. They made some rough lumber shiny and smooth as glass! I am going to have to practice using the planes and scraper more. Right now I am not confident of my ability to use them without messing up a nice piece of work, but I can definitely see how they would eliminate lots of sanding.

It was 8:45 pm when I finished in the garage. I came inside to get a shower, talk on the phone with Bob and write this blog. Time for bed!

Orlando, FL

I slept very soundly last night and I woke up just before the alarm clock sounded to shut off the alarm. I dozed until 5:48 am, peeked at the clock, rolled over and slept for what felt like two minutes, but in reality was twenty minutes.

Then it was time to get up, pull on some shorts and t-shirt, and take Buddy for his morning walk.

Today was another very busy day at FER. We passed $112k this morning. Craig was in the office a couple of times today. It was nice to be able to bounce our ideas off of him and get direction from him for the current issues. Craig said our sales are up 28% over this same month last year.

This week is the busy week for school demos because most counties start school next week - Monday, Aug. 18 will be the first day back.

It rained hard for a few minutes during lunch today and then it got hot and muggy again.

In the afternoon I made a SketchUp model of the picture frame I am working on in the garage. A picture of that model is attached to the blog today.

Orlando, FL

I like this picture of us in the Orlando Science Center. The image on the left is a regular visual image of us (me with the camera) and the image on the right is a thermograph showing how much heat we are giving off. Bob has a cold nose and cool hands, but I am burning right up! My shirt pocket looks cool because my wallet was in there.

Today we got up before 6:00 am and I walked the dog. Bob got up, showered, and made the bed. I made oatmeal for us and then it was time to carry Bob's big bag down to his car and let him go to work. Right after that I got into the shower and dressed for work.

Fay was late this morning. She said, "Did you get my message? I phoned to let you know I was going to be late!" Whatever.

Debbie returned to work today and she was full of piss, vinegar, and attitude. I honestly do not think she realizes how it looks. If she did she would not continue to behave the way she does.

At lunch I came home, ate leftover salad, and walked Buddy. It was fiendishly hot.

By the end of the day we had processed over $70k in new orders and there are still a few waiting for tomorrow!

Back home I took Buddy for his evening walk, then I ate a baked hamburger and dressed to work in the garage. I clamped the new sapele board to the tablesaw and used the 1/4" coving bit cut a cove down the left and right side of the board. Then I set that board aside and put the 24" x 48" x 1/4" birch plywood down and laid out the saw lines to cut out backs.

That was enough for the evening. It was very warm in the garage. I came in and got a hot shower and filled my plastic tub with water so that the waterstone can soak. I am going to get those bench planes honed up nice and sharp soon.

Craig will be back to work again tomorrow. This week will be hectic with all of the school demos that have to be done.

Weekend

This weekend went by very quickly!

On Saturday we took Buddy out for his morning walk. After our walk Bob and I went to Waffle House for breakfast.

When we returned from breakfast we pulled Bob's 2002 Nissan Xterra up to my garage and quickly changed the motor oil and oil filter. Then we sprayed silicone onto the bumpers and rubbed it in.

We went out to Winter Garden Village to shop at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore and use the 20% off coupon for August. I got two books - one called Guesstimation about estimating solutions to physics problems and another one called The Ice Journals which is about the polar voyages of USS Nautilus - the first atomic submarine.

It stormed really good while we were in the bookstore.

For lunch we heated up left over turkey breast, carrots and potatoes.

I trimmed the dog's claws and cleaned his ears out.

During Buddy's evening walk we walked to Winn-Dixie and got some lettuce and sweet peppers for a salad. We stopped at the Winn-Dixie Liquor Store and got a bottle of Disarronno.

Dinner was a big salad of lettuce, radishes, grape tomatoes, and cucumbers with cottage cheese, sliced papaya, and canned sliced peaches.

We got covered up in bed and watched a movie on DVD called The Village.

This morning I made a big breakfast of hash browned potatoes with onions and I made Zip Loc Bag Omelets with mushrooms, onions and peppers. I toasted blueberry bagels and brewed coffee.

I packed up the old computers into the Dell boxes, wrapped the monitor up in saran wrap and carried all of it out to the garage for storage.

We spent more of the day at the Orlando Science Center. We had fun with all of the interactive exhibits and we watched the Rovers On Mars and Sea Monsters movies in the 8-story-tall Dr. Phillips CineDome. We were there about five hours and we did not see everything they had in there.

For dinner we had leftover salad and a warmed up loaf of focaccia with parmesan cheese on the top of it. We had Bud Light with our salads.

I called Mom in the evening to find out how Pat is doing with her therapy. She was full of news of Aunt Kim visiting and Marrissia and Kevin's new puppy dog, and what everyone else in the family is doing.

Ugghh... here comes another week of work. I have to call Dad on Thursday to wish him a happy 62nd birthday.

Orlando, FL

Buddy went to the office today. He was jumping up and down and very excited to see Fay when she came in, then he settled down and was calm for us the rest of the day - I guess the Benedryl I gave him for his feet helped keep him drowsey.



Hell, even Buddy brought in more orders this week than Debbie! Hahaha! Chef Ryan should hire him as a part-time taste tester!


Anyway, Buddy seems to like going to Fay's office and just hanging out up under her desk. He was so quiet we didn't even know he was there sometimes.



We were continuously busy today. I got a little bit of filing done because the phones were mercifully light, but I stayed busy with orders, acknowledgements, quotes, and other issues. FER-Orlando finished the week with $564k in new orders. Hollywood brought in another $211k. I expect that we will be getting some nice bonuses in November.

During lunch today I phoned in an order to Olive Garden To Go. Fay gave me money from Petty Cash and I went over there to get it. I had lasagna with some potato soup called Zuppo Toscana (it was so salty it tasted like a salt mine) and Fay had chicken and broccoli in pasta. I ordered a slice of cheese cake but the girl did not put it in the bag. I had to go back for it.

Well, because she was dumb and forgot to put it in with my order, she gave me a choice of either an additional slice of cheesecake or a $10 gift card. I took the card. This was a no-brainer - do you want two slices of cheesecake, which you shouldn't be eating anyway, and sell for $5 a slice, or do you want the $10 gift card? Hmmm....

It stormed like crazy during lunch too. The lightning was very bad. Some of it struck very close to the office and scared all of us!

After work we came home and met Bob in the parking lot. We went up to the house for a little while because it was too damned hot for a dog walk right then. Around 6:30 pm we went for our walk.

Right after the walk Bob and I went to Pep Boys to get the radiator hoses for my truck. To my great delight and surprise they actually had them in stock! So I got those. While we were in the store it began to storm and the rain was pouring down.

I ran out to get the car and drove up to the curb to pick Bob up and we went to Lowe's where I got a 1/4" coving router bit for my wood project, some C-cell batteries, and some picture hanging hardware.

Back at the house I got some of the turkey roast, carrots and potatoes out for Bob - I was not hungry because I was still full from lunch.

Orlando, FL

When I came home at lunchtime today with a Quizno's Prime Rib & Peppersteak sandwich I saw the fire extinguisher remained un-inspected. I took Buddy back to the office with me for the afternoon.

He was very excited when he first got to the office, but then he quieted down. Soon he disappeared and would not come when I called him. I figured Fay was feeding him. Sure enough. She was feeding him pieces of cracker.

He spent most of the afternoon under Fay's desk! I said, "Do you want to take a dog home with you?" Fay told Buddy that I was just jealous.

When we got home I watered my plants, washed the rugs and Buddy's bedding, then started a load of clothes in the laundry. Then we took our evening walk. His feet are turning red again right now.

After the walk I ran the vacuum cleaner and then cleaned the kitchen and bathroom floors. While I was cleaning the kitchen floor Buddy began to eat from his bowl - crunching his food over the just-vacuumed rug in front of the computer!

There are not enough hours in the day for everything I have to do!

Lunch With Betsy

Buddy spent the entire day in my bathroom again. I did everything I could to make sure he was comfortable. I moved his crate in there, unscrewed half of the vanity light bulbs, turned on the radio, moved his food and water dishes in there, and left treats with him before I left.

On the way to work I saw it again. Why is it always a woman?

A Ford Bronco was weaving its way down Kirkman Road and then turned on to LB McLeod. I looked back and saw the driver, a black female, using a hair dryer to dry her doo and brushing it out! Look Ma - No Hands!!

As she passed me at my turn she was still moving along, steering with her knees, while applying her cosmetics.

After a hectic and busy morning, Fay and I left the office at 11:20 to go to Disney and pick up Betsy Hummel for our lunch at Elephant Bar. I was surprised to see the Dolly Parton Dixie Stampede closed up as we passed it. Fay said it was sold and she thinks that Dolly saw the economic slow down coming.

We arrived at the restaurant promptly at noon. Craig was a few minutes behind us. He was dressed casually and wearing his monster boot on his right foot. Chef Ryan and Heidi Connor of Merrychef USA finished up working with Seasons 52 this morning and they joined us at lunch. We had a nice table of six.

The restaurant was very very busy and the dining room was very loud. Service was a little slow. I think we were there an hour before the food was brought to the table.

Lots of chatter about the industry, who's moved where, and gossip. Craig was especially full of information. Betsy said that the Merrychef oven being tested at Port Orleans is not going to meet the cast needs and that she was told to go ahead and order the TurboChef oven. I will have Nass go out in a few days to bring the oven back to our office.

She was excited to learn that her Protector gas fryer battery is shipping from Frymaster today. She is very interested to see how that helps cut costs at the testing site. I have decided that if the Protector doesn't work out I will offer them the H55 High-Efficiency Gas Fryer with built-in filtration. I think that is what they really need, but I have not quoted it to them yet.

The drive back to Disney filled with chatter about grandchildren. Betsy was bragging about how her three-year-old grandson goes to a day care where he has already learned to count to ten in Spanish. I replied, "Well, Fay's grandson is only 9-months-old and he is already walking by himself and he knows sign language!" Betsy was impressed! LOL!!!

It was after 2 pm when we got back to the office. There were 15 calls answered by the answering machine, but 11 of them were hang-ups. Out of the remaining four calls, two were from Matthew Tang and two were from Nancy Baranet.

My afternoon was hectic like the morning just trying to get all of the orders processed. The afternoon took us up over $300k in orders.

Craig is leaving this evening to go to Tallahassee to get his Mom and Dad and they are driving west. He is dropping them off in Arizona, and he is continuing out to California to leave his car with his son. He flies back here on Monday.

This evening after walking Buddy I finished whitening my shower tile grout. Then I got a sponge soaked in bleach and rubbed the ceiling and first rows of tile down with it. Amazingly, like disappearing ink, the mildew disappeared!

Buddy got a bath after that. Because the fire extinguisher still wasn't inspected I am thinking about taking him to the office with me tomorrow. I love how they can threaten me with a $25 fine if I am not ready for the inspection, but all I get are apologies when they are running behind.

Paris for President

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Orlando, FL

There are not enough hours in the day for everything I have to do.

It was a fairly busy day at the office. Although it is only Tuesday, we have already passed $180k in sales. Craig returned to work today. He is in a big boot on his right foot -- his recent knee injury in Virginia Beach has aggravated an old injury to his foot.

Because he was out for so many days he is extremely busy catching up with all of his dealers. Poor man. The main problem is that a million decisions have to be made and he is the only one who can make them all.

We were surprised to learn today that Craig has purchased a new white, four-door, Honda and that he is driving his old Honda Civic to California starting Thursday. He is giving his old car to his son and then flying back here. Insane.

During lunch I went to Tires Plus and had the drivers side rear tire replaced - the one with the slow leak. Now I have four wheels with Firestone tires on them. I will go to Pep Boys or Autozone this weekend to get belts and hoses for it.

After work I came home and let Buddy out of the bathroom -- he's been spending the day in there because he is supposed to be put away when technicians come to inspect my fire extinguisher. Property management only said that they would be in Mon, Tue, or Wed. They have not been here yet, but I think it is less cruel to keep him confined to the bathroom than to keep him locked up in his little crate all day.

Buddy was overjoyed to see me.

We took a walk, but it got cut short by an approaching thunderstorm.

After changing into my dirty work shirt I went to the garage to continue working on my wood project. I planed the edges of the 9-foot-long red sapele board, then I chopped the two long aspen boards we bought at Lowe's into two 48-inch-long boards, planed the edges flat and smooth, and then sawed one of those sections into 3/8-inch thick sections on the tablesaw.

I continued with whitening the grout in my shower with the markers I bought, then I showered all of the sawdust off. Missed Bob's call while showering, but I called him back.

Tomorrow we are taking Betsy to lunch at The Elephant Bar in Millenia. That will be fun and it will make a nice break in the middle of the day for us.

Online I read that a pair of Levi-Strauss blue jeans recently sold for over $36k on eBay! Of course, these jeans date from the 1890's and are in remarkably great condition - found in a gold mine in the California desert and preserved all this time in the arid location.

I guess they truly do not make them like they used to!

Weekend

This weekend was too short. It went by in a blur!

On Friday I had to go to BJ's Warehouse with Fay to get supplies for the office. We got hotdogs for lunch at the stand by the checkout lanes.

We ended the week with around $314k in sales in the Orlando office. Barbara Hacker was out for the day so we would have to wait until Monday to learn that Hollywood did about $287k for the week.

After I got out of the office I drove home to pack my bag and take Buddy to Bob's house for the weekend. I stopped and got a box of chicken wings at Hurrincane's wings. I got the spinach and artichoke dip appetizer too.

Once we had all of our stuff at Bob's house we took Buddy down to the street for his walk. After the walk we microwaved our dinner and feasted. We cut off wing bone ends for Buddy to enjoy.

An episode of Modern Marvels on the Discovery Channel entertained us after dinner while we read. We had a small ramekin each of butter pecan ice cream for dessert.

Saturday was going to be a busy day for us. It started with an early morning walk for Buddy. Then I started the coffee pot and made ziploc bag omelets for us.

After breakfast we headed out to BJ's Warehouse to get bulk supplies of water, paper products and canned goods. We bought 6 cases of water, two cases of Coke Zero, a case of canned peaches, a twin pack of sliced turkey breast, a three pack of Lysol spray, a three pack of Dow tub and tile cleaner, a large bucket of dog treats, and a frozen lasagna.

We picked up bulk packages of toilet paper and paper towels for Bob.

We also found some boat shoes at BJ's and got them. That would save us a trip to Sports Authority!

The total was very high, but the coupons I clipped out of the BJ's magazine saved us $16!

Our next stop was SuperTarget where I got the rest of my groceries. We carried all of this loot back home to be put away. On the way back out we stopped at the rental office to pay my rent, get a furnace filter, and request service for the flourescent lamp in the kitchen. Then we went to Lowe's.

The Ocoee Lowe's store did not have aspen lumber, so we had to go out to Winter Garden to get the needed aspen. We got a sheet of 1/4 inch birch plywood, some 3-inch-long wood screws, and I got two more grout markers.

Since there was a Petco in the Winter Garden Village, we went over there to get a large bag of Iams lamb meal and rice feed for Buddy.

As we headed back to my apartment the sky was turning very dark and getting ready to rain. It began to rain as I backed the truck up to the garage. We hurried up and unloaded stuff from the bed of the truck into the garage to keep it dry.

For lunch we went to The Elephant Bar and Grille on Conroy Road in front of Bloomingdale's. This restaurant just opened and we had coupons! I we both ordered a large barbecue platter. I also ordered a spinach dip appetizer. The portions were so large! Bob could not finish his and I ended up stuffed! The food was a good value. The service... well... we will be kind and acknowledge that they are recently-opened and the dining room staff must be learning.

After lunch we went back to my house to get Bob's cold stuff out of the fridge and freezer and we loaded the paper products back up and took everything back to Bob's house. It took two trips to get everything upstairs.

We were so stuffed from lunch that we really didn't need much for dinner. We made Buddy wait until after 6 pm for his evening walk - it was just too hot outside.

Saturday evening was a quiet time at home. We were too tired to go out and do anything else. Bob wants to rent March Of The Penguins, but I know it will put him directly to sleep.

On Sunday morning we got up and took Buddy for his walk first thing. This is the weekend we go to Daytona to see Bob's parents. I wanted to get out early so that we could work on the mailbox before it got too hot. Well, we really did not succeed on that goal.

We left around 8 am for breakfast. We ate a hearty breakfast at IHOP. Then we went to Wal*Mart to get some new pillows for my bed, and some over-the-calf dress socks for me. We got a jug of 10W30 motor oil and an oil filter, and some 400 speed film for Bob. Next we headed over to Woodcraft and their new store on 17-92 in Fern Park.

Their new store is great! Here I got a 3 board-foot plank of Sapele for my picture frame project, I got a 1/8-inch-thick birch plywood board, and a book about handplanes. I wanted to get some turn buttons, but they were out-of-stock. I wanted to get a frame gluing clamp, but the salesman showed more than one type and I decided for now just to get neither one.

Finally we were on I-4 headed to Daytona Beach. We got to the house around noon. We spooled out a drop cord and I went to work drilling holes to mount the mail box to the post we set up next to the road. While I worked on the mailbox, Bob took some RoundUp and began spraying all of the poison oak creeping over the fence from the neighbors yard.

We worked for about an hour and we were both soaking with sweat. We took a break and went to Subway for lunch. Bob got a wrap sandwich and I got a salad. After lunch we both felt much better and went back to finish. We were surprised to find that the mailbox we purchased was gray instead of black! We had to go to Lowe's to get a can of black spray enamel to fix that!

Around 2 pm we had the mailbox finished. It looks good and it is all put together very study. I

think that mailbox will be there for a very long time!

We both took quick cold showers in the house and then headed down to Oaktree nursing home to visit Tom and Louise.

This visit was much like the others. We woke Tom up, wheeled him down the hall, woke Louise up, we went outside to the patio, and Louise smoked her cigarettes.

I think we only stayed 90 minutes. Then we went back inside where it was cooler. We said

good-bye to Louise, then took Tom back to bed.

I am so glad Bob has the AC fixed in his car. These trips to Daytona would be miserable without it!

When we got back to Bob's house we started dinner. Bob fried up chicken breasts, the

n made a gravy with mushrooms and onions sauteed in butter, boiled in chicken broth, and then milk and cornstarch stirred in to thicken it. We had the chicken dish with steamed broccoli and cauliflower. That was a nice meal.

After dinner we took Buddy for a very long, two mile walk. Then I ran the vacuum cleaner while Bob loaded the dishwasher.

We tried to watch some TV, but Bob kept nodding off to sleep. I scared him by craw

ling up and biting his toes! Finally we went to bed - the dog beat us to bed by an hour!