Orlando, FL

The past couple of days have been hectic and busy at work. I have already processed $223k in new orders - and it's only Tuesday!

I called Toyota Of Orlando to get an estimate for replacing my clutch. The service technician recommended changing the rear main bearing oil seal while the transmission was lowered. The total for that comes to $943.00. I think I am just going to go ahead and do it. The clutch is slipping worse all the time, and if I can replace the clutch, I can keep the truck running for four or five more years with no new car payment!

I ordered the glass plates for my picture frame projects. Continental Glass said that I can come over on Wednesday and get the glass.

This morning it was very cloudy and it looked like it was going to storm any minute. I actually had to get up and adjust the AC thermostat UP a little - my hands were cold! I don't do THAT very often.

Fay was all excited today because her daughter was over on The Cape riding "The Vomit Comet"(aka "The Weightless Wonder") and experiencing weightlessness as part of a program for Florida science teachers.

We get paid at midnight tonight. I have a negative balance right now, and after paying rent and other bills my balance is going to be low again. Hopefully there will be a payroll bonus this month.

Orlando, FL

This weekend I decided that I did not want to do anything very strenous or over-planned.

I got the panels for the backs of my picture frame wood projects sanded down on the sanding wheel so that they fit into their cut out spaces in the back of the frame. Also, using Gorilla Glue, I bound a book that I printed out from the Internet and ended up with a nice paperback book for (almost) free!

After a breakfast of eggs and bacon we layed in bed and listened to the news for a couple of hours. Then we decided to visit Gemini Springs Park in DeBary.

We stopped at Chik-Fil-A and got salads and then drove up I-4 to Volusia County and found our way to the park. It was a very sunny day and we spent about 4 hours walking the sidewalks and nature trails in the park. Because the St Johns River is still so high, parts of the trails and bridges were submerged.

In the picture here, Bob and Buddy pose on an anchor from an Independence-class aircraft carrier.

At the end of the day Buddy was one tired dog! I drove back to Orlando, and as I drove I looked over to see Bob hanging in his seatbelt asleep and Buddy was spread out on the back seat asleep!

When we got back to Orlando we went to AutoZone to drop off 10 quarts of used motor oil. I had to empty my oil change container out because I think we are going to be changing the oil in Bob's truck again soon.

For dinner we had a Jenny-O turkey roast along with Birdseye Steamfresh Broccoli and Cauliflower. Scraping the bottom of the barrel now, but I get paid on Wednesday morning and I can get some groceries next weekend.

We went out to the golf course around 9 PM with my telescope to take a look at planet Jupiter and the Galilean satellites - Io, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. I seem to have lost my high powered Barlow lens so our view was limited to a pea-sized Jupiter and point-like moons. Bob got a quick look at it before the golf course sprinklers chased us away!

On Sunday we hung around the house all day. I had to walk to Seven-11 to get some half-n-half for coffee creamer. While there I picked up a Krispy Kreme glazed donut to surprise Bob with.

I made eggs and bacon for breakfast. Bob likes his eggs scrambled. I fried his flat as if to make an omelet, then I cut them into perfect circles with a glass. I melted strips of American cheese on them, and fried a slice of Canadian bacon. I put all of this onto the glazed donut that I cut in half. Sorta like a bagel sandwich, but I used a donut instead!

Paul Newman died this weekend - he was 83. Space Exploration Technologies finally succeeded in getting one of their rockets into orbit, and they are understandably excited and happy about that.

We heard that my neighbor, Amy, was in the third round of competition at Sea World to appear on Wheel Of Fortune. We have not heard whether she made it or not.

For dinner we thawed out chicken breasts and I rolled them in some seasoning and baked them on a sheet pan in the oven. We made a big salad to go with the chicken and I stewed some diced tomatoes, okra, and minature white onions. It was good, and it was more than Bob could eat!

During the night last night it rained really hard around 1:30 or 2:00 AM. I heard thunder and I heard the rain hitting the window. I don't know how long it rained - I nodded back off to sleep!

History Hacker

We got lucky lastnight and caught the pilot episode of History Hacker on The History Channel last night. This new series features modern hacks of old technology. The pilot episode was presented by Bre Pettis of Make Magazine and was dedicated to Nikola Tesla. I knew Bre Pettis from Make Magazine already -- my work bench plans were sourced from Make Magazine. The workbench was a weekend project plan.


From the Make Workbench presentation I learned about Google SketchUp!

Orlando, FL

Our walk this morning was very nice - the air was cool and dry. Finally! Hopefully the cooler, drier conditions have arrived in time to spare Buddy from a trip to the vet for a shot of prednisone or some other steroid for his hot spots. We will see.

The clutch on the truck is slipping more and more all the time. It is going to have to be replaced within the next month. I sent an email request to the Service Department at Toyota Of Orlando for a parts and labor estimate on changing the clutch today. Hopefully I will get a response from them soon.

Today was a little hectic because Darden is starting to cast an eye toward purchasing the equipment for their new headquarters campus. Craig has asked me quote eight kitchens for that project as quickly as I can, but unfortunately I had so many service issues, orders, and other demands that I did not even start on that until this evening.

Craig and Gabe were in Tennessee today meeting with people from Delfield. Greg was in Virginia doing something in DC. Tom Dickie was still in Hollywood because he could not find someone to watch his daughter.

The scrap collector showed up this afternoon and took the FWE refrigerator, the toaster, the conveyor oven shell, drop in cold pan, and assorted other metal scrap away. Fay was very pleased about that. I am pleased that my poor truck won't have to carry all of it away.

I stayed at the office until 6:40 working on the quotes, but finally had to go because I needed net prices from the factories and just decided to continue in the morning.

After Buddy's evening walk I stopped to chat with John and Amy while Buddy, Epcot, and Caleb played. Amy said, "Wish me luck! Cross your fingers! On Saturday, Noah (her son) and I are going to Sea World to compete for a spot on Wheel Of Fortune!" Oh boy.

We got back to the house close to 8 PM and I felt like it was already too late to work on my wood project tonight. I will just get this blog caught up and then read more of my book.

Tomorrow is Friday! Hooray!

Orlando, FL

I guess my main accomplishment today was making models of the VersaDrawer and ConvoTherm to place into the Test Kitchen model. I captured screen shots of the controls on them from their cutsheets and just pasted the images onto the drawn boxes.

Models of a microwave and coffee maker were downloaded from the Google 3D Warehouse and placed in our proposed coffee mess.

They seem to have turned out pretty good! See the kitchen model posted here tonight.

Today Greg Olsen phoned our office and thanked me and Fay individually for working so hard this past weekend on getting the Test Kitchen cleared out. I was surprised. I think that thank-you was prompted by a phone call from Craig.

Evelyn came to the office this afternoon and she verified that we have wi-fi reception all the way back to the roll-up door in the kitchen. When we move our computers back there next week we will still be able to send/receive email. She also dismantled the guest computer in the file room, boxed it up, and moved it to the test kitchen for temporary storage.

Advanced Coating Technologies came to the office today and we discussed our acid stain choices with JD. He also looked at another stained floor in Suite I that nobody seems to like. He assured us that ours would be much better than that one.

In the evening, Gary, the contractor who will be handling our office painting, carpetting, and other upgrades, came to let Fay know that our carpet had been ordered and it was scheduled to ship October 6. That gives us about a week to start getting our office stuff boxed and ready to move. He also took the Megablenders and pitchers away with him.

The four partners will be in Covington, TN tomorrow to meet with Delfield management. I am sure there are going to be some heated exchanges in that meeting since it has been discovered that Delfield has been shorting us out of commission!

This evening I had a cool, cleansing salad, and then took Buddy for his walk. It was not as hot as it has been recently and there was a nice breeze. After the walk I started laundry and then went to the garage to continue working on my wood project.

I have the back panels complete now. I also measured out and cut out the panels that go into the back - these little panels are held down with turnbuttons and hold the pictures in the frame. I cut these a little bit over-size and will have to sand each one down to custom fit into its own space on the frame. I will start working on that tomorrow.

Now I have my blog updated for today. The dog's bedding is in the dryer and I will have to lay his bed back out before I go to sleep, but I am going to go read more of my book for now.

Orlando, FL

We got up this morning at 5:30 and took our walk. I took Buddy across Metrowest Boulevard and down Metrocenter Boulevard. As we walked north I looked over to the northwest and saw a streaking meteor cross the sky. It moved at least four hands (through about 40 degrees of sky), and it brightened up just before it burned completely out.

Today was an okay day at work. The phones were not too busy and I had time to place cabinets in my SketchUp Test Kitchen model. We are trying not to place the cart before the horse, but we are starting to get excited about the remodeling.

I drove my truck to Silver Star Metal Recycling today during lunch. I pulled the massive refrigerator off of my truck and onto forklift forks. The owner promised to come to our office at 3 pm with his truck to get the rest of our scrap, but he did not show again. I guess I will end up taking everything there in two more trips.

Debbie came in this afternoon. She was with us for about 25 minutes. She had to take all of the Redco and Wearever boxes out of her office and take them over to B15. She was surprised to hear that Fay is giving the rest of the Blendtec equipment to the construction contractor - knowing Debbie, I bet she writes a letter to the other partners to inform them of this grave sin. I am so over her, but Fay feels that she must continue to include Debbie in remodeling decisions.

Today seemed to be a little cooler. The evening walk with Buddy was almost pleasant!

After the walk I put on my "dirty work" shirt and went to the garage for a session of sanding on my wood project. I used my Black & Decker "Mouse" sander to get inside of the square panel sections on the back of the frame. I am going to have to use the jigsaw again to square up one of the panels on all three frame backs, but I will do that tomorrow.

Now that I have my blog entry done I want to lay down and read more of my book. Bob has class tonight, but he said he would call me when he gets out.

Weekend

This seemed like a very short weekend and it was particularly hard!

On Friday Debbie came in to get Fay and go to Ikea for Test Kitchen cabinet ideas. I thought that getting cabinets before the walls and floor were done was pre-mature and Fay agreed with me, but she had to go to avoid pissing Debbie off.

They ate lunch at Ikea and Fay reminded Debbie that we were moving all of the stuff out of the Test Kitchen on Saturday. Debbie said, "What? Well, this is the first I've heard of this! I've already made plans. I am going to be at the beach on Saturday and Sunday!"

Right after work I went home and packed my bag and a bag for Buddy to spend the weekend at Bob's house. We got to Bob's around 6:30 pm. Bob made Cornish Game Hens with rosemary and lemon and a side of steamed broccoli and cauliflower. It was a good dinner.

On Saturday morning we got up and took Buddy down for his morning walk. I had eggs and Canadian bacon for breakfast and Bob had oatmeal. We both had coffee. We told Buddy to be good and guard the house while we were away and we left to help move the Test Kitchen at FER.

At 9:30 am Fay arrived and we began to move all of the stuff out. We started by rolling the wheeled items first, then moving stuff on equipment stands, and rolling stuff over on handtrucks. Eventually we were taking truckloads of boxes - boxes filled with frying pans, sheet pans, and other smallwares all over to a vacant office suite that the landlord gave us to use for storage free-of-charge.

I told Bob that if we were lucky, Craig might offer to buy lunch for us. Craig showed up around 11:00 am. Around 12:30 pm Craig asked us what we wanted for lunch and sure enough, he went down to Orlando Ale House to get salads for Fay, Bob, and me!

After lunch we continued packing and moving stuff over to the storage suite. We also had to remove junked items from the warehouse across the street. It was a very hot day, but I cannot imaging doing everything we did with it raining outside.

We threw a tremendous amount of paper and other unneeded or out-of-date materials away. We still have a big stack of old literature in the warehouse to discard yet.

Eventually we reached a point in the late afternoon when Fay sat down and said she could not keep going, "I am an old, 61-year-old woman, my feet are swollen, and I am tired!" Moving all of that stuff was probably the most activity she'd seen in months.

On one of the runs to our storage suite in B15, I told Bob, "Now Bob, Craig may come up to you and try to offer you money, maybe $50, for helping us out today..." About an hour later, we were about to drive over to the warehouse one last time at the end of the day, and Craig came running up to the truck, pushing two $20 bills in the window, "Here, you guys go buy dinner!"

See Bobby? What did I tell you?

I am glad Debbie was not with us that day. She would have muddled and clouded every decision that needed to be made - and we had to make plenty of decisions. Even Bob could see that Debbie was a hot button for Fay, but he also understood that while we were complaining that she was not helping out, we knew she would get in the way.

The last thing we had to take out of the warehouse was an ancient Delfield refrigerator that no longer works. We needed to put it on my truck so that I can move it to the office for the scrap metal collector. I backed the truck up to the warehouse, but the fridge was taller than the roll-up door! We had to push the ice box back and turn it around and then slowly tip it over onto the tailgate. With two feet of the cabinet on my truck, Bob and I got behind the box and pushed up completely up onto the bed of the truck. It must weigh about 600 pounds!

We drove back downtown to Bob's and carried the loot that Bob got that day up to his house. Bob got some Jackson MSC Note-Taker books, he got some assorted freebies like bottle openers, tape measures, etc, he got two giant 14-inch aluminum fry pans, and the best thing of all - he got his very own Blendtec blender - the same ones they use at Starbucks and Planet Smoothie!

We were both very very tired from that long, hot, dirty, busy day of moving.

As soon as we walked in we noticed something very wrong. The dog had a major accident on Bob's living room carpet!! He was scared and shaking because he knew we would be upset. I let him know I was upset, but he was not punished for it. We knew he must have been sick.

I immediately began cleaning the loose soil up off of the carpet with paper towels while Bob got the carpet shampooer ready. We had it all cleaned up in about 30 minutes. Then we took Buddy for a short walk downstairs to pee.

After a quick shower for each of us, we decided to visit the Spice Steakhouse on Central Boulevard for dinner. I ordered a herb-crusted pork chop on steamed asparagus with broccoli on the side, an appetizer of eggplant medalions, and a 2005 Lurton Les Salices pinot noir. Bob had a Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast on pasta. For dessert we had one order of White Chocolate Raspberry Chambord with two spoons. I had one spoonful and Bob ate three or four spoonfuls of it.

We were so tired that we were both ready to go right to bed when we got home after 9 pm. I think I slept pretty soundly.

On Sunday morning I did not feel like cooking breakfast. I took Buddy down to the street for a very long morning walk while Bob got up and made the bed. Bob spent a little bit of time browsing the Will It Blend? website which features Blendtec blenders chewing up and turning everyday objects into dust and scrap.

We agreed to go to Golden Corral where we could eat breakfast from the buffet. All the scrambled eggs and bacon and ham and other low-carb delicacies I wanted! We sure ate our fill in Golden Corral!

Then we got onto I-4 and drove to Daytona Beach.

We went to visit the Daytona Beach Museum of Arts & Sciences. This was a curious museum with lots of rare and old items. It seemed to me that most of the objects on display were donated by four of five wealthy Volusia County families. We spent almost three hours at this museum, including 45 minutes in the planetarium!

After MOAS we went to Oaktree Healthcare to visit Bob's parents. We walked Bob's father down the hall and outside and all of us sat on the patio while Bob's mother smoked her cigarettes. It was so hot outside. We talked about our recent trip to West Virginia and we agreed to take them out to dinner for their wedding anniversary in two weeks.

Bob's birthday is Oct 1 and their anniversary is Oct 2 - same day as my birthday.

After we left the nursing home we went by Tom and Louise's house to make sure it was okay. I sprayed more Roundup trying to kill all of the poison oak that seems to keep coming back in the back yard.

Then we had to return to Orlando. We got back to Bob's house around 6 pm. Buddy was a perfect angel on Sunday. We harnessed him up and took him down for a walk. While we were downstairs Bob stopped into Publix to get some hamburgers and some tomatoes.

Back in the house we made a cauliflower salad with cooked cauliflower, olive oil and chopped parsley and quartered Mediterranean olives. We baked the four hamburgers. I sliced up the tomatoes and we had them on the side raw.

While Bob got the dinner dishes loaded into the dish washer I started using Lexol to dress his leather dining room chairs and his leather sofa. Then I ran the vacuum cleaner.

We went to bed around 10 pm. We could hear the dog growling and whimpering in his canine dreams down on the floor!

The alarm woke us up at 5:30 am and we gathered our stuff up to return to The Summit Apartments and start another week of work. After quickly putting our stuff away I took Buddy for his morning walk. Then I turned the AC thermostat back down and started my shower.

Work today was very busy. I guess that was predictable. Fay and Craig are both very pleased with how much we got done on Saturday. I think Craig secretly did not think we would get it all cleared out. We completed negotiations for the office painting and carpet today - that will probably begin next Monday and they will need five days to get it all done. Craig agreed to forward phones and faxes to Hollywood for that week. We will try to set our computers up in the Test Kitchen on the big table so that we can still respond to email.

The scrap collector called to cancel his pick up today due to being short handed. He said that he will come for the pick up tomorrow. So, I still have that monstrous refrigerator on my truck.

Debbie phoned in today and was surprised that we got everything out of the TK. She was also a little miffed when Fay told her that she had to get all of her stuff out of her office. She acted like she did not understand what Fay was saying.

I told Craig that I had a feeling that I would be the one who ended up having to move all of the smallwares to B15, and that I would be the one who ended up moving it all to the warehouse. Craig said that Debbie needed to come in and organize that stuff. He said that if he has to move it, he is only going to move it as far as the dumpster!

It rained this afternoon - very hard at times! I stayed at the office until 6:00 pm. With a heavy fridge on my truck and wet roads, I was not going to be in a hurry to go anywhere. I stopped and bought a tank of gas on the way home too.

For dinner I made a salad and put some heated up chicken strips on top of it.

After giving Buddy his evening walk I sat down to balance my checkbook and write this blog. Getting this caught up took about an hour!

The "New" New Deal

Orlando, FL

While the phones were quieter today it was still very hectic. Darden was being a very demanding little customer today. One bitch in particular was about to push me too far. They really need to chill the fuck out over there.

We are trying to decide what colors to have the office re-painted and re-carpetted. I made my color-coordinated choices in 10 minutes. But Debbie came in and endless controversy began. "Noooo, I think it would better if we painted THAT wall red instead of the back wall." Fay chimes in, "Well Debbie, this decision was already made for us. Greg Olsen said he wanted the back wall painted red." "What? Who made that decision?!!" And so on and so on. Uggh. I honestly do not care as long as they do not select something hideously clashing.

Most of Saturday is going to be used at the office moving all of our stuff from the Test Kitchen to Building B-17 for storage. We have decided that the front of the office must be painted and carpeted first. Then the Test Kitchen painted and the floor treatment applied. It is going to be very confused for a couple of weeks.

I have an appointment for a scrap collector to pick up the two refrigerators and pasta cooker on Monday. Craig phoned in and Fay told him. Now Craig wants us to ensure that the scrap man is bonded. I am like, what? Who cares if he's bonded?

This evening I stopped on my way home from work at Publix. I got some more ricotta cheese, a baked chicken, a bagged salad, box of cherry tomatoes, a yellow onion, and two cucumbers.

I unloaded and then loaded the dishwasher. Then I started laundry. I stripped the bed, rotated the mattress, and laundered the sheets too. I am waiting for them to dry right now.

While my laundry was in the dryer I went to the garage and set up my handheld jigsaw. I cut the square panels out of the backs of my picture frames. Then I started sanding them with my Black & Decker Mouse palm sander. I still have a lot of sanding to do on them. I guess I will cut the little panels out that go into the back next.

Soon I will be measuring, scribing, taping over my line, and chopping mitres for the outside frame and inside trim pieces. Even these simple projects seem to have many steps.

I am glad tomorrow is Friday.

Orlando, FL

Today was a rough day.

I kept dropping my house keys as I started out - and I was already late. When I got into the truck I dropped them again and had to fish for them under the seat!

Arrived at the office about 10 minutes late.

There were a couple of "crises du jour" today...

First, somebody had a bone to pick with Fay Lewis. Evidently her son is behind on payments and his account was turned over to Collections. Some collection agency got the phone number for the office today and called every 5 to 7 minutes and would hang up - just to harass us.

I phoned Verizon Business Services and they put me intouch with their Illegal Call Bureau. They instructed me to hang up when I get one of those calls. Pick up that line again before another call comes in. Dial *57 to log the phone number on their server. Then write down the date and time of the call. We had alot of those calls logged in just a couple of hours.

Next we phoned Orlando Police Department to file a complaint. We were given a case number and Verizon made a file with all of the offending calls to turn over to the police for investigation.

Second, Debbie came in today. That is usually a crises just by itself. She came in dressed in jeans and an old shirt to do "dirty work". Well, she showed up around 11 am, puttered around in her office and then loudly proclaimed that she lost her reading glasses. I loaned her my magnifying glass, but she said she could not follow her computer mouse cursor with the magnifying glass. So, she left and went to Target to get glasses.

She returned 45 minutes later with glasses and some inane plastic signs for Fay and me. By this time it was 15 til noon and she said, "Oh look! It's almost lunch time!" So Fay and Debbie went to lunch together. They returned shortly after 1:00 pm. Now it was time for me to go to lunch.

I was gone about an hour. I went to Bear Claw Cafe and had a salad. When I returned at 2:30 pm, Debbie was still in her office messing with her computer. Finally she got up and went to the Test Kitchen to sort out sales literature for our move and remodel. After 20 minutes of that it was time for her to go home and feed her dogs. That's that.

The leasing office made another suite available to us, but it is in Building B - two buildings up. We will have to move everything about 300 to 500 feet. I will have to devote a large chunk of Saturday to this effort. It needs to be done though. Something tells me my truck is going to become indespensible to this task too.

Workers at Darden Restaurants are under soooo much pressure right now, with the takeover stress and now their earnings are down... the least little word or phrase is pissing them off over there. Craig said this is almost the worst he's seen it with them. Even he's become a target - they are trying to throw him under the bus for a $3000 mistake because he signed drawings that nobody else over there would sign just to get a Capital Grille moving.

It's like walking on eggshells with them. The best thing you can do when they say something outrageous or stupid is ignore them.

This evening I made a chili with thawed hamburger, my last onion, left over celery from last weekend, canned tomatoes and canned black beans.

Orlando, FL

Today was a very hectic day at work. Our phones were busy all day. Then the little tasks that I was given to do and endless issues to follow up on kept me quite busy when I was not on the phone. Also, Fay gave me project folders to label and a last month's quote binder to label. I guess I am the office labeler.

Debbie actually brought in some orders. She had oven orders worth $32k come in today from quotes she wrote.

Lunch today was Chik-Fil-A Southwest Chargrilled Chicken Salad.

After work today I watered my poor drooping plants and ran the vacuum cleaner - my God! The hairball that the vacuum presented to me was a big as a softball!

Later, after Buddy's evening walk, I went to the garage and drilled holes in the corners of the panels that come out of the back of my picture frame. The forstner bit was running so hot it was buring the wood, and the garage was hazy with wood smoke. Tomorrow I will jigjaw those panels out completely.

Now I want to read a little further into The Drunkards Walk, a book about probability and the randomness of life events.

Orlando, FL

This was a fairly relaxing weekend.

On Saturday morning, Buddy let us sleep in until 9 am! After his walk I made breakfast of eggs and sausage.

We went to the Woodcraft store and I got a clamp for gluing up picture frames. I wanted to get some nice walnut lumber, but when the wood is $50 per board, you really have to consider and re-consider it.

Next we went to Bob's house to retrieve Buddy's bowls. We left Buddy in Bob's house while we walked to Church Street to eat at Hamburger Mary's for lunch. The food was so-so, and the campy gay waiters were a little annoying.

We took Buddy and went back to my house for the afternoon.

Around 6 pm I tried to get Marrissia and Kevin on the phone -- they were just checking in at that time. We drove down to Lake Buena Vista to meet them and then we decided to eat dinner at the Bahama Breeze next to I-4.

We must have timed our arrival perfectly because although scores of people were waiting for a table (it was a Saturday night after all) we waited 5 minutes and then all six of us were seated! We had a nice time discussing travel plans and trips taken. Bob said that he'd never paid more than $300 to go on a cruise and he told Marrissia and Kevin he would provide his travel contact for them to consult with.

On Sunday we got up and walked Buddy around 7 am. We went to Wal*Mart to get chicken, eggs, heavy cream, some vegetables, ginger, more Sulfodene for the dog, jug of motor oil and oil filter for Bob's car, cigarettes for Bob's mother, some cheese, and some ricotta cheese.

Back home I peeled the ginger and made Bob grate it to marinate chicken breasts in with lemon juice, and garlic. I made a vanilla dessert with ricotta cheese too.

For lunch we ate the rest of the salad from dinner on Friday evening.

It was too damned hot to work in the garage on my wood projects. I know I need to hurry and get them done, but it is going to have to cool off some.

We browsed the Internet most of the afternoon. We looked at photos of the devastation in Galveston from Hurricane Ike and read about the impending bank failures and about the vapid corrupt Sarah Palin who was chosen to be McSame's running mate.

In the evening I fried the marinated chicken breasts and plated them with sliced heirloom tomatoes and steamed broccoli.

After 7 pm we took the dog out for his evening walk. It seems like it starts to cool off around then and I don't want to walk him while its still hot out -- his hotspots look so bad already!

This morning we got up around 6:30 am. I took Buddy for his walk while Bob made the bed and got his shave. I made Bob a breakfast of oatmeal before sending him on his way to work.

Work today was a little busy. Lots of phone calls. Fay announced first thing this morning that her husband had an MRI scheduled today and that she was taking the afternoon after 1 pm off to be with him.

Around 12:10 pm I went to Ruby Tuesdays and ate lunch at the salad bar. Then I went to the apartment and got Buddy. I figured if Fay was out of the office, and Craig was in Arizona, and hardly any chance of seeing Debbie, there was no reason why Buddy couldn't come to the office to keep me company.

As soon as we got to the office Fay left to get her husband. I poured a pie plate of water for Buddy and then got back into my work. The afternoon was so busy that the time went by fairly quickly.

This evening I ate one leftover chicken breast for dinner with a sliced tomato and some slices of jalapeno jack cheese. We are waiting for things to cool off outside before taking Buddy for his evening walk.

Orlando, FL

Last night I had a strange dream that I was back on Gee Dub and getting ready to do a primary valve operation (PVO). Remembering that dream brought a flash back to the time I did a PVO as an observed evolution for Captain Jim "The Screaming Eagle" Chapman. I guess I was suppressing that unpleasant memory!

The end of this week could not have come soon enough. This seemed like a long week of playing "catch back up" from my two days out last week. No sympathy from Fay either, "Well, that's the price you pay when you go on vacation."

Craig had to go to Tampa to visit a dealer that does not get along with Greg Olsen. He was gone most of the day.

It was sunny all day and it did not rain today. The bright blue sky was populated with fluffy sheep-like white clouds.

I put a roast into the crockpot last night with onions, celery, mushrooms and diced tomatoes. It cooked for twenty-four hours.

Bob let himself into my apartment because he got out of work earlier than me and he made a salad with vegetables found in my refrigerator. We ate dinner and then we took Buddy for his evening walk. We went into the tennis court, closed the gate, and let Buddy run inside the court until he started to get tired.

This evening I took the AC register grills down and cleaned the mold and mildew off of them in strong bleach solution. The house fairly stinks of chlorine bleach now. After that task we got Buddy to lay down and we put Sulfodene medicine on his feet.

Now we are ready to lay down and watch TV or read.

Fay decided that we are not going to work this Saturday, that we will probably work on moving stuff from the test kitchen next Saturday instead.

Tomorrow night we will visit with Kevin and Marrissia.



I put a roast into the crockpot last night with onions, celery, mushrooms and diced tomatoes. It cooked for twenty-four hours.

Orlando, FL

Someone flooded the fountain with soap again during the night. When I left for work this morning all of the maintenance workers were in the front trying to flush out the fountain. I had to leave via the front gate because none of the workers had the back gate opened yet.

Today it was cooler in the office because it was mostly overcast all day. I am glad. It was so warm yesterday it felt like my sinuses were starting to congest again.

Fay's husband was in the Test Kitchen all day today crating up more equipment to go back to factories. He really did a very good job at it too. I guess Fay or Craig expects me to do that too, but I can't because I would be constantly interrupted to answer phones and do what I am really paid to do.

One good thing got done today - I had a huge stack of orders to get filed and I sorted them all by dealer and project in the morning. Later in the afternoon I got the dealer orders filed. Then I got the school orders filed. I still have project and chain account orders to file, but could not finish those because the cabinets are in Craig's office and he was in there today.

I got an "Atta Boy" from one of our factory people today that was very complimentary. Mark Schantz at Cleveland Range told Neil Gosselin what a great job I am doing. Neil immediately passed that on to Craig, and then Craig told me. Mark and Neil were both surprised that I had heard about it so quickly. Gossip Mill. I laughed and joked with Neil saying that the bribe I gave to Mark really paid off this time!

Within an hour I had a foodservice consultant phoning Craig to complain about me. His feelings were hurt when I thanked him for promptly phoning a factory accountant about his delinquent invoice (in anticipation of him actually doing so). He complained that I was "needling" him. He is just a fat, old, unhappy man, and I am not even going to pay any mind to it.

It stormed really hard again this afternoon. These storms have been surprisingly strong with high winds and lightning!

This evening I put a roast into the crock pot with celery, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms. That will cook all night and all day tomorrow. It should be very good when it is done.

Marrissia phoned this evening and we talked for about 12 minutes. They are driving down on Saturday with another couple and staying at the Sheraton Vistana Resort in LBV. I asked her why they were staying so close to Disney when they are visiting Universal and Wet-N-Wild this trip down. She said that was the closest time-share they could get that they belonged to.

I have to help out at the office on Saturday with packing stuff up in the TK for our move and remodeling. But Saturday evening I will phone Marrissia and Kevin and take Bob out there to meet them and have dinner or drinks with them.

Orlando, FL

I know I haven't posted in almost two weeks... here is what happened...

Thursday, 8-28, Friday, 8-29, Saturday, 8-30, Sunday, 8-31, and Monday, 9-1, I spent the Labor Day Weekend at Bob's and I caught a nasty cold, so nasty I did not feel like writing on Tuesday, 9-2, and Wednesday, 9-3, I went to bed early hoping to get over my cold. I was dosing myself with massive quantities of cold medicine.

On Thursday, 9-4, Bob and I started on our way to West Virginia for a weekend of whitewater rafting on the Gauley River. We drove up I-4 East to I-95 North to I-26 West to I-77 North up to Beckley. The trip up here took 13 hours. We stayed in a Best Western in Beckley.

The Gauley is run year-round by recreational boaters and from Spring to
Fall by commercial rafting companies. During the majority of the year, boating
is level dependent and the water level fluctuates dramatically depending on
rainfall and the level of Summersville Lake. However, starting the Friday after
Labor Day, the Army Corps of Engineers provides a series of twenty-two
controlled releases for the express purpose of downriver recreation. These
releases are collectively known as "Gauley Season" and are scheduled on six
successive weekends, the first five of which are four-day weekends (Friday
through Monday) and the last of which is just Saturday and Sunday. Typical
release levels during "Gauley Season" range from 2,400 to 2,800 ft³/s (68 to 79
m³/s).

These releases are thanks to an act of the U.S. Congress, the first law passed in the U.S. to specifically mandate recreational whitewater dam releases. The releases bring millions of dollars annually to the local economy, as paddlers travel from all over the United States and overseas for this event.

On Friday morning we drove out to Lansing, WV to Class VI River Runners to sign-in for our trip and enjoy the buffet breakfast we pre-paid for. This was my third rafting trip with Class VI, and I think they truly are the best outfitter for this activity in West Virginia.

We signed in, got suited up in life jackets and helmets, put lanyards on our sunglasses to keep them from being lost, and met our group at 10:30 am. Our Trip Leader was a hippie man with long braided hair named "Doug" and he kept saying "If you dig me, you Doug me." Ugghh. We all climbed into a bus and they drove us up the river, across Summersville Dam, down the other side of the river to the put in point. This trip took about 30 minutes and we went over important safety topics during the trip.

While travelling across the top of Summersville Dam, Doug told us that a village named "Gad" used to be located on the river here and the US Army Corps Of Engineers was going to name the dam "The Gad Dam". They decided that was not a good idea. Next idea was, "The Gauley Dam". Again, they didn't like how that sounded. So, they decided to name it after the nearby town of Summersville.

Our trip guide this day was a 30-year Marine Corps veteran named "Bob" who is from Swansboro, NC and has been taking rafts down the river for 15 years. As coincidence would have it, another paddler in the raft was named Bob too. We had three Bobs in our raft.

We travelled with two couples who knew each other. One couple was from Long Island and the others were from Maryland. The first part of the trip was gentle enough and I was actually bored. I felt the New River offered more excitement than this.

Lunch was held up under a permanent picnic shelter on the left bank of the river. We were notified that three of the rafting companies were combining forces and going corporate. One of the new things they were trying out was hot lunches on the river. They had hot hamburgers, hot dogs, and sausages for us, but the wait was terribly long -- they were trying to serve over 200 people at the same time. The lunches need a little finessing.

After lunch the rafting became more exciting. So exciting I almost fell out of the raft one time and I almost threw up my lunch another time! We took many pictures with our waterproof disposable camera, but we have not developed those pictures yet.

This was Bob's first time rafting and I think he had a very good time. He was suffering from the cold that I was just getting over, but I still think the experience was fun for him.

At the end of the day we pulled the raft out, carried all of the paddles and gear up to the bus, carried the raft up to the raft trailer and deflated it. Once on the bus the staff passed out cold beverages for us.

Back at the Class VI facility our first thought was to get our dry clothes out of the car and head to the showers. Once we were cleaned off we browsed the gift shop for t-shirts and souvenirs, we purchased an 8x10 photo of our group passing through one of the rapids, and we got a carved frame to hang the picture up in.

We found our way to Smokey's On The Gorge, one of the Food Network's Top Ten Restaurants in the US and the Best Restaurant in West Virginia. We had pre-paid for dinner when we bought the rafting trip. This fine dining facility is at the Class VI base camp and is perched right on the canyon rim with observation decks standing out over the cliff. We were treated to a beautiful Appalachian sunset and then we went to the buffet and filled out plates.

We were both so tired that we filled up after only one trip to the buffet. We decided to head back to Beckley and the Best Western. Poor Buddy - he spent the entire day, 15 hours, cooped up in his little crate. Boy, was he happy to see us! Tail wagging, face licking. I took him out for a very long walk while Bob went ahead to bed.

On Saturday, 9-6, we visited the Exhibition Coal Mine in Beckley. For years I have seen the signs advertising this attraction as I travelled up and down I-77 and I decided to stop and see it for once. We spent about two hours riding through the mine and then looking at some of the exhibits above ground.

Originally I had wanted to visit the Babcock State Park in West Virginia too. I was curious to visit the Glade Creek Grist Mill here, but I also felt that we were running short of time and decided to head back home.

We took I-77 South to Wytheville, then I-81 South to Bristol, then I-40 to Knoxville, then I-75 back to Florida. This trip back was longer and we spent 15 hours on our return trip. We got home around 3 am on Sunday, 9-7.

When I finally got back to my apartment on Monday, 9-8, I discovered that my Internet service was not working. Again on Tuesday it was not working and I called BrightHouse Networks for help. They had to sent a technician out to troubleshoot it.

I met the technician here at my house during lunch today. He was unable to fix the problem while leaving the cable TV filters in place, so he took them off. I now have free cable TV too!

FER is finally getting serious about our remodelling efforts. Fay has begun to pack things up for our move. Today she had her husband in the office all day making crates and boxing up ovens and other equipment to be shipped back to factories. We are still going to have to come in on Saturday to move stuff to a storage place.

I am expecting Marrissia and Kevin this weekend and we are supposed to have dinner.

After work today I went to Wal*Mart to get some salad, a roast, a belt, some new slacks for work, and Sulfodene for the dog's feet. I found the medicine at Wal*Mart for about HALF of what I paid for it at Petsmart! I got a bottle of Sulfodene Medicated Shampoo too. I hope we can get his feet cleared up.

I cleaned the kitchen and bathroom floors this evening, then I walked the dog. After our walk I ran the vacuum cleaner and then bathed the dog taking special care of his feet with the medicated shampoo.

Now I have my journal caught up and should be able to continue making regular entries.