Saturday

We had oatmeal for breakfast this morning.

After breakfast, I harnessed Buddy, got the bag of tools I had prepared, and headed out to FER to change the wax seal in the FER toilet.

Bob was going to Woodcraft today to attend his Bowl Turning Class.

At FER I took Buddy inside, poured him a bowl of water, and started to work on this toilet. I took the tank-to-bowl bolts out, and I took the nuts off of the bowl-to-floor bolts. I lifted the tank up and carried it out the back door, poured the water out of it and then noticed heavy mineral deposits in the bottom around the mounting bolts.

I figured, the new bolts would never seal properly with all of that crap in the bottom, so I started to chip and scrape it away. I pulled the steel back door shut behind me to keep Buddy inside the office while I worked.

After cleaning most of the deposits away, I decided that soaking in vinegar might loosen the rest of it, so I stood up to go back into the Test Kitchen, and that is when I remembered that the back door locks when you pull it shut behind you.

Now I was locked out of the office. My car keys, door keys, cell phone, everything was inside. Boy, I felt dumb.

I walked down to US Lawns where I saw some people inside working. I knocked on the door, and asked if I could use their phone. I called Craig, but got his voicemail. I left him a message letting him know what happened. Then I went back to the office and waited.

When Holy Land Experience opened up, you could hear the recorded voice of a big woman belting out the Star Spangled Banner.

I could hear Buddy inside crying because he wanted to be with me.

After being outside for about an hour, Craig drove up and opened the door. I went back in and got right back to work. When I pulled the toilet bowl up, a couple of floor tiles came up with it! The concrete floor below was wet. I put it on a dolly and rolled it out the back door. Then I went to the restroom to scrape the wax up from the flange. That is when I found the surprise.

The flange was broken on both sides! The left side had been repaired a long time ago with a steel repair segment. The mounting bolt on that side was tight too. But on the right side, I remembered that the nut was only finger-tight when I took it off. As I scraped the wax away, I found the PVC flange broken off.

I cleaned everything up as good as I could, but I was going to have to go to Home Depot to get another steel flange repair segment. I was worried too because the original water closet flange was very close to the concrete floor - I was not sure whether I could get the repair segment under the plastic flange.

Buddy and I went over to Home Depot and I got a steel repair part for $4.23. Then we came back. I got a flat screwdriver out of the closet and I could pry the plastic up a little bit. Then I got the hammer and started to use it as a chisel and removed some of the concrete. By prying and pushing, and tapping with the hammer, I was able to get the repair section pushed up under the plastic pipe flange.

Then I put the new was seal on the bowl, set the bowl down on the flange, put the washers and nuts on and tightened. Then I put the anchor bolts into the tank, and set the tank on the bowl. I hooked up the water, and gave it a Test Flush. It looks successful so far.

I cleaned up the floor around the toilet, and then squeezed out a bead of caulking all the way around the base of the toilet bowl, and smoothed it with the smoothing tool. It looks good!

With Clorox spray I wiped the whole toilet down good, then I mopped the room out with Simple Green and Pine Sol.

If you subtract the hour that I was stuck outside, this only took two hours.

Craig thanked me a couple of times for doing this. Although we spent $20 for parts, a plumber would have charged $60 for the first hour!

I took Buddy back home, then I went back out. It was raining.

For lunch I got a Cool Wrap at Chik-Fil-A, then I headed over to Skycraft Surplus to browse. Here I got two small electric fish tank heaters, two tubes of graphite lock lubricant, a scratch awl, and a pack of steel spatulas (like dentists tools).

On the way home I stopped at Publix to get a pack of celery, a bottle of red wine, and a pack of Thank You cards for Bobby.

When I got home I chopped up celery and onion and put that to fry with hamburger, chili powder and ground cumin. Later I added tomato paste, diced tomatoes, black beans, and red beans to make chili. I put goblets in the freezer to chill and the bottle of wine in the fridge to cool down.

Bob had a very good time at Woodcraft. Not only did he make a bowl, but he made TWO bowls! I think he enjoyed himself and it was a good way for him to be distracted from all of the things troubling him this past week. When he got home he was covered in sawdust!

After enjoying our dinner, we all went out for a walk. Then we checked the mail on the way back up to the house. Now Bobby is reading Facebook and chatting with Becky!

Like I said, this weekend will be over before you know it.

Orlando, FL

Hectic day today. A big rush to get caught back up from being out a day. There weren't too many orders, but there were invoices and acknowledgements that I had to get caught up.

Heidi Connors and Gary Dykstra from Lincoln showed up in our office at 9:45, then Craig came in at 10:00 AM. While Gary and Heidi were in the Test Kitchen he asked me to print all correspondence on my computer concerning Kolpak and Darden, including issues with the New Restaurant Support Center walk-ins. I said, "Well, you're gonna have a book." He said he realized that, but he wanted it all.

Well, not a book, it's going to be more like an encyclopedia. By the time I left in the afternoon, I had gone through four reams of paper and had a stack of email messages over a foot tall! I still have to go through my Fay Lewis folder before I am done. I am going to suggest to Craig that we have Evelyn Dufner bring in a portable hard drive and make an archive of all of my email messages back to April 2009 - even though it will capture Disney, and all other dealer and factory messages, it will absolutely capture all of the Darden-Kolpak messages.

I worked on this continuously and didn't even take lunch. I ate an apple.

The reason why he wants this is so fantastic it is hard to believe. He does not want us to discuss this, so I will have to post about this later. I may be able to say something as soon as next week.

For the first time, since I have been there, I am actually afraid for FER.

Before I left the office I got my paystubs - that's right more than one! We got a modest bonus this month! Also, I got my W-2. I need to get my taxes done soon. I am going to submit a 1040-EZ.

Bobby had another busy day in Daytona trying to get things from his Dad's estate settled. In the afternoon he was on his way to the nursing home to visit Louise before returning to Orlando. He found John and his wife already there.

John said that they were there to take Louise home with them!

Bob let John know that he had power-of-attorney over Louise, and he let him know that Louise is a ward of the state, and might not even be permitted to leave the nursing home since she was assigned to the home by the courts and the Department of Children and Families.

Then he told the head nurse, to get a good look at John and his wife because he told her that under no circumstances were they to be allowed to remove Louise from the home. She said they would be guilty of kidnapping if they did.

We believe John's plan was to butter Louise up because they believe that she is going to inherit Tom's property (they do not know about the will), and then they could all move into Tom's house, collect Louise's social security, and when she dies, take the house.

Bobby is going to make sure that everything works out the way Tom intended.

Tomorrow Bobby will be going to WoodCraft to take his Bowl Turning class. I am glad he will be doing something fun and distracting. I am going to FER to change the toilet wax seal and all of the toilet bolts. I will try to discuss what Craig wants to do with all of that paper too.

This weekend is going to be gone in the blink of an eye.

Daytona Beach, FL

Bob and I went to Winter Park and ate lunch at the Fairbanks Diner, then we bought a tankful of gasoline for the drive to Daytona Beach.

Before we could start out we had to swing by FER and pick up a form the funeral home faxed over from Clearwater. If you present this form at a post office, you receive a flag which can be folded and presented to the family.

After we got the flag we went home, got our nice clothes, put Buddy in the car, boxed up the A/V equipment, and put that into the car, and went to 7-Eleven where we Bob made a withdrawal so that we would have money to put into an envelope for the Disabled American Veterans.

Now we started to Daytona. We drove up and went right to the house. Here I let Buddy run in the backyard for a while, then we changed our clothes, fed the dog, and then left him there while we went over to Bob's brother's house to see them and Louise.

Louise looked nice. They had her dressed up nicely.

I met their rotweiller, Ruby. Poor dog kept licking herself continuously! Then I was scratching behind her ears and felt a bump. I parted the hair down to the skin to find a big black tick on her! That poor dog is covered in ticks!

We went to the Daytona chapter of the Disabled American Veterans for the memorial service for Tom. We set up the projector and computer in the front and let the video play in a loop.

I went up front to look at the floral displays sent in by well-wishers. There was a very large display on a tripod sent by Florida Hospital EMS. It was larger than any of the other flowers sent!

Louise was very lucid - she recognized some of the firefighters that she had not seen in years. I was surprised, and I think some of the others were too. Bob's brother, John, cried alot because of the video Bobby put together. I think someone was feeling very guilty for disappearing for 13 years.

Another big surprise was that Bob's supervisors - Vicky Tyszko, the department director, and Richard Nettles, the operations manager, showed up for the service!

The service lasted less than an hour. There were prayers, there were some funny stories about Tom from some of the firefighters, and there was an honor guard with rifle firing and taps sounded on a bugle. The DAV provided the folded flag to Louise. The DAV also gave Louise a small "dish garden".

After the service we loaded the plants and the A/V equipment back into the car. Then we went to John's house while we discussed what to do for dinner. We decided to go to Red Lobster for dinner, and John paid for it!

It was around 9:00 PM when we finished dinner. We needed to get back to Orlando because I had to work in the morning. But first we had to go back to John's house and say good-bye to everyone, then we had to go back to the house and get Buddy.

I think we got home at 10:30 PM. Long and tiring day!

Memorial Service

Bobby did a great job on this memorial slideshow for his father. It was a real tear-jerker. We borrowed a digital projector from the Florida Hospital EMS Training to project this show onto a screen in the hall where the service was held.

Many people congratulated Bob at the service for doing such a great job on this.

This was Bob's first time making a project with the Windows Movie Maker software that comes with Windows XP.

Orlando, FL

Hectic morning.

I was late getting started and ended up getting to the office 10 minutes late. Incredibly, Fay did not show up for another 10 minutes!

While my computer was starting up, I went and checked the phone messages, and I found a nasty-gram from Joan Salah, our Area Vice-President on there addressed to Craig, "Craig, you need to call me as soon as you get this message. I do not like getting one-line emails saying that Kolpak has been suspended for six months on the morning I am meeting with the senior vice-presidents and Darden upper-management. You need to call me!" Uggh. What a bitch. Anyway, despite the big meeting today, we already knew that Kolpak was going to be temporarily fired.

When Fay came in she was dressed really nicely in black slacks and a nice blue and yellow silk shirt - she was ready for her big meeting over at Darden. Despite the news she was determined that she was going to be in that meeting to prevent Joan from throwing her under the bus.

Craig came in around 9:30 with Joe Nicholson from Cleveland Range with him. I told Craig, "She's dressed too pretty to be used as a mudflap on the bus that's coming down the road." Joe shot Craig a puzzled look, and Craig whispered, "Joan.... she hates Fay!"

Craig took Joe to a hotel to help reassure the chefs that we are concerned about the leaking door on their combi, and then they went to Darden HQ for the Top Secret Red Lobster 2.0 project. Craig bombarded us with phone calls all morning.

Although I was hungry for a cheeseburger, I got a salad from Chik-Fil-A for lunch.

During the afternoon Craig forwarded an email message from Joan stating that she DID NOT want Fay Lewis in the afternoon meeting. Fay was upset about it even though she claimed she was not.

Gabe and Greg phoned during the afternoon to check on Fay and make sure she was okay. The other partners have such a rosy picture of this woman, but I can tell you, they do not see what we see.

Bob wrote in the afternoon to report that his older brother will be taking Louise out to get a new dress for her and get her hair done for the memorial service. He sent me a copy of the obituary that will run in the paper. Because his relatives cannot do math, Tom aged an additional year!

When I got home Bob was still in Daytona. I walked Buddy, got some money from the ATM, and then ordered pizza from Papa Johns for dinner. They are advertising heart-shaped pizza pies for Valentine's Day. Ugghh.

I went to bed around 9:15 PM, I layed in bed and read the US Navy Foundry Manual (copyright 1957) until I fell asleep after 10 PM.

Orlando, FL

IT RAINED this morning. It was sprinkling when Buddy and me went out for our walk, but we got a full walk in. My drive to work was a wet and rainy drive.

Bob had to go to Daytona Beach today to get family stuff taken care of. There are a lot of things that have to be done when you lose a loved one, and you end up being the executor/beneficiary.

Work today was very busy. The day really seemed to slip away quickly!

The skies cleared up around noon. It became sunny and warm. Now it is getting very cool.

Tomorrow is the big meeting with our AVP, Kolpak, Craig, Fay, and Darden. It's hard to predict how this will turn out, but we will get more of an idea of how precarious our position is after tomorrow.

Weekend

On Saturday morning Bob's phone rang before we were even up for the day. The phone call was from the nursing home letting us know that Bob's Dad was in poor condition with very labored breathing. They said they were going to call the hospice nurse too.

Half an hour later the hospice nurse phoned to confirm that Tom was in rough shape and she said that she didn't think he's last another 24 hours.

After walking the dog we had a breakfast of eggs and sausage links.

Neither of us felt much like going out and doing anything. So we stayed home and mostly stayed at the computer all day long. I worked in AutoCAD making drawings of parts for a hypothetical half-nut mechanism on a lathe. I made orthographic drawings of each part, and then made an assembly drawing with section views. The mechanism I drew only requires 14 parts.

Around noon I went to the kitchen to make some lunch for Bobby. I microwaved a bowl of Maryland Crab and Vegetable Soup for him and I made a grilled cheese sandwich in the waffle iron. Bob was surprised to see the waffle and was not sure what it was at first.

I think I am going to something like that again soon. Maybe I could butter some bread, put jelly inside of it, and make a waffle of that. Or maybe a waffle pizza pocket?

We tried to sleep in this morning, but the dog was crying around 7:00 AM, so I got up, harnessed him up, and took him for a walk. When we got back we made a breakfast of scrambled eggs mixed with ground turkey and onions, with coffee.

Bob had to go to Daytona Beach for Toastmasters training. While he was there he got a phonecall from the hospice nurse letting him know that Tom died at 10:30 this morning. He went to get his brother and they went to the home to say goodbye.

Bobby said that Tom looked peaceful - like he was sleeping, and that even his left arm and hand looked relaxed. The took Louise with them over to his brother's house while Tom's body was taken away.

There are a hundred things that Bob has to do in the coming days now. He has to find out what kind of service the VA will provide for Tom, he has to organize a memorial service, get copies of the death certificate, find an estate lawyer and take the will for execution, notify the lift insurance carrier, the credit card companies, etc.

The only good thing about this is that it wasn't a big surprise. We watched Tom's health decline over time, and knew this day was coming.

Today I cleaned the toilets with bleach, then I took a shower and scrubbed the tub and tile down good. When I got out, I cleaned the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom floors with Pine Sol. Later I sprinkled deodorizing powder on the carpet, and ran the vacuum cleaner.

At 4:30 I took Buddy for an extra long walk.

Bob got home around 6:00 PM and we sat down to a meal of garlic-buttered fish fillets with salad and cottage cheese. Bob is taking tomorrow off to try and get some of the things he has to do organized.

Here comes another week of work.

Orlando, FL

We woke up around 3:00 AM to the sound of rain beating on the window. Strong thunderstorms passed through here last night. At 6:00 AM when I took Buddy outside, it was still raining, so he had to settle for a walk in the garage.

Work today was hectic, but, hey, atleast we are making money!

FER-Orlando finished the week up with $472k in sales. Hollywood brought in $82k - which is an improvement over last week when they didn't even submit a report!

Bobby stayed home sick today. I think he got some needed rest. He baked pork chops for dinner. We ate after I took Buddy for a walk all the way around the lake.

Orlando, FL

Hectic day. Craig was in a bad mood, and I think it's mostly about Kolpak and Darden issues. Fay was an hour and a half late coming in because she stopped at Fairway to get Matthew Tang to sign his new Garland PDA.

At 11:00 AM, Fay and Craig left to go to lunch at Red Lobster with Mike Zupo. They came back feeling more optimistic about the Darden-Kolpak relationship, but the proof will be in the meeting next Tuesday.

Processed orders today that took us over $400k. Shaping up to be a good week!

Typewriter issues. We still use typewriters to make our file labels. The 1985 IBM Wheelwriter has been messed up lately - it backspaces and types a "p" when you strike the "p" key, and it backspaces only when you strike the "L" key. Fay suggested that I get the 1981 IBM Selectric down and try it. So I did. But it has problems too.

Next she made me change the ribbon and the font wheel in the Wheelwriter. That did not help. Then she said, "Why is the LANG Light lit up?" I am like, "Huh? What is a LANG light?" She said, "Down there, on the right, next to your thumb." Hell, I don't know. She hit the CTRL-LANG keys, and the light went out. Then it typed normally!! That LANG button is right next to the CENTER button that I used to center text - maybe I hit it by accident.

Anyway, I was able to get file labeling caught up after that.

Evidently the typewriter can be configured with different font wheels to type in different languages and the LANG button lets you shift between them.

Bob puked up his breakfast at work, then we went home and slept. He has a bad cold.

I am glad tomorrow is Friday. I need a break!

Orlando, FL

Today's picture illustrates the "Crayola Law" - the fact that the number of Crayola crayon colors doubles every 28 years (on average).

Work was fairly continuously busy today. Sales have passed $300k for the week already.

During lunch I went to the storage unit and got motor oil, oil filter, and air filter out - the oil change is due in 100 miles. I also topped off the hydraulic clutch fluid and amazingly, the clutch seemed to work a little better after that!

At the end of the work day I phoned the Orange County Jury Services phone number to see if I would have to report to the courthouse tomorrow. The recorded message said that those persons with Jury Reporting Numbers 1 through 427 would have to come in. My number was 461.

Bob has a cold. He got Zicam on his way to work this morning. During our walk this evening we stopped at 7-Eleven and he bought a bottle of Nyquil and a pack of Day-Quil capsules. If he takes more than the recommended dose of Nyquil, I know he will sleep well tonight.

Orlando, FL

Today's picture is a toaster from the future built with conductive glass that heats up when electric current passes through it. The glass actually exists and can heat up to 350°F, but the toaster hasn't been built yet.

With one of these, you could watch, and stop the toaster when your bagel was perfectly toasted!

Yesterday was a fairly typical day. The only non-typical thing that happened was when Fay went to the bathroom, I heard a lot of banging around in there. When she opened the door she said, "Well, that's not right! Something's not right about the toilet or the water, and I'm afraid to open it up and see!"

The toilet was making loud knocking sounds in the tank.

I lifted the cover up off of the tank and looked inside. There seemed to be a lot of air in the water line causing all of the knocking. We also noticed that the water was brown. Must have been a waterline rupture somewhere.

We later found out that OUC had been working on the Quorum Center water meter and this caused the air and dirt to get into the system. It was cleared up this morning.

Temps today were mild. It was clear and sunny today.

During lunch today I went with Fay to BJ's Warehouse to get paper towels, toilet paper, fruit, canned sodas, bottled water, and cheese snacks. We stopped at Zaxby's and got salads for our lunch on the way back.

Several large orders came in today. Large enough to push our sales up over $250k for the week so far!

This evening we had lamb chops from the slow cooker and steamed mixed vegetables for dinner.

Tomorrow evening I have to call Orange County Jury Services to find out whether I have to report for duty on Thursday.

Favorite Founder?

It almost looks like Glenn Beck is covering up a snicker there!

Can she ever speak and not sound stupid?

Weekend

Whew! That weekend sure flew by!

Saturday was very cloudy and gloomy all day, but temps were nice - in the 70's. Bob had to go to Daytona to meet his brother and visit Tom and Louise.

While Bob was in Daytona I set about doing a few tasks around the house. First I started some laundry. I did a load of darks, a load of whites, a load of towels, Buddy's bedding and harness and leash, I stripped our bed and ran those sheets through too.

The dining room lights stopped working the other evening after a brief display of sparking and popping sounds in the light switch. So I popped the switch out of the wall and swapped a plain switch into its place to try to eliminate the switch or the transformer as the cause. Well, I think it's both now. With a plain switch installed, the lamps would not light, but the circuit breaker still opened! We will buy a new transformer off of eBay, and just put a less expensive designer rocker switch in place of the pricier dinner switch.

The waterfall bath spigot that we bought at Lowe's almost a year ago was installed in the guest bathroom tub too. The installation was a little awkward and not tight. We found some white multi-purpose adhesive/caulk to fill in the gap between the tile and the fixture to hopefully keept it from moving. I re-caulked the toilet-to-floor joint because the previously injected caulk had dried, shrunk, and cracked.

We need new sink faucets for that bathroom.

Buddy had what looked like flea litter and bites on his belly and he was stinky again, so he got a quick bath.

I made a chicken stir fry with spinach salad for dinner.

When Bob returned home I was using the Drill Doctor he got for Christmas to sharpen his drill bits. He said the visit at the nursing home went much better than he thought it would. I am glad.

Today we had scrambled eggs and sausages for breakfast with yogurt and coffee.

During the morning I worked with my microcontroller and an Opto 22 120A25 solid-state relay in an attempt to get the SSR to switch a 15W table lamp on and off. It refused to cooperate with us. Maybe the SSR is bad? We got it cheaply at Skycraft. Maybe we will try another one next time we are in there.

Later we went to the hardware store to find the adhesive/caulk, ate lunch at Jason's Deli, and then went to Super Target to get a big bag of dog food for Buddy.

Bobby got a two-hour nap after that. I heard Buddy snoring too!

This evening we took a long, two-mile (at least) walk around downtown. Why not? The weather was almost perfect. We all enjoyed ourselves. We walked to Church Street Station to inspect the steam locomotive they have on display there (built in 1925 in Philadelphia), then we walked north up the train tracks, east on Robinson Street, south on Rosalyn, and cut back across the park to our building.

Now we have our weekly cleaning done. It didn't happen last week because it was too darned cold in the house!

Another exciting week is facing us now! I know we will have lots of drama at FER! Perhaps Craig will have lots of stories for us from the National Sales Meeting in Dallas.

Orlando, FL

Temps got up to 76° today. Even the walk this morning was mild.

I had an asparagus-mushroom omelet and Bob had Cheerios.

There were fourteen (14) orders waiting for me from Darden when I got in and Nancy Baranet faxed over two, almost illegible school serving line orders worth $23k each. We ended the day with just over $200k in sales.

Mom phoned this afternoon to report that Roger and Vicky have arrived in Florida. She wanted to know if I was going to go see them this weekend. I told her no, not this weekend.

Our evening walk with the dog was pleasant. It was just a little cool. I think it was still close to 70° when we walked around 6:00 PM.

Orlando, FL

Temperatures were even more mild today. I think it got up to 70° today! I am glad. That cold snap was a little too severe for my taste.

We started the day off with a breakfast of eggs over-easy for me and oatmeal for Bob.

When I got to work I found an email from Betsy Hummel asking me to sponsor her in the Disney Bowl-A-Thon for Junior Achievement. What the hell, why not? She sponsored Buddy last year during Paws In The Park. I put down $10.

It was another day of emotional news from Craig about the meeting in Dallas and the terrible lies Joan continues to spread about our office. She is trying to discredit Craig and Fay over at Darden and I think it will backfire on her terribly.

I got a salad from Chik-Fil-A for lunch. Fay microwaved some chicken wings we have in the chest freezer in the Test Kitchen.

I think our weekly sales are just a smidgen over $100k now, but not a steller week at all.

For dinner we had vegetable soup with beef. Then we walked Buddy. After this I read the Orlando Weekly newsrag and the Watermark paper. I made new labels to update John Thigpen and Ana Velazquez in my phonebook and I still need to balance my checkbook.

Tomorrow is the last day of the week and the midpoint of the month. This has been a long week!

Orlando, FL

Yesterday it was still cold - my fingers and hands were cold. I took my little heater to work with me to combat the cold. When I got to work I plugged it in and things were starting to get nice and warm around my desk.

Then the fax began to ring and everything died. The fax died, the computer screen died, the computer, everything. Evidently we are tapped out for current. It threw the breaker open.

Before you plug anything in at the office, ask me.

The past few days have been particularly dramatic at the office. Our relationship with Kolpak remains tumultuous. Our Manitowoc area vice-president really seems to have it in for Fay.

From reading the LinkedIn.com page, I learned that Ana Velazquez is working for Disney Cruise Line now. I worked with Ana on the FF&E Team at Disney back in 2004-2005. She quit while I was there to work at Wyndham Resorts, but then they ended up laying her off during the downturn.

Temps today were more moderate - I think it made it up to 60°F today. I am glad. This evening we had a pleasant walk with the dog. The 30's with a wind chill that feels like 20° is for the birds!

Orlando, FL

Bob passed today's picture to me. He took this picture in Georgia.

Today was an okay day at work. The office was chilly. I guess one reason I wasn't too busy is because there were zero orders today.

There is another freeze warning in effect for us in Florida tonight. I am tired of cold! I did not agree to this when I moved to Florida!

Bob had to go to Daytona during the work day to meet the doctor caring for his father at the hospital. They are assigning a hospice nurse to Tom and they are sending him back to Oaktree. They took him off of the blood pressure medicine and his pressure held, but his kidneys are still not working.

This evening we walked the dog, picked up a rotisserie chicken at Publix for dinner, checked the mail, and ate our dinner. Now we need to get the bedroom warmed up again!

Frigid Weather ! !

Temperatures never made it out of the 30's on Saturday. Except for walking the dog and taking our meals, we barricaded ourselves inside the master bedroom with the small electric heater running.

When I took Buddy down to the street to walk there was sleet coming down. We did not stay out very long.

In the bedroom we read books and watched videos on TV.

Outside it was overcast and cold. It rained off and on.

Bob got a phone call from the nursing home to report that Tom has a UTI and very low blood pressure. They sent him to the hospital again.

I finished reading the Rooted In Kent book that Dad gave me for Christmas. I continued reading CW Amman's book The Complete Handbook of Sand Casting. I finished that book this morning, and now I am reading Steam-Propelled Vehicles.

Lastnight I phoned and talked to Mom for about an hour and a half. After I hung up I went to the bathroom. While I was in there I heard the phone ringing. When I came out there were two missed calls. The first was from Monitronics alerting us to a motion sensor alarm at the office. The second call was from Fay. "Uh, Vince, this is Fay. I just got a call from Monitronics saying the alarm went off at the office, and uh, I'm about to get into bed, so why don't you get your gun and your dog and go check out this alarm?"

I had a better idea. "Since this is the coldest effin' night of the year, and since we get nothing but false alarms on the burglar alarm, why don't I pretend that I never got either of these voice messages until tomorrow morning." Temps were dropping into the low 30's as I went to bed!

This morning it was below freezing when I got up (see the picture). There was ice on the roof of the garage. I took Buddy for his walk and Bob made a breakfast of steak and scrambled eggs. Then we got ready to go to Daytona Beach to visit Tom and Louise.

We stopped at FER to check the office (it was fine, like I suspected it would be), then we went to Wal*Mart to look for a knit cap for Bob and get cigarettes for Louise.

We drove to Daytona, and stopped at the house just long enough to verify that nobody had broken in there and to ensure that the water pipes had not frozen and burst. Then we went to pick up Louise and take her to lunch.

Lunch was at The Olive Garden. We all enjoyed salad. Bob and Louise also enjoyed the breadsticks. Louise ordered ravioli with meat sauce and a meatball. Bob ordered Seafood Portofino. I had the Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia with vegetables.

After lunch we drove to Halifax Medical Center. I let Bob and Louise go up to the ICU while I stayed in a waiting room and continued reading Steam-Propelled Vehicles. There was nobody on the floor I was on and it was very quiet! I almost fell asleep!

Later we drove Louise back to Oaktree and I drove us back to Orlando. Buddy got his walk, Bob went to Publix to pick up some more eggs, and sugar-free Cool Whip. I mixed crushed pork rinds, diced onions, minced garlic, mustard powder, salt, pepper, eggs, and salmon all together in a large bowl, and then made patties to lay out on a baking sheet. These are in the oven baking for an hour.

We also are steaming some squash and zucchini. We will have cottage cheese on the dinner plate, and for dessert we are having orange, sugar-free gelatin with Cool Whip!

Once dinner is over, we are going to our bedroom where it is warm.

Orlando, FL

I guess the first week back to work after the holidays seems like the longest week of all. This one seemed extra long.

Bob got oatmeal for breakfast for a change of pace. I had scrambled eggs with mozzarella cheese and three strips of bacon.

During my drive to the office I heard the WMOX 105.1 FM fired Ericka Lee of the Scott and Ericka show! She'd been with that radio station for 19 years!

Temps were milder today and it even rained. Forecast is for temperatures to plunge tonight and possibly even bring the rare Florida snowflake!

During lunch Fay gave me petty cash to go to Orlando Ale House and get Seafood Salads for us.

I have all of the old (2007 and earlier) files pulled from the cabinets. There are three stacks of paper about two feet tall waiting until the day we decide to carry it all to the recycling dumpster now.

Bob baked some thin-cut steaks for dinner and we had canned green beans with them. When I turned on the dining room lights the switch made a popping sound and the kitchen and dining lights went out when the circuit breaker opened. I will have to investigate that tomorrow.

There was a box waiting for me in the package storage room this evening. My order of books from Lindsay Technical Publications came today. I have a nice tall stack of reading waiting for me now!

Orlando, FL

I finished reading Made By Hand last night and I have to say that the projects that the author put together really are inspiring! I am going back and re-reading the chapter about joinery, and I still have the bonus DVD to view too.

Today was a good day at work. Our orders climbed above $325k. There were some fireworks today over the Olive Garden-Kolpak issues, and Fay and Craig had to go to lunch with Mike Zupo today at the Olive Garden in Kissimmee where the walk-in freezer has some icing issues.

Because I was in the office alone, I pulled a bag of frozen buffalo wings out of the freezer, fired up the combi, and made a platter of them. I also microwaved a bag of SteamFresh veggies to go with it. Yum!

The mailman brought a small box for me today. It was from Parallax and contained my new BS2p processor module. This module contains the SX processor chip and eight times the
memory of the Basic Stamp 2. Plus, it is much faster. It will be fun to explore that this device is capable of.

Hopefully the coldest weather is behind us now. I am looking forward to some nice temperatures in the 60's tomorrow. It has been chilly. Word is out that some of the crops have been affected by the cold weather. The weather said that our forecast has a chance of snow on Saturday morning. The news reported that OIA is not able to de-ice planes!

The news also reports that Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica erupted on Tuesday. Bob and I were going to climb this mountain and explore the craters on the top during our vacation, but the government closed it to the public due to its increasing activity. It last erupted in 1856.

I am glad tomorrow is Friday. This was the first complete week back at work, and I am ready for my weekend.

Orlando, FL

Brrrrr!!!

It's chilly in Florida! Today it got up into the mid-50's, but it's going back down to 30°F tonight. I think the radio said it was 27°F this morning. Don't count on citrus and other Florida produce being cheap this spring.

I wasn't feeling so hot last night when I got home. After dinner and walking the dog I went to lay down and read. We've been keeping the bedroom warmed up even if the rest of the house is very chilly.

The author of the book I am reading, Tom Fidgen, who wrote Made By Hand, has a blog online that I discovered today. He really creates some beautiful items in wood! I think my wood work will always be a hybrid of machine and handtool work.

Another interesting book I saw today is called Buy Ketchup In May. It's about selecting the best times to buy things or travel. I am going to add this one to my Amazon.com Wish List.

My IRS Form 1040EZ arrived in the mail yesterday. Now I just need my W-2's and I will get the taxes done!

Lego Domino Machine

It is really amazing how many ingenious machines and devices can be built from Lego™ building blocks and Expert Builder set parts. This domino setting machine was built by Mathias Wandel and can be seen on his website.

Sometimes I miss my Lego™ blocks.

Orlando, FL

On Sunday my goal was to get the wall-mounted shelving system installed in the bedroom under the TV. We did this, and it took about an hour. Running the wires to and from all of the components took longer.

Later we went to TooJay's for lunch. I had a salad topped with steak and carmelized onions and Bob had a tuna melt sandwich.

After lunch Bob went to get his haircut, and I went over to Barnes & Noble Bookseller. I browsed the New Arrivals, then I went upstairs to look at the Science & Technology section, the Home Improvement section, the Arts & Crafts section, the History section, and the Biographies section.

The book I ended up selecting came from the Arts & Crafts section. It is called Made By Hand, and it is about woodworking using hand tools only. The book comes with a bonus DVD too, but I admit that it was the inspirational color photography in it that won me over.

For dinner I made a chicken pot pie with a pre-made pie crust, a can of chicken breast, two cans of cream of chicken soup, two cans of mixed vegetables, and some chopped celery. Bob made out dessert. He made Mocha Ricotta Créme with cocoa, ricotta cheese, Splenda, and a few chocolate chips. We really liked it too - you could taste the chocolate flavor in it!

Work today was a little hectic. We were very busy getting everything from the holidays caught up. My afternoon seemed to be particularly busy.

I got a salad at Chik-Fil-A for lunch, and then I filled the truck gas tank.

Temps were chilly all day. I don't think it got out of the 50's today.

Bob was already home when I got home this evening. The first thing I did was take Buddy for his walk while Bob made pre-cooked Jamaican wings and a salad for dinner. After dinner I chopped veggies and started a pot of rattatoille for tomorrow's dinner.

Tonight is supposed to be the coldest night of all, and the radio warned that parts of Central Florida could see temperatures in the upper 20's! Brrrr!!

Happy New Year!

We stayed up until midnight on New Years Eve and we even popped a six-year-old bottle of champagne open for the event!

New Years Day was cloudy, dark, and rainy.

We took the Christmas tree and decorations down the night before, and we loaded up the boxes into the Xterra and drove to the storage unit to put them away. Then we went grocery shopping.

Because it was New Years Day, BJ's Warehouse did not open until 11 AM, so we went to SuperTarget and browsed the dry goods section for an hour, then we got our groceries.

It continued to rain, heavily at times. We could hear the rain beating on the store roof!

After we checked out at SuperTarget we went over to BJ's to get cases of Coke Zero and bottled water, pork chops, yogurt, lunch meat, and cheeses. We loaded this all up into the Xterra, and as we were putting it into the car it began to rain again, hard.

We drove all of our stuff home and carried it up to the house. Remarkably, we were able to get it all upstairs in just two trips! We spent some time putting everything away, then later we went back out to return the shower curtain to Bed, Bath and Beyond, and we drove to Oviedo to the Navy Federal Credit Union to make a deposit in the ATM.

I opened a jar of sauerkraut and added it to the pork roast in the crock pot and we ate that for our New Years meal.

Bob spent the afternoon and evening reformatting his hard disk drive and reinstalling his software. Somehow he got a virus on that drive and it kept freezing up his computer.

Because temps were forcast to drop down to the high 30's, we closed our bedroom door and left our little heater running during the night.

It was clear and cold this morning when I got up after 7:00 AM. Temps were right around 40°F, and there was a bracing wind. I made eggs and sausage links for breakfast and Bob brewed a pot of coffee.

Next Buddy got his (chilly) morning walk and I stopped in Publix to get a few things we forgot during our big grocery trip.

Once we were back upstairs we began to move all of the light furniture off of the carpetted areas. We put the dining chairs and barstools in the kitchen, moved the living room tables into the foyer, and put other stuff in the bathrooms.

Then I got the carpet shampooer out and began to clean all of the carpet in the house. This took about two hours and since I used hot water, the first part of the carpet was almost dry by the time I finished! The filth! The water in the dirty water tank was black when I poured it into the toilet!

Now the carpets are clean. All of the stains and dirt are gone.

I took a long nap this afternoon after getting a shower and a shave. When I got up it was time to take Buddy for his evening walk. We both put on long pants and light jackets and took him for a 30 minute walk.

We checked the mail when we got back. There was a big pile of stuff in the mailbox! There was a catalog from Edmund Scientific, a Downtown Lifestyle magazine, a Verizon bill, and my first issue of Fine Woodworking magazine in the mail for me.

It is forecast to drop down into the 30's again tonight. It will be another chilly one.

Tomorrow, my goal is to put the shelves up in the bedroom that will hold the stereo receiver, DVD player, and subwoofer speaker, all on the wall beneath the wall-mounted flat panel TV.

Then we have to get ready for a back-to-normal week of work.