Alaska Airlines Flight 103

Flight Status

By Flight or Route

examples: AS 128 or FAI to SEA
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Second leg of our flight.  Click the yellow circle button with the white triangle in it to track our progress in real time. 

We will be posting photos and commentary all week, so check back often!!

Seattle, WA

We got up at 5:30 AM, dressed, made the bed, called Yellow Cab, and pulled our baggage out the front door and down to the lobby.  The cab was parked at the curb waiting for us before we could even get down to the street!

The cab carried us through the dark early morning streets to Orlando International Airport Departures.  The cabbie let us off at the Alaska Airlines desk, but we were able to bypass the check-in desk because we used the web check-in last night from at home, and we were not checking baggage.

We headed straight to the security checkpoint after checking the board to find the gate Flight 9 would be departing from (Gate 1).  Security was not as annoying as it usually is, but I forgot to take my belt off so I managed to set off the metal detector.  Passing the checkpoint is the part of air travel I hate the most.

After this we got into the little monorail train and rode out to the terminal.  We stopped at Burger King and got a small breakfast and then went to the gate to sit and wait.

The flight was scheduled to leave at 8:25 and boarding began at 7:55.  There was a large number of people queued up for 'pre-boarding' - several wheel chair-bound cripples, and a large number of people traveling with children (Orlando flights always have a lot of kids on them).

Eventually everyone was aboard.  The last person stepped on with three minutes to spare!  We pushed off a few minutes late and taxied down to the south end of the runway.  We took off and headed north and then turned west just as we passed north of SR 50.  I love the takeoffs and landings because I love to watch out the window!

After we reached cruising altitude, the drink service began.  We had Cokes with a cookie.  I read my book and Bobby read his book too.

Around 9:55 I noticed a broad winding river coming into view.  This river went from north to south.  Way up in the distance to the north I could see a bridge crossing and then a sight that confirmed for me where we were - a shining bright triangle - the glass pyramid in Memphis, TN.  We were crossing the Mississippi River!

We continued over Arkansas farmland headed west.  Later, as we crossed Oklahoma, the captain came on to announce that one of our passengers was a World War 2 veteran who was old enough to witness Mrs. Truman christen the USS Missouri at Brooklyn Navy Yard during the war, he then served on the Big Mo, and later witnessed the surrender of Japan on USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.  A real American hero.


I really enjoy watching the scenery and changing landscape go by.  This flight was packed - not a single extra seat left open!

I had to inconvenience everyone in my row after I declared "an in-flight emergency" and had to go to the itsy bitsy lavatory.  I had the window seat so Bob and the other passenger had to get up to let me out.

After about 5 hours we came in to Seattle.  We circled around to the north and descended over the downtown area.  We were treated to a view of the water front, downtown, and the Space Needle.  A few minutes later we landed in rainy weather at an overcast Seattle-Tacoma (SeaTac) International Airport.

The first thing we did was take turns going to the restroom while the other watched our bags.  Then we saw the next leg of our flight posted on the board and made our way to Terminal N to be close to our next departure gate and get some food to eat.  We stopped in a bookstore and got some "emergency food" to stuff into my bag, then we ate lunch at Bigfoot Food and Wines.

Now we are waiting for the next leg of our trip to begin.  We are vacationing inside the American Empire this year and we are going to visit the extreme northwest corner - Alaska.

Stay tuned - I will post pictures later!

Alaska Airlines Flight 9

Flight Status

By Flight or Route

examples: AS 103 or SEA to ANC
Don't Know the Code?

We are taking Alaska Airlines Flight 9 to Seattle on the first leg of our vacation this year. Click on the yellow button with the white triangle in it to track our progress in real time.

Stay tuned for more updates!!

Weekend

Spicy Tomato Jam cooling on the counter.

On Friday evening we had a fresh cleaning salad for dinner and then we enjoyed making and canning Spicy Tomato Jam in our kitchen.  The recipe said it would fill four 8-ounce jars, but luckily I cleaned a dozen jars because the recipe filled 8 jars!

May be if you let it cook down more it would fit into just four jars.

On Saturday morning I made low-carb pancakes for breakfast with coffee that we purchased in Costa Rica back in October.  We spent most of the day just lazing around the house, browsing the Internet, day dreaming, and napping.  We got two loads of laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away.  In the evening we went out to KFC to get a bucket of grilled chicken for dinner.  This was a very relaxing day.

This morning I made cheese omelets with sausage for breakfast with coffee.  Then I ran the dish washer.

Shortly after we got the dishes out of the way it was time to take Bob to Woodcraft for his pepper mill turning class.  He really enjoys turning projects on the lathe and this was his second class at Woodcraft.  After I dropped him off I went to Exxon and got a tank of gas into the Xterra, then I went to Lowe's and browsed for an hour or so.

Bob enjoys turning on the lathe.

When I finished at Lowe's I went to Krystal and got a four pack of Krystal cheeseburgers with fries for Bob and took them to the store so he would have lunch.  While in the store I browsed and ended up picking up a paperback book of easy-to-build shop projects, a granite surface block, and some half-price self-countersinking 3-inch screws.

I came home and unloaded the dish washer, watered all of our plants well, and layed on the bed to read for a little bit.  Then I got a shower.  Soon it was time to return to Woodcraft to pick Bob up.  I let Buddy come with me because he likes to get out of the house just like us.

When I got to the store they weren't quite finished yet, but Bob had his pepper mill most of the way done.  There were five students in Bob's class, including one old-timer with an oxygen tank!

We stopped at Wendy's on the way home to get burgers for dinner.

Now it is time to run the vacuum, dust, and get ready for another week!

Orlando, FL

Continuous-mesh manual transmission.

Up at 5:30, took my vitamins, got Bob's pills counted, packed a lunch for Bob, and then started our breakfast of mushroom-goat cheese omelets with Canadian bacon.

All of us were out the door at 6:30.  Bob got off the elevator on the fourth floor to go to the car and head to work, Buddy and I went down to the street to take a morning walk.

When we got back it was time for me to shower, brush teeth, and get ready for work myself.

There were only two orders today, and since there were zero new orders yesterday, my morning was not too hurried at all.  Still, orders for the week topped $400k for Orlando.  Hollywood didn't even make $100k.

This evening we had a salad of spinach leaves, red pepper, onion, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes.  With dinner out of the way I started to prepare and can Spicy Tomato Jam. 

The canning took a little longer than I anticipated, but it is done now and the jars are sitting on the kitchen counter cooling now.  I need to make labels for them tomorrow.

It is lightly raining outside right now.  It has rained every single day this week.

Orlando, FL

Extreme close up of an eye.

We had Cheerios for breakfast.  Around 9:30 AM I found myself ferociously hungry, and I knew it was from eating the carbs in the cereal.  I went to the Test Kitchen and got a piece of cheese to nibble on and that helped.

William demoed equipment at the new Amway Center this morning.  We have a bunch of fryers, pizza ovens, and heated storage cabinets in that project.  He said that he was all over that place and on all levels.  I said, "Good!  Now you will know where everything is when you take the kids back there!"

Dad phoned me at work today to let me know that Aunt Rosie had a stroke.  He said I should send her a card, and I asked him, "If I did, would she even know I sent it?"  He replied, "Good question.  With her Alzheimers, she doesn't even know who her kids are."  She is 82 now, and out of the 10 Crockers, I would have thought that she would have been the first to go because she was so big all her life.  Now it's just her and Bobby left.

My new Humana health insurance and dental insurance cards came in the mail today.  We have to pay higher co-pays so that FER can save $500 per month on the premiums.  Ugghh.

The days are definitely getting shorter.  The sun is rising later and setting earlier.  Summer is coming to an end.

Studio 320 Container Cabin

Orlando, FL

Not a bad day today.  It rained most of the day and temps stayed down in the 80's.  I had to turn my fan down because I was getting kinda chilly in the office!

On the way to work I stopped at Publix and stepped on the scale.  Another two pounds gone!  Yeah!

More orders came pouring in pushing our total up over $350k!  It's gonna be another great week for sales!

Dinner this evening was a spiced canned ham with lima beans and cut green beans.  After we had our dinner we took Buddy for his evening walk and then I stopped in Publix to get stuff to make a salad and do a little canning this weekend.

We are going to make Spicy Tomato Jam this weekend.

Orlando, FL

Buddy poses with his 10lb kettlebells.

These past two days have been very busy.  Sales have been very good so far this week - we're approaching $250k already!

It has rained both days in the afternoon.   Everything is moist (humid) and green from the rains.  Typical Florida summer here.

We hooked my camera up to Bob's laptop computer and successfully transferred pictures from the camera to the computer.  This will be handy for travel.  We found out (the hard way) that the 4 GB SD card I bought for the camera will not work.  I guess the Nikon can't address that much memory.

Craig loaned out the Toojay's card again and we went there for dinner this evening.  I had a steak and Bob had chicken.  Then we went to Sears to get the theft prevention device removed from the shirt he bought on Sunday.

I am still looking for a spray bottle that I can put soapy water into and spray my tomato plants down.  I am going to kill some aphids.

Weekend

Proposed cargo container cabin.

We slept in until after 7:00 AM on Saturday morning.  When we got up, Bobby took Buddy outside for a walk while I made coffee, low-carb pancakes, and turkey sausage for our breakfast.  Buddy got canned Mighty Dog mixed with his dry Iams.

After breakfast dishes were cleared away, I stripped the bed and put the sheets into the laundry.  Then we had to fold whites and darks from the night before.

Then we got the Lexol leather conditioner, some rags, and an old toothbrush out and began to clean the leather dining chairs, sofa, loveseat, and recliner.  This took a little while, but the leather feels much softer and looks shinier after we do it.

In the afternoon we went to Skycraft Surplus and browsed.  Here I found steel box with a hinged door on the front of it that I think will be acceptable for the controls on my shop furnace project.  I am going to installed the infinite range control and a keyed door latch in it soon.  In the future I would like to add an analog pyrometer and a 15 amp circuit breaker as well.

After getting doo dads at Skycraft, we headed over to 4 Rivers Barbecue to get some lunch.  We had to wait in the heat for over 30 minutes to get served.  They run a very popular business there!  I had a bbq beef brisket quesadilla and Bob got the chicken bbq sandwich.  This was very tasty food!

We took a quick trip out to the storage unit so that I could get shop furnace parts out, and Bob could put his camp stove into a box.  Then we came home.

In the evening we took Buddy for his walk, but somehow we forgot to eat dinner!

This morning we slept in again (mmmmmmm, it was good!), then we got up, took the dog for his walk, fed him, and I got my Dremel tool out to made an "adjustment" to the master bathroom door.  The only time this door was actually latch was when it was freezing cold and the humidity was supernaturally low here.  Otherwise, the bolt would not enter the striker plate.

Using the Dremel, I cut out the little tab on the inside of the striker, then using the grinding wheel, slowly enlarged the hole in the plate until the bolt would easily and surely slide in with a "click" each time.  I am glad that is done - that "problem" has bugged me since I moved in here.

We went out and got a tank of gas in the Xterra, and then went to Fairbanks Diner to get breakfast.  I had a smoked ham steak with two eggs over medium and cottage cheese.

We drove up to Daytona Beach, stopped at Pizza Hut to get a personal pan pizza, and then headed over to visit Louise.  She was sleeping when we got there.  I cranked her bed upright and she ate half of the pizza, but then she nodded off to sleep again.  They say the pain medication makes her drowsy.

Stopped at Sears to get some clothes and browse the hardware department.  We walked out of there with a small tent and a pair of 10 lb kettlebells too.  We came back to Orlando after this.  I called and talked to Mom while we drove back.  We ran into thunderstorms on the way and that always makes the trip harder and longer.

I made a white chicken chili for dinner and it was good.  Then I made a pitcher of iced tea and we took Buddy for his walk.

Now we have our weekly chores finished.  The floors are clean, the tables are clean, and we are ready for another week of work!

Orlando, FL

Drawers To Go

Fay came in late today, but she came in with a bag of cold medicine.  She started to cough heavily in the morning and I stepped back to her office to find her twisting the top off of a bottle of Day-Quil.  I sniffed at her, "When I get one of those bottles home, I throw the little cup away.  There's only two doses in that bottle!" 

Orlando didn't make expenses this week, but Hollywood brought in over twice as much.  Twice as much if you consider Letters Of Intent to be the same as an order. 

Bob went to Daytona Beach today to arrange funeral and cremation services for Louise.  He was late getting back, but when I got home I found stew beef in the sink thawed out and I trimmed and sauteed brussels sprouts.  Then I made a stir fry with the beef, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, onion, and preserved lemon.

The sky looked very threatening this evening, but it did not rain here.  It sure was hot today!

Orlando, FL

Low tire pressure warning.

Yesterday was a long day for me.  Fay called in sick. Things were hectic, but in a way it was quiet too!  Craig and William were both out-of-town running demos.  I got through it okay.

Weighed myself in the morning at Publix.  That pesky pound that snook back on has been banished again.  Now I just need to get rid of 20 more of her sisters!

For dinner we had fish fillets and mixed vegetables. 

Today started out okay.  I was by myself again - Fay didn't come in.  Later, around 8:30 an email came in saying she had just woken up.  She said she would try to come in.  Craig wrote back and told her that if she wasn't feeling good, she should take the day off.  She came in around 10:00 AM.  I can't say she was very loud today!

Lunch today was a Chik-Fil-A salad.  It was very hot outside!

This evening we had baked pork chops with mixed veggies for dinner.  After dinner we took Buddy for his walk, but we did not go far because a thunderstorm was coming.  There was a lot of lightning and thunder and we hurried back home.

It is still flashing and thundering outside.  Hopefully the rain will cool things off a little.

Orlando, FL

I do not remember what I dreamed about before 5:00 AM, but after the alarm went off at 5:00 AM, I handed the phone to Bob and fell asleep again.

This time I dreamt that I was living in an apartment and I still had my old '75 Monte Carlo, only the apartments were paving their parking lot and moving cars to do it.  I went out looking for my old car thinking someone had stolen it.  Crazy dream!  Apartment management was leaving notes to let people know what they were doing, but they were unlocking doors, and leaving the notes rolled up in the opened door!  Strange!  I was furious with the apartment management, but they were nowhere to be found.  Then I woke up.

I took a little extra time this morning trimming goatee, cutting my hair, and shaving.  As a result I was running late to the office.  I called ahead three times, but I kept getting the answering machine.  Like I said before, even when I am running late I still manage to beat Fay.  I got in at 8:10 AM.  Fay arrived at 8:20 AM.

She came in clutching her throat claiming she had laryngitis.  She said she wasn't sure she would be able to go to dinner with us or even work through the entire day!  Uh huh.

Work day was fairly typical.  We made some money and it wasn't too demanding.  I ate leftover chicken during lunch.

At 5:00 PM Fay was out the door.  "Oh, I hope I see you in the morning."  She rasped as she passed my desk.  I just grunted at her.

William and I went to the Tu Tu Tango tapas restaurant on I-Drive at 6:00 PM.  We found Craig already there.  We went in to find Joan and her husband Chuck waiting at the bar.  I think we had a really nice visit.  It was very interesting to meet her husband!

The food was very tasty, but it was a real diet-wrecker. 

We were there until 8:15 PM.  Thunderheads were rolling in from the west when we left.  I phoned Bob to let him know I was on my way home and got back to the house in 15 minutes (I flew on I-4).

Overall it was a good day.

Orlando, FL

The House On A Stick.

When the alarm went off on Bob's Blackberry, I silenced it by pressing on the trackball and then I unplugged it and handed it to Bob.  A minute later the alarm went off on the ClockIt in the kitchen.  I had to get up and go to the kitchen to quiet that one.

We had ricotta and mozzarella cheese omelets with Canadian bacon for breakfast.  Then I took Buddy for his walk.  You can really tell that the sun is rising later now!

Work today was a breeze, almost.  We brought in about $30k, but the issues were not overwhelming.  I was able to easily keep up and even browse for stuff on eBay!  Craig and William were out doing demos most of the day.

Lunch today was KFC grilled chicken.  I guess mine smelled so good that Fay went out and got a whole bucket of it!

It clouded up and I heard thunder several times, but it did not rain until I was ready to go home.  It rained lightly as I drove through the surface streets on my way home.  It cleared up again.

Bob went to get a bucket of Kentucky Grilled Chicken while I walked Buddy, checked the mail, and put medicine on Buddy's inflamed toes.  After we enjoyed our dinner I went to the bath and brushed some Just For Men light brown into my goatee.

Weekend

The assembled ClockIt project.

This was a very productive weekend!

We slept in until after 7:00 AM on Saturday.  As soon as we got up we took whites out of the dryer, put darks into dryer, and started a load of towels. 

Then I began taking stuff off of the kitchen counters and cleaning the countertops all off, all the way back to the backsplash.  With that out of the way we poured some food for Buddy, a bowl of Cheerios for Bobby, and a bowl of hot oatmeal for me.

After this we hung out in the office for awhile.  I soldered up a new Shifter Board project.  For some reason, when you do a feedback test, this board will not flash the red RX LED, just like the last one.  Hmmm...  I unplugged the soldering iron and let it cool off while we went out for a lunch at Chik-Fil-A, some shopping at K-mart, and Skycraft.  I got two new pairs of pants at K-mart.  We browsed Skycraft, but as we got to about the half-way point, the lights flickered and then they went out.  They made everyone go to the front of the store.  I was a little bummed about that because I still had things to look for!

In the afternoon I emptied the glass liquor cabinet and cleaned all of the glass.  Then I put the bottles back inside one-by-one.

I fired the soldering iron up again and got the ClockIt project out.  I don't need a dorky digital clock, but the project is good soldering practice.  I was a little intimidated by soldering the 28-pin ATMega microprocessor directly to the board, but ironically, the multiple little pins were easier to solder than the components with long legs!  I think the long legs act as a big heat sink and take more time to heat up before you can get a good solder joint.

When I took the little clock to the kitchen and plugged it in - nothing happened.  I inspected all of the joints again and touched up a couple of them, but still, nothing.  Then Bob reviewed the simple directions and noticed that I put the 5v barrel plug on the TOP of the board when the directions emphasize that the plug has to go on the BOTTOM of the circuit board.  I thought about that... the wall wart outputs DC voltage around 5 volts, but if you have the pins of the barrel jack reversed, the circuit might not see any voltage at all.

So, using the soldering iron, I melted the three joints and pushed the barrel jack through and off of the board.  I cleaned the legs up of excess solder as best as I could, and then mounted it to the bottom of the board and re-soldered the joints.  This time I worked when I plugged it in!!  One little mistake, but it kept it from working.

The little clock has been plugged in 24 hours now and it is keeping time.  The alarm function is working too.

Around 11:00 AM we drove to Daytona Beach to visit Louise.  We ate lunch at Sonny's Barbecue in Port Orange and then went to the nursing home.  When Louise woke up, the first words out of her mouth were, "Where is my pizza?"  I smiled, and remembered that we promised to bring her pizza the next time we visited, and I said, "You are exactly right!  We said we would bring pizza the next time we came!  Bob, let's go!  We'll be right back!"

We went to the Pizza Hut in Port Orange and got a personal pan pizza with pepperoni and cheese on it.

We brought this back to her and she was happy with it.  The nurses said that she is hardly eating, but she ate 3/4 of that pizza right there in front of us!  It might be worth it to order delivery for her and pay for it by credit card from Orlando a couple of times.

She is on her oxygen concentrator all the time now.  She speaks really low and is hard to hear.  She seems to have lost a lot of weight.  The staff said she still gets up sometimes, but she sleeps a lot.  They said she seems to be comfortable.

She went back to sleep so we left and headed back to Orlando.  We stopped at Barnes & Noble Bookseller to browse.  I got two paperbacks - one about lifecycle product planning and recycling, and the other one a collection of gay male erotica.  Bob got a paperback with tips for retiring in Costa Rica.

Next stop was Publix.  Here we got a turkey kielbasa sausage, a bell pepper, eggs, salsa, prune juice, and cream cheese.

When we got home I sliced up yellow squash, an onion, the pepper, and the sausage.  I made a quick stir fry for our dinner.  Then it was time to walk Buddy.

After the walk we started to clean the house.  I vacuumed and cleaned the tables.  Bob cleaned the kitchen and bath floors and then put Mop-N-Glo on the kitchen floor to make it shine.

Now are ready to start another week of work.  While we were busy this weekend, I feel like I got some rest.

Friday The 13th

It wasn't an unlucky day at all.  I think I got most of the green lights on the way to the office for one thing.  The company had another successful week for orders for another.

When I got home, Bob was putting a zucchini meatloaf into the oven.  I went out to check on my tomato plants and counted nine flowers now!  Yes, I think we will be getting some tomatoes off of these plants!

We also found out that Aunt Carol is having a family emergency of her own in Connecticutt and won't be able to come down here after all.  We are still going to clean the house real good.

This weekend, I am going to solder some of my electronics projects (bought specifically to improve my soldering), maybe visit Skycraft, and relax.  The weekend will be too short.

Orlando, FL

It was a hectic day at work, but we made some money! We started the day with a paltry $127k, but by the end of the day we were sitting up at $357k! Makes it kinda worth it.

Lunch today was Chik-Fil-A. I ordered a chargrilled chicken garden salad with thousand island and a diet lemonade. For some reason they put a pack of granola in the bag instead of sunflower kernels, and they gave me Italian dressing, not thousand island. Ugghh.

Evelyn showed up late in the day to get William's computer working on our network. She was in the office until almost 5:30 PM, then she had to head over to the International School of Design to teach a class.

We had baked hamburgers with Swiss cheese on them and microwaved veggies for our dinner. Then we took Buddy for his evening walk.

Overall this was a typical, boring, routine day, but tiring anyway.

Orlando, FL

I took this picture two years ago yesterday at the Orlando Science Center. Here Bob poses in front of the fossilized tyranosaurus rex on exhibit.

The humidity was lower today, but it was still very warm. In the afternoon it rained and it rained hard. I think it's rained everyday for the past five days now.

FedEx delivered my Sparkfun order today. I am having a little teensy bit of buyer's remorse. I am wishing that I had gotten the Parallax USB thumb drive interface for the Basic Stamp. Oh well, next time.

Lamb chops marinated all day in the fridge in a ziploc bag filled with Greek yogurt mixed with rosemary and garlic salt. We broiled these and had them with green beans for dinner.

I fed and soaked our tomato plants this evening and tied them up to the trellis better. I found three flowers on them now!! We are actually going to get tomatoes off of them! This is remarkable because these plants only get about two hours of direct sunlight each day.

Now we've walked the dog (in the rain), checked the mail, and read the Orlando Weekly. Will be time to sleep soon.

Orlando, FL

Today was a fairly easy day.

Before I left for work I put all of the pieces-parts for my shop furnace into the truck so that I could move it to storage. Without 208-volts to fire it right now (we were going to use the dryer receptacle at Bob's parents' house), I won't be able to finish it and use it.

I stopped at Chik-Fil-A and got a roll-up sandwich with a diet lemonade and brought it back for lunch. It rained around that time.

Bob stopped by the office around 4:00 PM to hang out before his final class at Belhaven. This class is supposed to be very easy - everyone will present a paper that they wrote and then the instructor is taking everyone to dinner at Mimi's Cafe.

I came home at 5:10 PM. I got here at 5:35, and started to work changing the drawer slide on the Effectiv file cabinet in our "office". Incredibly, this only took me 15 minutes!

After that I unloaded the dishwasher, put the clean dishes up, and loaded the dish machine again with dirty dishes from the sink.

Buddy got his neighborhood walk, and then I got a shower.

Not a bad day at all.

Today's picture is a guest house built out of a shipping container and put into somebody's backyard in San Antonio, TX. I love this little guest house! I think that if I could have two of them welded together (a double-wide, if you will), that would be a great size for a remote cabin.

Orlando, FL

We overslept by about 15 minutes this morning. We jumped up with a start and got busy!

Cheese omelets with Canadian bacon for breakfast.

It was overcast this morning and it even started to sprinkle before I got to the office. I rolled the windows up to keep the truck cab dry. When I went out during lunch the cab was like an oven.

After lunch I left the windows down about an inch. Of course it poured later and I had to run out and roll them the rest of the way up. During lunch I went to the storage unit to get the Nikon CD with software for my camera out so that we could install the program on Bob's laptop.

The letter carrier brought my orders from Adafruit Industries and Parallax today. I guess my Sparkfun order will come tomorrow.

This evening it was cooler as I drove home, but then the sun came out and things heated right up again during our evening walk. The humidity was oppressive.

We microwaved a Hormel roast and some cauliflower and broccoli for our dinner.

Weekend

This was a relaxing weekend for a change!

Saturday morning we had oatmeal and Greek yogurt for breakfast with coffee.

Then I pretty much relaxed and played around with the Basic Stamp for the rest of the day getting the rotary encoder to scroll up and down a dummy menu in the Debug Terminal (I succeeded at this).

We had butternut soup for lunch.

Bob worked on his final paper for his final Belhaven College class - Kingdom Life. He will have his Bachelors degree this week!

For dinner we made stir-fried turkey kielbasa sausage with sliced squash, sliced zucchini, and chopped onions. It was very tasty.

We ended the evening in bed watching another movie we had downloaded from the Internet. I think Bob kept nodding off to sleep during the movie!

Today we got up around 7:30 AM and I made oatmeal pancakes with Canadian bacon while Bob walked Buddy.

After breakfast we just puttered around with the computers. It started to rain in the morning, and around 10:30 we decided to go out to Ikea to get a replacement file cabinet drawer for the drawer in our Effectiv cabinet that holds Bob's files.

It rained all afternoon. It rained hard at times. We just layed in bed. Bob napped and I finished reading Into The Wild.

We took Buddy for an extra long walk this evening, and then put medicine on his toes when we got back home.

Then it was time to clean the house. I ran the vacuum cleaner and dusted the glass tables while Bob cleaned the kitchen and bath floors. I also dusted the wine bottles and pledged to empty the liquor cabinet next week and dust all of the shelves inside. The house has to be extra clean next week because Bob's Aunt Carol is coming down.

Three weeks from today Bob will be taking his Pepper Mill Turning Class at Woodcraft in Fern Park.

Now it's time for another week of work, but at least I feel like a got a weekend off this time.

Orlando, FL

We had cheese omelets with spinach in them this morning with turkey sausage links for breakfast.

I got to the office a little early this morning and spent some time in the Test Kitchen cleaning the Merrychef oven up that one of our dealers wants us to deliver. Such mooches. They specifically requested that I deliver it because they knew that I have a truck.

During lunch today I stayed in and made a salad out of cold cuts, tomato, and romaine lettuce in the fridge leftover from the Florida Hospital demo. I was glad to avoid the heat.

In my free time I ordered a few more electronic doodads from sites like Parallax.com, Sparkfun.com and Adafruit Industries. I might move on from the Basic Stamp sometime next year, and get a microcontroller with more capabilities, but I do not know if I want to stick with a Parallax processor like the Propeller or whether to adopt something like the Arduino. Either one of them will be less expensive than the Stamp, but I would have to learn a new programming language for either one too.

This evening Bobby downloaded Into The Wild, a Sean Penn movie from 2007, and Call Of The Wild, a documentary. Both of these are about the book I am reading now.

Orlando, FL

We had our usual breakfast of omelets and Canadian bacon this morning. For some reason the eggs were scorching on the griddle, and I forgot to put asparagus into the first one. I dunno.

I wore a new shirt to work today because I knew we were meeting Betsy for lunch. William picked up Kevin Colyer from Food Warming Equipment (F.W.E.) at the airport and brought him back to the office -- there was a change of plans this morning. Betsy wrote to say that she had a meeting in Celebration with DCL until 12:00, so could we possibly meet her at Downtown Disney around 12:30 PM? Craig offered to meet her at Wolfgang Puck.

We left at 12:00 PM. Kevin and William rode in William's car, and I rode with Fay. We arrived at 12:28 and we were the first ones there. We went ahead and took a table for six and waited. It turns out William and Kevin stopped at Downtown Disney-Pleasure Island because there is a Wolfgang Puck Express up there. They had to walk down to where we were. The sun was already beating down, and Kevin was already bitching about the heat! LOL!!

Eventually we all got settled and placed our orders. Craig ordered a plate of calimari for an appetizer and the table was filled with lots of happy conversation. Betsy seemed to be in particularly good spirits today!

When the check (finally) came, Kevin took it and put the bill on his company credit card. When I heard Kevin was joining us for lunch I suspected this might happen. We all thanked Kevin for the wonderful lunch!

Work in the afternoon wasn't too bad. We checked the answering machine to find six calls, but only two of them left messages.

I got home around 6:00 PM and started to make a low-carb cheesecake. I made a crust out of a low-carb peanut butter cookie recipe and baked it. I baked a few small cookies with the leftover dough. Then I mixed up a low-carb, no-bake cheesecake from gelatin, cream cheese, lemon zest, Splenda™ sweetener, and whipped heavy cream. It's in the fridge setting up right now, but I am sure it will be good.

A rough calculation gives an estimated 29 grams of carbohydrate by 1/8 pie slice. Of this, the cream cheese mix only contributes 4 grams, so, I guess I need to make a thinner crust to cut those carbs down more.

Orlando, FL

Up at 5:30 AM, get my vitamins, pour a scoop of food for Buddy, count Bob's pills, make his sandwich and pack his lunch, and then make breakfast. Cheese omelets with Canadian bacon topped with sugar-free apricot jam mixed with powdered mustard.

By the time the breakfast dishes are cleared away it is time to take Buddy for his walk.

When I got home it was time to shower and get myself ready for work. I shaved today because I knew we had Florida Hospital coming in for a Merrychef and ConvoTherm demo in our Test Kitchen.

We had the grease interceptor pumped out in the Test Kitchen this morning. When the man from Lapin services took the top off of the interceptor, a cloud of mayflies flew up. It looked like something from a cartoon!

I stayed fairly busy all day, but I did find time to research "incremental rotary encoders with Basic Stamp", and I finally found a code snippet that might work. If it doesn't work, it at least gives me a starting point for getting it to work.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day. Craig will go out to Disney to pick up Betsy. William will go to the airport to pick up Kevin Colyer from F.W.E. Vince and Fay will ride in Fay's car, and we will all meet for lunch at Cantina Laredo in Dr. Phillips.

It seemed like today was Wednesday already!

Testing A Rotary Encoder

This weekend I soldered some "legs" onto an inexpensive mechanical rotary encoder I got from Sparkfun.com so that it would mount on the breadboard. Then I connected LED's to Leg A, Leg B, and the push button switch for testing.

You can see that as I turn the knob clockwise the green LED's light up in the pattern 00, 10, 11, 01, 00. When I press the knob down the red LED lights up. As the knob is turned counter-clockwise the green LED's light up in the pattern 00, 01, 11, 10, 00.

The next step will be to connect Leg A, Leg B, and the push button to pins on the Basic Stamp and have the microcontroller recognize which direction the knob is turned to provide some kind of reaction - scrolling a display, changing a setpoint, etc.

The rotary encoder is a useful human interface device that can replace tedius button pushing and only requires two or three controller pins.

Weekend

On Saturday we got up an had breakfast. I had scrambled eggs and Bob had a bowl of Cheerios. After walking Buddy we headed out in my truck to get groceries.

First we went to BJ's Warehouse to get bulk items. We spent about $273 here. We packed all of the cold foods together in a cardboard box, and then went to Super Target to get the rest of our groceries. We spent another $158 at Super Target.

On the way home we stopped at Zaxby's and got salads for our lunch.

It took three trips to get all of our foods upstairs and into the house. We ate our salads first, then we started putting it all away.

It was only after we had everything put up that I realized we forgot a few things. I made a short list and we would have to get the rest of it at Publix.

We started our laundry and did three loads.

For dinner I roasted a 6-pound rooster. All I did was season it with garlic salt, and pepper inside the cavity and all over the outside. I baked it at 325°F for two and a half hours. I pulled the giblets out of the cavity, but left them in the pan to roast in their paper bag. Buddy loves giblets!

While dinner was baking, I got some lemons and navel oranges out and started to chop the oranges, thinly slice the lemons and seed them, and thinly slice the orange rind. I sliced the end of my left index finger open doing this. The citric acid really burned! 3-1/2 cups of chopped orange pulp, 3-1/2 cups of sliced lemon, and 3 cups of sliced orange peel were added to a quart of water, and I cooked it for five minutes. Then I took it off of the heat and let it sit covered in a cool place for 18 hours. Natural pectin comes from the rind and will help the marmalade set up.

Our dinner turned out pretty nice. I opened a can of asparagus and heated that up with the chicken.

Later we took Buddy for a walk around Lake Eola and then came in for the evening. I read more of my Fine Woodworking magazine and then we went to bed.

We got up this morning and Bobby took Buddy for a walk while I got breakfast ready. I made Canadian bacon in the toaster oven and cheese omelets on the countertop griddle. I had coffee ready and food on the table when Bob and Buddy stepped off of the elevator and came down the hall.

After we had breakfast dishes cleared away, I put my canning jars into the dish washer and started it up. Then I put the pot of citrus back on the burner and continued to cook it until the peelings were soft. The house smelled like the Minute Maid factory!

8 cups of sugar were added to the mixture and I stirred constantly. When the jars were done I took them out one at a time and filled them. I put the lids on, screwed down the rings, inverted them, and put them on a towel to cool. Once I had the dishes cleaned up from this, I went to the office to read about electronic rotary encoders on the computer. Once in a while I would hear the "ping!!" sound of the canning lids popping down under suction. All of the jars took a seal.

Around 11:00 AM I went to cut my hair, trim my moustache, and shave my face. Then I took a shower and we headed out in the Xterra. We went to Seven-11 to get money. Next we went to Public Storage to put the floor jack back inside. I took my 15-pound and 25-pound barbells out and put them into the car.

Then we went back down the 408 and up 4 to Maitland. We went to Woodcraft and browsed the store. We admired the Delta 12-1/2 inch 5-speed woodturning lathe, the Jessem bench top router table, the books in the "library", and then we went to the counter to sign Bob up for Pepper Mill Turning class on August 29. Bob really likes turning things on the lathe.

On the way back to Orlando we stopped at Chamberlin's, a specialty organic and nutrition grocery to get low-carb baking mix, almond flour, and aloe vera juice. This was in the Winter Park Village, and there is a Publix in that same center, so we went in there to get the rest of our groceries. We came home in the sweltering heat and I started dinner/lunch.

We had sliced tomatoes with sliced fresh mozzarella with olive oil and basil drizzled over them with some of the left over chicken from last night. After this I mixed up another loaf of bread and started it baking so we can make sandwiches for Bob's lunch this week.

Now it is thunderstorming out and Buddy can't wait to get outside. We will have to wait awhile because of the lightning and the rain. After that it will be time to vacuum the carpets, clean the tables, clean the kitchen and bath, and get ready for another work week.

A busy and productive weekend!