Orlando, FL

The forecast was for high temps near 90°F. I am not sure if it got there or not. There was a nice breeze, it was sunny with some white clouds, and it was warm.

This morning Buddy was doing his "trick dog" thing by jumping up into a three-foot-high planter and peeing on the flowers infront of the assisted living facility. When he comes down there is a lower wall he jumps onto and then he jumps down to the sidewalk.

Well, he misjudged the distance and fell onto the sidewalk! He was limping and holding his left front and back legs like they hurt. I made him sit while I felt both legs, but I couldn't tell that anything was wrong, so we continued our walk. He seemed to forget about it in a few minutes.

Just to be sure, I gave him an aspirin when we got home.

It was a fairly busy day at work. We brought in about $95k today. Craig flies to Las Vegas tomorrow for the Pizza Show. He will be back on Thursday for the Darden Lunch-N-Learn.

Speaking of the Lunch-N-Learn, one of the shipments arrived at 3-Wire/Nass today and one of the refrigerators had freight damage on it. We had that item refused, and Delfield is rushing one to replace it out.

During lunch I bought a tank of gas for the truck. 12 gallons cost $42! Man, it's getting high again! Next I went to Subway to get a $5 foot long. That special promotion ended today.

This evening we had ham steaks with peas for dinner. Then we took Buddy for his walk.

I have my checkbook balanced. Hopefully I will be paid tonight. Then I can sit down and arrange for payment of my bills tomorrow morning.

I am tired. The pollen has my head all stuffed up.

Sausage and Rice Timbale

Ingredients

• Kosher salt
• 2 1/2 cups arborio rice
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3/4 pound Italian pork sausage (preferably luganega), casings removed
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 3 to 4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups grated pecorino romano cheese (about 3 ounces)
• 2 ounces deli-sliced provolone cheese

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the rice, reduce the heat and simmer, stirring once or twice, until the rice is tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Drain, shaking the colander to remove any excess water. Spread the rice on a rimmed baking sheet and let cool.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and place a baking sheet on the middle rack. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until browned, about 6 minutes. Tear the basil and add to the skillet along with the garlic and tomato paste. Increase the heat to high and cook, stirring, until the tomato paste browns, about 4 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, grease the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with the remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Coat the pan with the breadcrumbs, tapping to remove any excess. Put the eggs and all but 3 tablespoons of the pecorino cheese in a small bowl and beat with a fork. Put the cooled rice in a bowl; add the egg mixture and stir to combine.

Transfer about two-thirds of the rice mixture to the prepared springform pan. Using moist fingers, pat the rice onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan, forming a 1/2-inch-thick layer. Place the provolone slices over the rice in the pan. Spoon about three-quarters of the sausage filling over the provolone, filling it to 1/2 inch from the top. Pat the remaining rice mixture on top to enclose the filling, then sprinkle with the remaining 3 tablespoons pecorino cheese. Put the pan on the hot baking sheet and bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool, 5 minutes.

Run a small knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the timbale, then remove the side of the pan. Slide a spatula under the timbale and transfer it to a platter. Thin the remaining sausage filling with a splash of water and reheat. Serve with the timbale.

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I got this recipe from The Food Network magazine. It looked good, so we decided to try it. Even though mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as the picture in the magazine, it was very tasty! We had this for dinner on Saturday evening and the left overs for lunch on Sunday.

The reason mine was not as attractive as the magazine version is because we used long-grain rice instead of the fancy white Italian arborio race. I also, I did not have white breadcrumbs like Panko™ - we used whole wheat crumbs which are much darker brown.

We will make this again, but we will stick closer to the ingredients called for next time.

Orlando, FL

Friday was another beautiful sunny spring day in Florida. Partly cloudy, and temps in the 80's.

Work was steady all day.

I got a sandwich and smoked almonds at 7-Eleven for lunch.

In the afternoon Estes came to the office to get the steamer we are returning to the factory. Even though I asked for a lift gate, they sent a truck without one. When I needed William to help, he was no where to be found, but the truck driver and I rolled the steamer (565 lbs) up the ramp on the pallet jack and wrestled it into the trailer. Now that is on the way back to the factory and we have more space in the kitchen.

Craig took a copy of the binder I prepared for the Darden Lunch-N-Learn session over to Dorothy Cudia, the new manager in charge of refrigerated equipment, to review and approve. He said that he hadn't looked at it before, but Dorothy and Anny Riley were really impressed with it, and Anny wanted a copy for herself too! That's good.

It wasn't our worst week for sales, but it could have been better. Orlando brought in $150k, and Hollywood brought in $125k.

We had red beans and rice for dinner. We made this with boiling water and a package we bought in the super market. It took 25 minutes to make.

Bob had a chemistry test today, and he feels like he did well on it. He finished all of the problems and is hopeful that he did well.

Then we took Buddy for his evening walk. We walked around Lake Eola. The weather was perfect and the pesky gnats haven't come out yet.

We went to bed early - around 8:00 PM, and we watched The Hunt for Red October. It was 10:30 when we went to sleep.

Orlando, FL

This pollen is killing me. It makes my face hurt!

Today was another beautiful Florida spring day - sunny, partly cloudy, high near 82°F. Just the kind of weather that makes plants release pollen!

Today during lunch I went to Chik-Fil-A and got a chargrilled chicken garden salad with thousand island dressing and a large diet lemonade.

During the afternoon, a technician from 3-Wire/Nass Parts came to the office to help me pack up a steamer for shipment back to the factory. He used screws and fastened the steamer right down the pallet by driving screws through the flanged feet! Then we pulled the cardboard box over it and strapped it down. Estes is coming to pick it up tomorrow.

Bob had his Shelter Training today at the SPCA. He brought home a handbook with the expectations. He is looking forward to volunteering.

For dinner we had baked chicken and carrots. Buddy got to enjoy the neck and giblets. Then we all took a walk.

Orlando, FL

Ugghh... I hate waking up congested. After I stand up it starts draining. I took Claritin™, a decongestant, and anti-histimine. It still hurts. The pollen is really bad right now.

Work today was steadily busy. I wrote six quotes before lunch time.

During lunch I went to Ruby Tuesday and got the soup and salad. I had the white bean chicken chili, which isn't as good as ours, but I didn't have to cook it either.

The day really was beautiful - sunny and cloudless skies with temps near 85°F.

The afternoon was steadily busy too. We took delivery of a pallet with an empty box on it. We are going to use that packaging to return a steamer to Cleveland Range.

Right before the end of the day I got an accusatory letter from Darden Restaurant Supply asking why they paid different prices for different 72-inch salad refrigerator models over the past three years. It was sent to me and a copy was sent to Bob Chuhak. I had to break it all down for them and explain it. Once Bob saw that I had all of my shit in one sock, he told the purchasing coordinator that he would set up individual SKU numbers for the two models.

I didn't leave the office until 5:50 PM. We left William in there still working. It was about 6:30 when I finally got home.

Bob had green beans and baked cheeseburgers ready for dinner. We ate and then we walked Buddy.

Because the mail did not run yesterday (President's Day), there was a big pile of mail in the box this evening.

Orlando, FL

I don't even feel like I got a weekend. We harnessed Buddy up and drove to the office on Saturday to make 3-ring binders for the Darden Lunch-N-Learn session on March 3.

We ran about 6 reams of paper copying cut sheets for the 20 binders. I had the binders laid out on the table in the test kitchen and I ran each section off on the copier and brought them back to Bob. Bob punched the holes in the sheets and put them into each section. We had the cut sheets organized by concept: Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze, LongHorn Steakhouse, and Seasons 52.

Craig saw us working and he left us a little money to go get some lunch. We went to the Del Taco on I-Drive and ate lunch. We got a taco for Buddy too - big mistake. Buddy got some stinky gas from it!

We worked until 6:00 PM on this project and then we headed home. We baked a DiGiorno pizza from Publix for dinner.

On Sunday we worked on Bob's homework. Except for an outing in the middle of the day, he worked on Statistics homework all day.

Around noon we went out to walk the Downtown Arts and Living Expo. We got two gyros and two lemonades for lunch. The total was $26! There won't be a next time for that! We went to the Lake Eola Park Farmers Market after this and got a couple of zucchini. I think Bob is going to make zucchini meatloaf this week.

During the afternoon I read my book and took a nap. I woke up when the bedroom got too warm.

We went back out after walking Buddy. We got a tank of gas for the Xterra, and then we got dinner at Subway. After dinner it was time to clean the house and get ready for another work week.

Today was not a hard day at work. Craig was in Tallahassee with Nancy Baranet and the Florida School Nutrition Association.

The weather was beautiful - sunny and warm - 85°F. I got the binders completed and stacked them in a box. The pollen is very bad right now and I feel miserable. I just keep popping decongestant and Claritin™. This too shall pass.

Mechanical Principles 1930

Orlando, FL

During our morning walk we saw honeysuckle and azaleas blooming! Spring isn't too far away!

It was another sunny and warm (80°F) day today. It would have been nice to be able to spend some time outside.

During lunch I went to Zaxby's and got a salad.

Evelyn came in today, but she only worked with Craig getting his new computer set up. They worked on some other project too.

This evening when I got home, Bobby had dinner ready. He made Couscous Chicken! We had a nice dinner, then we took Buddy for his evening walk.

After we got home we carried our balcony furniture back outside and set it up. Now we need to run the vacuum cleaner.

Orlando, FL

We've had a couple of busy days at FER! I was in the office until almost 6:00 PM again last night trying to get quotes done. The phone rang continuously yesterday - more than it has in months! Exhausting.

I got home around 6:30, and we had lamb chops with carrots for dinner. Then we walked Buddy.

Bob worked on his homework for Chemistry because it was due tonight at 11:00 PM, but he has a full day today - Histology test in the morning, Chemistry tutoring around lunch, and Chemistry in the afternoon, followed by Pre-Vet Society Meeting tonight.

Unfortunately, I ended up staying until around 11:00 PM helping him figure out how many atoms of gold exist in 3.28 grams of gold and other non-sensical problems.

I spent most of the day in a sleepy fog.

It was sunny and warm with a high around 75°F. A really nice day, but it was also another busy day for us inside.

When 5:00 PM came, I was ready. I picked up my stuff and said, "I will see you guys in the morning!" and I took off.

Bob is still at UCF, but Buddy was here and happy to see me. The window washers came during the day and cleaned the outside of our windows and our balcony. Now we need to start moving our junk back outside.

I took Buddy for a walk, got a copy of The Orlando Weekly, checked the mail, and made some sweet potato fries for dinner. I laid on the living room floor munching my fries and reading the Weekly.

Now I am playing some Boston on the stereo and Internet surfing. I think I am going to be in bed early.

Orlando, FL

Happy Valentine's Day!

When I left this morning I stopped at Publix to get Bobby a giant sized box of chocolate candy and a huge heart-shaped mylar balloon for Valentine's Day. The giant balloon wanted to hug the side of my head as I drove down the highway and resisted all attempts to confine it to the far corner of the truck cab.

Remembering that we also had ice machine training this morning, I had to hurry through my purchase orders, order confirmations, etc. Fay kept coming up with inane little tasks for me - "Oh, I'd really like to have this Kolpak award hanging up here in the hall before Joan gets here...". I grumbled (to myself, I though), "Well, you effin' know where the effin' hammer is kept." I don't know if she heard me, but next thing I know she's hammering a nail into the wall to hang the damned plaque.

Joan took no notice of the plaque whatsoever.

We were a little surprised by Bo Erickson from Manitowoc, He was younger than we expected, but we like him. The meeting started off with a lot of banter about NAFEM. Evidently Joan did some drinking this weekend and now she's known as "Joanie Petrone". She had some large bags under her eyes this morning!

The ice meeting took about two hours. Then Bo left with Craig to go to the LongHorn Steakhouse by the airport. The rest of my day would be a mad scramble to try to catch up.

Shortly after the meeting I was on a telephone conference with Frymaster and one of my dealers. I heard the UPS truck stop outside. I called William or Fay to come let the UPS man inside. It was a Proflowers.com delivery for me! Bobby sent me tulips and a small box of chocolate for Valentine's Day! I shared the chocolate with Fay and William.

At lunch I drove home to give Bobby his box of chocolates and his big Valentine's balloon. I could only stay a little bit before heading back to the office. Weather was nice in the middle of the day - 71°F and sunny, and I drove with the windows down.

Around 1:30 PM I had completed what I normally have done by 9:30 AM. Then I had some quote requests on my desk to work on.

I didn't get out of the office until 5:50 PM, and I saw that I-4 as a virtual parking lot, so I took the surface streets home. I got home around 6:15 PM and we enjoyed a dinner of pork chops and sliced carrots.

This was a tiring day!

Weekend

We left the balcony door tilted in and the office window cracked open when we went to bed on Friday evening. The house got nice and cool during the night. So cool, in fact, that I had to close the door and window when I got up in the morning!

I took Buddy for his morning walk while Bobby made scrambled eggs and Canadian bacon for breakfast. During our walk I went to Panera Bread and got pecan rolls to enjoy during breakfast too.

We came back to the building through Lake Eola Park, and the SPCA was getting set up for the annual Paws In The Park event. We bypassed the registration tents and headed back to our house. I didn't want Buddy getting all excited about the event because we weren't planning on attending this year.

Breakfast was scramble eggs, Canadian bacon, and coffee. After breakfast I started the laundry and while Bobby cleaned up the kitchen, I sat in the bedroom in my arm chair and enjoyed my new book, Building Scientific Apparatus. Through the south facing windows, I could see men on a construction boom crane at First Episcopal Church working to disassemble the crane, and using a smaller crane on the ground, lower the pieces to the street.

Around 10:00 AM I got Buddy harnessed up and took him with me in my truck to the car wash. We left Bob on the bed reading his Chemistry text book and making flash cards. The dog wanted to play with everyone at the car wash, and he cried when I made him sit next to me.

Once the truck was clean we headed straight home and parked in the garage. I took Buddy and put him in the bed of the truck while I used the Mother's Clay Bar System™ to clean the paint on my truck.

In the past, when I would wash and wax the truck, the paint still felt rough and bumpy after waxing. Well, this clay bar system uses a solution you spray on the paint, then you glide a clay bar over the paint and it picks up dirt from the clear coat. It was surprising how much dirt continued to come off of the paint after coming from the car wash!!

What was even nicer was how the paint felt after rubbing the clay bar over the finish a few times. It felt soooo smooth! Like a new paint job (except for the obvious pits and gravel craters)! I used the clay bar on the roof, the hood, the front fenders, and the left and right door. After this I took Buddy up to the house and then I came back and waxed the entire truck.

I got the glass cleaner and paper towels and cleaned all of the glass on the truck and then came upstairs to call it a day. I recommend Mother's Clay Bar System™ for cleaning up your automotive finish.

In the afternoon Bobby wanted to go out to TJ Maxx and find some new shirts to wear to school, so we drove to SoDo, parked the Xterra in the garage above Super Target, and went to TJ Maxx to shop.

I picked out a new liquid soap dispenser for our guest bathroom, two ties, and a short-sleeved shirt. Bobby picked out a couple of new shirts. He went to SuperTarget to get heavy whipping cream while I went upstairs to get the car. I picked him up when I came down and we went to get something for dinner.

We had a hard time deciding where to eat, and then we passed an O'Boys Barbecue on South Orange Avenue. Remembering the huge portions we got at the restaurant in Baldwin Park, we decided to eat here.

We ordered onion rings for an appetizer, and I had barbecued chicken dinner while Bobby had fried flounder. The food was more than Bobby could eat and our lucky dog got the leftovers!

I took Buddy for his evening walk and checked the mail on the way back up.

We watched Roger and Me on the WD TV before going to sleep. We used the WD My Book external hard drive for this as a test. We are going to move all of our previously downloaded movies to the hard drive, and we are going to rip our DVD's to files and put them on the hard drive too. Then we can just scroll down through the files and select whatever movie we want to watch right from the TV screen!

After we get WD TV connected to the network (and the Internet) we will be able to watch Youtube.com videos and view pictures on Flickr.com right at the TV set!

This morning I took Buddy for the morning walk while Bob got breakfast ready.

I made a trip to my storage unit to put my tax return copy away with all of the others in a box, and I retrieved my Jessem Routr Table so that I could install the new Routr Plate. I also got drill bits and files out of storage. The replacement router plate costs $60! So, I wanted to make it good this time.

I worked for about two hours putting the holes into the plate where I wanted them and leveling the new plate in the table. It's pretty good, but I want to touch up some of the tear out with white enamel paint and fill in the screw holes with white candle wax. Then it should work pretty good!

After this I went down to the truck and applied vinyl dressing (Armor All) to the headliner, the dash, vinyl trim on the seats, the doors, door weather seals, steering wheel, from bumper and back bumper top. The truck looks better than it has in months!

We took Buddy for a walk during the evening and then we came home and I made ham steaks with peas and sweet potato fries for dinner.

Now I have run the vacuum and cleaned the glass tables. Bob is cleaning the kitchen floor now. I am beat.

This work week should be a routine week (I hope).

Orlando, FL

This morning's walk was chilly! I pulled the red sweater on Buddy and took him out.

Work today was okay. The phones were not super busy. I guess that is because everyone was at the NAFEM Show.

Most of the day was very gray, cloudy, and overcast. The sun came out in the late afternoon.

Sales for the week were astounding. FER brought in almost $3 Million this week. It's funny - last month was our "worst month ever", and here we are with our best week ever. No way to predict it.

This evening we made chili and a big salad for dinner. Then we took Buddy for his chilly evening walk.

On the way upstairs we checked the mail and found the new issue of Fine Woodworking! Yay!

Orlando, FL

Yesterday I went out to work early because I had to meet Fay at the office at 7:30 AM. I stopped at Subway and got a Subway Breakfast Melt sandwich and then headed over to the office.

I got there at 7:25 and Fay was ready to go as soon as I got there.

We drove down Universal Blvd to International Drive and then went south to Destination Drive where we found the Hilton. This Hilton was huge. We drove into the garage below the building and parked, and then took the elevator up to the lobby. Here we looked at the directory to find the ballroom that our AutoQuotes training would be held in.

The training on was on the other end of this very large and sprawling building. It was like walking in the airport. In fact, they could have run club cars for us it was so big. I didn't think Fay was going to make it. I took her laptop computer from her and kept on walking. Total walk from car to table must have been 2000 to 3000 feet.

There were about 150 attendees from this training. Fay and William broke out their laptops and I went to get one of the rented laptops. The lesson was projected onto two giant screens at the front as the instructor walked through the features of the new AQ360.

There were pastries, coffee, and juice in the back for us, and we took a break about once an hour. The day, what little we saw of it, was beautiful.

It was a long day and at the end we had to make the same long walk back to the car. Then Fay drove me back to the office where I got my truck and drove home.

Bobby had a Pre-Vet Club meeting, and that would keep him until 9:30 PM, so I walked the dog, got a copy of the Orlando Weekly, checked the mail, and ate a piece of leftover steak for dinner. I was in bed and about to doze off when he came in.

Today was cloudy with scattered showers. After lunch temps started to drop. I went to the office early to get all of the emailed requests, purchase orders, and quote requests all caught up before the phone started to ring. Nice thing though - the phones didn't really ring all that much, and that is probably because a large number of people are at NAFEM.

Evelyn Dufner came by the office in the afternoon to fix the file sharing issue Fay and I were having with our Quote Log. She had it patched up in about 15 minutes.

Lasership delivered my new book and the Western Digital My Book hard drive today. I snuck the hard disk inside and put it on Bob's desk chair to surprise him.

Bob was making steak quesadilla's with flour tortillas, onion, mushroom, cheese, and leftover steaks when I got home.

Because it was getting colder outside, I told Bob to load the dish washer while I took Buddy for his evening walk. On the way back upstairs we checked the mail.

Tomorrow is Friday. TGIF!!

Orlando, FL

Today was a lighter day at work. Thank goodness! There were only two purchase orders today and I only had to work on two quotes.

It was sunny today, but temps were cooler. My fingers were cold most of the day.

I got a delivery from UPS today from Lee Valley Tools. I ordered a pair of sheet metal bending pliers. I know these are going to come in handy some day when I have to fold up a small box or bracket.

Tomorrow we are going to be at the Hilton Orlando Convention Center all day with AutoQuotes AQ360 training. I have to meet Fay at the office at 7:30 AM and she will drive us over there.

This evening we had oven fried steaks and steamed green beans for dinner. Then we took Buddy for his walk. On the way home we splurged and got Starbucks coffees.

Orlando, FL

Today was almost as busy as Friday! At least the sales were better.

Several large orders came in today. One in particular we have been working on for over two years. Well, our boat finally came in today! I processed over $2.7 Million in new orders today!! It was non-stop action all day.

Weather was nice today until afternoon. Then it began to cloud up and get cold. It is drizzling outside now and temps are falling. Very yucky.

My Sparkfun.com order and my Jessem.com order were delivered today. From Sparkfun I got a solid-state thermo-electric cooler, an analog milliamp meter, three small light intensity sensors, and some headers. From Jessem I got a replacement router table plate.

Tomorrow I am expecting a delivery from Lee Valley Tools.

We forgot to thaw something out for dinner, so we ended up eating sandwiches for dinner and then walking Buddy. I popped into Publix to get Bobby some more flat bread and I got a pint of vanilla ice cream and some raspberries for a tasty snack.

I am about 8 pages from the end of Twilight. I am so tired this evening I don't know if I will finish it!

Weekend

Man! Another hectic and busy weekend! These weekends are going to kill me!

When I went to bed on Friday night, my head was stuffed up and my sinuses hurt from the congestion. Incredibly, all of my Advil and decongestant are at work in my desk drawer! I made it through the night, but I did not sleep well.

Bob took Buddy for his morning walk while I made a breakfast of pancakes (made with whole wheat flour and almond flour), and one slice of Canadian bacon for each of us. Yes, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel!

I stripped the bed and put the sheets into the washer.

Since I was paid this week, it was time to go get our groceries. So we went out to BJ's Warehouse where I spent about $350 on bulk food items. Then we headed over to Super Target to spend another $200. Then we drove all of this food home and brought it up to our house. It took three trips to bring all of the food in.

It took us awhile to get the food put away. The freezer is packed to the gills!

I bought some decongestant and Advil, and took some after the groceries were put away. Then I put Buddy into the tub and gave him a good scrubbing. He hates to get a bath. He survived yet another one and he smells really nice and clean now - like baby shampoo.

Then I got the sheets out of the dryer and made the bed back up. The sheets and pillowcases smell really nice after being rinsed in Downy™. I put the dog's bed into the wash next. No sense washing to dog only to let him roll in more stink on his bed.

I sat down to the computer and opened PhotoShop to figure out how to put a watermark on the pictures I edit and save in the future. It was actually quite easy, and I have a watermark that says "©2011 V. Thigpen ." saved in PS. All I have to do is Press F12, and it auto-magically puts the text in the lower right hand corner of the photo!

Next I typed in the URL for the IRS website. I wanted to know where my tax refund was. "Where's my refund?" Turns out, the IRS deposited my refund on Thursday night!! Yay!!!

Flush with cash, I transferred some of it to my savings account, then I placed an order with Amazon.com for a book I have wanted for awhile, and the external hard drive we want to use with our WD TV system.

Later we went back out. We went to Skycraft Electronics to look for electric receptacles, bus bars, and other electronic doodads for my Basic Stamp Automatic Plant Watering Project and other Mad Scientist projects. That is such a fun and fascinating store!

We went to look for a place to eat lunch after that. 4 Rivers BBQ had a line running down the block so we drove past there. We went to The Ravenous Pig in Winter Park, but when we stepped inside, the hostess informed us that they close the kitchen from 2 PM to 5 PM. However we were welcome to enjoy drinks at the bar. "Hell no! We're hungry!"

We tried the Winter Park Fish Company, but we could not find a parking space within a block of the place and since it looked like it was going to rain, we didn't want to chance it. We headed back toward the Winter Park Village and ended up getting burritos at Moe's.

While we ate it started to rain.

After lunch we headed west to the new Wal*Mart store on Princeton Street. Here we browsed the menswear and we got some rawhide bones for Buddy. Then we headed home.

After taking Buddy for his evening walk, we stepped back out and ate dinner at Metro Espresso.

I was very tired from this busy day. We headed to bed and read for a little while. I am getting very close to the end of The Twilight Of American Culture.

This morning, I got up around 7:00 AM. It was strange that we did not hear Buddy whining and crying for us to get up. For some reason he was in no bid hurry to get up this morning. He seemed to be a little stiff and sore!

I took him down to the street, but he was moving like an old dog - tail down, with slow, stiff, cautious steps. That is, until he saw the squirrel. Suddenly he was motivated to run and jump and try to climb the trees. I dunno, he seemed kind of stiff and tired most of the morning and he wasn't interested in his food either.

We had mushroom cheese omelets with Canadian bacon for breakfast. Bob did a great job on breakfast. We spent some time at the computer after that. Bob was working on some of his homework and I was just reading news.

Around noon I made a lunch of black bean soup for us. Then I started the dishwasher, put some hot chicken wings onto a foil-lined baking sheet and baked them for our SuperBowl Supper.

After this we went out in my truck to the storage unit. Here we continued to disassemble the lawnmower engine. Bob helped me by holding the block while I used the grinder to cut through the frozen fasteners. The engine is completely pulled apart now. We packed the aluminum away with the other scrap I have for melting.

We cleaned our hands up with GoJo, wiped them off on rags, and then headed to Office Depot to look for ink refill cartridges for his Lightscribe Smart Pen. Office Depot did not have them and didn't even know what it was! So we went to Best Buy, where I bought the damned thing. They had the pens and they had the special paper you have to use it with, but no ink refills.

So, we came home. We ate the chicken wings with some okra pickles, and then we took Buddy for his evening walk. Bob checked online and found that he can buy the refills at the UCF bookstore for $5.00. So, that is what he is going to do tomorrow.

Now I have finished running the vacuum and cleaning the glass tables. Bob is cleaning the bathroom mirror and cleaning the faucets and vanity top.

This is going to be a busy week because we have a couple of unusual events this week - we have AQ360 training on Wednesday, and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are NAFEM.

I am ready for bed. I am sure I am going to sleep soundly tonight!

Orlando, FL

It was a good Friday, over all, I guess.

When I got up at 6:10 AM and looked out the window I could see that it was VERY FOGGY outside. I took my vitamins, counted out Bob's pills, harnessed Buddy up, poured a scoop of food into his bowl, and then headed out for a walk.

Bob had scrambled eggs and Canadian bacon ready for breakfast by the time we returned.

Fay returned to work today. She said she was still very sore from her root canal, and that she still needed to return to the dentist to have a crown installed, but she was back.

I stayed fairly constantly busy all day. It was kinda hectic. After all, I guess I have to take ownership of the walk-in issues that arise when Fay is out. God forbid there be any reciprocity when I am out (which isn't very often).

The skies cleared up around noon and temps reached up to 80°F today.

During lunch I went to Zaxby's and ordered the Blue Salad blackened with blue cheese dressing, and a Coke Zero. They messed my order up and I ended up with a Buffalo Chicken salad. Uggh. It worked on my guts like Draino™ on a clogged drain.

FER-Orlando processed $485k in new orders this week. Hollywood brought in $78k. Overall, a good week for FER.

Next week will be busy for us because of NAFEM.

This evening we took Buddy for his walk and then Bob and I went back out. We walked over to Metro Espresso and got dinner out. Bob had veal parmesan and I had a gyro sandwich.

Now Bobby is doing his homework, and I am ready to lay down and read some more.

Orlando, FL

Even though it got hectic at times, it was peaceful in the office and I really liked it that I didn't have Fay second-guessing me at every turn. She should get a root canal everyday!!

During lunch I went to KFC and got grilled chicken with green beans and cole slaw.

This afternoon was steadily busy, but not more than I could handle.

Evelyn was in this afternoon. She renewed the Trend Micro™ antivirus subscription on my computer and Fay's computer.

This evening we had baked fish and Steamfresh™ veggies for dinner. Then we took Buddy for his walk.

During our walk, the Goodyear blimp flew over us on its way to the airport for the night.

Bob got an email message from the Orange County SPCA inviting him to Shelter Training on March 24. He's going to start doing volunteer work at the animal shelter to get some veterinary experience!

Orlando, FL

Groundhog Day. Phil did not see his shadow, so supposedly, Spring is "just around the corner". Well, I tell ya, for those poor folks living up north, Spring can't get here soon enough!

Fay was about 30 minutes late this morning. She phoned in to say she was on her way, but she "had a painful night" with her toothache.

Work was not too hard today. We got some 3-ring binders ordered so that we can get some spec sheet giveaways ready for the Darden Lunch-N-Learn. I need to make copies of all of the cut sheets and make dividers for the books, but it isn't an emergency yet.

Delfield in Mt Pleasant, MI didn't come in today because of the Winter Storm. Cleveland Range came in, but they didn't have electricity, and they went home at noon. I think Garland went home early too. Food Warming Equipment in Illinois didn't come in today either.

During lunch I went to Chik-Fil-A and got a salad. It clouded up and looked like it was going to rain, but it never did.

When I got back to my desk, I found the mail on my desk and in the mail I found a small box addressed to me. I was surprised that the Parallax.com items I ordered arrived so quickly!

I ordered to small 250-volt, 8-amp SSRs, and a small 5-volt barometric pressure sensor for the Basic Stamp. I am still expecting an order from Sparkfun.com and a small order from LeeValley.com.

Fay is taking tomorrow off (and possibly Friday) to visit her cardiologist and then get her root canal. She brought a bunch of her work up to my desk and dropped it off and told me to follow up on all of it tomorrow. She forgets that I have shit of my own to follow up on too. I am seriously looking for a way to fuck her over when I go on vacation.

When I got home this evening Bobby hadn't come home yet, so I harnessed Buddy up and took him for his walk.

By the time we got home Bob was home. He got a roasted chicken at the grocery store and was heating up some carrots for a nice dinner for us. After dinner we laid on the living room floor while I read the Orlando Weekly.

Now I have just finished fiddling with the SSR's and have given up in disgust (for now). I also just showed Bob how to calculate combination problems using the factorial x! method, and using the nCr calculator short cut.

Orlando, FL

Once I got started it turned out being a nice day. Getting started was hard. I wanted to keep on sleeping for a couple more hours!

After walking Buddy we had scrambled eggs and Canadian bacon for breakfast. Then I went to the computer, quickly did my bills (we got paid last night), and then headed for the shower.

It was a sunny and clear day. Really beautiful compared to what most of the rest of the country is seeing. Tomorrow a front will be coming through and it's supposed to rain.

Craig decided to have the Darden Lunch-N-Learn session on March 3. So, I got all of the equipment ordered. Hopefully we can have it delivered before the end of the month. We are going to have it delivered to a local service agency for un-crating, and delivery to the demo site. At the conclusion of the training the service agent will crate the equipment up again and we will fill new orders with those items.

Fay ran out the door right at five PM, saying "I don't know about you, but I am not hanging around here. My tooth hurts sooo badly!" Hahaha! She should have seen the dentist long ago! She is also upset because her cardiologist isn't in our new health insurance carrier's network.

We had baked cheeseburgers with carrots for dinner. Then we took Buddy for a nice evening walk.

I am going to go curl up with my book soon.