12/31/23

New Year's Eve.  Well Happy new year everyone!  

Work up early again today.  Sleeping has not been going well for me. Might be the Covid, might be the mattress. I'm just not comfortable.

Cut up some melon and fruit for breakfast, I had fruit and bagel with nova and an espresso.

While making breakfast I remembered. Years ago I use to get up early on a Sunday morning and go to the grocery store. One Sunday I was looking at the selection of cheese in the deli area. It was the case where the supermarket keep the “artisan” cheese.  While there was this guy. I would say old guy, but who is really old? Anyway, he saw at me looking at the cheese and started grumbling. Who would buy this? Why would you buy this fancy cheese? Why pay so much money for this cheese? American cheese is 69 cents a pound! Now I looked at the cheese before me, none of it fancy, mostly reasonably priced for what it is. It was not exotic cheese by any stretch of the imagination, feta, a blue, pecorino, possibly a Stilton.  People should just buy a American cheese,  not this fancy stuff, he opined. Cheese to him was something on a ham sandwich or slightly melted on a burger from a fast food place. He probably never enjoyed the salty, funky goodness of a Brie on a cracker. Or the satisfying taste of a Romano sprinkled on a well made plate of pasta.  I know that I could not and would not change his mind. There is a look of a man who is determined to have his  opinions and to let you know them whether you wanted them or not.  He clutched on to his deli sliced American cheese like a trump supporter with a red hat.  I looked at him square in the eye and picked up a ripe blue cheese and sniffed it and said, “I like a good cheese in the morning, it smells like feet!” I turned and walked away. 

Interesting tidbit, today is 123123.  

12/30/23

Saturday, Still positive.  8 days on and still a positive test.  Did not even have to wait 15 min for the test, a big bright second line showed up fast. Don't feel bad a little nose action but ok. I'll wait until Monday to test again. 

Doing pickup shopping for groceries today.  Going to pickup at Giant and Wegmans.   

Got the laundry from the trip out of the frunk of the car.  That place makes good storage for a laundry bag for the road trip.  

Workshop news the morning. Got the front retract placed on the Avanti. Steering and retracting, doing all the things that it needs to do. Glued in the brace with adhesive caulk and have to wait until it dries to see if it is solidly in place. 

Picked up all the groceries for the week. Lots of fruits and veggies. Going to make some marinated baked chicken for the week. 

Got a lot done on the Avanti. It should be mechanically complete tomorrow. Then work on the radio and gyro. 

Tomorrow I'll get back to working out on the elliptical. I should be healthy enough to do a workout.

 

12/29/23

Friday.  Not feeling too bad.  I'll test tomorrow.  Trouble sleeping woke up at 2:30 and could not go back to sleep for hours.  Woke up mostly refreshed this morning. No brain fog.  It might well be a sunny day! 

Made Café Busteleo in the espresso machine. Does not produce that good of a creama, but tasty . Wil have to give it a go in the Moka pot. 

Going to work on my planes in the basement tonight. I think I can work more moderate tasks and the planes that need to be fixes are just bugging me to get done.  Ordered some "bush" wheels for my cub. It should look like a Alaskan bush plane.  

Made a nice breakfast using the slow cooker double boiler method of steel cut oats and buckwheat with dried figs.  The dried figs got nice and moist after being in the hot cereal overnight.  Got to clean the cereal dishes quickly as the buckwheat turns to concrete in short order. 

Catching up on some home backlog that have to be done before going to the basement workshop.  Ordered a new laptop for the basement the tablet was not cutting it anymore got a cheap AMD Dell from the outlet. That should work for the basement / hobby computer.  

Made some packet Indian food. Had some curry and bean packets and made rice with those for lunch.  Change up from Chinese food and eating out of the cupboard.

Worked on the Avanti Jet today. Got the motor, ducted fan and "afterburner" lights sorted out and Into the fuselage.   Work on control wiring tomorrow. 

12/28/23

Slept in my bed las night.  I think the bed is lumpy.  Hmmmm.  Got up early and made coffee and turn ed on the fire place.  Published last weeks blogs posts. Going to empty the car and unpack. 

But first coffee. 

My brain is a little foggy today. I keep jumping from thing to thing as my head just put to many thoughts together. M not doing too good today.  She needs just a little rest and to relax.  We'll get over this it just may take a while.

All I can focus on is getting lunch today. Doing an online order for Chinese food a quick in and out.  Soup and noodles….

Getting really tired today.  I'm falling asleep on the couch. I'm not going to do anything complex today.

Updated a machine to run the Dyn DNS client. What was that about complex things.

Watching M make some banana bread. Mmmmmm.

Going to stream some shows tonight. 

12/27/23

New Day … not sure what day it is.  Had a great sleep. M had a good sleep too. Was actually breathing through my nose for once.  Ah, the little things in life. 

Back on the road home this morning.  Will be raining, it will be a treat no?

A very long drive home.  Started out well cruise control working and all. Found a bunch of new chargers and chargers that had more slots installed. We ran into a Panera and Starbucks for bagels and coffee. We had our breakfast in the car.  

Found out Mom caught 'Rona from us. I really feel bad about that. Jay brought her a test and it was positive. He is going to see her on Paxlovid to help her out.  Hope she has mild symptoms. 

It started raining and the cruise control went out on us. Ugh it was not ideal. What was going to be our last stop the charger had an issue that it only putting out 27kW. Had to go to one more stop to find a better charger.  

The rain and fog was really soupy and visibility was low so traffic was just not good.  Some people going slow others real fast, Semi's putting up a spray wave. 

Home at last.  Rebooted the router. House back on line.  I'm sitting in my easy chair and life is good.

 

12/26/23

Homeward bound.  Christmas over early and we are heading out of town. No visits with Mom or making pot roast or bbq pork. No more being with the BW's or Kimatha. Bit of a bummer and a let down but it's for the best. A let down for sure. 

We left Columbia early in the Morning.  Took out a mountain of trash from the room and loaded up the car.  Good news after charging the Autosteer did not give up this time, It would have been a bear to be on the throttle and wheel all day. The Autosteer is really great to have.

Did drive thru at Terre Haute while charging, keeping a low profile. 

12/25/23

Merry Christmas!!! 

Coffee and still stuffy. 

It think the internet connection at home is not working. I need to reboot the ONT Optical Network Terminal.  I'll do that when I get home. Looking at early termination of vacation.  Going home tomorrow. 

Sorry to say It can't come soon enough.  Christmas dinner is replaced by stale bagels.  With Rona just not feeling Christmas this year. I feel I spoiled Christmas for everybody especially M.

We joined the tribe and ordered Chinese food on Christmas! We had a quart of egg drop soup with wonton dumplings. Ah, was it good!  M had chow mien and I had noodles.  Well maybe we didn't join the tribe as I got pork fried rice.

Opened the fortune cookie and it said " Don't Panic".  Did I just go to the Chinese Restaurant at the end of the Universe?  

Ok packed bag and am ready to start packing the car.  I think I'll fell better at home where I'm comfortable being miserable.

12/24/23

Christmas eve!   Slept better than I had a right to.  But still nose dripping.  Having a good cup of coffee this morning.  Planning on what to do with the rest of the day. 

Happy Festivus, for the rest of us!!!  Boy, do I have problems and you people are going to hear about it!!!

Ugh bad new I tested positive for 'Rona…

Lots of chicken broth and being locked down in a hotel room.  M not going to do baking with family and we won't be going to her Mom's house for Christmas.  I feel like the Christmas Party pooper.  

Had to get M out of the baking session at the BW's and get her back to the hotel so we didn't infect the whole crew. 

Hope Mom didn't get sick after our visit.

Covid, the gift no one want for Christmas! Guess I'm going to be standing at the end of a 39 and half foot pole from everyone.

12/23/23

Saturday.  Bad sleeping last night.  Stuffy nose, drips ugh!  Got some Hall drops they worked for a bit.

After supercharging the cruise control / autosteer dropped out again.  Ok it's after a supercharge. 

Went to M's Mom's place.  She was very happy to see us . M was also happy we did a paper Christmas tree that was decorated with birds.  Checked into hotel then a bite to eat. Started to feel miserable with a stuffy nose again,   Going to be a another long night. 

12/22/23

FriYay !!!!  Woke up late. M and I hit the gym this morning first thing.  Had the hotel breakfast. It was not terrible and it was not too crowded.  We got a pour over cone and making Café Bustelo. It's going to be a good cup of coffee!  

We have a reservation at Andre's at 11am today.  After that a miniature museum, break then to Ginny and Brian's for the evening. 

Oh my gosh! The pour over is the best coffee I've had in a while, strong and tasty. The coffees aroma was divine. 

It was fun at Andre's and the miniature museum.  The miniatures we exquisite in detail. The workmanship was on another level. I was not felling great I had to sit out a bit. Later we went to Ginny and Brian's home for Christmas party. There was lots of sad hugs when we left as we will not see each other for a year. 

121/21/23

Was very stiff and could only get 20 min of elliptical yesterday. Body telling me to get some rest. 

Trip yesterday was pretty brutal. Our estimates on range yesterday were getting us to charging stations with little reserve. We tried the more stations less charge method and it seemed to work with the charging but took a long time.  Have to get my calculations back on track. Second the cruise control, autosteer was having issues. It would not be available. Reset the computer it came back and went out again. Being on the throttle was giving my foot and ankle a cramp. 

Traffic was rush hour crazy between  Columbia an KC. Well it's rush hour and the malls are packed and everyone hitting the road. 

Finally at the hotel. Bummer! No K cup machine! Have to remember that and get a pour over funnel. 

I also should look at my dynamic IP address. It was not work right yesterday. 

This morning I hit the gym with M and got a good workout. Will be able to hit the gym again tonight. 

Meeting the KC crowd at First Watch on Armor Rd at 9 this morning. 

Karen, Gary, Shirley, Roxanne, Ginny, M and myself were there. Breakfast was good, catching up with everyone was even better. We were all chattering away telling all the details that we have missed in out lives for the last two years.   Brian was at work I hope he is there tomorrow,  We then wen to Shirley's new home. She has a very nice place.  More talking and we got on the the subject of videos.  Videos of Rico the porcupine from the Cincinnati zoo  came out. But the girls started with a dance along video of salsa dance. Karen was kind of shocked to learn that YouTube video to learn something were free!  We had some snacks, what is Christmas without snacks! Shirley had to go to work. The tyranny of work!  But she left us at her apartment,  I don’t know I would never toss the keys to my place to a bunch of pals.  We avoid tearing down the house.  The we went to a walk around Macken Park about a mile around at least it was good to work off the big breakfast. Getting back to the apartment and more catching up, the girls made plans for tomorrow since it is going to rain. Andre's downtown, a Swiss restaurant.  I think they had more in mind and we are going to Ginny and Brian's later on in the evening tomorrow, 

We came back to the hotel after stopping at HY-VEE. Got a pour over coffee funnel and salad and fruit for dinner. We went to the gym to round out our day with a workout and had dinner back in the room.  I also loaded PhotoScape X to try and it seemed to combine pictures pretty good. 

12/19/23

 

Having breakfast at Sheetz first charge up of the trip. Started snowing early, roads are not greasy. Getting out of the Philly area by the turnpike is always nerve racking.  Commuters driving like idiots.  Really looking for a great getaway.

Good breakfast sandwiches at Sheetz but no napkins!!! How is a messy boy supposed to eat breakfast. 

Somerset turnpike plaza for next charge.   Empty today except for a couple of nuckelhead kids with their mom. M pacing around the food court. I’m calculating the next stop. Triadelphia, or further. 

Cambridge, was our next stop. Sheetz for lunch.  The head wind had burned off 50 miles of range this trip.  We got to Cambridge with 30 miles of range.  

Dayton last charger stop. Limped in with 23 miles of range. Just made it!  The winds was murder.  I should have done another stop.

Did some routing using A Better Route Planner, it looks to be a bit better, more stops and faster charging. 

We got the car wash after charging it. Get the salt knocked off it! 

Did a turn on the elliptical at the hotel.  Felt good to get some exercise. 

12/18/23

 

Monday,  Lot's of getting ready for the holidays this weekend.  Cleaning, checking and generally keeping busy.  Mostly done by Saturday and Sunday morning. Had time to work on rebuilding the jet.  Found more parts that needed to be replaced. I really should have tossed the broken bits and bought a new one. It would have been cheaper.  Now I'm wiser. 

Raining like crazy this morning. The morning workout was punctuated by the sump pump running at intervals.  

One more day of work and on vacation for the rest of the year. The whole team is on vacation it could be a slow day or a real pain in the ass. I'm hoping for the first option. 

Day turned out to be not that bad.  M made cookies. The sun is staring to come out, it was to be a crappy rainy day, everything coming up roses. Got the car packed ar we are ready to go for vacation. Now just have to pack the computer and get a good night sleep.

12/16/23

Friday was busy. Got the alarm sensors hung. Did some financial errands. Also, some shopping.  

Made cheese ravioli and Impossible "meat"balls for lunch.  Does ravioli take me back!  When I was a kid my grammar school user to run a carnival near the holidays. It was a real simple carnival with chance wheels, bingo and 50/50  for the adults and magnet fishing and similar games for the kiddies. Boy those nuns uses to love their bingo and 50/50! Anyway there was also a ravioli dinner. The lunch ladies would sell tickets and people would come to the cafeteria and have ravioli with red sauce, meatball and bread. It would be one of the places my dad would not bitch and moan about going out to eat. The lunch period before the carnival they would also have ravioli and my parents would give me money to buy lunch that day. So I would not have to have the greasy pepper and egg sandwich that I would throw out. Ravioli and red sauce was just so great for me as a kid.  I mean even today if I could only eat one thing and it could be spaghetti and sauce  that would be ok.  Ravioli is just plus ultra.  Don't get me started on the lasagna crunchy corners! 

Mike came by this morning after breakfast. We had a nice cappuccino and discussion. We talked about going to Dayton OH to the Air Force museum for a long weekend. I gave him a bunch of lipo batteries from the planes and a couple from computers to put into the recycling box at Home Depot.   I feel great that they have those boxes there to recycle lithium batteries. I just hope that they don't just go into a landfill. 

Been working on trying to reduce out internet/cell/subscriptions bill. Going to drop youtube TV and a Microsoft subscription will save us of $75 a month.  Dollar here, dollar there it starts adding up fast. 

Did a little shopping for clothes so I could have shirts that did not have soup stains on them. I want to be presentable for M's family and friends for the holidays. New clothes were in order. 

12/14/23

Thursday, last work day.  Early meeting today.

M meeting Gail for coffee this morning. 

Trying to find out why NAS file syncer is not working.  Also, coming to the conclusion that the windows surface that I have in the basement is not cutting it any more. Found a cheap laptop on Dell outlet for $300.

Mike has reconsidered the battleship tour. WE are giving a crowd a wide berth before our trips for the holidays.  Maybe next year. 

Meg and M went out to Doylestown this afternoon. They had tea at our house when they were back. I took the opportunity to have a few butter cookies with them. 

12/13/23

Wednesday Hump Day!  

M's car is ready for her trip will warm it up before she leaves. Elliptical done this morning. Decided on have a can of veggie beans and pasta for lunch, should be filling

Got a lot of good feedback from all who went to that stakeholder meeting. Alex did a great job and I put him in for a quarterly award. 

Pat the mouse guy stopped by to reload the mouse traps outside. Keep those little critters in the woods this season. 

Added sensors to the alarm system. Mount them permeant later this weekend. 

 M's trip went well no need to recharge. 

It seemed cold here today, the wind chill is low for a sunny day. 

12/12/23

Tuesday,  Up this morning and doing the elliptical.  Not wanting breakfast today, had soup last night. Coffee is all I need.  Staying home this week.  Just wanted to be comfortable this week.  

Looks like Friday visit to the battleship is on track.  Check with Mike if Chris wants to go too.

Loading iOS 17.2 going to give the journal app a whirl let's see if it can augment what I'm doing here. 

The landscapers are here. Blowing leaves and getting the place cleaned up.  Man the blowers are noisy! 

Start of new journaling app. Let’s see where this journey takes us.

Charged up the keyboard for the iPhone so I can take notes in the journal.

M went out to grocery store to get supplies. I was really in the mood for a sandwich and now it can happen!  M is really good to me!

M going to Winterthur tomorrow setting her car to charge to 100%. 

 

12/11/23

Monday.  Good Weekend.  

Friday we got the snow tires mounted on the car. M and I went to Pumperknicks for breakfast. 

Saturday I went to the flying field. I broke the wing mount on the cub putting it together.  I would have come apart in the air that would have been bad. Otherwise a nice day flying with John. 

Saturday night M and I went to Kathleen and Kevin's Christmas Party.  Very good time met a lot of new people and lots of holiday food!  Hey Mad Dog, your cheese cake was excellent!!!  We had a really good time even though we were out way past our bed time. 

Sunday rainy day.  Hit the elliptical and then just relaxed around the house. Fixed the cub, it's much stronger now. Had to rip some 1/4 inch strips of wood on the mini table saw which was fun. M made cookies. I had to check to see if they were any good. Took 3 cookies before I could make a decision! 

Monday, now I'm trying to catch up on work. Have to get the work done and the team prepped for a couple of week downtime. 

12/7/23

Downtown again.  Chris and Mike were working on me to take the day off and have coffee with them.  Very tempting indeed.  Meeting today and a schedule scramble is going on have to get the guys at least looking at the right things this morning.  Really I could care less about what I'm doing now at work.  another 18 months or so at this point. 

Frustrating again today at work as support issue pile up, product managers giving us crap  and new project appear out of thin air.   Lunch is a welcome time to relax and chase everyone away, I just want to be alone! 

12/6/23

 Downtown again. Sprint end day.  Busy all day. Compete with a late meeting.    

Watched a trailer for Amazon Fallout. Looks like a good series to steam over the winter.   trying to keep a big list of things to watch so I don't get bored.  

Coffee good today.  Even though I have my own k cup machine on my desk it still is a bit hit and miss.  

Been working on SRECs for our solar system.  Needed our PTO certificate and got it from the electrical provider.   Have to talk to Q about a few things with the SRECs. 

Found the layout display for the solar system. Good all the panels are working. 

My verb of the day is Structure.  I need to structure my life, I need a reliable schedule and routine to get into a better mindset to complete my life goals  

Working on staying away from the bags of trail mix and chips in the lunch room today.  so far so good. 

At work Alex made a demo of the project we are working on.  I kind of helped him with laying out the presentation and the demo.   We worked on telling a story of the program and the feature that we had completed. The story was why we needed the feature why the customer should care therefor why the upper management of our company should care.   We'll know in a couple of days how the demo landed with the stakeholders.  

Home on the early train. Traffic in Ambler was crazy, This season brings out the crazy in drivers.  

Home automation acting up, Hue switch died and having issues with family room lights.  

M thinks I'm ignoring her. Trying to fix lights while she is telling me about her day. No I can do both, mostly. 

Elliptical session tonight.  

 

 

12/5/23

 Tuesday downtown,  Uneventful.  have pretty much caught up with work in the morning.  In Early and the motion lights in the office keep going off. It's annoying.   

Took the early train home. Went directly to the elliptical, that felt like a win.  I did not get unmotivated.  

12/4/23

Ok Monday.  I have to get the little grey cells warmed up and talking to me today.   Started off with a good workout.  I really have to get back on the two a day workouts for the days I'm home.  I just feel better and I really should not be that lazy. 

Work was not too bad today. I think I got away unscathed! 

Did another workout in the afternoon. Yep, it felt really good. Two workouts a day about 90 minutes total feel like I have done something. 

12/3/23

Sunday.  Where does the weekend go?   Coffee tasting great this morning.  

Pulled out a veg lentil stew from the freezer. Something from this summers party. It was frozen solid but the top had dislodged due to expansion.  Defrost it and make some rice it will be tasty.   

Last night we sorted the last of the coins. Now we have 4 bags of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.  I got some cheap counting funnels that make counting the pennies and filling rolls real quick for the pennies. If M counts and fills the rolls and I crimp them it goes fast. 

Going to jump on the elliptical this morning. It will be easy on the knees. 

Elliptical was a good workout.

Working on Avanti Jet today. Fixed most of the landing gear.  Cleaned and lubed, working correctly.  Ordered retract motors and other hardware to replace broken bits. Result is that I have the wings with the servos mounted.  Ready for the landing gear when it package arrives. Wings should be done next weekend. Then the fuselage and motor will be next. 

Sunday evening stress starting, I just don't want to go to work tomorrow. Hope tomorrow won't be a $hit$how. 

12/2/23

Foggy morning.  Reading a bunch on the winter forecast. Earlier they said it will be a warm and wet winter.  Now they are saying that it will have a lot of snow.  They are just covering all the bases I guess. We did see 3 full up snow plows on the road Friday when getting snow tires for the Bolt.  We'll just be prepared. 

The Tesla pickup is out.  I think that thing is an eyesore. Not my cup of tea. I don't get the real hate people are heaping on it. Well I do because Musk is an idiot and jst brings it on himself.  Things I like about it was it really looks like the prototype. Not like other car companies that bring out prototype and then use just a little of the styling. I don't see it a practical But I don't see pickups as practical either. I'm just not a truck guy.  I'm sure he will sell all he can to tesla stans and youtubers that will shoot them up to see how really bulletproof they are. But it's not on my Christmas list. 

Did a quick check and the Mac works on my dell thunderbolt dock.  It gets the keyboard, the mouse, network and power but not the displays.  That's ok. Glad it works at all and the keyboard is at the tight height for me to use. 

Cloudy day but warm ish, think we'll go out for a walk in a little bit. Won't get more 50 degree days is the winter. 

M and I did a walk on the path. The usual 3 miles. My knee was barking at me after. It was damp and chilly ish I think that was the cause. 

Working on the Avanti Jet and found that the landing gear and retract motors we damaged. Looked on the website and the V1 parts are no longer available.  I opened a tech support ticket to see what can be cobbled up maybe from the V2 parts.  I think I’m going to box up the project for now and work on something that I can complete. 

12/1/23

Friyay!  Vacation Day again. Up early this morning.  Going to take Bolt to get snow tires put on. Also, to go to Fill A Bagel to get fresh bagels. 

Got the T-28 model the other day. The Avanti Jet work is progressing. The tile caulk is working well as an adhesive for parts. There is an indoor fly tonight at 9pm.  Way past my bed time! Going there to fly my micro and see the guys. 

Fill a Bagel was good! Water bagel what could be bad. But the mention of water bagels have me thinking of NYC dirty Water dogs.  Having a Sabretts dog from a cart with onions is the best. 

Received the coin wrappers and crimpers going to try them out. 

M and I wrapped a bunch of the coins. Pennies are a real pain to wrap. 

M went to a concert with her friend K. I was too tired by 8 to out to the indoor fly at 9 so I stayed in. 

11/28/23

Tuesday, Working downtown.  Not much to say, chilly on the train platform. I was not going to do my mile from 30th street. My perception is that it's too cold. A little later this temp will seem warm in the morning, also it would be better if it were light when I was walking. 

Coming home the train was late. Just to put a cherry on the crappy meeting that we had. Again the meeting was gaseous, meaning that it would fill all available time. I really should get together with John to say something about running tighter meetings. 

At Weavers Way to get some yoghurt. I came out to see a guy in a parked car looking down at his phone. This is unremarkable you say. I would say that too , however, in the passenger seat there was a dog sitting. He was a big as a person, eyes about at the same height. The dog and the owner were both looking down at the phone, like he was showing him an interesting text.  It made me crack up. 

We got the coin counter/sorter. It was in a pretty big box, weighed about 9 pounds.  We opened it up and readied it. I did not have high hopes. These kind of things can be really junky. Flipped the switch and it started chugging away at the coins. We counted and sorted a couple of hundred dollars of coins. Now all we have to do is wait for the wrappers and wrap crimpers so we can get these to the bank. 

11/27/23

Monday Y'all !  Late yesterday a light blub went off when M and I were discussing next weeks plans. I remembered that I had made car appointments next two Fridays.  I have to get the snow tires mounted on the cars. Bolt first then Tesla. What a dope!  I had to tell Mike that the Battleship museum visit would be delayed. Dec 15 is our next attempt.  

Buckwheat and oats experiment turned out extremely well. M like the hot cereal. The oats made it less thick as well as the extra cup of water. 

Did 45 minutes on the elliptical while streaming Star Trek - Enterprise. It's a good distraction while sweating

While working I saw a blue heron come gliding in over my front lawn and land on it. I called M over to check it out and we wondered why it landed here.  It started walking slowly at first then gathered speed to east side of the house, There is stopped ( cue Mission Impossible Theme ) and was peering over to the neighbors house. The house with the koi pond in the back yard! It slowly crept behind the cars then used the bushes for cover until it back to the pond. I swear it was licking it's chops looking into the pond with the unprotected koi.  It was intent on finding the right spot to pounce when all of a sudden it turned, I think it said "Drat" and flew away. Maybe the dog next door Chloe put her nose on the window. 

11/26/2023

Sunday, slept well last night. Slept so well in fact I had some weird dreams. Dreamt that I was taking a bus tour in a French speaking country, We had to get off the bus and on to a train. M was driving her car but it was a red car. Why was she not on the bus. The we took the train into town and I met various people I used to got to school with and old work mates. One of my work mates when into a establishment and they had a food challenge. You eat an incredible amount of food if you meet the challenge it’s free , if you don’t they tattoo your forehead or charge you $2000. I passed on the challenge but my work mate tried it and was arguing with the owner and paid the money. I looked at my watch and could not figure the time but knew it was very late and took the train back to the bus. M took the train back but had to get her car which was ticketed and impounded by the parking people. I spent the time fixing a standing lamp that was very badly designed, Think IKEA floor standing lamp. 

Well that was a lot to unpack. Not sure what anything is saying. It was very vivid but very fractured. Entertainment I don’t have to pay for I guess. 

Chilly morning, turned on the fireplace and started the coffee machine. Started doing the laundry and emptying the dishwasher.

Did a session the treadmill. It was too chilly for me to get out.

 Did a shopping trip to Wegman's and home depot. Go the Clorox clean up bottles that I keep getting reminded about. Also, got silicone adhesive caulk for the servos on the jet. 

Grilled the sockeye salmon. Did the foil tray method. Turned out really well crispy skin and not dried out. Sockeye is so easy to dry out. 

After lunch we made bean and barley soup for the week. It was the best soup that we have made yet.  Chicken base really made the difference. 

I was exhausted and my back ached all day. I had no energy to work in the basement on my projects. 

Got a new project to count the coins in my water jug. Found the coin machines want a 10 to 15% cut. The cheapest method is rolling them and bring them to the bank. Ordered coin wraps and coin trays to help the process. 

Making a buckwheat, oatmeal mix overnight in the slow cooker.  1/4 cup each of buckwheat cereal, steel cut oats and oat groats. 

 

11/25/2023

 Saturday. Slept like a bear tonight had a good 8 and a half hours. 

Made oatmeal and cranberries. Going to workout later today, I’m a bit groggy yet. 

Mike is coming over for coffee this morning and John will be coming later today to get the USB cables. 

Working on checking which battery will be able to charge the Mac on the road for Christmas.  Might do some blogging and surfing at Mom’s house so want to be prepared when the batteries get low.  Will have a battery for the Mac and the iPhone and iPad depending where we are. 

Tomorrow I will go to Home Depot to drop off batteries and get the antifreeze for the pressure washer.  I also need to check for MontCo e-wast drop off. I got a real mess of stuff ready to drop off. I will have to pull a few hard drives from computers and will be able to set them up as usb drives or small NAS drive. 

Mike came over in the morning. Looks like the ring doorbell was not working. Going to have to see what is going on with that. I made Mike my Cuban coffee with the hand whipper. I had one too. I came out great! M, Mike and I had a good discussion that range from coffee to reading. Mike and I discussed going to the battleship NJ next Friday, with or without Chris. Mike and I went to Costco. I was worried about crowds on black Friday weekend. We got a good space and there was not too many people in the store. I've seen more people there getting snacks for the Eagles games. We got in and out pretty efficiently.  In the parking lot I noticed a text from . John had arrived at the house. Talked to Mike about taking a long weekend and the four of us going to Dayton Ohio to see the Air Force Museum. Was back there in 5 min. Got some stuff back in the house and Mike took his groceries to the car.  Mike then left with the task of getting in touch with Chris.  John and I discussed his nav lights for the plane. He got a broken charger too. I'm going to send him a link for the older model of light that has a smaller and better charger.  Took John to see the basement workshop. I think he was impressed. We discussed the state of the jet and he had received the large Cessna model. I can't wait to see that.  Next weekend will be bad for flying as it's now going to rain. 

M went to the bookshop in Doylestown. She came back with a small armful of books. I got some rolls for lunch. With the thanksgiving leftovers I made a version of the Wawa turkey gobbler. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry with a touch of may on the roll and warm turkey gravy over the top, but not so much that anything oozes out. 

My battery experiment with the Mac recharging went well. It successful charged the Mac and the phone. 

The FireTv stick won't come until Monday. Boo Hiss. 

We made popcorn with cheese and Philly Grit. Came out well, not too salty. The cheese gives you orange fingers. Watched a couple of mysteries. 

 

11/24/2023

Black Friday.  Barely slept. Up at 2 am.  Gave up trying to sleep at 4:30. Got dressed and went to the basement to use the treadmill. 

A couple of things doing today. Have to do laundry. Have to take apart bed so that we can vacuum under it. Have to get some USB cables for John ready. Lastly, have to get planes and battery packs ready for an indoor fly next week. I haven't been with the BCRC guys in a while and I want to make an effort to get out there on a Friday night.  It's late as it starts at 9 or 10 pm but what the heck am I going to do? Sleep? I'm not doing that for a while!  

We vacuumed under the bed and most of the reset of the bedroom furniture. Bedroom looks nice and clean.  

Made lunch, a bunch of turkey day leftovers. It was still so good! Sliced the turkey very thin. 

Everything just caught up with me fell asleep for an hour on the couch.  

Went to the basement and got the planes and chargers ready for indoor fly. The OMP heli needed some very light repair but all else was good. Cleaned up in the basement and took out the Avanti Jet carcass. Looked at all the crashed bits and the new bit I got to repair it. I wanted to fix the crashed bits but it was getting me depressed when I was working on it. So I decided to just replace the crashed bits with ones. I have all the parts. The hard job is stripping parts off the crashed bits and transferring them to the new parts. Did about an hour of removing working servos and wiring. Another hour I'll have all the good parts out and will have to clean them up and get them ready to start to go into the jet. 

Made some rice and tofu bowls for dinner.

Streamed some mysteries. 

FireTV remote died on us. What a pain! At least there was a Black Friday sale going for the FireTV sticks. 

11/23/2023

 Happy Thanksgiving! 

Slept like a bear last night! Change from barely sleeping. 

Had some of the bagels M brought back from Weavers Way when she was packing baked goods. A nice everything bagel that the market sourced from Metropolitan Bakeries. Was a very nice bagel but still like the water bagels from Everything Bagel in North Wales.  She had one from Phill A Bagel in Oreland.  We have to go there sometime and get a batch of bagels. They are good water bagels. 

Sunny but chilly day outside. I'm looking to get out today as it's not raw and wet. Felt cold and miserable out there and had no interest in going out.  M was looking at me like a lost puppy when I said that I wanted to exercise in the basement rather than go outside. 

M's mom got the Harry and David pears yesterday. Those pears are sooooo delicious. We use to have a Harry and David store nearby and they would have a discount on pears one in a while. I remember that we got two boxes of really delicious pears.  Anyway M's mom sent a text thanking us. She said: " Thanks for the prayers! "  Thanks Spellcheck !!!

Out for a quick walk on the path this morning. Lots of people on bikes, and e-bikes. M was making fun of me because I have a pet peeve of people who ride bike that pedal with the arch of their foot.  Yeah! It looks painful!!

M starting to do so prep for Thanksgiving dinner. Peeling and steaming sweet potatoes.

Trying to do some web surfing on the iPad, it’s just not working anymore. Either not enough CPU or memory. How have we got to a place where looking is a computer intensive activity.  It’s all the freaking ads on every web page. It’s just awful! Is it really a better experience that reading the newspaper and magazines? I’m betting that it’s not all that energy efficient either.  Do we really need all this crap on line forever in data centers that are these huge electrical users?  At some point all the environmentalists should really look at al the really wasteful computer usage. It’s quiet and out of the way and nobody really sees it.  Even if it’s clean energy maybe it should be used elsewhere.  Ok so much for a rant that I can’t load webpages on my ancient iPad.

M and I started cooking up a storm for thanksgiving. 

Menu:

Mashed Sweet potatoes 

Stuffing

Gravy

Turkey

Rolls.

Cranberry sauce.

M Steamed the Potatoes and we mashed them with butter, brown sugar and eggs, them baked them in the oven.

Stuffing was potato bread cubes, turkey broth, sautéed onions and celery with herbs, dried cranberries, and chopped chestnuts. 

Turkey was just oven baked turkey from Costco.

We got cheffy with the gravy. By cheffy I mean making a roux and using chicken base. Boiled turkey broth with chicken base. Then I made a roux. Poured the hot broth into the roux and hit it with an immersion blender.

The baked some Pillsbury crescent rolls and biscuits.

Thanksgiving dinner was great! Both of us dug in and were quiet. I took way too much as I just could not wait to have every thing that we made.

Some things we could have done better.

The sweet potatoes, no topping next time. The brown sugar just got runny and did nothing to add to the dish. Also, bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes.

Stuffing: lower oven temp for this too. 

Gravy, a little less salt. 

No matter we are going to have thanksgiving dinner for the next couple of days. 

One other detail, still have 5 cans of cranberry sauce left untouched.

This meal is taking quite a bit of time to digest. Lounging on the couch to just read and web surf.  Put away the first load from the dishwasher and loaded up the second.  How did we dirty so much stuff in the kitchen! 

 

 

 

 

11/22/2023

Day before Thanksgiving. M got up early to go to Weavers Way to bag up baked goods. I asked her to get some good bagels for tomorrow. Did elliptical first thing this morning. I made buckwheat cereal in the slow cooker over night.  The raisins and dried cranberries gave it good sweetness. The bag of cranberries fell over in the pantry in the middle of the night and I had to clean up a mess last night.  

Still having issues staying asleep through the night. I am waking up about 1 or 2 and not being able to fall asleep. I have to wander around the house like a night watchman. 

Think I have a solution for a customer problem at work. This proves I can still read code and do analysis.  Management and old age has not beaten it out of me.   

Got a new Polar heart rate chest sensor today. The old one would not give good readings at all and was causing the treadmill to go wacky on my while I was using it.   Tried it out for an exercise session and it worked well. Tossed the old one. 

Went to the doctor for a checkup. Doctor was late, the office was real busy before the holiday. He was saying that is could be no one or crazy before a holiday, today was crazy.  He was happy that I lost weight and said that I had a clean bill of health.  Great to hear! 

11/21/2023

Tuesday working from home. Could not sleep last night after about 2:30. Gave up around 4 :15 and went to the basement to workout. 

Did the treadmill. Was able to get my heart rate up higher than on the elliptical. It was a good workout.  Thought I was going to miss out on working out as Ana the cleaner is coming at 8am today.  I’ll be able to get a workout this afternoon too.  

Ana is here, very nice lady and super efficient. Vacuum cleaners and banging around is very stressful. It's usually quiet around here in the morning and I can get focused.  No chance of doing some reading for a bit.

Ana came and went it's nice to have a clean house.  We have to disassemble the bed this weekend to vacuum under it. The dust bunnies are  snarling so loud it's keeping me up at night! 

Been running the fireplace the last few days. It's rainy and raw out there.  Good to have a cozy spot to sit. 

Did another round on the treadmill. The polar heart rate monitor is not working well anymore. Have to get a new chest strap. 

M made cookies yesterday. The cookies smelled wonderful in the office. Had to go down and taste a couple. Just to make sure they were good! 

11/20/2023

Monday, work from home day. Not going downtown all week. Something to look forward to. The team will mostly be on vacation. All I have to do this week is the sprint notification mail and read that management style book. What a snoozer of a book! Hope that I don't just fall asleep at my desk!  Had an awful nights sleep. Was cold all night, I'm never cold! 

Had to use the manual switch to turn on the fireplace, the battery for the remote receiver had gone bad. Plugged in new batteries at lunch time. 

Lunch was good with a bowl of soup, and tofu and brown rice with veggies. 

Gosh, I have the work e-mail on my Mac, it is such a pain in the ass. It asks to re authenticate every couple of days. The nag is a real pain in the ass too. Covers the upper right hand corner of the screen and a "plunk" audio announcement.  

Late afternoon, M went for a walk I was stuck in a meeting.  Work over for the day. Going to jump on the elliptical for a stretch.

Workout complete not without interruption. I hate having to stop mid workout and restart. Done and Done anyway. 

M Has been getting feedback on her blog. Good for her! 

11/19/2023

Sunday, ugh had trouble sleeping last night. Woke up around 2 and tossed and turned. Sat in my chair for the rest of the night.  Cold morning. Thinking about going for a walk when it warms up. 

Had a light breakfast. Coffee especially good and necessary today.

M going to go to Doylestown to bookstore, I’m going to go to Assi to get a couple more melons and more tofu. Grilled tofu is just so excellent! I’m going to have to get more rice to refill the pantry supplies. M is going to make pumpkin soup and I’ll make a small lentil and black bean Monday. Soup and salad on the run up to Thanksgiving.

Tech support call this morning. Internal, M’s keyboard was not giving F’s. Well I’m make that keyboard give an F !!!! Canned air, updated drivers and a reboot. That dang keyboard gives an F now! Internal tech support ticket closed, hope I get 5 stars.

Still chilly outside.  10am and it’s getting to be a decent temp to get outside for a walk. Maybe it’s just my inertia kicking in. 

We have our vacation plans set up, at least the times and places. Now have to make the reservations and lock them in.

Went out walk on the path, 3 miles. Saw what I would call a low end rider on a high end bike. A fellow was on this sparkling new trek bike. Looks like it was a pretty good one. However, right away his seat was set way too low, then he was pedaling with the arches of his feet and to top it off he was struggling up a hill in a high gear. I guess that he got the bike maybe a few weeks ago at the most. This is the second time we saw him. I give it a couple more rides and that bike will be in the back of the garage, next year this time it’ll be on Craigslist. Should we have said something to him? Well maybe. Not sure I want to be that guy.  I maybe looking on Craigslist for a bargain on a good bike.

M made pumpkin curry soup. I got back from shopping and made salmon burgers and grilled tofu for the week. 

Looks like the great Sriracha shortage is breaking. Both Assi and Wegmans were stocking shelves with new shipment of the hot sauce.  I got a couple of bottles. Be what I need for the week! Ha! 

Made vacation reservations. We are good to go! 

Late afternoon, got the Oh crap I gotta go to work tomorrow cause it’s Monday blues.

Looking through the pantry for thanksgiving.  Tossing out a bunch of sauces that were in the back of the pantry.  Found 6 cans of various cranberry, jelly and whole! What is Thanksgiving without cranberry. Yes, I love the can shape with the ridges! There is no other option for cranberry!  

There was a woman at Assi, waiting to checkout  with me.  She had a little boy with her and I asked if he was helping Mommy shop? He kind of shied away.  His mom said that he has problems understanding native speakers. I asked where they were from. Ukraine she said.  I said that tried to keep up with what is happening there and was glad she and her boy was safe. Her husband is back there. I wished her and her family be well.  It’s pretty awful with all the wars in Ukraine and Israel and Gaza and elsewhere. It’s pretty depressing that we have to cause such misery on one another.  Yeah bad guys need to be stopped. That’s a given, but all kinds of innocents get caught up in the hostilities. One more thing to be thankful this season is the peace that we are experiencing now. 

11/18/2023

 Saturday, Yay weekend!  Woke up later today. Pretty good sleep even though I woke up for an hour. 

Cut up some melons I got from Assi yesterday. Remembered I forgot eggs for the thanksgiving stuffing.  

Watched the Starship launch. Was conflicted as I love space stuff, but Elon is an ass. Happy to see that it somewhat successful.

Going to the lake to do a walk. Target is the whole circumference of 6 miles. At least a couple of hours walking.  

Ok we walked around the lake.  The wind was blowing hard when we started and 50 deg. It was chilly starting out. On the north side of the lake we were in the lee, so no wind. Clouds finally broke was were into the walk it was very pleasant. Saw the old Korean War veteran out for his walk. He walks a couple of miles a day with a walker. Today he was with someone and a couple came up to him with a dog.  The dog recognized him as he was giving out dog treats. Hope we that active when were his age. The final tally came in at 6 miles, almost 10k. It was our longest walk of the year.  Legs are tired after that long walk. Little stiff getting up out of a chair. 

After leaving the park we went to Altamonte. Had to get eggs they have the philly grit bbq seasoning. I’m going to make popcorn with the philly grit. Amazon delivered the Hoosier Hills cheese powder too.  We’ll give that a go for watching TV. Spicy cheese popcorn anyone?

Had barley soup and grilled tofu for lunch. Dug out a panettone from the basement pantry. Panettone is in the same family as Twinkies as they never go bad. Had it with cherries and whipped cream.  It was really good! 

Our passports came today.  Feel good that I can leave the country if we ever have to.  Never can tell anymore.

We made popcorn with cheese and bbq spice. The bbq spice, not philly grit was too salty and going to use way less next time. Actually next time we are just going to do the cheese powder.  I think cheese powder little butter spray and 30 seconds in the microwave will give the right cheese coating.  We’ll see tomorrow. 

Using a solar calculator the sun altitude is only 30 degrees at noon it will drop to 26 degrees at December 20th it will be about the same by Jan 20th and be really good again 50 degrees  by March.  So solar production is in a low cycle now. But we are still managing 39 kwh on a sunny day.

11/17/2023

Friday, day off. However getting hammered by support guys and trying to respond to them. 

We had breakfast and are going out for a walk on the path again. Really warm again today.  Maybe we'll go out on a ride later today. 

We did a long walk on the path.  I forgot to mention something we saw on the path. We usually see something interesting like snakes on the path or blue herons, hawks, foxes, or other wildlife. Yesterday we saw two older guys on the path. They were riding scooters. Now these guys were decked out in hoodies and backpacks like kids. We've been past by scooters before, they zoom by. Not these guys. They were going at a pace I would say that a little above walking speed. It really looked strange. Today we saw a woman pushing a baby carriage. We were commenting is this the asian woman that pushes the carriage not with a baby inside, but a pug!  As we got closer we saw that it was just a woman with a baby.  Closer still we saw the woman pushing the carriage looking intently at an iPhone, and the baby also looking at an iPhone! Were they texting? Mom, give me some animal crackers!  What a sight! 

Set up M's Blog.  I'll put a link to it later

Watched a mystery Annika.

11/16/2023

Working from home today.  Yesterday went to work downtown. End of sprint and things were just real busy. 

After work yesterday I went to Costco  to get the turkey breast for thanksgiving. Came out with a car load of stuff.  Just a lot of things that were running out in the house . But no paper this time.

Today is going to be a fair weather day. Going for a walk right after work. 

Not too many appointments on the calendar. Was going to bail out for a sick day today. But there is a bunch of things that need doing. I had everybody just stay remote to be easy on everyone before their vacation next week.  It will be just me and Alex for a good part of the week so I hope things are slow. 

Walked in the afternoon. Got off to. Abad start had to come home. Then we did a walk on the path after regrouping. Super nice day, really warm. Great day for a walk.

News was saying that it's going to be a warmer and wetter winter this year. I'm good with that. No deep dump of snow would be ok with me. 

M had a bookclub night with the badasses. I just relaxed in the chair.

11/14/2023

Tuesday working from home due to a late meeting at work. 

Already a Support guy was on me first thing in the morning wanted to know where a enhancement request status was.  Had to explain to him I don't schedule the project I just schedule the work on the projects.   You talking to the wrong dude bro! 

Elliptical this morning again. Little cold outside.  I have to wait until this cold seems warm. Was 72 last week, so 40's right now seems chilly.  Amazing how it will feel warm in a few weeks. 

Being decadent, having a flavored coffee topped with whipped cream.

Thinks kinda went downhill after that. One of those day that I could not come up for air.  

Ended up just sacked out in my chair for the evening. 

11/13/2023

Monday Working from home.

Good Weekend!  Umbrellas all covered sofa to be covered in the yard next then snow tires and pressure washer after.  A couple of chores left to do for winter. 

M took Lauren to a Dr appt on Friday.  Took all day! She didn't get back till 5:30 or so. We could have scheduled stuff better. 

Went flying on Sunday. Lights were a hit John and Larry both liked them and wanted links.  Not too much wind but the wind that was there was eddying and blowing stronger as you got higher.  

Flights had some bad landings, nothing broken, just didn't look good. 

M was trying to figure out about what were hearing over the weekend, It sounds like fire works. M was a bit scared as she was wondering who would be shotting fire works off over the weekend. I think she was going with gunfire. If gun fire was going off that long this would be  a war zone! Turns out it was just Diwali!  The temple up the road was probably having a couple of fire works displays! 

Cold this morning, about 25, did a session the elliptical, looking forward to one this afternoon. 

We've been having popcorn after our shopping trip to Nuts about Popcorn.  However, going to Hatboro when we need popcorn is a pain and it's pretty expensive for popcorn. The Philly Grit is da bomb! We got a air popper we'll give that a go this week.  Popcorn with garlic and parmesan cheese is in out future. Also, Philly Grit seasoning is at Altomonte. 

Had chicken sandwiches for lunch.  Remind me not to buy two packages of meats again.  That was too much and we had way too many chicken dinners. 

Work was uneventful.  Therefore a great day at work! 

Did another elliptical work out.  Glad to get 2 sessions a day.  I just have to get into the groove of doing it on a regular basis.

We got the air popper and kernels and made popcorn.  Was OK. Ordered a more premium popcorn kernel  see how that works. 

11/9/2023

Working from home today.  Late afternoon meeting. 

Did elliptical watching "Strange New Worlds". Ugh cliffhanger have to wait for season 3.  

I totally skipped the episode where they break out into song.  I just hate musicals, even start trek  musicals.

I plotted out a bunch of seasons of streaming so that I can exercise in the basement on the elliptical as I gets colder and we go out for the holidays.  Star Trek, Bosch, and Justified on the streaming menu.  There is a bunch of seasons of each so I'll not be out of stuff to watch while I use the equipment. 

Late afternoon meeting moved to Tuesday.  Yahoo!  A rare win! 

Chicken made in the slow cooker was great over some brown rice.   I consider the chicken rescued!    Good part of it maybe was the brown rice recipe for loseit. Think we got a better handle on the portions control for brown rice. 

Maybe make some rice with chickpeas and roasted ( maybe grilled ) veggies.   Hmm, grilled veggies and tofu with chick peas.  

1:1 with boss this afternoon… more stress.  Then done for the weekend.

Weekend started!  Good start, did a second elliptical session.  

Mike coming over at 10 ish for the 14 mile ride.  We are going out for a walk before breakfast tomorrow morning. 

John is OK to go to the flying field on Sunday.  Calm winds, well it will be a cross wind from the north and chilly.  Ready to get out there. 

Battle bots tonight. Watching the one I fell asleep last week. 

11/8/2023

Going downtown.  Walk from 30th street today.

Chilly morning not too cold, but after being warm yesterday... 

Walk done.  Coffee make. 

Found Pizza Hut is selling snake pizza in Hong Kong.... Are you kidding me.  Another crime de cuisine!

Work done for the day.. Hooray!

M went with Meg to a wine tasting.  

Put chicken which I overcooked on the grill and was tough, into the crockpot with broth, tomato past and curry.  Let it cook slow over night and get shredded. 

Tried to just relax and forget about work …..

11/7/2023

 Tuesday, Election Day.   Staying home to go vote later on in the day.  A sign up the street said “ Had Enough? Vote Republicans!” I was a little ambivalent about voting until I saw that sign.  Not sure that is was the people who posted it wanted.  But for damn sure I’m going to vote and NOT for republicans. That mob is rotten from the head, and any body who considers themselves republicans should be embarrassed. 

Did the elliptical machine this morning. I feel really good after the workout.  I need to do a workout post work. 

I really need not to get stress out by the end of work.   I have to get into the right mindset.   I just get so aggravated by the end of the day I’m pretty useless. I have to get into a mindset to decompress to let everything go, to leave work at work.  

Coffee good this morning, K cup coffee with a shot of espresso.  It works wonders, brings the dead back to life!  

I have a color Hue bulb on my desk, ready to change the one over the fire place. I'll try to do that this weekend.    

Warm outside today. Window open in the office.  Ugh, have to restart my laptop for updates… 

Always a crapshoot… 

Waked over to the school and voted.  Glad to do my civic duty.  If you don't vote then you have no right to complain. I like complaining!  

Got a stress headache again after work..  

Just relaxed after work… bed early. 

 

 

 

     

 

  

11/6/2023

Monday morning arrives….  M went to sort bagels and bag baguettes this morning at Weavers Way.  I jumped on the  elliptical  this morning.  Coffee was good 

Yesterday I updated KiCad. I'm going to make those board for the radio and gyro this winter. First I need to decide on what the exact radio I want and sketch out all the inputs and outputs. 

Took care of the AWS issue for now.  Will have to access the offsite backup strategy that will not be over 3 tb. Ugh. 

Working from home.  Going to work from home tomorrow for election day.  Just got a meeting request for a 4 to 5 pm meeting on Thursday.  Going to use that as an excuse to work from home Thursday.  So only going downtown one day this week.  A victory! 

Watched a KiCad tutorial at lunch time. 

M is back from weavers way.  She did great, if I were prepping bakery items for sale I'd buy most of them. She only came home with a couple of rolls and those are going to Lauren.

There may be an issue with Lauren today, M will see later if she is still going over there. I had packed soup and grilled chicken for her.

Got the nav light for the planes. They look workable. I'm going to charge them up. John replied that he would like to fly Saturday, I'm thinking Sunday may be a better day for the outing. 

I was so stressed after work I could not get myself together to go for a walk.  

Lauren is Ok, M brought soup and other food to her.

Watched Equalizer 2 this evening. 

11/5/2023

Sunday,  got an extra hour of sleep from fall back of DST. Got up and went to Wegmans to get bagels and stuff for the week. 

Waned to get San Marizano tomatoes but no diced or crushed only whole.  Ok just regular tomatoes. That won’t affect the taste too much anyway.  

We had coffee and bagels with lox this morning.  Then we made tomato soup and grilled chicken for the week.  M is going to bring soup and chicken over to Lauren’s tomorrow. 

Sunny day should be good for solar generation! 

We did a 3 mile walk on the path. 

M was working in the gardens.  Mid day we had tomato soup and chicken for lunch. 

We made our voting plan. We are going to vote Tuesday. Have to make sure that no Mom’s for Liberty get elected.  Oh well we only have one vote each have to use them wisely. 

Brought the planes to the workshop.  Put away a bunch of batteries that were scattered about.   Going to turn up the sig lt-40 as next weekend looks like it may be pretty good for flying.  Maybe the sig 4 start and the LT-40 and the Jet?   Have to think about it. The two plane rule should stick….

Went out to the yard to write the journal entry.  Really nice day out here!!

Sunday evening stress starting.  I really hate Mondays.

Watch a Poirot mystery.

   

11/4/2023

Still Dark on Saturday.  Seems like AWS backup is going haywire.  Saving too much again. Gottata fix that. 

Made breakfast, leftover biscuits and eggs with melon.  

Tuned up the planes. Taking the 4 star and the Rebel jet.

Flying at the field was a joy!! It was forecast to be light winds. When that usually means that it’s blowing 18 MPH at the field. Well not today. John and Larry were there. I brought the 4 star and the Rebel jet.  Sent the 4 star up and it tune was great it flew like a boss.  However, I did have one mess up where I brought all 3300 batteries but on was only a 3s not a 4s. The plane took off but had no power and was a handful to bring down.  Came down with a smooth landing. The rebel went up and had an issue with not enough elevator control. Was on the hairy edge of control and brought it down fast and generally ok. I had to twist the front landing gear to get the retract to warm again.  Set more control throw in the transmitter and I found that I needed to have mid flaps settings to take off. After that the both planes flew like they were on rails. Transmitter, Gyro and controls were dialed in. Had an incident with John’s planes his receivers had to be rebound and they lost their trims. He got his t-28 landed but smashed up a me109.  

Came home to soup and tomato pie. Made some hot peppers that… well were too spicy and gave me heartburn in the night. 

We went for a 2 mile walk on the path.

We watched Morse and Vera mysteries and munched on popcorn and Italian lemon sodas.

11/3/2023

FriYay!!!! Day sleeping late. Made biscuits and eggs with fresh squeezed OJ for breakfast.  Steamed milk for cappuccinos.  Then we made my three bean minestrone.  5 quarts of soup on tap for the week. 

Too cold for a walk still only 40 at 10am. Going to popcorn place in Hatboro they open at noon.

I should go work on planes this morning. Want to take the 4 star and the jet to the field tomorrow.  Have to tone down the controls a bit.

Wow, wanted to print out the page of control throws for each plane, took way longer than it should due to Chinese font. Work fine in PDF, printer hated it.

Mike stopped by. We had coffee and talked about going to see the battleship.

M and I then went to Hatboro to get popcorn for M to take to Lauren's.  We had to order ourselves some!  Finally to Altomonte's to get tomato pie for lunch.  

Lunch we had the minestrone soup and a slice of tomato pie. 

Going for a walk on the path to burn off the great lunch we had. 

Walk was good, great fall day. 

Think going to fix planes tomorrow morning.

Watched Jack Ryan and had popcorn with M.

 

11/2/2023

Flipping cold on the train platform this morning. I think it was 26 degrees.  Going downtown with a new mindset, let's see how long this lasts. Have at least on more support case from last night.  In the office now having warm oatmeal. 

Not many meetings today.  3pm looks good to get out of here.  Still keeping with new mindset...

Turned on the heat at home.  It was getting a little chilly there.

M going to stay at Lauren's house on Monday. She had surgery and needs some help.  We should send over some soup, maybe my tomato soup recipe, and some popcorn from nutz about popcorn.

Got M's new e-mail allocated. Now this weekend set it up on her system. 

Cup of constant comment and a small bag of cookies

Walking to station.  Saw a Rivian Amazon van on market street.

Mindset is holding… have to do some exercise this evening.

Cold and tired. Going to bed early.

11/1/2023

Cold morning downtown. No walk.. Eeek! it's cold.  Got to warm up the blood, or at least a warmer jacket.  Stopped and got a couple of boxes of quick oatmeal that was on sale at the corner store.  

Picked up a Septa Story for M. 

Getting a big stress headache while working today.  

Lunch was good, however interrupted with Phone call.

Still stress headache... SoS meeting going long....  think going to later train.

Got another story from the Septa Story machine for M on the way home.

I think the SoS meeting is like a gas… it will expand to the limits of it's container.  If it was 2 hours it would expand to that time limit, with no increase in any real content. I never heard so many people who just want to talk to hear themselves. 

Home! Hoooray!   I just want to decompress.  I HAVE to get into another mindset. 

I just want to veg tonight.

10/31/2023

Tuesday Halloween… going downtown.  Will do a walk from 30th. Pick up 1/2 n 1/2 on the way.

Did the walk got the creamer.  Having a coffee and bagel at my desk.

Chilly this morning. Need to make sure that the hose is off the faucet when I get home. It will colder tonight.

Great, just got an email we are on another program?!? We don't have the bandwidth to finish what we have.

Trying to get some LinkedIn Learning done today. 

Lunch was great.  Pork, stuffing and soup.

May have gotten @Paolino.net up and running... Needs more testing..

Have a major headache... taking some IB. Is it a headache or stress?

Got Paolino.net email working for me... Have to set it up for M.

Nice walk to station after work. When I got home M and I walked a couple of miles on the path.

Sunset is coming quick these days!  Going to be cold tonight. Outside water faucets are locked down for the winter.

Tomorrow I have a late meeting so I'm going to do elliptical after work. 

10/30/2023

Monday… rainy day and working from home.   Not real great to go walking this morning so I went and did the elliptical in the basement.   Got stuff to do this morning.  Finish writing up a support case that came in over the weekend and the end / beginning of sprint e-mail.  

Thinking of doing another round on the elliptical this afternoon.   Feeling up for it.  I think….

Looking into setting up new e-mail addresses for  @Paolino.Net.  Bought the domain and we'll see if we can set up economical hosting… One more subscription… UGH.

Read a review on the beta of the IOS journaling software . The reviews says am I missing something?  Said it seems basic and really not worth using.   Well then this set up I have looks like it's working and no great need to change it. 

Cloudy again today… not going to break any solar production records! 

Hour before lunch, felling quite empty… Come on lunch!!!

Going to have to shut off outside sink today.  Going to be freezing this week at night.  Want to get to it before it destroys the sink. 

Made lunch, leftover grilled pork sandwich and salad, for M bbq pork and stuffing. 

Shut off water to outside sink. Just have to disconnect hose from faucet.  Then ready for cold weather. 

Ugh.. Been all stressed out today at work.  Had 3 conversations going on at once. Juggling support, now and future all at once.  Just want to do good at work, not great just good. 

Went to the store to get shampoo and small stuff. 

Getting set up to use the iPhone to journal at work… Company laptop not giving me access to my OneNote. 

10/29/2023

Early wake up on Sunday.  Getting ready to jump on elliptical. 

45 min on elliptical.. Coffee, oatmeal and music on the radio.  Good Sunday morning!

Espresso has been great! Have a shot in my coffee.. K cup Cuban coffee, café buestelo nice and strong and tasty.

Rainy day… not much solar production today!   Only thing I have to do is clear out the planes in the back of car.  Good day just to rest

Chatting with Mike and Chris about Electric cars over text. 

So far the blog looks good. Got a good cadence going.  Journal during the day and post the next day. 

Went to Wegmans. Going to do an financial experiment. Only going to Costco and Wegmans in November. I can get a list of everything I purchased there on the website.  I know a little creepy eh?  However, it will be good to see what I’m spending on groceries. 

Made some cornbread stuffing. The stuffing has been hanging about in the closet still good however it needs to be gone and I was not in the mind to toss it.  So Chicken and stuffing for lunch!    

Before going M gave me a hand bring in the RC planes from the car to the basement.  I found two more batteries down there there are way past their prime and I’m discharging them and going to have to bring them and another one over to Home Depot for recycling. 

Don't know why but I always feel stressed on Sunday.  Didn't help I had to set up and respond to a support case today.   I really hat Mondays… and it's still Sunday!!!

Watched Vera mystery tonight.  

Setting alarm for the morning.. Elliptical on tap for tomorrow. 

10/28/2023

Saturday.  Nice.  

Made steel cut oats for breakfast.  Going for a 3 mi walk this morning.  

Did the path this morning with M.  3 mile walk before breakfast.   Oatmeal and coffee was excellent this morning. 

Watched Inspector Morse last night.  The series is a little deflating after watching Endeavor.  I think the writing was much more crisp on Endeavor. Maybe it will pick up in later episodes. 

Winds may be a bit high, I going to the flying field none the less.  Tomorrow the winds would be better but rain is in the forecast.  Bringing planes that I tuned to be better in the winds, Lets see if that works out.

Oatmeal looks good, needs a bit of water.  Ugh, It's still dark at 7am.. 10 more mins before walk

Went to the DVRC field. Wind was blowing out of the west at 9 gusting to 15.  At least its down the runway.   Brought the Tundra and Bighorn. Both flew well. Has to turn up the bighorn elevator a bit.  Both planes cam home in one piece.  

Made the Costco boneless pork chops marinated in Peruvian marinade.  Got the marinade from Wegmans.  

Super nice day today. Could not be better. Solar is only generating 35kwh per day.  Used a bunch for charging the car kinda breaking even. 

Charging the iPad to do streaming tomorrow morning.  It will be raining and I'm going to use the Elliptical for 45 min while streaming. 

Going to make more slow cooker oatmeal for tomorrow morning.  

Watched Van der Valk mystery for fun tonight.