Power out

Power out with all the high wind here. Got the battery back up for a
light working so that we are not In the dark.
--Rico
Sent from my iPhone
Using all my thumbs!

Wind did not die down....

We left the marina and went home the boat was jumping in the slip too violently. I could not do work in the boat or could we get comfortable. We left and when we got home we went out for sushi.

Windy!!

We are at the boat there is 50mph gusts 3ft waves and the boat is
listing 15degs. We are still tied to the dock and it's a little
frightning. We've abandon ship and sitting on the marina porch. We'll
see if the wind dies down in an hour or so.

--Rico
Sent from my iPhone
Using all my thumbs!

Went flying tonight

Had about 3 nice flights tonight. Learning split S turns. I did them pretty good. I can't to them in the simulator but in real life, yeah.  Go figure!

Tomorrow we are heading to Rock Hall to work on the boat. Put on sails, oils change, flush water tanks...and so on snd so on......

Who is that

They were filming a movie across the street from where I work. Someone
spotted Robert DiNiro getting into a car around noon. No idea what
movie it was.

--Rico
Sent from my iPhone
Using all my thumbs!

Cabinet Pulls

Marilyn went to the ballet with Meg last night. Meg found Marilyn's iPhone fascinating, must be the leopard skin I put on it!

After dinner tonight we are going to Lowe's to find cabinet pulls for our kitchen. I can't believe all the decisions that have to be made!

Marilyn back home

Went down to the boat and tied it up. The boat fridge is not working again. Looks like it leaks all the refrigerant over the winter. Next weekend we'll get the boat ship shape for the season.

Marilyn made it home last night. All is good!

Good flight today.

Marilyn is in Missouri this weekend to see Emily in a dance competiton. Emily is have a hard time as she has a hurt ankle. But she going like the tropper she is. ( Go Emily!! )

 I went flying this morning. They were rolling the field using a steam roller. It was like a golf green when it was done. I flew three times and landed all three. I took the plane home in one piece! Very much unlinke the last time I flew there.

The marina had dropped Imagination in the water. I'm going down tomorrow to see how it is and tie it up and clean it out.

Rodrigo Y Gabriella

We went to see Rodrigo Y Gabriella at the Keswick last night. I got the tickets for Marilyn's birthday The music is kind of flamenco meets heavy metal. It was very good let me leave you with a video clip....

iPhones operational

Tonight Marilyn went out to the theater with Meg. I stayed at home and got the painter to give us an estaimate. Also, I got our new iPhones. I set them up. Mine is working great, syncing mail, contacts and calendar. I have Marilyn's ready to activate. I don't want to unactivate her phone while she is still out.

I'm a PC .... but this iPhone really works great!

Dualing iphones

Marilyn and I ordered new IPhones this weekend. The old phones were getting a bit sketchy and the phone co was offering an upgrade.  They should be here sometime this week.

Imagination ready to launch.

Dabbed on some paint, did a little scraping, clean up sawdust from installing the ammeter panel last year and Imagaination is ready to hit the ways for another year. In record time too. If we get in the water next week it will be the earliest we would have hit the water ever. Maybe next weekend I'll go down and set the canvas and the sails.

fios was down...

About 5 trucks worth of guys was fixing a fibe optic line on a pole. It all working now.

Computer outage....

Looks like the computer is not working at the house. It when down about 9am. That's why the pictures are not up on this site. Don't know if it's power or the fiber optic is down. I'll find out when I get home.

Kitchen update

Look like the cabinets are on the way. We've lined up the cabinets, floors, and electrician. We need a countertops, roofer, and a painter yet.....

@ the dentist

Went to the dentist tonight. Had impressions made for my implant. Should be a couple of weeks and I'll have a mouth of pearly whites.No more of Stacey's fudge!

Itinerant bather

When Mike came over to move the cabinet he wanted to borrow the use of the shower. His bathroom is being renovated. He and Gail have been doing the rounds borrowing neighbor and friends bathrooms. Our bathroom is always open... Rubber Duck not included!!!

Moving the cabinet

Mike, Roy and I moved the china cabinet this afternoon. It was a snap we had everything preped and it moved in 15 minutes. It all went well except for the snarling dust bunnies!

Dinner at Meg's

We had a wonderful dinner at Meg's last night. It was a nice celebration of Marilyn's birthday. Meg made a nice shrimp scampi, asparagus and a nice cake for dessert.

China Packed up

We finished packing up the china cabinet now we are ready to move the cabinet into the next room. This will get it out of the way for the kitchen renovation.

I went to the Bucks County RC flea market and I sold a plane and a helicopter. Also, I went to a coin dealer this afternoon to sell some silver utensils, coins and a silver tray. Now we cleaned out some stuff and put a few dollars in our pocket.

Happy Birthday!

It's Marilyn's Birthday!  She is Umm... Sorry if you don't know, you don't need to know!

Anyway it's her birthday and Funky Friday!    Have a great Birthday Marilyn!!!

Guy Talk Night

Took Mike out for beer, overstuffed sandwiches and guy talk last night. It was not a disappointment, beer was cold, sandwiches meaty and the guy talk was salty at Pumpernick's. Good time we have to do it again soon.

Table Saw.

Got the new micro 4 inch  table saw.  I'm going to use it to cut parts for the crashed plane. I made some test cuts and it seems pretty good. Much better than I thought it was going to be!

Happy Birthday Mike

Went to a nice birthday affair for Mike. I was brunch at Coleman's resturant. I would say that 30 friends suprised him. Nice going Gail! Great place, good food, super friends. I thought the oysters on the brunch bar was great!

After Marilyn and I had to take a 3 mile walk to work off brunch!

Packing Up

It's beging to look like the shipping dept at Amazon.com here. We bought boxes, foam, bubblewrap and kraft paper to wrap up the china that is in the china cabinet in the kitchen. Marilyn had made a good dent in the plates and saucers on the bottom of the cabinet. We still have a few weeks before the kitchen get going. But I've lined up an electrician, painter and floor guy. I'm still waiting on the roofer!

I bought a scroll saw for to rebuild the plane. I made some parts with it. I'm make some more later.

Kitchen Clock...

Keeps ticking. Decided to get an electrician to move the outlets. I could do it but right now I'm stressing about it and to have someone do it in the grand scheme of things it will be worth it.

My new plane took a nose dive into a corn field. It crushed it up pretty bad. I decided to fix it I bought a scroll saw to cut some of the wood for the plane.

SOLD

Sold my motorcycle. A guy came had cash in hand and paid me and towed it away. It hurt me a little but I'll get over it. Now just one more cycle left to sell.

Thw winds came up today and they were blowing across the flying field. As a result my new plane crashed. A few new parts and I'll be back in business.

Still trying to sell the motorcycle

One guy's offer fell thru and I have another guy looing at one of the bikes today. I'll try ebay next and if not donate them for a tax credit.

Great weather day. I'm going to fly planes today up in Dublin. I have a new one that I bought last year and have not flown yet. We see how my flying skills are.

Wet

After over 3 inches of rain this week we have a wet basement and leaky roof. The pump in the basement failed to turn on this week which left water on the basement floor. I have  to order a new pump for the sump. And I can't get a roofer to look at our leaky roof AGAIN. This will be the 4th thime in two yeas that I'm getting the damn thing fixed.

Boat OK!

Drove down to Rock Hall to check on the good ship Imagination and it was all in good order. About an hour of work and some paperwork ( and moving 50 other boats ) and we are in the water. May 1 is looking good! 

Some guy came down to look at my motorcycle to see if he would like to buy it. I could not get it started I knew it would not start as it's been in the garage for a year. He'll let me know tomorrow.

boat tomorrow

Going to run down to Rock Hall tomorrow morning to see how the boat made it thru the winter. Gotta get back fast as there is a guy coming at 3pm to look at my motorcycle he may want to buy it.

Flying

Took my newly repaired plane and went out to the farmers field today. Had one crash the flipped the plane on landing. Luckily no damage.  But after that I found the secret to landing! Floated the rest of my landings. I'll ge my next plane going next weekend.

Kitchen

Marilyn  and Meg wen out the the theater while I stayed home to have a guy come over Thursday to measure the floors. We have the kitchen plan nailed down, sort of. I just thought of a change that will give us more counter and storage space. Soon we will start writing checks which will get the ball rolling..... like tomorrow.

Also, found another leak in the roof. A roofer will be looking at it again!

saturday stuff

We went to the flooring store to pick out a hardwoord floor.  We made up our minds on stained hickory.....or bamboo. We haven't opened the estimate from Scott. We'll wait till Sunday.

I went to the flying field and Marilyn went roller blading. Marilyn got some good exersise. I came back with a motor that broke after two flights.

Classes this week

I've been taking some classes at work this week. Marilyn and I have been going out to dinner with people from my company who are not from the Philly office. We are trying to show a few of them some Philadelphia hospitality so when they go back to Tennessee, Montreal and San Leandro they know that we are a trendily bunch.

Bread again

I made the No Knead bread again today. It's nice to have fresh bread. It was nice have as we made chili prawns for dinner. We used the bread to sop up the sauce. Chili prawns is dirived from the Singapore Chili Crab recipe. We didn't want to be smashing crab shells in the dining room tonight so we just made shrimp.
Here's the recipe.

Emergency Landscaping

With the snow, rain and wind one of the evergreen bushes in the front of the house blew over. We had to dig it out and then we used Marilyn's Honda to pull it out of the ground. The 10 ft ex shrub is now lying on the front lawn waiting to be carted away.

Raining cats and dogs....

We baked a loaf of bread this morning; we wanted to get a jump on things before Scott came over. Scott was going over the details of or kitchen job. It's rain over 3 inches today. The bush in from of the hose blew down. It just missed the tiny little crocuses. The sump pump is running constantly and we losing power intermittently. Somebody get the life perseveres!!!!

Weird Beard?

Yeah, I'm letting some hair grow under my lip in what they call is a soul patch. Just some personality. The book club was the first to spot it. Tells you how much I get noticed at work. Anyway I think the votes were mixed at best.

The heck with the Tea Party we need a Beer Party!

Seems like the PA Liquor Control Board is raiding local watering holes, resturants and beer distributers with state police swat teams looking for unregisted beers! Scaring the hell out of people and confiscating beers for what amounts to $75 worth of papework! So we all need to go and drink some unregisterd beer and show them what we think!!   Worst of all there is a Belgian Beer shortage in Center City!!!!


http://www.joesixpack.net/blog/

Phildephia Inqy story,

Week ahead

Marilyn and I cleaned up the house this weekend. The bookclub ladies are meeting this Thursday, and the Scott and Carol will be by this weekend. Scott is going to build us a new kitchen.

New year more blog

Took a few months off from the blog. I'll be back shortly!

Made it home!

Easy flight from St Louis and home..... Christmas was great! Now back to work! tomorrow......

Dodged the weather bullet

Looks like we missed the big snow in the east. They are talking about 26 inches in DC. Yikes! That will put a crimp in Christmas travel. Glad we got out today.

Woo Hoo!! On vacation!

Marilyn and I are sitting in a coffe house in the city market in Kansas City. We got off to a good but early start this morning. The flight went off without a hitch. The airport is always a major pain and can mess up a good vaction right off the bat. No crowds and on time... Yes! I'm glomming on to some free WiFi to get some mail and blog....

This is the week that is

Marilyn, Meg and I went out to the 1812 Productions "This is the week that is" a parody of the new of the moment. It was great, any production where Obama, Kim Jong Il and Iran's Ahmadinejad are in a song and dance number is going to be a scream. Go see it, It runs until Jan 3.

Happy Holidays Philly!

Wow it really happend in Philly!!!!

From MSNBC.com....

PHILADELPHIA - It played like a scene from a holiday movie — a mystery couple, who didn’t leave their names or numbers, walked into a restaurant, finished their meal and then set off a chain reaction of generosity that lasted for hours.That’s just what employees at the Aramingo Diner in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia said a man and a woman did during their breakfast shift Saturday morning.“It was magical. I had tears in my eyes because it never happened before. I’ve been here for 10 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Lynn Willard, a waitress.Willard and other waitresses told NBC Philadelphia that the couple started the chain reaction by paying double: for their own meal and for the tab of another table of diners at the restaurant. There's no evidence that one group of diners knew the others.“I could not believe it. And it continued and continued — it was very nice,” said Willard. “They asked us not to say anything until they left, say, ‘Merry Christmas, that person picked up your check.’”For the next five hours, dozens of patrons got into that same holiday spirit and paid the favor forward.The diner’s manager said not one person was concerned about price of the check — which ran between $12 and $30.“It was a surprise to all of us; the girls were even taken aback,” said the diner's manager. “Those who took the check also tipped the waitress. So nobody had to do anything other than pass it on, and that’s what they did. They just passed it forward.”It’s a true holiday story that proves how a small gesture of kindness can create some magic.

Dim Sum... Yum!

Marilyn and I went to Center City to have Dim Sum with Roy, Marj, Terri, and MaryBeth. Driving in a driving rain to Chinatown we park across the street. The other guys ended at the wrong Ocean.... Ocean City... Ocean Harbor... Peacful Ocean... Ocean waves..... a few phone calls and a walk in the rain we got it all straightend out and sat down in Ocean City. The resturant staff started throwing all kinds of small plates at us. It was a blizzard of food. The sticky rice was the hit of the meal.

Weeks Doings....

This week has been a whirlwind. Early gym sessions were hampered by a back "twinge" Nothing serious and it has not stopped me from going to the gym. Just enough to complain about not enough to stop me.

Had to bring Marilyn's car to the dealer AGAIN for the transmission solenoid. It not too bad but it's like the stinking keystone cops trying to get the car to the dealer, us to the train, and to everything else we have to do.

Pass the carrots....

Went to a nice vegetarian resturaunt in Southamton... Blue Sage with friends Saturday night, They have very good cusine, vegan dishes are available. If you have friends that are vegetarian, want to try something different, or want to take your bunny to dinner go there.

Christmas shopping

Got most of my Christmas shopping done. Now I just have to was for things to arrive home and at the hobbyshop. Then the cross shipping starts! Look out Mom you are going to get lots of visits from your friendly neighborhood guy that drives the big brown truck!

Weekend Ahead

Looking forward to the weekend. Week 7 of the workout sched ended and I'm looking forward to the days off.

M has an event at work. She has been working late and is working late tonight. Going to record her show tonight so she can watch it later this weekend.

I'm going to get all my heli stuff set up and batteries charged this weekend as next weekend is an indoor flying event at a local gym. Also, I would like to store a bunch of stuff for the winter and get everything organized.

Long week.

Why does a week seem longer when you had days off the week before?

Since M was traveling this week we went to the gym both Saturday and Sunday. This may have been my undoing this week. I'm completely exhausted. You really need those days off to recoupe. 5:30am gym sessions are getting to be no fun! Well two more this week then rest. ( Yahoo! )

I put Windows 7 on one of the computers. That was a pain in the fanny! It took Soooo long, and I messed up the activation numbers. Also, I went flying this Sunday. Luckily no crashes and I and fly my plane again maybe next year.

M got back last night. Delayed planes and all.. Well no gym for her this morning. Then she had to work from home....her building had no water. Didn't find that little nugget out till she got down there.

I did some more Xmas shopping last night. Going to Costco for the last of the stuff for the kids. The Hess trucks have been secured!

Lazy Friday....

Went to the gym early today and the wind and cold kept me in today. Goofing off with the little helicopters inside today. Because the gym was closed Thursday we're going to the gym first thing tomorrow too.

High Tech Thursday....

Jay and I got the video chat working on the computers and we did a family video conference on Thanksgiving. Now I just have to remember not to be wearing my Snoopy PJs at the computer!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving all! Suprisingly a lot of supermarkets were open today. That was lucky for us as we had nothing in the fridge. I bought stuff to make our menu:

Lunch:
Mixed antipasto
Homemade turkey salad.
Organic cranberry sauce

Dinner:
Turkey Chili
Mashed Sweet Potates
Cranberry Salsa
Tapioca pudding

Not quite the turkey and stuffing but we like it!

Happy Hour

We got out of work early on Wednesday. The trains were crowded as all of Center City was let go around 3pm. Marilyn and I met Mike and Gail at Alison's for Happy hour. When we got home I ended up struggling with lamps in out bedroom and breaking everything I touched! I decided to go to sleep before I did any real damage!

Seven days make one weak......

The reunion was great but now I just have to find out who put a Monday in the middle of my weekend ?!?!

So I was thinking that if .....

Wednesday is like Friday because of the holiday.Then Tuesday is hump day 'cause its in the middle. Monday is like Sunday because who the hell know what happened to Sunday cause we were so busy.... Wednesday is Sundae at Carvel... Also it's Prince spaghetti day....but cause of the holiday it should be moved to Tuesday.So Monday is really Wednesday therefore causing two humps in the week.and Thursday is like Saturday cause we're off...


Damn I'm glad that I'm off on Friday, I need a week to rest!

Great reunion!!

Wow was that trip great! Went up to North Jersey. Saw my old neighborhood. Yes the rumors were true my old Catholic elementry school where I went from K thru 8 was a Muslim school. Sister Rapparata must be rolling in her grave. Also, St Micheal's school which was Christofer Columbus school in its life as a public school was gone, leveled, as well as the convent and the whole rest of the block. Wow what changes! Drove to my old high school. Man, looks like the place was neglected for years. It was too bad.

Had lunch at Rutt's Hut. A great little roadside place in Clifton that sells... well deep fried hot dogs. Not like a corn dog, no batter just a big wiener dropped into the fryolater. It comes out wrinkly and crunchy just right. I had two with their mustard relish.

We found the elks club and then the hotel. We had to have a nap before the big night! Ha!
Got dressed and went to the lobby and stared meeting old classmates. We took the shuttle to the elks club as if we wanted to have a few we would not have to drive. Well there were a couple of events at the hotel that night. A bunch of the alums go into the shuttle and it took off running thru the backstreets. When we arrived the was a problem though. The driver took us to a wedding! Arugh! Well, I'm sure the bride was surprised that we hijacked her shuttle! The driver finally realised what he did and took us to the elks. He the drove off to get an earful from a new bride!

There were about 100 out of 220 alums there! Wow it was great! Everyone was talking and dancing and drinking. There was food there but everyone hardly ate as the were talking, greeting and catching up. The event lasted to 1am then we headed back to the hotel in the shuttle. ( I guess he was set straight! ) and Marilyn went to bed. I stayed up with about 30 other people and talked and laughed to the wee hours of the morning.

Marilyn and I had breakfast in the morning at a diner with Karen and tried to have coffee and tea to shake off the lack of sleep!

Class of '78 Reunion

Hey I'm going to the class of '78 reunion... 31 years! How the hell did that happen! Marilyn is happy she is coming. Anyting that gets me into a suit and has dancing she is up for.
It will be good to see all those people who I haven't seen quite a while.

Dentist today

Working from home...got a bunch done. Love it when I don't have a ton of distractions and a nice window to look out of. Going to the dentist this afternoon for a cleaning. Guess I should lay off the tuna and onion sandwich!

A month of mornings

It's been a month now of getting up a 5:15 and heading to the Y for a workout.


Now if only there were some results to show for it......

Costco trip...

Mike went with me out to Costco for a little shopping trip. I'm going to my 31st high school reunion this weekend and they wanted people to take some food for donation. I bought two dozen packages of spaghetti and sauce. I thought I had a good meal if I had a spaghetti dinner. I'm pretty sure that somebody will really appreciate it.

Misses queues

Marilyn's car needed a change of transmission fluid. That was meaning of that blinking light. The car still has a 5 year warranty on the engine and transmisson. Marilyn was late getting out of work and could not catch the train to the car dealer. She called me and caught me leaving the train station. I waited for her for 40 minutes. Which would not have been bad had I "gone" at work. I was in the parking lot thinking of the ocean, rainy days, flowing creeks, Niagra Falls! Driving quicky we got to the dealer before it closed and I burst.
We had dinner at Hong Kong Jack's. I'm glad I recorded The Prisoner....

The Prisoner

Marilyn and I got involved watching the Prisoner on A&E last night. The show is a remake of the old British series. It's a great psycological thriller and we are hooked on it. I'm glad we are recording it.

Stormy Monday

Running like crazy this morning... We had to drop Marilyn's car off this weekend as there was the engine light flashing along with the D light on the transmission. The Honda dealer let us know that we are just out of warranty. Great! Anyway I had to drop Marilyn off at the train station before I went to the Y. After my workout got to the train station on time for my train. The train was late and crowded.... Not the best start to the week.

What an excellent day!

70 degrees today with bright sunshine. Just got back from doing the last chores on the boat. I'm glad that's put to bed for the winter.

Last Canvas..

Going to the boat on Sunday to remove the last canvas. It was soaked the last time we were down. I just have to run down and run back.

Indoor fly Friday...

Went with the Radio Control club up to a local high school gym to fly our models. I took my Helis and other guys took micro foam planes. We had about 10 guys having a ball. We were flying, dogfighting, crashing and just having a blast. We do this once a month in the winter and there is talk about doing it twice a month. I'm just glad I got out oth there and not crashing anything!

Keb' Mo' tonight

Going to the Keswick tonight to catch Keb'Mo'. He touring in support of his new album and it will be a great show. Keswick shoudl be a good place to see him, a nice little 1000 seat theater with no bad seats.

No Joy in Phil ville

Well the Yanks are the champs this year. That's Ok they played well, better pitching, batting and all. So they won fair and square and they will hold the trophy for this year.

I was just hoping the Phils could have won so that we could have a parade again this year as I missed the one last year because I was in California. Here's hoping for next year!

Now we just have to do something about this strike and the commuter rail trains burning!

Vote for Pedro!!!

It's win or go home tonight for the Phillies.

With all the crap that is happening in Philly this week a Phillies win would just what's needed.

Here is a link to the Phillies 2009 fight song You need sound on your computer and allow it to download the song.

Restored faith in Philly......

Today while I was walking to pick up a pair of glasses, I saw that an elderly woman had been in the blind spot of a FedEx truck was bumped and knocked to the pavement. Many people stopped and a van driver blocked traffic to prevent traffic from hitting anyone else. But one guy got down on the street and held the woman. Reassuring her that things were going to be alright. Making sure that she did not feel alone. Staying with her down on the street until the paramedics picked her up and took her to the hospital. I have to acknowledge this guy. I don't know who he was, but he did a good thing, a human thing.

Septa Shuffle

Transit Strike this morning. Busses and trains not running. Commuter rail running and trying to pick up the slack. All in all one big pain in the a$$ getting around Philly today.

Train late this morning.....

The R5 was runing late today. Got in over an hour late. They are working as well as the Phillies!

Lots of long faces in the usual Philly Phan places this weekend like Ralph's and Shop and Bag Deli. Phils better deliver something soon!

Now winterized...

The weather threw us it's last curveball. It wasn't supposed to be raining this morning. Anyway doing the last clean up on Imagination we got drenched. The water systems are now full of pink RV antifreeze. When we ready to go home when the tasks were done, the sun came out and it started getting warm. Grrrrrrr! On Tuesday Imagination will be on the hard for the winter and we won't be in untill the first of May.

Hair cut this afternoon.

Going to skip out early today to get a hair cut at Ralph's in Glenside.

My hair.... at least what's left of it.

Anyway, I'm sure there will be Phillies Phever at Ralph's. That place is just baseball crazy normaly. The Series will make that place just that much more.


Now I just gotta find out how I can get someone from Idaho to pay for my cut......

...Hey you!! Ralph's is Cash only!!!!!

One week down....

Find time for the gym is always a problem after work, there is always an excuse or something to do. Going in the morning and moving my schedule up a half to an hour seems to be working. I put together 5 straight mornings going to the gym. ( yeah for me! ) Now if do it again next week ... I'll have a habit.

But getting up a 5:15am to for the gym is kicking my @ss!!!!

Hair cut in Idaho???

Yesterday I bought a couple of funny Tee shirts from SnorgTees.com. A couple of hours later some one was having their hair cut in Idaho with my credit card number. Luckily my bank pick up the fraud and stopped the card.

I sent snorgtees.com an e-mail and no response. I may be guessing but someone there is getting a little on the side selling credit card numbers........

So let me make this as simple as possible......

DON'T BUY FROM SNORGTEES.COM!!!!!!

unless you want to pay for hair cuts in Idaho,

Morning workout

Changing my routine. I'm going to try and hit the gym in the morning before I go to work. The YMCA is on the way to the train station. Seemed to workout OK this morning. I felt pretty good and it did not get me too far off schedule.

Let's see how it progresses through out the week.

Home bound weekend

Stay at home weekend. We slept late and did stuff around the house. The Davis Vantage Pro was less than it's staid precision self on Saturday and said that it was "raining cats and dogs" .... really that's what it said! Cleared up a bunch of stuff that I was getting a round to. Also I fixed a few model airplanes and helicopters for use during the clubs indoor fly later this month. Next week we'll finish taking the boat out of the water. Has to be out by Nov 1.

Road Trip by the Numbers....

9 hours driving each way
580 miles each way
2 tanks of fuel
51 MPG on the way home ( WOW! )
4 nights away from home
2 meetings
1 training class
1 boat trip on Watauga Lake
1 sunset on the lake
1 Five Guys Hamburger for lunch
3 packages waiting for me on the porch
1 one more day of work this week!
1 good nights sleep before I begin that work day.

On the Road Again....

Drove down to Johnson City Tenn. today. I'm glad I did not fly. The drive was gorgeous! I drove down 81, along the Blue Ridge Mts. With the rain the colors of the trees were just outstanding! luscious greens, fiery reds, oranges, yellows. The fall colors are not peaked yet but today was just incredible. So after this week of meetings I'm hoping the colors will be as vivid.

The new VW diesel worked great! I popped in the Boss and Keb' Mo', sat back and drove. It's about 550 miles and I did it on one tank! 43 mpg for the ride down. I only stopped for Starbuck's Espressos and the required bathroom breaks. This car is great for long trips.

Theater Night!

Meg, Marilyn and I went up to the Black Sheep to have dinner and drinks. The food there is great and Black and Tans there super. The highlight of dinner was hard pear cider from California Cider Co.

After dinner we went to Plays and Players theater to see the 1812 Production's "The First Day of School,A Soccermom Sex Farce". It a comedy about a couple who drops off their kids for the first day at school and realising that they have the rest of the day off and they ask themselves the question "What are we going to to do today? Movies.. Home Repair.. Sex with other people.. Biking... Sex with other people!!!!! It's just a scream as they bring in other Soccer Moms and Dads and the questions and consequences of it all.

So don't be just standing under the basket yelling " I'm Open I'm Open " just go before October 25th

Downrigging.....

We took Monday off, Columbus day. So we stretched our weekend in Rock Hall for a day. Spent the day doing a walk around the town. Fall colors are creeping in, boats are starting to get lifted out for the season. Back to the boat and we downrigged, took off our sails for the season. Next time we come we'll winterize the water systems and it'll be ready for the long winter sleep.

We do have one more weekend though!

Cocktails at sunset......

The Bay has a palette of colors that it brings out at the end of the day. It just splashes them in the evening sky, reds, pinks, purples. It just takes your breath away as the one that you are seeing is more magnificent than yesterdays.

We were having cocktail on the desk watching the evening show with friends. We swapped stories of great anchorages on the Bay. Next year we are going have a few more raftups with friends.

Last weekend at the boat....

This is the last fun weekend at the boat before we have to put it up for the winter. It's drizzly down here but it's nice to curl up on the couch with a book down here. The Annapolis Boat show is running this weekend. We may end up there and look around. A better idea is to get away from the dock and anchor out in Swan Creek for the weekend. Just as soon as the rain stops.....

Crossing the street...

On my way to Starbucks this morning for my Monday eyeopener. I was crossing 18th street and my foot got caught in a hole! Struggled for a second and TIMBER! over I went. Next thing I know I'm staring at a car bumper. Jumped up brushed my self off, and back on my way for my coffee none the worse for wear. That bumper scared the crap out of me.

Major Computer Crash

The computer that we have downstairs blew a motherboard. This is the one that I do all my normal e-mail and banking and household stuff on. I thought that it was the power supply but it's finally dead. Now I just have to get the data off the disk......and buy a new machine.... and build it again! I need a freaking IT dept just for the house! So now I'm down to just four working computers........

Home Repair

Had a friend to the house who does cabinet work. We are thinking about having him redo our kitchen. We can't change the size of the kitchen so we are just going to get new cabinets and countertops and more things around.

Anyway I'm thinking that it's really going to be expensive and take a lot of time and work on our part.

Getting a jump on next weekend

My head was spinning after I landed and got home on Saturday. A good night's rest and I was ready to get working on the boat again. Marilyn and I went to Rock Hall and we fueled up the boat and cleaned it up from the last weekend we took it out. We left so fast the the flag was still flying off the stearn. I then calibrated the new battery meter and set up a new long range wifi adapter for the boat's computer. It should pull in signals while we are at anchor.

Rico's Rules of flight

If you can't carry it. It can't be considered a carry-on!

This message expertly written with all thumbs on my mobile device.
--Rico Paolino

On the way home

Training course complete. Now I'm heading home. Scored a first class seat for the trip. Got books, gotta get some coffee for the trip.

This message expertly written with all thumbs on my mobile device.
--Rico Paolino

Out in the Bay

Instead of walking around San Fransisco. I went to the ferry building and got onto a commuter ferry and went to Larkspur. It was a 50 min ride and great views of the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate, Alcatraz and the city sky line. It was just an out and back and didn't cost much but was so worth it. I highly recommend it!

Stuffy nose.....

... stayed in my hotel room yesterday. Had a stuffy nose/ beginning of a cold thing going on. Strange thing on the flight yesterday. Some lady had a surgical mask on with surgical gloves and she set up a small shrine to the virgin mary and was constantly praying to it during the flight. Glad she was not my seat mate! I was on the other side of the plane.... wonder how she took the turbulance over the Serria Nevada.

Welcome...

.. to the Hotel California. Seems I can never leave! Back in San Francisco at my favorite hotel. I'm pretty tired from the flight. Tomorrow I'll be in better shape to go looking around. I got to find a what's happening in the area type publication.

Heading to San Francisco

I'm leaving tomorrow to take a class at the home office. I spending this weekend in San Francisco. I'm heading there early to make sure that I get there for Monday morning and to get over the jet lag. I hoping there will be a few fun things to do this weekend. I'll be back in my "home" in the financial district which is pretty bleak during the weekend. Now I know to head up to North Beach to find some life.

New Battery...Weekend Cruise

Roy and Marj cam down to the boat this weekend. We had a lot of fun but Saturday started with work. We got the batteries changed and we rewired the system to have a battery gauge. It took us more than 4 hours and we created a huge mess. But the batteries are in, we can see them geeting charged and we cleaned up the mess.
Sunday we went across the bay to Broad Creek on the Magothy river. It was nice and breezy great sleeping weather. Monday we went back across the bay. We had to get Roy back as he was going to Korea on Tues morning.

Getting ready for the weekend.

Going down to RockHall this weekend. Marj and Roy are coming down to stay for the weekend. I'm hoping there is going to be enough wind to do some sailing. First Roy and I are going to swap out the batteries. They are 110 lbs apiece! The goal is not to break anything, us or the boat getting these monsters on.

Still on front line support this week. Just two more days....two more days.....

Yearbook

Marilyn and I spent last night tearing the house apart looking for my high school yearbook. There is going to be a 31 year reunion this year for a few reasons. The school is now closed and it seems like there is a critical mass of people who got in contact on facebook. I wanted to show Marilyn what some of these people looked like waaaay back in the 70's. Can you say Welcome Back Kotter. It seems like my yearbook is a victim of time. Too bad, I could have scanned it and made a PDF of it to put it on line.