I started receiving an error when attempted to synchronize data to/from my Blackberry and Microsoft Outlook using the Blackberry Desktop Manager.

The error I received when I attempted the sync was Intellisync error 0x8004ffff.

The error appears to have been caused by a record in Outlook Notes being too long.  When I split the long note into two shorter notes, the error went away.

Monday

Work from home.

Tuesday

Second attempt to transport the Atlantic Flying Club to Alabama to get painted.

One of the other AFC Board Members, Joe, picked me up at our house at 0645.

Took off at 0738.  First leg was direct to Fitzgerald, GA (KFZG).  Had about a twenty knot headwind at 4500 feet.  Leg took a total of 2.3 hours.  Visibility was fantastic, and the air was as smooth as glass.  Approach was normal, but ended up high on final.  Had to aggressively slip to make my aim point.  Landed on runway 1 with about a seven knot crosswind.  Got a strange burble crossing the threshold, but managed to make a smooth touchdown.  I even noticed that I used good crosswind technique and held me ailerons into the wind throughout the flare.  I did have to work hard through the final portion of the landing, to the point that I was actually grunting.  I can only imagine what Joe was thinking.

Tried to use my new "tailwheel style" takeoff, but found that it was much harder to manage having to hold in lots of aileron to correct for the crosswind.  I find it awkward to hold aileron with a yoke - this aspect seems much easier with a stick.

Conditions on the leg to Wetumpka, AL (08A) were the same as the first leg, with a bit more headwind.  Had to climb up to 6500 near Columbus, GA due to issues ATC was having with their radar, which caused us to lose some groundspeed both due to the climb, and the higher winds aloft at 6500 vs. 4500.  We were able to return to 4500 feet after about half an hour, which allowed us to increase our groundspeed both due to the descent, and to the lower winds at 4500.  As we started our descent into 08A, things got quite bumpy.  We also hit an incredible updraft that lifted us almost 500 feet before I realized what was happening.  Even though I consciously extended my downwind, I was once again high on final, and once again had to aggressively slip.  I was able to make my aim point, but I ended up ballooning my flare, and had to add some power to recover.  We landed on runway 27 and winds were from 310 at 12, gusting to 16, so the crosswind was a bit stronger than FZG at about 10 knots.  The fact that it was so bumpy, and that the runway at 08A is only 80 feet wide (vs. the 100 that I'm used to) made for an exciting landing, although I didn't grunt.  20 feet doesn't sound like much, but it does change the sight picture on final.  Time for this leg was 1.6 hours.

The wife of the owner of the paint shop was really nice and drove us to the Montgomery, AL airport so we could rent a car.  We had a bit of a challenge getting a car, due to the recent unseasonable weather in the South, which had apparently created a run on one-way rentals.  Hertz, our first choice due to there being a location at the Fernandina Airport was totally out of cars; I was able to get a reservation through the telephone reservations from National, but it took some convincing at the counter to get them to actually honor it.  We ended up with a Toyota Corolla, which was fine for me, but a bit tight for Joe's 6' 4" frame.  My TomTom routed us south on 231 through Dothan, AL, to I-10, east to Jacksonville, then north on I-95 to home.  Total drive time home was about 7.5 hours, which included a stop at Wendy's (which now serves fish sandwiches - yea) for lunch and one fuel stop, compared to the total flying time of 4.5 hours including the fuel stop at Fitzgerald.  Driving mileage was 430 statute miles compared to the flying distance of 276 nautical miles.

Drive home was very pleasant.  Scenery was pretty - I especially liked central Alabama with its rolling hills.  Conversation was great, and the time flew by.

I got home around 2230.

Wednesday

Drove to JAX first thing to drop off the rental car.  Joe picked me up and took me home.

Worked from home for the rest of the day.

Attended the monthly CAP Safety Meeting and hung around a bit after the meeting to chat with the commander and director of operations.

As an experiment, Jeanie and I tried sleeping in the bed in the "yellow room" to see if that mattress allowed us to rest any better than the one in the master bedroom.  Unfortunately, the answer was "no."  My back still got sore, and between the three of us (Jeanie, Cali, me) I guess we've outgrown a queen sized mattress.

Thursday

Did some work work, but also did a number of "honey do's."  These included:

1. Speaking with the broker who manages my mother's guardianship investment account about alternative fee structures.
2. Repairing the cord for the electric blanket in the blue room.  The cord is a three wire affair, about the same gauge as the cord for an electric light.  In one place, one of the three wires had been totally severed.  In the other, there was about a six inch section that appeared to have been chewed by a dog.  I cut out the chewed section, offsetting the cut of each of the three wires so that the splices wouldn't all be at the same spot creating a giant bulge in the wire.  I was able to salvage one piece of this removed area to use as a "graft" for the section of the severed wire I had to cut out.  I soldered all of the joins, and used heat shrink tubing to insulate the joined wires.  I was reasonably pleased with the results.  It never ceases to amaze me how much a dab of flux helps solder to flow.
3. Replacing the batteries (4 button cells, which fortunately I have a bunch of) in one of Jeanie's carabineer flashlights.  This also required cleaning out the corrosion that had accumulated in the battery section.
4. Replacing the batteries (3 of the same type of button cells as the flashlight above) in Jeanie's lighted tweezers.
5. Taking out the garbage and wheeling the dumpster to the street.
6. Putting the ladder back in the garage from when we had to re-hang the insulating plastic sheeting on the lanai.
7. Re-filling the bird feeder.
8. Moving one of the bird houses from a branch on the oak tree to a free-standing metal "shepherd's crook" stand.
9. Flipping the king sized mattress in the master bedroom and helping Jeanie change the sheets and remake the bed.

Friday

Work from home.

Jay, Tricia and the boys arrived around 6:00 PM.  Jeanie had our low country boil (sans sausage) ready shortly after they arrived, and we ate until we were about to pop.

We watched "Cars" and then went to bed.

Saturday

Jeanie made a lovely breakfast, then we headed downtown to walk around.  Went through the farmer's market and Tricia bought some plants and I bought a five pound jar of locally produced wild flower honey.  I've been consuming a lot of honey since I switched from drinking coffee to drinking tea.  I'm now on a "Constant Comment" kick.  Occasionally I'll still have a cup of Peet's coffee because it is just so good, but my stomach tends to object.

We returned home and hung out for a while then Jay, Tricia and the two older boys got in their vehicle, and the youngest rode with us to Pepper's Mexican restaurant on the Island.  Jeanie and I shared the seafood fajitas for one which was delicious as usual and more than enough for the two of us.  After lunch, Jay, Tricia and the two older boys headed off to the River City Marketplace to see Avatar, and Jeanie and I took the youngest to the playground at main beach.  Afterward, we walked on the beach, then went to the playground on Atlantic.

For dinner, Jeanie made a lovely dinner of salad, spinach lasagna, pizza and spaghetti.  After dinner, Jay and Tricia headed off to Jacksonville for their Jimmy Buffet concert, and we bathed the youngest, then sent each of the other two boys off for their showers.  After bathing, we put the youngest to bed, then the two older boys and Jeanie and I watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

Fortunately, the plastic five pound honey container we got from Costco hadn't made it to the garbage yet, so I cleaned it out and transferred the locally produced/purchased honey from its glass jar to the plastic container.  Even though I like the idea of glass vs. plastic when it comes to what I'd rather have my food sitting in, the plastic is much easier to dispense from. 

Sunday

We had pancakes for breakfast, then the gang packed up and headed back home.  Jeanie and I went to the beach with Cali.  I took the new kite I had received from the IBM Thanks! program, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough wind to fly the kite.  We stayed a couple of hours, then headed home.  After dropping Cali off, Jeanie and I headed out to drive through some neighborhoods to see what was on the market.  We saw some houses that might be worth going through.  We stopped off at McDonalds for Filet 'O Fish sandwiches and some shared fries.  We returned home and watched "Up" which we both really enjoyed.  "Up" deftly demonstrates that with a compelling story, a movie can be great, pretty independent of the medium in which it is presented.  I also found it interesting just how strongly the movie tugged at the heartstrings.

Monday

Awoke at 3:30 a.m. to go watch the launch of STS-130, the last scheduled nighttime Shuttle launch.  I messed up and thought that the launch was scheduled for 4:41 a.m. but when I checked the NASA Shuttle Blog, I realized that it was 4:14 a.m. so we had to hussle to get get out of the house.  Fortunately, we had laid out our clothes before we went to bed, but we didn't end up having time to make coffee.  We also spent a few extra minutes having to scrape frost off of the windshield of the Durango.  We managed to make it to the Scott Road beach access with about five minutes to spare, which was just enough for us to get the beach chairs out and set up and for me to get the video camera set up.  Jeanie had the good binoculars and had a fantastic view of the entire launch.  The video camera had trouble focusing and was more of a distraction for me than it was an asset.  From our vantage point, it was crystal clear, with a quarter moon almost due east, low over the horizon.  We were well bundled and layered, so we didn't suffer too much with the 37 degree temperature.  Fortunately, there was almost no wind.  We both initially saw a red glow in the south, which we later decided was the reflection of the light from the solid rocket boosters off of some clouds to the south.  A few moments later, the red flame jet of the solid rocket boosters became clearly visible.  With the binoculars, Jeanie was able to see the separation of the boosters.  It was so clear that even without binoculars, I was able to see the shuttle all the way until Main Engine Cut Off - which was about eight minutes after we initially saw the red glow on the clouds at lift off.  The track of the ascent was perfect for our viewing, being almost due north along the eastern coast of the U.S. at one p0int positioning the still glowing shuttle just above the crescent moon and continuing until well north of it from our vantage point.

Went home and went back to bed and took a nap then got dressed and headed off to Jacksonville via Heckscher Drive.  On the way, we stopped at a couple of bedding stores, as our mattress is at its end of life with well worn depressions on both of our sides that make the mattress somewhat uncomfortable.  I wasn't prepared for how expensive mattresses have become, and was a bit overwhelmed with the multitude of choices: Tempurpaedic, traditional spring, full latex foam, etc.  I guess I'll have to do some research before making a decision.

We stopped at the Sandollar Restaurant on the river on Heckscher for lunch.  Jeanie and I have driven past it countless times, and Jeanie has been there with Wendy and Tammy, but I had never been.  Service was good and the view was great.  Jeanie and I both had shrimp plates - hers broiled with rice and beans, mine fried with french fries.  Portions were generous and reasonably priced at $8.  The shrimp was cooked "just right" for both of us.  Jeanie's were well seasoned and she enjoyed the rice and beans, though I found the beans a bit bland.  I found the batter bland on my shrimp and the fries were a bit limp, but the lunch was still enjoyable.  The highlight (other than being with my sweetie) of the meal for me were the hush puppies.  They were delicious - hot, crisp, plenty of onion and just a hint of sweetness.

After lunch, we continued to the southern edge of Jacksonville and did a bit of furniture shopping.  Jeanie was looking at prices of oversized chairs to try to decide if it makes more sense to get her existing "chair and a half" recovered or to just buy a new one.  I know I am frugal, but, $2000 for a chair?!?  For that kind of money, I vote to keep what we have an just keep throwing a blanket over it, but, I'm not sure I get a vote.

On the way home, we stopped by Costco and picked up some stuff, then drove back via Hechscher as it was still light and we enjoy the view.

After arriving home, I went off to take another nap.

Around 6:00 p.m., Jeanie and I headed off to the airport for me to do my three full stop landings to maintain my night currency.  The night was lovely.  While overcast at around 3500 feet, it was very clear below the clouds, the temperature was crisp but not cold, and the winds were gentle.  I did one closed circuit pattern, then did a half loop around the northern part of the island, then returned to the pattern to do my last two landings.  My first landing was a bit firmer than I would have preferred, but not bad.  My second was decent and on my last, I thought it was going to be perfect, but I ballooned a bit just at the end, but was able to salvage it with a bit of power to end with a greaser.

All told, the day was just wonderful.

Tuesday

Normal work from home day.

Wednesday

Normal work from home day.

Put the plastic that runs from the screening to the house back up on the lanai as the forecast calls for the temperature to drop to 32 degrees tonight.

Thursday

In the morning, met one of the other CAP members at the hangar to act as safety pilot while he flew some instrument approaches under the hood while flying a Cessna 182T Nav III Skylane.  Our squadron swapped airplanes with the Craig squadron for a few weeks so our members could get current on the "glass" and the few of us remaining who are not glass qualified could get some time in the aircraft.  This was a great opportunity for me, as it gave me the chance to sit in the right seat and focus on the G1000 without having to worry about also flying the airplane.

In the afternoon, I worked from home.

Friday

Worked from home.

Saturday

The plan was for Joe and me to fly the club airplane to Wetumpka, AL (08A) and drop it off to get painted.  We lined up one of our airport buddies, Roger, who is also one of our CAP squadron members and a CAP IP, to fly chase in his Piper Arrow to bring us back.  Joe picked me up at 0645 and we headed off to preflight, even though the weather didn't look promising.  The weather in Wetumpka was fine, but at FHB, the ceiling was 1500 feet with a temperature of 4 degrees centigrade on the ground.  In addition, winds at 3000 feet were almost a direct headwind at 30 knots.  By 0800, our planned departure time, the clouds had only lifted to 2000 feet.  by 0900, they had only lifted to 2500 feet, which meant we would have to fly at 2000 feet, right at the freezing point.  Given these conditions, we elected to scrub the trip.

By noon, the weather had lifted, and I was jonesing for some flying, so  I called Roger to see if he would be willing to go up with me in the G1000.  He is so nice.  He said "sure," and we arranged to meet at 1300.  I got to the airport around 1230 to ensure that the aircraft was as ready to go as I could make it before Roger got there.  I say "as ready as I could make it" because I didn't want to perform the G1000 related portions of the preflight with an instructor there to make sure I didn't mess anything up or miss something important.  Roger put me through the paces, having me perform slow flight, stalls, steep turns, and normal, short field and soft field takeoffs and landings and a power off landing.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't have any trouble adapting to the glass panel presentation of the primary flight instrument data, but I did struggle a bit with the landing flares due to the significantly greater height of the glare shield on the instrument panel.  None of the landings were horrible, but they weren't as smooth as I would have liked.  Overall though, even though I worked hard, I enjoyed our 1.5 hours in the air.

For dinner, I made salads for Jeanie and for me, as Jeanie was tired and asked me to make dinner for us.

After dinner, we started to watch "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince," but both of us fell asleep before the end of the movie.  This was our first rental from RedBox, and I was very impressed with the rental experience.  I really like the idea of paying for rentals by the night (especially at a buck a night), rather than the approach that Blockbuster takes of charging $5 for a 5 night rental.  The fact that the first night was free (due to them sending me an email with a promotional code for one free rental night) made the experience even better.  Never know when I'll need that extra dollar!

Sunday

Happy Valentine's Day.

Jeanie hadn't slept well, so about the time I got up, Jeanie headed back to bed.  I had borrowed one of the Sunday airport coffee regular's Garmin 696 User Manual on Thursday so I could learn about how to use the unit and then give him some tutoring, and I wanted to get the manual back to him, so Jeanie and I decided for me to go to the airport coffee, at least briefly. 

After I returned, we exchanged cards and gifts.  Jeanie got me a bag of M&M's, which honored my request to her to cut way back on her buying presents for me.  I got her a Sandisk Sansa Clip 2GB MP3 player, Koss Custom Fit KE20BZ Noise Isolating Earbuds, and a patch cord to allow her to connect the Sansa to her car audio.

While on my way home, Jeanie cooked us breakfast consisting of grits, a fried egg and toast.

After breakfast, we decided to go back to bed for a nap.

When we awoke, we bathed and then watched the end of the Harry Potter movie.  I wasn't overly impressed with the movie.  Maybe it had been too long since I read the books, or maybe it was just because so much of the book had to be eliminated to fit the time available for a movie.  I was glad to learn that the cinematic coverage of the final book will span two movies, one to be released this November and the second to be released the following July.  I was also pleased to learn that they will both be available in 3D.  Hopefully, the extra time will allow a more faithful adaption of the final book.

Around 3:30 we headed off to Fernandina.  We drove to the north end of the island and looked around the marinas there, then headed downtown and walked around.  At 5:00, we walked into Espana for our Valentine's Day dinner reservations.  As usual, the food and the service were exceptional.  We started off sharing Ceviche and a half pitcher of sangria.  For our entree, we shared a Paella Marinera (Seafood Paella) with Clams, shrimp, scallops, mussels, calamari and Lobster for one (which was just the right amount for the two of us).  For desert, we shared a serving of flan.  We both left satisfied but not stuffed, with very happy taste buds.

On the way home, we stopped by one of the RedBoxes on island and returned our movie.  The return process couldn't have been simpler, and I really like the fact that you can return your rentals at any Redbox, rather than having to return it at the location from which you rented it like Blockbuster.

The week started off great, ended great, and had some nice spots along the way.  You can't ask for much more than that.

Monday

Worked from home in the morning and early afternoon, then Jeanie and I went to the appointment with my gastroenterologist to get the results from my gallbladder ultrasound and upper GI.  Good news was that they didn't find anything horrible.  Bad news is that he isn't really sure what is causing the gastritis.  His theory is that the cause is either one of the vitamins / supplements that I take daily, or it might be one of my prescriptions.  He suggested that I stop taking the supplements for a while to see if that helps.  He also prescribed a new medicine to try.  Prior to getting the prescription filled, I logged onto the AOPA site and double checked that it wouldn't create a problem with my medical, which it doesn't, so I will go ahead and get it filled, but not start taking it until Sunday, as I plan to do some flying this week, and want a few days after starting the new medicine before I fly, just to make sure there are no side effects that might negatively impact my ability to safely pilot.

Tuesday

Normal work from home day.

Wednesday

Left the house at 8:00 AM to drive up to St. Mary's with Joe from the flying club and his wife to pick up the club plane now that its annual is complete.  Joe flew back, I rode.  Was back at home by 10:00 AM and spent the rest of the day working from home.

Thursday

Received an email asking if I could fly the CAP C-182 plane down to Daytona with another squadron member so he could ferry another CAP aircraft that had been in maintenance back to Craig.  After coordinating with the other member, who happens to live in Jacksonville, we decided it would be easier for him for me to pick him up at Craig since that's where the other plane needed to end up and he lived about 1/2 way between Fernandina and Craig.

The weather was VFR, but it was a bit windy and the ceilings were around 4000 feet.  When I arrived at Craig, it turned out that an aircraft had blown a tire on landing and was still on the runway that the winds preferred, so I ended up having to make a crosswind landing with a fairly brisk crosswind.  It wasn't my prettiest landing, but given the conditions, it wasn't horrible either.

The flight down to Daytona was unremarkable, other than that I had to fly at 2500 feet rather than the 3500 feet I had planned to due to a lowering ceiling.

The flight back home was also unremarkable.

All told, I got in 2.9 hours of flying.  By the time I got back to the airport, it was around 2:00 PM.  Since I had burned most of the day, I decided to hang around the airport and play "airport bum."  Fortunately, there were a number of folks I knew at the airport, either working in the hangars or sitting at the FBO shooting the breeze, so I had lots of folks to visit with.  It was quite enjoyable.

Friday

Ran a full backup of my work PC's hard drive in preparation for the pending installation of Windows XP Service Pack 3.

Watched the two hour season opener episode of Lost.  I liked that we finally learned the explanation of the smoke monster, but I'm on the fence about the rest of the episode and where this final season is headed.

Saturday

I got up around 7:00 AM.  Showed and dressed for my Civil Air Patrol monthly squadron meeting while Jeanie ironed my long sleeve Atlantic Flying Club shirt.  I logged on to DUATS to check weather, NOTAMS, etc. in preparation for my EAA Young Eagles flying while Jeanie made me a breakfast pita with scrambled eggs and cheese.  Threw my flight bags and CAP briefcase into the truck and headed for the airport.

Arrived at the club hangar around 8:00 AM, got the doors open, and started cleaning the airplane windows inside and out.  Mark, one of the other club members arrived around 8:15 and we chatted for a bit while I finished up the windows and he started preflighting the aircraft.  Around 8:45 AM I left to head over to the CAP trailer.  The meeting lasted about an hour, and then I headed over to the FBO to check on the status of the Young Eagles flights.  Mark had flown one load, and one other pilot had taken one kid in his Citabria.  It was fairly windy and gusty, and I was on the fence about whether it was a good day to fly Young Eagles.  I talked with Mark and learned that the kid in the Citabria had gotten sick, and that Mark felt the conditions were "challenging."  We went and talked with the organizers and we all decided that we needed to cancel due to the conditions.  I was disappointed that the kids who showed up didn't get airplane rides and that I didn't get to fly any kids, but agreed that I'd rather have some disappointed pilots and kids than have a bunch of kids whose first experience in a small airplane was unpleasant at best, and scary at worst, due to the conditions.

Headed back home and chatted with Jeanie.  I remarked to her that the squadron had scheduled a cookout for lunch unbeknownst to me, but that I didn't see the point of us going since they only had hotdogs and hamburgers.  Jeanie, in her infinite wisdom, suggested that we grab a couple of Boca Burgers and head over to the airport, which sounded like a great idea to me.

We drove to the airport and threw our Boca Burgers on the grill and proceeded to have a nice lunch.  A number of the other member's wives had come over, so it was a nice social event.  After lunch, Jeanie and I walked over to the FBO and looked at the three beautiful Collings Foundation warbirds that had come in for the weekend: a B-17, a B-24 and a P-51 Mustang.  Jeanie decided she didn't have a burning desire to walk through the aircraft and I had done so a couple of years ago, so we headed off to pick up some specials at Publix, then headed home.

After taking a brief nap, we grabbed a cooler and headed off to Jacksonville.  First stop was the Sam's Club to renew our membership and pick up a few items including some eggs (thus the reason for the cooler).  Then we headed to Jax Beach to pick up my mother to take her to dinner for her birthday.  My mother wanted to go to the Mill House for dinner, and Jeanie and I had anticipated this and decided that since it was for my mother's birthday, we'd make the drive if that was where she wanted to go.  As usual, the food and the service were very good, and we had a pleasant visit with my mother.  After dropping her back at her place, we headed home and arrived at around 8:00 PM.

Went to bed around 10:30 PM after setting the alarm clock for 3:30 AM so we could get up and go to the beach to watch the Shuttle launch.

Sunday

Didn't sleep well.  Awoke for the first time around 12:30 AM.  Slept fitfully for a couple more hours before finally deciding to arise around 2:30 AM.  This was mostly prompted by moderate intestinal cramps that instigated a couple of visits to the commode.

Went into the office and saw that my work PC had blue screened during a boot time defrag I had scheduled.  When I power cycled the machine, it wouldn't boot into windows.  Tried to boot to the recovery console and it would hang before it finished loading.  Powered the system down and left it off for a while.  In the interim, checked the NASA web site for an update on the Shuttle launch.  It reported a 60% chance of launch due to some low clouds in the area, but the local weather for the Space Center according to Intellicast looked promising.

Tried starting the work PC into the Recovery Console again and was able to get the Recovery Console to load.  Ran a chkdsk with no parameters and it showed that there were "one or more errors on the volume.  Ran chkdsk again with the /r parameter in hopes that it could fix whatever problems there were.

While waiting for the chkdsk to complete, did some blogging and occasionally checked the NASA blog.  By 2:40, chances for launch had decreased to 30% due to low clouds in the area of the Space Center.

The chkdsk run on my work PC completed, and I held my breath, rebooted, and thankfully, Windows loaded.  Yea!

At 3:45 AM, I checked with my local shuttle launch viewing mission commander (Jeanie, whom I hated to awaken) and gave her a status briefing (still 30% chance of launch and local conditions of overcast and cold as heck) and she elected to scrub our viewing mission and ordered me back to bed.

Fortunately, I was able to go back to sleep and slept soundly until almost 8:00 AM.  Got up, showered and headed off to the airport for coffee and the monthly Flying Club meeting.  At the meeting, we finally made a decision on which paint shop we will take the airplane to (TRI-D in Wetumpka, Alabama), and I got tasked with coordinating the transport of the airplane to 08A.

I retuned home around 1:00 PM and Jeanie and I piddled around the house until it was time for the Super Bowl.  As has been our tradition for a number of years, Jeanie made us our traditional Super Bowl party snacks including wings and her famous meatballs.   Of course this year, they were meatless wings and balls.  Unfortunately, the balls that we really like are either no longer sold at all or are at least not sold around here; the replacement ones Jeanie was able to find were not to my liking, and the wings were too hot for both of us.  But, the deviled eggs, crudités and guacamole, salsa and chips were all tasty.  Unlike years past, we watched the game in almost real time, and both of us thought that for the first time, the game was actually more interesting than the commercials.  We were both rooting for the Saints, and we were initially discouraged when the Colts jumped out to an early ten point lead, but were excited when things turned around for New Orleans.  Of the commercials, our favorites were two for CBS: the NCIS "head slap" one and the "Late Show" with Oprah,  David Letterman and Jay Leno; the Doritos crashing asteroid observatory; Google; Hyundai Tucson; and the Budweiser pony/calf / horse/steer.

Monday

Worked from home.

Tuesday

First thing, met Joe from the flying club at the airport to transport the club airplane to St. Mary's for our annual.  I flew.  The flight up was a little bumpy, but not too bad.  The weather was really clear and the temperature was very comfortable.  Winds favored runway 22, so I had to keep the downwind pretty short to avoid the King's Bay prohibited area.  There was a little bit of a gusty cross wind, but I managed to recover from a bit of a balloon and make a decent one-wheel landing.  Joe's wife met us there and drove us back to the airport.

Worked from home for the rest of the day.

Wednesday

Worked from home.

Thursday

Worked from home.

In the late afternoon, after Jeanie had finished volunteering at the Barnabus Center, we decided to go for a walk on the beach.  Jeanie came home, we grabbed Cali, hopped in the Durango and headed off to the Scott Road access.  It was a beautiful day, and we thoroughly enjoyed our 30 minute stroll.  Sadly, we no longer take Diego, as the deterioration of the functionality of his hind legs has gotten to the point where he just can't walk for more than a few minutes before the spasticity just gets too bad.

Friday

Worked from home.

Got a haircut at the end of the day.

Saturday

Jeanie and I ventured out to the Hollywood 14 Cinema at the River City Marketplace to see Avatar in 3D.

My comments about the movie can be found in this post.

Afterward, we went to Renna's Pizza in the marketplace.  I like their pizza best of any in this area.  The sauce has a nice zip, and the pizza has a nice thin crust with the puffy thick edge that I like.  Unfortunately, they only have two salads on the menu, an antipasto with lots of meat, and a very plain house salad with only iceberg lettuce, onion and tomato.  I offered to take Jeanie someplace else, but she said that she was willing to sacrifice for me since I had been hankering for pizza for a while and she knew I liked Renna's and we I didn't get there very often.  She is so sweet.

Sunday

Coffee at the airport then home for lunch.  Jeanie has been in the mood for a Burrito Bowl from Chipotle Mexican Grill but the nearest one is almost an hour away, so she decided to make them at home - they were yummy.  After lunch, we finally got around to loading up all the Christmas stuff into the Durango and taking it back to the storage unit.  Somehow, a few Rubbermaid storage containers went missing, so we went to Target and Walmart to find some replacements, but they didn't have any tall ones, which is what we really needed (to protect the table-top trees).  So, for the time being, the trees will just have to sit as they are in the unit until we can either find the ones at home, or find some more suitable bins elsewhere.  While we were at Target, we picked up a sheet of the free 3D glasses for tonight's Grammy Awards tribute to Michael Jackson.

I have been half-heartedly looking for the red/blue variant of 3D glasses for a while now, as every now and then, Astronomy Picture of the Day has a 3D image and I've never been able to view them.  After viewing all of the APOD 3D archives, I started searching the web for other 3D images.  In the process, I learned quite a bit, including the fact that it is more accurate to refer to them as 3D anaglyphs.  With this new knowledge, I went back to look for glasses on eBay, and was surprised to find lots of options.  I doubt I'll buy any, as I think the paper ones will be fine for my occasional viewing.

Afterward, Jeanie and I engaged in an "Eastwick" marathon.  I actually think the show is cute, and was mildly disappointed to learn that it was not renewed for next season.

I am glad that we got the impetus to actually go see Avatar in 3D, in the theater.

We both thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was very impressed with the 3D technology.  The glasses were great - light weight but stable plastic that fit comfortably over our prescription glasses.  No dizziness or nausea.  Best effect was when the flakes of ash were raining down - the flakes really did appear to be close enough to reach out and touch.  The best overview of the ReadD / Real 3D technology I found was in this article on Wikipedia.  I liked the fact that even though it had been showing for over a month, because it was digital rather than film, there were no scratches, blotches, etc. on the screen.  I brought ear plugs for Jeanie and me in case the movie was too loud, but we didn't end up needing them - there was only one short period when the volume became uncomfortable for me.

Yes, the plot line could be called "Dances With Wolves in Space" but, Jeanie and I really enjoyed that movie, so?  I had been concerned that I would find the natives of Pandora to be annoying / distracting to look at - kind of like a cross between Jar Jar Binks and a Smurf, but I found the somewhat feline quality of their faces to be quite appealing, and wasn't bothered by the blue color.  In fact, for long stretches, I quite forgot that I was watching stuff that was predominantly CGI/Makeup/Green screen.  There were no periods during which I felt that the movie was "slow."

I liked the pacing, thought the flying machines were cool, thought the flying creatures were even cooler, and was immersed in the world of Pandora and its flora and fauna.

I'd even consider going see it again before it leaves the theaters and goes to DVD.

Monday

First thing went to get the ultrasound of my gall bladder.  That took most of the morning.  As best I can remember, that was the first ultrasound I've ever had.  The technician didn't offer any comments, so I am assuming there was nothing exceptional.  I'll find out in a couple of weeks when I have the follow up appointment with the gastroenterologist.

After returning home, Jeanie and I drove to Jacksonville Beach to pick up my mother from the hospital and take her back to her place.  My mother seemed to be doing remarkably well, and it appears that most of her recent "back pain" was in fact pain from her gall bladder.

Got home around 6:00 PM and headed off to bed pretty soon after that, as both of us were beat.

Tuesday

Jeanie took me to the hospital for my Upper GI (EGD).  We got there a bit early, but the wait wasn't too bad, and they took me back right on time.  The staff was friendly and efficient.  The actual procedure was a non-event for me.  Last thing I remember was them wheeling me into the procedure room and having me bite down on the plastic mouthpiece that serves to protect the patient's teeth and the endoscope.  Next thing I knew, I was in recovery being offered a tasty muffin and some juice.

I am not sure exactly when we got back home, but I had no after effects from the anesthesia or the procedure other than I was a bit tired and spacey for the rest of the day.  As such, I chose to take the day off.

Wednesday

Worked from home in the morning.

In the late afternoon, I went flying with one of the other flying club members.  He just wanted some company while he did some touch and goes and some air work, and I was happy to just sit in the right seat and enjoy the beautiful day.  It still amazes me how much more of the scenery I "see" when I am not the one actually flying.  I did do a little flying from the right seat which I found very interesting, as while it's not that different from the left seat, it's just different enough - in sight picture and in the fact that you "switch hands" (i.e. left hand on the throttle, right hand on the yoke) - that it was interesting.  When we got back, we decided to switch seats so I could do a few touch and goes myself, which I did.  I was pleased with my landings.  It was a very nice afternoon.

Thursday

Worked from home.

In the evening, I installed the new CSH Inc. FCA2-05 Failed Circuit Alarm I had purchased from Amazon.com. 

I finally broke down and purchased one after Jeanie discovered last weekend that the GFI outlet had once again tripped (most likely due to a power "burp" caused by high winds) and the refrigerator/freezer in the garage was without power.  Fortunately, it hadn't been without power for too long, and it was during the cold spell, so nothing spoiled, but still.

Overall, I am pleased with the alarm.  It is well made and well thought out.  Even the way the screws affix the cover to the rest of the box are well engineered.  Two of the screws affix the box to the wall, and then the other two screws affix the cover to the box.  The unit has an on/off switch and a test switch, and plug that goes into the wall outlet is of the piggy-back variety so you don't lose the use of one of the outlets.  The only complaint I have about the unit is that the alarm could be louder - it is just barely audible when standing in the kitchen.  It is not at all audible in the bedroom.  I think it would also help the alarm be more easily heard if it were a warbling type - like on a home smoke alarm - rather than a constant tone type.  The cost was $29.95 plus $7.49 for shipping.  Given the quality of the construction and design, and given that it probably only has a modest market so it doesn't enjoy huge economies of scale in manufacturing, I guess $30 is reasonable, but definitely not "a deal."  Because I really do think it is a good product, and the one "issue" I have with it is the alarm, I did something somewhat unusual (for me) and wrote an email to the company providing my feedback.  I was extremely impressed when I received a response to my email within two hours thanking me for my feedback and suggesting a possible adjustment that might increase the volume of the alarm and also offering to send me a new buzzer.  I haven't gotten around to trying their suggestion, but I am very impressed with their responsiveness.

Friday

Work from home.

Saturday

Went to the Doo Wop Diner on 14th street on-island.  Doo Wop's had formerly been in Yulee, but had closed a number of months ago.  Jeanie had a stack of blueberry pancakes and I had two eggs over easy, toast, hash browns and coffee.  The food was tasty and served hot, but I felt it was expensive at $14 for the two of us, and the service, even though they weren't that busy, was mediocre at best.  Decor was cute, and the music was enjoyable (50's standards, as you'd expect) but a little loud for my ears.

After breakfast, we went downtown and strolled the farmer's market, then walked down to the marina, then stopped by Publix on the way home.  Jeanie bought a couple of loaves of bread - one cranberry walnut and one peasant boule - and categorically demonstrated that any basic white bread (artisan or not) will start her coughing in no time.

We went home and started "Duplicity" with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.  Jeanie fell asleep part way through, so I switched to watching the premiere of "Caprica" on Syfy.  There is a great article on Wikipedia on the show here.  I really enjoyed the show.  I find it to be less dark (literally and figuratively) than Battlestar Galactica and I think I am going to enjoy the moral and ethical questions it appears it will explore.  While in some scenes it still is easily apparent that computer graphics (CG) are being used, in some scenes - especially ones with Serge - I found myself forgetting that "he" wasn't "real."

Sunday

I went to coffee at the airport.  After about an hour, I had to go to the car to take a work teleconference.  After the call, I went back to the coffee for another half hour or so.

While I was gone, Jeanie did some laundry and made a homemade vegetable soup and a really yummy vegetarian (of course) chili.

The plastic had ripped away from the staples in a number of places on the lanai, so, taking a suggestion from my brother-in-law, I used strips of wood, in the form of some wide thick wooden tongue depressors, as sort of reverse furring strips.  I would have used real furring strips, but I didn't have any, and was too lazy to go get some whereas I had a bag of the tongue depressors.  So far, they seem to be working okay.

Jeanie and I were supposed to take all of the Christmas decorations back to the storage unit, but both of us were feeling really tired, so we gave ourselves the rest of the day off.

We watched the rest of "Duplicity" which we both thought was okay at best.  The interplay between Julia Roberts and Clive Owen was cute, but the movie had lengthy slow portions and the plot twists were a bit too convoluted.

I continued to wrestle with my esophageal discomfort all week.  It wasn't horrible, just mildly annoying.  Still, I'd prefer for it to go away.  Hopefully, when I see the doctor week after next, he'll tell me it's nothing major, and be able to prescribe something to resolve it quickly and easily.