Whirlwind Week of Travel

I'm on my last day of twelve days of travel.  In that time I've been to California--twice--and Texas, and made connections in Salt Lake City often enough that the check-in gal at the Sky Club there recognized me.  I've had a surprisingly good run on this trips, with no misconnects, no canceled flights, and no flights that stood out as being unpleasant.

On the hotel front, I've overnighted in four different Hilton properties and a Crowne Plaza.  The standout among them was the Hilton Burlingame, near SFO airport.  Quite nice.  (I've written reviews for them over on Trip Advisor, http://www.tripadvisor.com/members-reviews/quequedub).

Now, time to head home, and back to the heat after a nice one-night break from it here in San Diego.  So hard to leave 70s when one knows 100 degrees is staring straight at me.

106 Degrees

The high today in Dallas was 106.  At ten o'clock at night it was still in the mid- to high-90s!  It's supposed to cool down to 83 degrees tonight.  I'll have to throw an extra blanket on the bed!

More Balcony Produce

The balcony garden is having a productive year.  Today's harvest was about a half dozen jalapenos.  Photos of the peppers, part of the garden, and the beautiful, green mid-summer view:

Miss USA: Turning Fact Into Theory

I'm amazed at people who can turn hard science and fact into a "theory," at how you can question that which can be proven.  How long before we have to start teaching in school the theory that the earth is flat?  After all, in spite of all of the facts to the contrary, there are those out there who believe that.

If you operate in a fact-based world, this video will leave you slack-jawed.  It's all sweet and pretty and cuteness, but get beyond all of that nonsense and think about what they're saying and the pride with which they tell us that they don't believe what has been proven.

Hotter Than Hell...

...then all hell breaks loose.  Heat index of over a hundred today, with crazy humidity and zero breeze.

Then, all of a sudden, at about half past six, the sky became black, the wind came up, rain came in torrents, and there was tons of lightening, with some strikes so close that they shook the building.  Thankfully it cooled things down significantly:  temperature in downtown DC went from 92 to 68 in fifteen minutes!

Photos from the balcony, which don't really do the storm justice:

Okra In Bloom

Over the past couple of weeks, the okra plant in the balcony garden has been in bloom.  On a few select mornings the plant has gone into bloom, which is simply beautiful.  From all we can tell, it goes into bloom only in the morning, done by about ten o'clock, so it's short-lived.  Here's a photo of one of the blooms from last weekend:

First Harvest of the Season

The balcony garden this year features three tomato plants, okra, jalapeno, soy beans, and chard, along with an herb selection (mint, parsley, basil, and rosemary), and the lemon tree.  Not counting the plentiful herbs that we've gotten so far (they grow like weeds!), this morning we harvested the first item:  a small tomato.  

Last year, because of balcony construction at our building, there was no balcony garden.  In 2009, we had a half dozen tomato plants, along with some other stuff, but tomato blight ravaged the plants and only one plant produced anything.  This year two of the three tomato plants are full with green tomatoes, all progressing nicely.

I'm looking forward to having a small taste of tomato for lunch!