Coastal fog might be clearing the crap out of the air a bit, but the murkiness is still with us.

This map shows that those of us in the Bay Area and elsewhere are surrounded by fire and smoke.

It’s the food item given to prisoners who have not been exemplary citizens during their incarceration. Said prisoners (quite a few) have filed lawsuits, citing the vegan loaf as cruel and unusual punishment.

A Slate journalist whips up a few variations, and invites a bunch of friends, mostly lawyers, for a taste test.

It’s not your mother’s meatloaf.

While I haven’t looked through many of the books she wrote and illustrated, I loved the life she made for herself. She looked like someone from another century, and indeed, felt she was the reincarnation of an 1800s sea captain’s wife.

Watched it before the heat wave. First, it’s not a good dinner movie if you plan to start eating at the beginning, unless you don’t mind scenes dealing with the side effects of chemo.

Second, if you like Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, chances are good you’ll like it even if the critics didn’t.

I don’t recall what dinner was, things have been shimmering and blurry like the view just above a car roof. Probably cantaloupe. Been eating lots of the Tuscan kind, very chilled, very excellent. It cools the entire lower half of the face for a time, and that has been a big plus.

It was 95° when I thought about dinner. The temperature in SF dropped 30° in a very short time. While the peninsula is not cooling down quite as speedily, the idea of lower temps was cause for celebration. However, I wasn’t planning on cooking much. Dinnerwise, we’ve kind of grazed lately on tunafish and lots of melon, so we did go with meat and potatoes tonight. Pork steaks, hash browns (the frozen kind) and the cucumber/tomato salad that seems to be a fixture for Saturday night.

The movie? Eh. Halfway through, we went to Dairy Queen and got a chocolate covered cone and their banana cream pie in a cup. Resumed the movie, which didn’t get a whole lot better, but Benicio Del Toro is always a treat to watch.

Tomorrow, it will be cool enough to work off part of the dessert.

When things look bleak, I check out the cats and dogs, and I feel better.

see more dog

At dinner, it looked yellow outside. The sun was a reddish orange, and it seemed the perfect opportunity for a photo shoot at the nearby nature preserve. Smoke from various fires has transformed the skies to a murky brown/gray on one side and strange, sullen clouds on the other. Everything was bathed in kind of a brownish glow.

The park ranger got his camera gear out as well. But at sunset, the sun looked its normal self.

Back home, I was looking through the pictures, most of which had a sepia tone. A family member came home and announced that the moon was orange.

Out again, but not such great results. My night shooting skills need work, and I lost a contact lens in the dark. There was a lot of foot traffic. But a few things worked out okay today. I didn’t get glass in my eyes from the shattering pyrex earlier in the day, and I found the contact lens undamaged.

Note: It’s easier to see a blue-tinted contact lens on a concrete walkway (with a flashlight of course) than on a white-tiled bathroom floor.

The idea of climbing a wall to another world sounded like such an appealing premise. While my expectations are seldom high, I was a bit disappointed with parts of the movie, but it was not bad for dinnertime viewing. This was several days ago, I think we had leftover barbecued ribs.

A family member who read the book said it pretty much followed the book except the ending wasn’t quite the same.

Lately, they seem to take it personally when I am less than pleased to hear from them. Is this a new ploy? One fellow defended himself by saying he was only trying to make a living.

Hmmm. Maybe I am too, and don’t like all these interruptions. Especially when I am digging pyrex pieces out of the burners. The woman calling for the bank was taken aback when I was curt, and gave me a second or two of silence before she cheerfully went on.

To their credit, the insurance company bombarding me finally stopped, but only after I pleaded with them. There were more than 10 calls in one week, and I appealed to the human in the last caller. He admitted to a possible mistake in their system.

Now, back to re-melting the chocolate. I’m losing the good light.

I heard that the newer pyrex can shatter under certain circumstances, but mine are old. Today is chocolate melting day, although I could have saved some trouble by just setting the bowls out in the sun yesterday. There are bowls of milk and white chocolate chips, plus some butterscotch chips. I forgot about the pie pan used to reheat my lunch in the microwave that was left on top of one burner. That was turned on by mistake.

Now there is pyrex everywhere, although the bowls of chocolate seem to have escaped. I tried to clean up right away, big mistake as the pyrex is still really hot.

But by now, everyone around here knows to leave my prop food alone. Geez. It sounded like a gunshot.

The landscaper responsible for the Cupertino Target plantings is to be commended for the amazing choice of flowering trees in the parking lot at different times of the year. The jacaranda trees are in full bloom now, and they are truly a lovely sight.

If the young ladies at the high school wore shorts any shorter or tops even slightly less skimpy, they could be cited for public indecency.

A cola float is a wonderful thing, but not if the ice cream is chocolate.

Sometimes, if one is missing one’s mom who is no longer here, it does a world of good to talk to someone else’s mom, who also has twinkly eyes. And who knows how to use a .22 rifle.

A cool German chocolate pie with loads of swirly whipped cream is a good belated birthday present when it’s 90°.

A toddler who bites is interesting to observe - from a certain distance, of course.

And if I get one, will it turn out like this one?

Having just escorted two gray squirrels to a heavily wooded area at least five miles from here, I was somewhat amused to see this article which discusses what other gardeners do when pests eat their way through the yard.

Does the relocation do any good? I wouldn’t keep doing it if I didn’t see some improvement. But the trapping has to be ongoing. For a couple of years, we didn’t have nearly the numbers formerly seen. But last year, there was a bumper crop of acorns, and we are seeing the results of successful squirrel parenting.

Right after the tomato plants went in, big three and four-inch holes would appear next to the root balls. The raised beds are lined with wire mesh to keep out the gophers. When I looked up from my desk, I’d see the squirrels digging, and they seemed to favor the areas right next to the plants. I gave up on plans for seeding basil and cilantro. Pots of pansies on the fence were trampled when they used them as soft landing areas.

For a long while, they didn’t go in the traps. As posted earlier, a raccoon did, but the squirrels stayed away. Then I changed the bait.

I’d been using stale peanuts. But there was a bag of toasted walnuts that had gotten old. Plus a bag of ancient macadamia nuts. And the bag of really stale Tostitos.

If they’re so harmless, why did three neurosurgeons get on CNN and say they don’t put them up to their ears?

Thoughtful article from the NYTimes here.

I seldom have expectations when considering new movies, and therefore am often pleasantly surprised. Loved this one, an excellent dinner movie and very, very funny. And yes, that seemed like not a lot of chicken for so many people.

A baked potato is a good standby when there’s no time to stand around the stove. One of us had Polish sausage, the other had Lousiana hot links. Big salad with cherry tomatoes that taste real.

I’ve sworn off pets for a while, new ones take time to acclimate to a household. But maybe one day, I’ll get one of these: