This is the first bloom this year from one of our cereus cactus plants. This one was still opening when I got this shot last night. Its the first of many more to come on this cactus (one stalk has five flower pods, another three and most others with one or two pods. More photos will come later, I’m sure.

Tomorrow night, when the full moon rises over North America, it is believed that this will be a “blue moon.” The modern definition for “blue moon” is the second full moon to occur within a calendar month and tomorrow’s full moon will indeed be the second to occur in the month of May, 2007.

Cartoon Image courtesy of NASA.

But hold on - Sky and Telescope magazine retracted it’s 1946 second-in-a-month definition in favor of stating that the “blue moon” is actually based on the four seasons and is the fourth full moon to occur within a season (Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn). Using this definition, a “blue moon” may or may not occur within a calendar month.

It gets even more confusing.

Continue reading » Just What Is A Blue Moon?

Our selection for Weblog of the Week this week is Iraq War Today. IWT is always a good place to go for a military-oriented perspective on current news. Pam has a feature where she offers her “Two Cents Worth” on varying topics which is always interesting. We’re glad to feature Iraq War Today as our Weblog of the Week.

Since most of the cooking yesterday was in the crock pot, we found ourselves with a little time on our hands. We decided to go to the range and rent one of their .45 caliber Springfield 1911 pistols. We bought a hundred rounds of ammunition, got a couple of silhouette targets and went out to a booth to shoot.

We found out a couple of things about the pistol; it had a kick only a little greater than our 9mm pistols and we each got hit by ejected brass since the casings seemed to fly out in semi-random directions.

All in all, it was fun though and we got a taste of shooting the larger caliber.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

This is part of the meal we prepared to celebrate Memorial Day. We started cooking this morning with baby back pork ribs in a special barbecue sauce in the crock pot. The ribs cooked all day until we took them out to the grill and browned them up for about 10 minutes over some smoking hickory chips. The corn was roasting on the grill in their husks before shucking them and browning them a little with butter and pepper brushed on. We also had Cole slaw and baked beans. This meal was every bit as good if not better than your favorite commercial BBQ restaurant.

We took the time last week to send a donation to The Wounded Warrior Project knowing that some of our soldiers would be facing this holiday with serious injuries and we hoped that we could make it a little better holiday for those recovering from their injuries. We hope that you might consider donating to one of our fine Military Charities. Look in our sidebar for a few links to some organizations that make a difference for our troops. God bless our Military Men and Women.

In recognition of the Memorial Day Holiday, the folks at our local Lowe’s arranged these petunias in their garden department to resemble Old Glory. I thought it looked pretty and was a nice patriotic gesture.

One of our stops today was to briefly visit the Bonsai Show sponsored by the South Coast Bonsai Association at the South Coast Botanic Garden. This is a picture of a Shimpaku Juniper, one of many beautiful exhibits on display.

For a couple of years, we have been posting about Reggie, the alligator. Now, it appears that he has been relocated to the Los Angeles Zoo. Before the capture, one of my colleagues took this shot of Reggie floating serenely on Lake Machado in the Harbor City District of Los Angeles.

Photo credit & © Des Wong (used by permission)

Life was getting good for Reggie the alligator.

The scaly, 7-foot-long abandoned pet had basked in his own legend on the shores of Machado Lake for nearly two years.

Sightseers by the hundreds came to get a glimpse of the creature that had eluded professional gator wranglers over the months.

But about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Reggie’s luck simply ran out.

Read the rest of the story about Reggie’s capture (South Bay Breeze):

Continue reading » Alligators in the Sewers - The Epilogue