NASA’s SOHO website has a weekly feature that highlights selected solar events. This week’s SOHO Pick of the Week is about a video taken by one of the STEREO Spacecraft pair. STEREO consists of two space-based observatories – one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind. The video reveals a recent “shower of sparks” event on the sun’s surface. The circled region in the inset is where to look when playing the 36-second video embedded below:
September 2007
Lean Cuisine
We had a busy day today. We visited the recycle center, did our weekly shopping, maintained the lawn and garden and, finally, grilled some chicken breasts up on the barbecue to go with steamed broccoli and orzo/veggie salad. Served in reasonable portions, it was a waistline-friendly meal – and delicious too!
A Happy Garden
. . . is a garden where happy flowers grow – you know, ones that make you happy. Take these colorful Gazanias, for example.
Blue Tuscan Rosemary
We never buy commercially-grown rosemary these days, since this beautiful Blue Tuscan Rosemary grows in abundance in the garden here. We have so much of this vigorous herb, that we can use its smoke in the barbecue to add a unique flavor to some of our favorite meats. And who can deny the beauty of the delicate little flowers?
Shuttle Tydirium
Well, not actually, but this little “Butterbug” perching on one of Damsel’s Zinnias reminded me of the Star Wars shuttle craft when it folds it’s wings back for a landing on the flight deck of the Death Star.
To get the inset Shuttle Tydirium photo, I did an Internet search on “star wars shuttle” and found reference to it on WOOKIEPEDIA, the Star Wars Wiki Site. I never saw Wookiepedia before, although I’m sure many readers have.
NOTE: Due to a transition in my work assignment, you will be seeing less content and more pictures for the remainder of this week. Next week we will be blogging from romantic Catalina Island for our annual anniversary pilgrimage.
Damsel took this picture over the weekend.
Hot Shots
Whew! When we got to the range last weekend, the cooling fan wasn’t keeping up with the elevated temperatures outside. Good thing we dressed in tank tops to help us cope with the heat.
California and the West have been having a heat wave. We usually have a warm spell toward the end of summer, and this year is no exception. Don’t worry, this has been happening for the last 60 or so years that I recall as a California native (second generation), and has nothing to do with mythical anthropogenic climate change.
Shooting was a lot of fun in spite of the temperatures in the range. We each brought our little guns – Damsel’s S&W 442 and my Glock 26 – the regular hand guns – the S&W 686 revolver and the S&W 908s pistol – and all three shotguns with wooden stocks – my 40-year old Ithaca, and both our Remington 870s. The video is us emptying the 870s 5-round capacity magazines.
The 2 by 3 paper target did not do so well.
Labor Day 2007
After some early chores, we’re planning a nice BBQ later, similar to the one we had on Memorial Day. Meanwhile, this nice patriotic centerpiece dresses up our table and puts us in the holiday mood.
