Dinner for one

[altivo]

With Gary in Chicago, I was left to my own devices. That usually means I get to eat vegetarian and on my own schedule. Here you see whole wheat penne baked with broccoli, marinara sauce, and two cheeses. It was tasty, but a little garlic toast would have gone nicely with it. No wine because I'm already tired enough for bed and I have ironing to do yet.

The computer swap I mentioned yesterday is going to be amusing though perhaps not unnoticed. The old one had that bouncing cow screen saver on it, commonly available in Linux. A Holstein cow named "Harmilda" is one of Harvard's trade marks, and a plastic statue of her stands at the main intersection in town. Windows doesn't have a bouncing cow, so I set up the "Marquee" screen saver with large bold italics saying "This is not a cow". The PC itself decided to help with the joke this morning. Apparently the HD or the fans make a soft moaning sound that sounds rather like a cow. We'll see if anyone gets it.

The heat wave that has been punishing much of the central US finally got far enough north to hit us today. Heat index went over 100F and it was pretty beastly out. Too beastly for beasts. I didn't let Tess go out to the pasture because the mosquitoes would have sucked all the blood out of her within an hour or so. She was not pleased with me, but acted resigned as usual, just giving me a disapproving look and a lot of grumbles. She has an indoor pen in the arena that's large enough for her to trot in circles if she chooses, but of course it has no grass. It is under a roof, which is good in some weather, including today's. It also attracts fewer biting insects.

Perseid meteor shower is supposed to peak tonight or tomorrow morning before dawn, with rates that may exceed one visible trail per minute. It's usually one of the better shows of the year. And the sky is clear here. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes are ferocious.

OK, time to get that ironing done.

Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I would suggest moving to a cooler place like Scotland, but the midges there are every bit as bad.

[altivo]

I could just cross the border into Canada. They have black flies AND mosquitoes. ;p

[treppenwolf]

Lucky you. We'll be having overcast skies and rain showers the whole week. No chance of seeing those perseids. We're situated in a very unfortunate part of the globe, in that we're beset by such weather half the year, and when the skies do occasionally clear, the light pollution is so strong that it drowns out the stars and any meteors that come our way.

[altivo]

Well, the meteors may have been good, but the mosquito swarms were too severe to make it worth going out in the pasture to look.

Temperature is apparently dropping here now, but we're trading the heat for severe storm warnings. Wisconsin has a tornado warning.

[moonhare]

Every Perseid shower seems to bring in the clouds, and last night was no exception. Guess I'll have to wait for the Leonids to see anything substantial.

[altivo]

By the time the Leonids come, it will either be too cold (if clear) or too cloudy (if not cold) to go stand out and watch. ;p