Yellowjackets

Diana was out walking the mutt this evening just before I got home from work, and came across yellowjackets, with about forty stings. So we took a quick trip to the hospital ER. No allergic reactions, just painful stings; an IV with antihistamine and steroids seems to have taken care of most of it, at least for now.

Peruvian alfajores

My company's International Business rep put on a Peruvian lunch caterd by Don Gallo. I didn't actually make it to the lunch but I did snag an alfajor, which in this case was a sandwich of two almond cookies with something like dulche de leche in the middle, covered by powdered sugar.

Habitable planet

Gliese 581g, a planet around a red dwarf star about 20 light years away, appears to be in the habitable zone around its star. The planet itself isn't necessarily habitable--it's probably tidally locked, which means that one side is always facing its sun (and thus hotter) and the other facing away (and may be frozen). There may be an area between the Hot side and the Cold side which is actually habitable; there may not. But right now we live in places as diverse as the Arctic, the Amazon, the Gobi Desert and Polynesia. Maybe we could live on Gliese 581g as well. And if there's one more habitable planet, maybe there's more than one!

Michelmas

September 29th is the Feast of St Michael

Mom to Zambia

Mom has left to join Dad in Zambia for a couple of months. It's a two day trip, with a layover in London.

Books

A sampling from one bookshelf:

• Influence of Sea Power upon History
• Guns Germs and Steel
• Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman
• Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
• Crusading Warfare
• The Art of Maneuver
• The Millennial Project
• Worldbuilding
• The Modern Survival Manual
• Immediate Fiction

Colbert

Stephen Colbert was called to Congress to testify, in character, about immigration policy. It somehow seems appropriate that this Administration would choose to get Congressional testimony from a fictional character.