Salton Sea

It's not that there's nothing exciting happening.  It's just that most of my life right now consists of : get up, go to work, go home, go to bed.  So I give you just about all I have right now - a pretty picture from last weekend.

Here is the Salton Sea at sunset, from 9,500 feet:

Monsoon Season, Part 2

It may have looked ridiculous when our shade awning was secured to the patio with ratchet straps, but it worked. 

As evidenced by what happened when we took them off and another storm blew through...

For the (humming)birds

Okay, it was cute for a while.  Our rental house in California has about 4 or 5 hummingbirds that hang out at the two feeders on the back porch.  Previously, I had been buying that red stuff you can get in the store but then one day I ran out and decided just to make my own sugar water.  Plus, I head the red dye is hard on their tiny little livers and I felt bad.

Two days later, I walked out on the back porch to find a dozen hummingbirds hovering around the feeders and the sugar water about half gone.  Apparently, I make the good sh*t and they told all their friends.

Last friday night, the feeders were again about empty.  I made a new double batch of hummingbird food (that's 8 cups water and 2 cups sugar - just enough to fill up a 2 liter bottle or 2 large-size hummingbird feeders) and filled both feeders to the brim.

By Sunday evening, they were empty again.  That's right, EMPTY.  Those two-dozen tiny little flying things had managed to consume 2 liters of sugar water in less than 2 days.  I mean, they're cute and all, but they can't manage to keep up at this pace, can they?