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And now there are many more. I just hope they don’t all fall off with no fruit like last year. I had a lot of blossoms and no fruit… 😥

His family and friends have our condolences and prayers. We may not have agreed with his politics, but he was a huge “fan” of the Constitution, carried a copy with him always, and got September 17th declared National Constitution Day.

and to many others: Newt Gingrich, Erin & Diane Murphy (Tabitha from Bewitched), Joe Piscopo, Barry Manilow, Ken Livingstone (former Mayor of London), Mohamed ElBaradei (IAEA), Mark Linn Baker, Venus Williams, Igor Stravinsky, King Edward I of England, MC Escher, John Murtha

and WordPress 3.0 was released today!

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I found this neat kit at the nursery. It has a pole and two cross pieces. The cross pieces go in to the bottom, big pot at the bottom and top, then the pole is threaded through the holes in the middle of the pieces. Then you take four smaller pots and thread them on the pole, flipping them back and forth as you do. Fill with soil and add plants! This makes a great herb garden for me!

From the top down: Rosemary, Mint, Oregano, Thyme, and in the bottom pot: French Tarragon, Basil, and Italian Parsley around the back.

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The second fourth verse of our National Anthem:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?…
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

The original broadsheet version printed in the day:

In the pouring rain. I was somewhat surprised at the number of people who stuck with it waiting for the parade in the rain. By the time it got to us at the end of the route, it had stopped raining.

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Our float, a three tiered 100^th birthday “cake” for Boy Scouts of America. With a rotating 100 on top and smoke coming from the “candles”. And a big “present” too.