(at least) a million bucks...

yes, this is technically last week's post. in my defense, i had absolutely nothing positive to say last week, and this was not the appropriate forum for airing that diatribe. that being said, short(ish) post today. the feels-like temperature is rapidly approaching 'surface of the sun' hotness, which is only made worse by any physical activity beyond the necessary intake of breath. good times. did i mention that we have no AC (and i keep vetoing every suggestion of buying one)? good times indeed.

so, there i was this morning, staring acrophobia in the face just long enough to water the plants, when i discovered something wondrous and new. if a giant meteor fell through the sky at that moment, totally obliterating our little rock, i would have gone out feeling like i accomplished the most awesome thing in the entire history of mankind. ladies and gentlemen, that is a zucchini growing in a plastic bucket on my tiny balcony. thank you. thank you very much. no, please... hold the applause.

i worked at a botanic(al) garden for years, where i was paid to teach outdoor vegetable gardening classes, so i recognize the absurdity of my excitement over this non-event. it is just a zucchini. it is not even some tricky variety that requires around-the-clock chanting in some obscure language in order to grow in this climate. say it with me, people: it is just a zucchini! however, after collecting so many male blossoms over the past several weeks that i eventually gave up and left them to wilt on the plants, i took a peek under a leaf today, and there was one girl waiting to greet me. forget The $64 Tomato. this zuke is worth at least a million bucks... at least!

on the other side of life, my favorite animator has hung out the 'gone fishing' sign on the in-home studio, so we are in chilling-extra-hard mode for the next month... or two (... or possibly three). of course, there is a heatwave blanketing the area, and they are predicting all sorts of record highs for this summer, so i anticipate that a large chunk of that time will be spent doing nothing at all. bliss. beyond that, we still need to paint our place (a task that was supposed to be completed when we moved last year), and we have a writing project that has been put on hold for far too long, so hopefully we will accomplish something productive during the downtime. or, maybe we will spend most of it visiting the many fabric shops around town (because, after watching marathon amounts of The Great British Sewing Bee, he has decided that i really need to teach him how to sew... seriously). until then, i am going to refill my glass, add a few ice cubes to the cats' water bowl, and maybe grab a spoonful (or two) of ice cream... solely to keep my core temperature in check, of course. best heatwave ever!