Here it is: the first ripe tomato of the season.
This is an Arkansas Traveler, a really wonderful tomato. I have one plant of these in my garden, and one Roma, which still has only green tomatoes.
The smell is wonderful.
I put this, along with the lettuce, also from the garden, on a turkey sandwich yesterday, and it was delicious. There is enough left for a tomato and spinach omelette this morning., even though other people joined me in eating this tomato.
It escaped dinner last night because I didn’t cook dinner. I joined the other members of the bell choir at a local restaurant to say goodbye to our youngest bell ringer, who is moving to the Eastern Shore.
She is a microbiologist, so she is worrying about getting a job. However, her husband has gotten quite a good job, so she doesn’t have to worry about money, but just about boredom.
I ate chicken and mushroom ravioli. It had a marsala sauce which was mostly cream. I felt, since I don’t normally eat anything so lavish, as though my mouth and throat were entirely coated with cream. This is not necessarily a terrible thing. If you are a cat, for example, or can go lie down and sleep like a cat, it is probably just a luxurious sensation.
However, I went directly to choir, where I was given the solo for “Send It On Down.” I had been coveting that solo. I also worked on my solo for this Sunday, which is Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday.” I think BigSax is going to play, but I am leaving the instruments up to the instrumentalists. (We may not sound exactly like that YouTube of Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis.)
Neither of those pieces is at its absolute best when sung through cream.
I walked home after choir practice, and it was a great pleasure.
The pictures here are from my walk earlier in the day.
I started the day with a walk through of the sites and stats of my Dark Art Lite people, with some updates and negotiations with webmasters, and then spent four hours begging links. I was mostly working with Christmas sites, so there was a lot of cheesy electronic music in my morning.
By afternoon I’d gotten the tech article figured out and sent it off to Client #2, so I went walking before the dinner.
When I returned from the dinner and choir practice, I had feedback from Client #2, saying that my article for him was too exciting, and he needed a short preliminary version he could offer to the punters without leading to stampedes.
I was a bit concerned about that article, as I may have mentioned. Even though I think I now pretty much understand the technology involved, it is always easy to strike a false note linguistically when you write about things outside your own field.
You know how you’ll be reading a novel into which someone has stuck some knitting because it’s trendy, and some phrase jumps out at you and makes you think, “That person doesn’t know how to knit”? Sometimes they have the supposed knitter using a hook, or something.
I didn’t want that to happen with my article. I did read it out to my dad, a hardware guy, so he could alert me to any girly phrases or odd structures. On his recommendation, I got rid of the suggestion that clustered servers were demanding on the IT staff. Computer guys don’t concern themselves with such things.
So I was pleased to hear that my article had to be kept under wraps because it would just be too thrilling, and also that it had too much technical detail. It is being sent out in a couple of weeks. I wrote something else for the earlier deadline and sent it off.
#1 daughter and I did some chatting, and then I returned to this week’s first Summer Challenge book: Making Money by Terry Pratchett.
I’m a big fan of his, and it is always a great pleasure to read his books.
This one is about the introduction of paper currency.
Paper currency might have been just as important, in terms of technological change, as the internet, agriculture, or weaving.
I took my first computer class in 1976, and have been using computers steadily ever since. There wasn’t any point at which I thought to myself, “Now this is really going to change things.”
Like the end of Windows, which will take place on June 30th — no more new computers will be made with Windows. I have a Windows machine and a Vista machine. Yawn. So what?
What if it turns out that this matters a lot? Or if the revolutionary new server I wrote about matters a lot? It’ll be like the internet — we’ll look back at it and say, “Wow! That really changed things.” You don’t see it coming.
We quite like clustered servers when they work. They can be a bit challenging to set up. SQL 2005 active/passive nodes. And failover that actually functions. W00t!
@pink_hebe – Ah, but this new technology uses automatic mirroring to achieve zero downtime, both in the net and in the hardware, with far less hardware redundancy and no necessity for dual maintenance! Not to mention the option of partitioning into multiple virtual servers with all major operating systems running simultaenously. This thing can HotPort a MAC address across the net! I bet you’re thrilled.
Imagine writing something so thrilling that the client doesn’t dare turn it loose without a less-thrilling introductory piece…. That’s amazing. Congratulations!
As for tomato and spinach omelette … lovely. Especially if you have some feta cheese lying around to fling into it.
@fibermom – I may have to go and lie down in a darkened room. That’s far too exciting for words. Where can we get one? ~x~
@ozarque – Ooh, I do! Hadn’t thought of that, either. Thanks!
Something I forgot : Having ripe tomatoes before the 4th of July is also a triumph. Congratulations yet again! We’ve been having wonderful Sunburst squash for a couple of weeks now, but none of our tomatoes are showing any sign of turning red yet.
@pink_hebe – Quite seriously, I can put you on Client #2’s mailing list if it sounds like something you’d find useful. If it’s a metaphorical excitement, then a darkened room would be the thing.
@fibermom – Please do (pink_hebe@yahoo.co.uk). I work in IT Infrastructure. ~x~
@pink_hebe – Consider it done.
From technologically challenged (that’s me!)
Like the photos. Isn’t it a miracle to see all the cell space/vein lines/understructure of a leaf? the berries make my mouth water.
Peace and blessings.
Your end of windows line scared me until I realized it’s the end of Windows XP and not Windows in general. Very misleading!
Congrats on your article being so exciting but darnet on having to rewrite it. Those pictures are very pretty but the one with the leaves being eaten makes me sad. Darn bugs! LOL.
@JewelE19 – I think it’s Windows completely; all new windows-type machines will have Vista after June 30th, unless I’m misinformed. Which has happened before, after all. And nice to rewrite it, since I’m paid by the hour. Darn the bugs, though. I’m with you there. I thought it was kind of pretty and lacy, though, sin ce it’s not in my garden. Bugs totally don’t share, or think of others, or have compassion, or anything.
@fibermom – I’ve done multiple google searches and the only thing I keep finding is websites that say June 30th is not the end of Windows XP support like it was originally thought. Maybe I don’t know the right search words to use but I can’t find any information about Windows not being installed anymore. Where did you hear/read that at? I’m curious now.
Nevermind, I didn’t see the Vista line. Vista is still Windows though, isn’t it? All I know is it doesn’t work worth a darn and I would rather have XP.
@JewelE19 – I got the news in a ZDNet newsletter. I have Vista on one of my machines, and I really haven’t noticed any difference. I know that people have had some trouble installing Vista on machines that came with XP, but I don’t think the pre-installed Vista is giving people trouble. But then, I’m okay with Mac, too. I know some people really have favorites.
What a tomato!