O.K. So you don't like my blathering about the rain. All right, then I'll get political again and see if that rouses you.#1 - Watching the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, I was stunned to view Dina Temple-Raston, who I've heard many times on NPR. She's a stunning woman with great dimples and I predict she'll be on t.v. somewhere, soon. She's also very smart, having degrees from Northwestern, Columbia and some Chinese university. She speaks French (her first language - she was born in Belgium), English (obviously) and Arabic. She's also the author of a couple of very well reviewed books. Watch for her on a t.v. news program soon.
#2 - Dick Cheney was a modern day Attila the Hun. His latest sin was that he tried to convince President Bush to use military troops to arrest the so-called Lackawanna Six - an alleged terrorist group in suburban Buffalo, New York. For some strange reason, W rejected the advice and had civilians take the guys into custody. Word is that Bush loyalists are throwing Cheney to the wolves but who would you rather have the wolves devour?
#3 - O.K. This one isn't political. Heard Terry Gross interview Zooey Deschanel on "Fresh Air" today. Seems Ms. Deschanel was named after the "Franny and Zooey" character J.D. Salinger created. She held off on reading the book until after her high school graduation at age 18 but then found, to her relief, that she loved the character. My friend, RS, loves her and, I think, so do I.
That's enough mental insulin for tonight. Play nice, amongst yourselves.
Oh...one other thing. How come I can no longer adjust the size of my type on Google?
From there it was just one shot after another of this near perfect blue sky day with clouds and even occasional raindrops.
That's a bit of Willow Lake in the lower left of the photo above.
The only way I can imagine would be better than watching these clouds from the ground would be as a bird on high soaring among them.
If you would like to know more . . . much more . . . about clouds, check out this remarkable site.
Smoke really does like his picture taken although he looks a bit unsure of it in this photo. The next one shows him in all his glory surveying his world.
A bit later, as we were both resting from this photo session, a dove dropped down for a quick drink at our bird bath. (You can see him better if you click on the photo.)
Smoke noticed him too and thought about trying to catch him.
Just to let you know I'm not solely a cat person, here's one of dogs. And I know the last word is misspelled but I was unable to correct it. Go with the thought.
" Look, it's hot, we're resting and we're not getting up to pose for your stupid camera! And you can knock off that ti-yi-yippee-yippee-yay crap, too!"
"Yeah, I am the boss around here and if wasn't for this barbed wire fence, you'd know that for sure!" 
The next two are shot over a fence at Mountain Valley Splash, the local public swimming pool.
There! I don't know about you but I feel cooler!
"I'm ready for my close-up now, Mr. Demille."
The BRD apparently was casting a spell here.
Sunday brunch at Casa Bonita and Lesly had her hair down.
While Christy got surprised by the camera.
Outside, J'Norm . . . the BRD's beau . . . was on his way to a classic car show with her and showing off a little car glamour of his own: his Shelby Cobra.
Regular readers of this blog may recall that J'Norm (he can't decide whether his name is Jack or Norm so the BRD created this combo) also has a GTO while the BRD has an '83 Porsche and an '83 Mercedes.
The next step is a careful examination to determine the gender. This he/she, him/her, his/hers bit is becoming tiresome!
But, to my surprise, I discovered another cat on an adjacent chair.
This little darlin' has been hanging around lately and Smoke seemingly has accepted him. He's quite shy, yet bold, and neither of us has been able to approach him. I think he's a girl but SWMBO says yellow/orange cats are always boys and she named him Golden Boy. But he's not at all aggressive which, I guess, is why Smoke has accepted him so readily.
