lovely, beautiful day

I have now remembered to heat the water that I mix with apple cider vinegar twice. Oh, it is horrible. It is horrible. I wasn't bit today or yesterday or the day before, but oh that is awful. I keep remembering mambo's vivid description of her taking her apple cider vinegar and .... oh it is horrible.

Thank you so much for suggesting I try this for mosquitos. It is worth it, because I can be in my beautiful garden. 

After the storm yesterday the temperature was gorgeous. I had lunch with a fabulous co-worker. I practiced the cheese poblano blanket on burritos I made for us and .... I'm getting it. I'm getting it. Then we had a terrific walk around the park. We ran into a giant puddle right by a tree that had these cup blossoms and we stopped and admired them. I showed him the awesome feature on the phones that identifies plants but his doesn't do it. Maybe he needs to update the operating system? It is southern catalpa or cigartree and it is native to the southeast US so maybe we should be worried that it was all over the park. We turned and walked the other way and I found his insights really helpful. Then we saw ducks REALLY CLOSE. And we barely got over that when we saw a deer, again, REALLY CLOSE. Next week we are having a picnic to meet a coworker who lives in South Africa. We thought we'd do it here but it is reserved next Friday so we booked a different one. 

And then when I got home I got to catch up with someone I fought for long, long ago. He applied at my company and was hired but then the folks hiring him realized he was Jewish and tried to unhire him. Really. I don't believe he has any idea that I fought for him but I've been very interested in his professional success ever since and I'm so glad he is doing well. 

Sweden is sending Robot 17 anti-missile defense systems. I hate this name. They aren't robots. They aren't robotic. Whey are they called that? Remember 7 of 9 on Star Trek? She at least had a reason to be called Seven. Why are these Robot 17s? In addition, Sweden is giving a total package of $102 million to help the Ukrainian central bank, NATO's fund for the Ukrainian armed forces, 5,000 anti-tank launchers, and a bunch of rifles and ammunition. Plus they are giving $10.6 million to civilian efforts. The Ukrainians specifically asked for the Robot 17s. They can be carried by a person and easily set up. By the way, Sweden never does this. Sweden is very focused on being neutral. Sweden was neutral during WWII. What the Russians are doing is so bad that they've dumped neutrality and are trying to join NATO. 

The UK has given Ukraine something very similar to Robot 17 but better named:  Brimstone! It is an anti-armor missile system. Denmark is sending Harpoons, again, much better name.