Air Bee ‘N’ Bee

Air Bee ‘N’ Bee

Pictured is MoBot’s Air Bee ‘N’ Bee (aka insect hotel). The hollow tubes provide Shelter and a safe nesting space for native bees and wasps. Most bee species are solitary and do not live in large colonies or produce honey. However, as pollinators, they are critical for the survival of our native plants and allow us to enjoy beautiful flowers and delicious fruits and vegetables in our gardens!

What is insect hotel adjacent? For me, it is my second home in Monterey. The one that I have been trying to sell since July. We have not received a single offer, but we have a prospect. We had a prospect before, but she seems to have slipped the hook. The widow of Hunter S. Thompson, author of gonzo journalist fame, had shown interest. She loved the house. They all do. She wanted to combine the two downstairs bedrooms and even called in a builder to size the job. Then came the New York Times article that announced her bid to reopen an investigation into her husband’s death. Colorado said no to her request, and she has since dropped off our radar, ending a chapter in lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Yesterday, when the realtor called me the thought, “Is Chris alright?” flashed in my head. Nothing like that he has another hot prospect. They are neighbors and have walked by the house admiring it for years. Naturally. They will be making an offer soon. Color me jaded, but it has been a long road already. The white elephant that was my parent’s last house was part of a long line of properties that they have sold. Always trading up, selling the house was always a trial for them.

It is Time to be a Prick

Golden Ball Cactus

…because they are all dicks.

Lies! Lies! Lies! All they do is lie. The administration’s blatant lie, embodied in today’s jobs report is just the latest testament to how far they will go to hide the truth. Too bad Pete Navarro was not briefed on this strategy in advanced. The stock market while initially accepting this report as the truth is now having second thoughts. Trump was doing better during the last government shutdown when it elected to use that shutdown as an excuse for not reporting the facts. Instead, now they are just making them up to fit their preferred narratives.

Pam Bondi: How dare you ask about children being raped when the stock market is doing great! —Malcom Nance

I must admit that I was initially fooled by this “quote”. I thought that it was real. It wasn’t until I googled it using AI that I discovered its true origins. How’s that for an oxymoron. While not a true quote it is a close paraphrasing of what she actually said. Today, AG Bondi appeared before Congress. I could say to testify, except that she did everything but. She lied, argued, delayed, evaded, displayed faux outrage and in general acted like an ass. Her appearance today comes on the heels of yesterday’s debacle, where a Federal grand jury refused to indite six Democrats on DOJ’s trumped-up charges, resulting from their call for US military personnel to heed the Constitution.

Meanwhile, just this week the original count of 38,000 mentions of Trump in the heavily redacted Epstein files has ballooned this week to over a million in the latest unredacted version. That is a twenty-six-fold increase. If just his name can multiply like that, what about his many misdeeds? Release the Epstein files!

Good Scents, Bad Scents, Non-Scents

2026 Orchid Show

A week ago, Saturday the big snow fell. For the following week, we froze. For that intervening week, we also got no mail. So much for, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Today, the mercury finally climbed above freezing for the first time since the snow fell and we took advantage of that thaw and got out of the house for something more than mere survival mode. We went to the garden, and I was pleased to find that the orchid show had begun. Anne easily won the competition for the best flower porn shot for the day. After the show, we walked around the garden, where snow covered everything. Next for lunch, we headed to South Grand and dined on Ethiopian cuisine. Lunch was quite something and is deserving of its own blog post, tomorrow.

Beaked Yucca