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after going to the supermarket across the street to buy some on-sale plums, i motorcycled to the garden. after some watering, i tied one of my drooping tomatoes to a wooden stake. the struggle between cypress vines and morning glories continue. i'm surprised how resilient the cypress vines are, despite not flowering yet (or if it did, i never saw them). that could all change however as i spotted some new buds. i've also yet to see a single tomatillo fruit. there are husks however, maybe one of them will develop into something.

i was playing around with alex's 24mm f2.8 canon prime lens, documenting my everyday existence. it's actually a pretty good focal length and i wouldn't mind having it around if i had the money. i'll have to check out the bokeh, but i think it's better than the 24mm equivalent on my 17-50mm f2.8.

i made another chipotle chicken omelette with cheddar cheese. i don't think cheddar is a good cheese for omelettes. when it melts, it becomes this translucent goo that doesn't look very appetizing. i have some shredded monterey jack i could try out though.

julie came over in the evening to make dinner. we had this baked lemon and basil salmon with homegrown orange tomatoes, proscuitto wrapped asparagus, and wild rice. it didn't take long to assemble and most of that time was spent waiting for the asparagus and fish to finish baking while the rice cooked itself over the stove. while waiting for the obama speech to begin, we caught a repeat of last night's project runway, which neither of us saw. usual judge nina garcia was replaced by "guest" judge rachel zoe, some girl from a new reality tv show bravo is trying to promote. once again there was behind-the-scene model drama as kenley's model dropped out of the contest for some mysterious reason. i'm so intrigued by kenley. she seems like she has some self-esteem issues, that's why she's always dolled up in her 1950's inspired wardrobe with a lot of makeup. i imagine there's a fat girl trapped inside that body and i fear if she were to lose the competition she'll eat her way back to her original weight. the angry gay mormon thug designer got the axe this time, and then spent his good bye video sobbing to the camera.

obama's speech: he first thanked the clintons, who were conspicuously absent, but probably better to stay away in order for the focus to be on obama. besides, if they were in the audience, the camera would be trained on them the whole night, reading into every twitch of their body language. obama made the speech very personal, yet managed to keep on message. his WWII-serving grandfather getting an education on the GI bill is what he wants for our returning veterans. his mother's battle with the health insurance companies while simultaneously battling her cancer will reinforce his desire to prevent health coverage discrimination based on prior illness. and he wants equal pay for his daughters when they're old enough to work. i was telling julie about how the "obama biden" name is just a few letters shy of "osama bin laden." maybe the campaign should go by "barack and joe," which sounds much cooler, like "rock and roll." didn't realize it, but high mile stadium is actually an opened-air stadium; fortunately the weather was perfect for the audience of 75,000. the stage looked like the starship enterprise or perhaps a klingon bird of war (ah ha, star trek references!). the greek columns weren't a distraction as i first thought. and everybody loves confetti and fireworks, especially little girls!

i've got a meeting in concord tomorrow morning at 9am. who does that? teachers, that's who. they've probably already been up for hours by 9am. that means i have to leave the house by 8am. 8am might not sound early to you, but it is when you go to bed around 3am.