We are all thinking of Haiti still, and some of us have mentioned even going there. This note arrived in my mail from DS this morning: .................................. By Carmina, one of many Haitian-American bloggers/entrepreneurs/educators/open sourcerers I met in NYC Saturday, willing to Take a Stand for Haiti: Laptops?!? My good friend Mike asked puzzled. And I understood his reaction because I had the same one at first. Haiti s children dont need laptops; they need food, shelter, the basic stuff Im grateful that others have the skills and the opportunity to go to Haiti and help with those basic needs. I applaud their efforts and admire their courage: unfortunately, I dont have the skills or opportunity to do so myself. Almost a month has passed alreadyIts time to build Haiti back! Its not going to happen overnight and its not going to happen by itself. Its starts with everyone doing a little bit, where they are, when they can. So Im doing the little bit I can by actively supporting 2 organizations whose mission I believe in. What motivates and excites me about the One Laptop Per Child / Waveplace project is its potential to impact the next generation of Haitians, out of which future parents, citizens, mayors, senators and even presidents will come from. I see a potential to open the minds of our children to other realities, other worlds, give them new dreams, broader horizons. So last Saturday at a CrisisCamp in NYC, when I heard Adam Holt and Allison Bland, exhausted from an early morning train ride from Boston to NY talked enthusiastically about this project I saw a chance to make a difference. No matter how small my part would be. Then I witnessed something awesome: people were gathering around them, coming together, rallying around this project. The ideas started flowing, out of the box ideas. Suddenly, a simple translation project request became a movement to revolutionize the educational system in Haiti. 2 days later, we have a coloring book project under way, translation parties in the works, blogs, websites, publishers/authors willing to giving us permission to make their children Creole books into e-books, an active and growing online community of a people exchanging ideas and ready to make a difference in anyway they can. Wow! If we can do that in 2 days, what can we do in 1 week, 1 month, 1 year! Yes, I realize that its a drop in the ocean, but if you could even indirectly impact the future of 1 child of Haiti, would it not have been worth your while? You can help! Join our community at The New Haiti Project. Donate 1 hour of your time to translate material from English to Creole. (Spanish, French, Portuguese and other languages are useful too.) Start here: http://translate.sugarlabs.org/ht/ 'Bug and DS

I like your seedling. That's the kind of big puffy doubles I love and the color is great. I didn't even try to take many photos today-I headed out to dead head, and only made it through a small area before I gave up and decided it was too hot and could wait till evening! By then of course, the blooms were faded and wilted with just e few rain drops to make them mushy, but not enough to do any good. Can't really complain though. We missed a bad storm with 75-80 mph winds that hit about 1/2 hr. drive from here. A lot of those people have lost there power and they said on the news it was a big enough outage that it may take a couple days to fix in this heat.

Cooks' Illustrated did a gas grill comparison and included a TEC which had infrared burners. It was a few years ago so maybe things have changed but they did not like the infrareds. Very hot, good for searing and flame ups since anything that drips from the food hits the burners. I saw some models just the other day that had a small searing infrared burner and regular burners for the main cooking box. That sounds like a good idea. Now if you were talking infrared rotisserie burner which is to the side and not below the food, well then I can attest that mine works well. I have done rotisserie chickens on my Weber Summit with it (it is the only burner on) or without (using main burners) and only slightly prefer the rotisserie method. It is a desired feature in my book but not a must. As for grates, both iron and SS will sear your food given your grill is nice and hot. Here is what Weber's FAQs have to say about it. From Weber.com: "Q. Which are better, stainless steel, porcelain-coated cast iron or porcelain enamel cooking grates? All have their merits, so it is mostly a matter of personal preference. All require little maintenance and give great sear marks. Porcelain-coated cast iron grates will hold the heat longer so you donÂt have to cook with higher temperatures. Stainless steel grates have a longer warranty, followed by porcelain-coated cast iron, then porcelain enameled. Replacements are readily available for all styles."

Unfortunately we cannot see the detail of the first white flower. Berteroa incana may be a possibility but without a close up of the flower ..... https://extension.umass.edu/landscape/weeds/berteroa-incana