Perhaps the only good thing about this blast of heat (besides putting the pets into a coma so deep, they can't hear the refrigerator door open) is this lovely swallowtail butterfly, which has turned my shaded courtyard into its new home base.

Meanwhile, here's our fair city's mayor, Andy Stern, explaining the logic behind the Malibu Lumber shopping center:

"I would like to explain something concerning the Malibu Lumber site and the purchase of the chile cook off property. The only way to pay the $25,000,000 purchase price was to borrow a substantial amount of the the money needed to pay for it. Many people would rather have seen a lumber/hardware store in the Malibu Lumber site, but by the time the City purchased the property Malibu Lumber was out of business and we negotiated with others but they could not pay enough rent to pay for the debt on the property.

The City has the equivalent of a mortgage on the property just like most people have on their house and has to earn the money to pay off the mortgage. The alternative was for the city to not purchase the property and see a develper build a 180,000 sq ft mall on the chile cook off property. We made the choice to keep the 17 acres of the chile cook off site open space. There was no other choice."

In case you missed it, the Malibu Lumber post is here.