Hot off the Plant

PICK A PEPPER:  Regular readers will know that CJ's gardening interests lie in hot peppers. The hotter, the better. Not that he will actually eat any of them (he won't even eat a green bell pepper!), but he is apparently impressed with the 'power' they possess. 

So this year, from seed, we have Trinidad Moruga scorpion peppers growing, along with a number of Carolina reaper plants, and several Ghost chiles. 

The Trinidad MS plants are mainly in pots on our upper deck. Most of the peppers are still green ...

but for whatever reason, one of them, in the middle of one plant, turned bright red, meaning it's ready to pick.

Using tweezers to protect his fingers from potential burns, CJ had the honors. 

It looks harmless enough, but this little beauty (about the size of a quarter), was identified in 2012 by New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute as the hottest chili in the world, with a mean heat of more than 1.2 million Scoville heat units (while some individual plants have a heat of more than 2 million SHUs!). 

STAR WARS READS:  Three years ago, a new, annual event was introduced to the Star Wars universe - "Star Wars Reads Day." Held on the second Saturday in October, participating bookstores, libraries and retailers host events all around the globe. Event partners include Disney-Lucasfilm Press, Marvel, Abrams, Chronicle, Del Rey, DK, Quirk Books, Scholastic, Workman, Egmont, Studio Fun, Phoenix International Publishing, and many more. 

Seattle's Museum of Flight has been in on the action for a couple of years, and this year, they are, once again, holding a "Star Wars Writes" contest in conjunction with their event.

This morning, CJ and Annabelle checked out the contest rules, and started contemplating their potential stories. Annabelle has honed in on some backstory for a certain Wookiee, while CJ is crafting a humorous tale about a peculiar cantina band. ... 

You can check out facebook.com/StarWarsReads for the latest info on special events.

FISHY: One of the fun features on the kids' Nintendo DS units is a program called Flipnote which lets them create animations. Annabelle is especially fond of it. Yesterday she asked me what to draw. I suggested a pelican who was going fishing.