An area just north of Sierra Madre (where Patrick lives) known as Chantry Flats is on fire. I’ve been able to see the smoke since early afternoon and the water-dropping helicopters have been flying back and forth over my house for 6-7 hours. The helicopters have stopped now that it’s dark outside, but I don’t think the fire is completely under control. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be large (about 50 acres) and no homes are in danger. One of my friends lives right up at the edge of the mountains in Sierra Madre and can see the flames from her house. That is just too scary.

Before the fires started–and while it was still cool enough to work outside–I got a good deal of yard work done. Trimmed roses, camellias and Dusty Miller. Dug out a huge big jade plant and put in the gardenia that Veronica’s mom gave me for Easter. It’s in a relatively shady spot (of which there aren’t many in my yard) so I’m hoping it will do well. When the temps started rising, I decided to quit with the yard work. Besides, the Lakers were playing game 3 of the first round of the playoffs.

While I was happy the Lakers won, the game really wasn’t all that good. The Denver Nuggets are one of the most unsportsmanlike teams in the NBA. They weren’t playing well and were quite frustrated, so they took it out on the Lakers players by committing some really nasty fouls. I’ll be glad when this series is over and we don’t have to deal with the Nuggets again.