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prev home archive next Momentary Thought I went home for lunch, and was reminded of why going home for lunch is a bad idea. See, after the hour is over, I'm supposed to leave again. Which is very hard to do when I'm ensconced on the nice cool couch with a soda and a good book. High/Low High: Not sure yet, but I suspect it'll be the nap I intend to take when I get home. Low: Feelin' kinda poopy. Current Obsession Re-focusing on driving down the grocery bill. Quicken tells me we've already spent $615.97, and our total budget for the entire month is supposed to be $520.00. Grin Source I'm not, really. Kinda grumpy, which I attribute to "my little friend". Feh. Singing "You don't know how you met me, you don't know why you can't turn around and say goodbye." Uncle Kracker - "Follow Me" Storyteller Bio Dramatis Personnae Who I Read Recipes |
Yeah! Check out that title, man. That's it. That's all there is to say. 112 yesterday. 107 today. 107 tomorrow. Certain things happen in our household when the weather gets warm ("warm" she says. hah!). One of them is a decline in the usual extravagant nature of our meals. Nobody feels like eating, and nobody (read: me) feels like cooking. So, Monday night it was crocked chicken with leftover rice from the night before. Last night it was tuna and noodles - a one pot, 10-minute wonder. Tonight I suspect it'll be soup and sandwiches. I am in the throes of lethargy, and the last thing I want to do is spend time in the kitchen. I've also rediscovered the joys of a gin and tonic. It has always been a drink I associate with summer. I think that may stem from observing them as my grandmother's drink of choice during the summer months in Maine. Something about a cool, beaded glass, ice cubes tinking, lime slice afloat... the crisp/tart/dry taste seems just right for hot weather. So I invested in a bottle of Tanquerey (on sale for $13.99! Woo!) on the last grocery shopping trip. Now it's something I look forward to as I brave the heat of the truck, which doesn't have time to cool off between the AcronymCo parking lot and home. It's only five minutes, but let me put it in perspective for you. Five minutes of torture can be an agonizing eternity. Imagine someone pulling out your toenails, one at a time, with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Now imagine getting into a truck that has been sitting in the hot Arizona sun for the entire day. The temperature outside may be 112, but the temperature in the enclosed truck can rise up to 200 degrees and more. Around May the news starts cropping up with stories of small children and animals who have been enclosed in a parked car for only a short time, and have died. Yeah, we live in a right friendly climate. Fortunately, after my first summer in Arizona I learned how to cope. First and foremost, obtain a vehicle with air conditioning. See, coming from Maine, our vehicle didn't have a/c. It was pure, unadulterated torture of the nth degree. Remedied as soon as we could afford it, I assure you. Secondly, when parking the car, always put the sun shade up in the windshield. One cannot steer a vehicle if one cannot touch the steering wheel. Last, crack the windows one inch. It means the difference between a 230 degree car and a 180 degree car, when you get in. Our house, and AcronymCo, are kept so cool that for the first, oh, 120 seconds outdoors/in the truck, the heat is a relief. Then it presses down on you like a giant hand, and stifles the breath from your lungs. I kid you not, I know how a plant feels when it wilts. It's the way I feel walking across the parking lot, looking at my truck baking in the sun, and knowing that as hot as it is standing in the sun, it's only going to get worse when I sit my fanny in the driver's seat. A bottle of water goes with me wherever I go. Not only is it refreshing, it's life-saving. Especially when running errands. They say that by the time you get thirsty, your body is already dehydrated. If that's the case, I'm in a constant state of dehydration. I drink water like it's going out of style, but I always feel thirsty. A bottle of water with me in the truck. A bottle of water on my desk. A bottle of water on the dresser next to my bed (from which I drink three or four times in the middle of the night). A bottle of water grasped in my hand as I jog or bike. I'm fairly sure, if the FDA recommends 80 ounces of water per day, I'm consuming double that amount. At least. Probably triple. I'm finding that I don't want to move much. Since I'm taking a (somewhat enforced) vacation from school, instead of having my nose stuck in my homework, I have it stuck in a book. My library fines are stupid at the moment, so I've been re-reading some favorite stand-by's stored in the boxes in the garage. I just finished re-reading "The Lady" by Anne McCaffrey (my all-time favorite book, ever, and my all-time favorite author), and have started "Three Women", also by Anne McCaffrey. This book is a collection of three novellas, which just suits my mood right now to not get into something too heavy. I've read both of these books (paperbacks) so many times that the pages are falling out - I'll have to purchase new copies. Next up I'll probably indulge in some Mary Stewart (her older stuff, like "Madame, Will You Talk?" or "Nine Coaches Waiting"), give "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" another read, and perhaps plow my way through "The Lord of the Rings" in anticipation of the upcoming movie(s?). I have so many great books stored away in the garage, practically inaccessible if they're at the bottom of the box - I covet bookshelves and too bad if Calvin thinks paperbacks are ugly. In precisely eleven days Calvin, Marie and I will be heading up north for a week-long camping trip, in 70-80 degree weather. The only tolerable thing about living in the valley is the fact that you're only a couple of hours away from cooler weather. If that weren't the case, I don't think I could handle it. We have a neighborhood pool we can make use of, but I long for something in the privacy of our own back yard. Ah, well. Some summer, just not this summer. It's hard to remain optimistic, though, when it's this hot already and we've got the entire summer yet to go. ******************** Technical GooI spent a bit of time futzing around the website, doing some general housekeeping. The sampler, archive, welcome, and links pages have been updated. And some day I'll get around to writing an updated bio. |
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Michael's Update Box
Nothing yet from Michael, although one or two readers have requested his address. I'm sure it'll cause a confusing moment or two to receive a letter from a stranger, until he realizes how they know about him. At Calvin's suggestion I will be printing out some of my entries to send to him, since we doubt that he'll have the time to log onto the net. As it is, we really shouldn't expect many letters from him at all, if his schedule is a stringent as the memo said it would be. |