Too hot. I am going up north of Spokane for a few days. The only adventure here is hanging out near the AC. Steve in Baltimore County.

pool sitting/dog sitting/house sitting for a friend so her pool doesn't turn green this week.

Her black lab took my kid for a gallop LOL

summer classes for DS are done, so he is "FREE AT LAST"

bowling the last two Mondays for $1 a game-DS is a bigtime sore loser, any suggestions? I am not a good bowler by any means, but he just gets so ticked and it is not fun

This was supposed to be my vacation week, but I decided to work it since we were not going anywhere

the 40' shrub bed that I edge planted with moon flowers is looking like quite a spectacle- i mean spectacular : )

Painted NG's garage door orange, looks great with aqua ceramic pots on the sides of it

I have lots of tomatoes to pick

BIG frog in the pond-can't believe it could be one of my tadpoles matured already

picked up a beautiful teal-ish blue alpaca snuggie-I mean poncho with attached scarf for the October soccer games at a garage sale and a couple plant stands for the house or outdoors. GREAT deals! also bought a new pair of low heal summer shoes for .75 cents

going to restring and stain two windchimes as soon as the temperature evens out

I want to have a dinner party next month

We finally broke down last July and got air conditioning. It's been a blessing in these really stinking hot days, but I miss hearing the outdoors. I can't wait for the cool-down so I can open up!

My May/June/July was shot due to health issues so the yard/garden is wildly awreck. My husband and some friends got the garden dug, fenced and planted, but a very wily, very fat groundhog climbs in daily and raids everything. I just don't have the energy this year to battle him. I just concentrate on next year and think of my garden in positive terms, like "overblown". This has been an "oh-well" kind of year.

The kids are getting in their last days of swimming at the community pool since school starts on the 24th. I love seeing how they've grown into little fish.

Speaking of school, my youngest starts first grade, which means all-day. Whatever will I do with my time? ;^) DD is going into fourth. How time flies!

It's been a slow year for cicadas. They've finally started to buzz a lot, but we're not finding as many shells on our trees this year. It was however a good Japanese beetle year! (meaning not many!)

The squirrels have discovered that asian pears are tasty. I wouldn't mind sharing so much if they'd just eat the whole pear when they pick them! Still we're managing to get some. They're not so sweet with all the rain we've been having but they are juicy.

What is it with black dogs? Both Taschi and Gussie will go out and plop themselves down in the bright sunshine - when it hits the upper nineties and then some in the shade.
The will not stay out very long, though - the swamp-cooler keeps the house in the mid-seventies, very comfortable for me and the cats, who have given up the sofa and the cat-condo in favor of the vinyl part of the floor, preferable right uwhere the breeze of the cooler-fan hits.

This morning, on my way to the hen-house, I smelled a breeze of fall, the air is just different. Nights are in the mid-forties, early morning is wonderful, so is late evening, after the sun gets behind the trees and the hill.

There are wild mallards swimming around on the pond, the wild turkeys come to take a drink and then wander all over the place. Jasmyn thought she might want to catch one, but after stalking them for a bit, she thought better of it and, cat-like, pretended she never had any intentions and never even saw those birds.

Today I saw the first winter-bird, a junco was in the chicken-run, gleaning some of the cracked corn.

The pond is almost in the puddle-stage, but has turned into the water-hole for all the wild-life that is not seen except for tracks and scat.

The tomatoes are ripening, I had one vine-ripened one yesterday, and have pockets full of cherry tomatoes that never make it into the house. Lemon cukes also make a wonderful snack and there are many of them.

The firewood has been delivered, paid for and stacked, so I am sure to be warm when the season turns.

The neighbor's well went dry - Joann and I are careful not to draw ours down too much at one time, but not to worry. The neighbor's property contains four adults, five children, one of them a baby, four Great Danes, four horses, a steer, assorted goats and a big above ground swimming pool - no wonder they have water-problems and had to purchase water, that's expensive!

I shall not talk about the dust!

Mobile has a monsoon season. It has rained heavily every afternoon, just about, it seems. The heat is the same as slightly north, but the humidity is about 20 points higher. Even I find myself having to adjust to the combo. Haven't been able to get in many workouts. Mobile is not all that friendly bike-wise. We'll see. Guess I will check out the rec center and see what they have. I much prefer working out outside, though.

Oh, August. It's an unusual year in New York City when this month doesn't try to smother us with heat, stink, and filth. I change my subway route, opting for one train that goes slow and local, versus my normal two trains that go express, but require a connection across a platform that has become an unbelievable, unventilated misery. It is great to have the cars themselves air conditioned, but the machinery heat is trapped systemwide in the tunnels so far underground; it will stay there until late October, when we might begin to find it cozy. For now, spending more than five minutes on the platform wilts people's clothing, grooming efforts, patience, and sometimes even humanity. People prove their heat tolerance; we are either built to cope with excess heat or excess cold. My family was designed to do the latter. Just a week after disembarking into a Philadelphia summer, my teenage grandfather said of his war-torn, scorched-field hometown in the mountains of Ukraine, "I might have to go back."

Perhaps the moment will be during a lovely aria at a January visit to the opera, or a rainy February vanquished by the feeling of the most amazing hot chocolate warming the tummy as you stand in front of your favorite painting at the Met, but it will occur to you in a private burst of gratitude and appreciation that this, this is worth August. From this standpoint I wipe my brow, twitch a little, grab handfuls of ice from the containers outside delis where the bottled water is kept, and release the cubes down the back of my shirt. It's going to be soaked by the time I get home anyway.

My gosh Suzy. You made me realize I was too hard on the ginger kitty last night. Drool dripping down my mouth as I walked in, IÂd planned to make my favorite earthy porcini mushroom and lemon risotto to go alongside a pancetta wrapped pork tenderloin roast (earthy and pork scream autumn to me), when I saw insulation everywhere! I was furious with Murphy. Furious. Grr, ranting about the cat furious. I was glad he didnÂt speak people and that LF wasnÂt there. Most recently, IÂd taken down the last of the hanging wood, plaster and spiderwebs on the kitchen ceiling, when I uncovered a hole. He decided that was the most interesting looking hole ever or was "seeking cool hiding places", knocking down bundles of cellulose (really hard on my asthma, just to have a cup of it on the floor!), but he realized he couldnÂt get down the way he came and went down hole number three of the ceiling holes, in the hallway. And knocked down more insulation. I was so mad and coughing so hard, I gave up on dinner. Kitties go crazy, hm who knew?

The house is looking so good. The 'Fireworks' Solidago is ready to burst forth. My hostas actually flowered! They're pure white. In the shade, their beauty really shines. I've weeded and tilled a bed by the street getting ready to plant the last perennial plants I'll ever plant at that house. They're sitting in containers on the nice loamy soil, just waiting for a long rain in cooler weather, just a handful of weeks away. I actually relish going home to work on it now, much less chore-like. I covered up the doorway to make a wall in the back office with the tongue-and-groove boards that have been sitting there. Then painted it. And cleaned off the ceiling and painted it. And then I was motivated to put in the last piece of subfloor. Only, I needed two pieces. Shoot, I'll have to get more. But then I was motivated to clean the windows and move everything out except the sitting room stuff. I couldn't stop smiling at the sun shining in through the windows with leaves falling outside and the birds flitting around. I can finally see it all since I am no longer looking at a "half done room". Sure, it still needs the carpet and some trim, but it's a sitting room now. I could just feel the soft cushions on the chair and smell the pages of the book calling me. Ah. All the while surrounded by the outdoors since the place is esentially all glass.

Krista, itÂs a phase. "DS is a bigtime sore loser, any suggestions? I am not a good bowler by any means, but he just gets so ticked and it is not fun". Been there done that! I think CandyLand solved that one. No one is control, no skill involved, and he learns to lose or be a graceful winner. At least LF did.

I promised not to whine about the heat this summer, and so far, have done fairly well. Of course, I'm outside as little as possible, maybe that's the reason I'm not whining. :>) The one time each day I actually go outside is after supper, when I walk--about five minutes--to our neighborhood pool. It pretty much empties about 5:15 when folks go home to eat. I get there about 5:45 and some evenings have been the only one in the adult part. Usually, there are no more than a dozen people, anyway, and three of them are life guards! I do my ten laps and walk back home.

My younger sister arrived yesterday from FL. She and her beloved dog drove from Ft. Myers. We teased her that at the present time it's not much cooler here than in FL, but she got out ahead of the hurricanes, anyway. She said the sight of the mountains as she drove up Shenandoah Valley was a fine sight.

I'm just about to give up watering the flowers, every day. They've looked great for two months, so they'll have to finish the summer on their own. The water bill showed how much I'd been giving them.

Come on, October!!!