It's HOT. . .(whine)

This is a picture of my thermostat. Yes, I know it's fuzzy, believe it or not it was the least fuzzy of all the pictures I took of it, and I think it's appropriate. It is pegged at over 90 degrees, because it only goes up to 90 degrees. That's 90 degrees in the house. It's also 90 degrees in the house at 8:00 at night. This is Southwest Washington where the average high temperature in July is only supposed to be about 80 degrees in the middle of the day. And need I mention the humidity?

Do not tell me that global warming is a myth. A lot of people here have never owned an air conditioner. Sprinkler systems have just become a boom industry in the last couple of years. When I moved here from Phoenix I did so with a couple of basic expectations 1) that it would never, ever be 90 degrees in the house, and 2) that I would not have to water the grass. Actually, due to a minor water shortage because of a broken filter at the treatment plant, I can NOT water the grass and look civically minded and not just lazy this summer.

We have seen Monster House in a cool dark theater. We have held our first soccer practice for the fall season (with a cooler full of ice water, a SuperSoaker to spray down hot players, and an ice-pop run for the biggest Otter Pops we'd ever seen--okay, they were actually the Flav-R-Ice brand, but they were enormous!) We have used our big blue pool. We watched Timeline on video while eating the last of the Popsicles (you wouldn't have wanted to be there--all four of us had listened to the unabridged Michael Crichton book on tape, and we went to town making comparisons between the book and the screenplay.) We have accepted an invitation to a friend's house who has air conditioning. We made blended ice drinks while watching the Miss Universe pageant (I can't recall watching a beauty pageant in the last 13 years, but it was just the thing for lazy viewing. Miss Sweden, Miss Mexico and Miss Trinidad/Tobago so should have made it into the final five!) Sleeping has been a challenge. After several restless, sweaty nights we're all getting a little grumpy.