Hot. Can't think clearly. Notes:

I can't believe how hot it's gotten this week. Sure, I love me some warm weather, but 105degree's is a little high! My neighbors showed me a fun place to swim in the McKenzie river, thankfully. We spent some time cooling off there today. We're planning on going back tomorrow since it's supposed to get even hotter.

I feel bad for the cats, they drape their little bodies all over the furniture, on the floor, up against the walls, etc. I dipped Simba's paws in cool water a couple times. He wasn't too excited about that, as I'm sure you've guessed, but he came back to me for loves so I guess it wasn't that traumatic. Any ideas on how I can keep them cool? They have two water bowls that we occasionally drop ice into.

We bought one of those intake/exhaust fans tonight in hopes it would get some of the heat out of the house. The past couple mornings, it's been warmer in the house at 8am then it was outside. Short of installing an AC unit, I hope this does the trick. We're thinking of sleeping in the living room so we can leave all the windows and screen door open and hopefully air the place out.

I've finally gotten to the point where I don't mind going bra-less. It's taken nine months of living in redneck/hippy town and it's finally gotten to me. Either that or it's too hot. Or maybe it's the hot weather tops I've been wearing that heave neat built in bra's in them. I've also started wearing more clingy clothes which show off my fat. I'm too hot to care.

My bad ankle keeps popping in the back part of my foot/heel area. It hurts like hell with every pop. It's been doing this three or four times a day since the weather heated up.

Am running the laptop on battery only since it dims the screen and these stupid flying bugs aren't attracted to it that way. If I leave it plugged in, I get pelted with bugs flying in my face.

When visiting Mom a few weeks ago, I tried some of her Suave shampoo. My hair was amazingly soft and shiny! Even my Aunt Elaine commented about how shiny it was. So I bought more tonight, the coconut stuff. I hope it turns into a good thing, 'cause it's so cheap!

It's after midnight and 90 degree's inside.

Finally bought a charger only to lose my camera!

I feel like I have nothing interesting to say if I can't upload photos. Of course, that means as soon as Apollo lost my charger, I was lost once my camera drained its batteries. I finally gave in and bought a new charger (surprisingly expensive) and then lost my camera! I found it today in a Safeway bag by the trash. That was a disaster waiting to happen! Anyway, I was finally able to take some photos and upload them today. I have a lot to show you, so please bear with me!

Today I harvested something new from my little garden. Potatoes! Aren't they just gorgeous?



I don't remember what they're called, but I bought the red ones as seed potatoes from Jerry's (a local hardware store) and the yellow ones are from potatoes that Aimee and I purchased as food and then decided to see what happened if we planted them.



We grilled them up tonight, along with some zucchini, beef steaks and pork chops. Which reminds me, did you know chicken fried steak isn't chicken?? Apparently it's not pork either, which is what I was told. I don't know why they just don't call it "fried steak." It's not REALLY cooked like fried chicken! I've never seen steak floating in oil or grease like chicken, have you?! Although, with this rational I could have called our grilled potatoes "grilled chicken potatoes" or "grilled zucchini potatoes" or even "grilled onion potatoes" since all those things are cooked the same. See? Its just not rational!

Upon further research, I would like to point out that some people actually DO cook chicken fried CHICKEN, as noted here on Wiki. And there is a reference to the use of pork! HA! I WIN! Faythe, you might want to be careful, as to not flail around and hurt yourself even more while typing your retort! (Faythe hurt herself in the car while flailing around in what appeared to have been a partial karate move while I was driving. We had been arguing intermittently all the way down the Oregon coast and into the valley about chicken fried steak, how it's cooked and the kind of meat used to make it. Apparently Faythe is ok with our getting into a car accident if it means her point is made.)



The potatoes reminded me a little of the colors in Hazel Knits Fireberry. After I wrap up a couple other projects, I'll get back to this sock pattern. I think it's pretty cool so far, I love how the stitches lay at an angle.



I let a couple zucchini's get too big but the neighbors were happy to take them. I'm sure they'll make fabulous zucchini bread! These are my first crooked neck squash, too.



This is what I'm looking forward to:



Flying saucer squash aka pattypan squash aka scallop squash aka white squash! No matter what you call it, I call them delicious! These just started growing. I can't wait to start eating them!



Apollo and Andrew spent some time exchanging stories while I looked for spiders to photograph, it didn't take long to find them.



I just pulled the last of the lettuce today, hence all the dirt and holes in the raised bed in the foreground. You would not believe all the snails and bugs that freaked out when the lettuce was pulled! It was pretty disgusting.

In the raised beds in the last photo you can see collard greens, zucchini, squash, tomato and brussel sprouts. I'm not sure if the brussel sprouts are going to work out, there's quite a few bugs on them already and no sprouts yet.

That's our pool in the background. It's awesome! It's about 30 inches deep, just right for sitting in up to your shoulders while the pool boy (Apollo) brings tea and scoops out bugs while you point at the bugs he's missed. Our pool boy has put up with a lot of abuse. Especially when Faythe was here... demands for Mai Tai's and other luxuries were made frequently but largely ignored. Probably a good thing too, or the pool boy would have been in a lot of trouble, what with the three potentially drunken belligerent women he'd have on his hands.

Speaking of pools, I never realized how much upkeep it would require but after almost a month, I'm now getting accustomed to adding chlorine, algae killer and other stabilizers almost every day. It's totally worth it too since we've had weather in the 90's and expect it to get up to 100 this week.

We have quite a few spiders out in our garden area. Consequently, Aimee can't go near it, considering she is in a lifelong battle with them. (Aimee, you might want to stop reading now.) There's quite a few gorgeous spiders out there too. I don't mind them as long as they don't touch me. I would have gotten better photos but I had this inane fear the spiders would leap onto my hands while photographing them. *shivers*



I have no idea what they're called, but aren't they beautiful? You know, as long as they stay in their web and off me. I just want to make that clear, for the spiders sake.

I see your peed-my-pants story and I raise you a crap-in-the-pants story!

Faythe recently told an embarrassing story about peeing her pants. Not to be outdone, I decided to share my most recent embarassing story.

See, Apollo has always been a polite, proper kind of guy. It's unusual for him to fart or burp in front of people. Even when you've known him for years and years, he still rarely does these things. Until he met James our neighbor and his new BFF.

James is a pretty manly guy. He adjusts his balls while talking to you, spits big loogies all over, blows his nose while one finger presses one nostril closed allowing the other nostril to empty out on the street, etc. A couple weeks ago, he jumped in the air and farted on a little kid innocently pedaling by on his bicycle. (I can still hear the kid saying, "Ewwwww!" as he hurridly rode off.) Classic man behavior. Now that Apollo is hanging out with James, he's starting to catch on to some of this disgustingness. Especially after spending a week with James doing some yardwork at his parents, well let's just say that within 20 minutes of his return home, Apollo squated and farted right in front of us all. And then he looked at us with that, "How you like that!" look.

So there has been a lot of farting and burping going on around here, especially since we are all eating a ton of fiber. Oh, and then there's the contributing factor of Aimee bringing a poop story home from work (at the hospital) and into every single conversation. (For whatever reasons, poop stories always surface when Aimee's around.)

A few days ago at Target I thought I was going to be able to ease one out quietly but to my dismay, I did quite the opposite. Like any experienced public gasser, I loudly said, "Apollo!" and scrambled quickly around the corner. Apollo was left standing there with his mouth open (fool!!) and a lady staring at him. Needless to say, he didn't trust me much after that and it took some coaxing to get him to stand near me for the duration of our shopping trip.

Which brings me to my final story. We're sitting at the table and I lean over to let one out in a challenge to Apollo (because I had already bested him in burping, ain't I the little lady?) and farted.

Or so I thought.

I'll try to spare you the details but, let's just say it sounded like blowing bubbles in gravy. Thick gravy. I know! Disgusting! Also? Pooping your pants smells nothing like a fart.

Apollo looked at me, rather unsurprised I might add, and said, "That's what you get!" He later told me he felt vindicated over the whole incident at Target.

So there Faythe. I share your shame with the world.