I'm going to New Hampshire for the weekend, except I forgot that I made dinner plans here in Boston tonight. So, okay, I'm meeting my friends for dinner and then I have to throw some stuff in a bag for the weekend and then I might have to go to sleep and drive to NH in the morning, depending on how much wine I have with dinner how tired I am. And then starting tomorrow morning I'll hang out with my college buddies and their wives, girlfriends, siblings, and/or children in and around a rustic cabin (locally known as a "camp") by a small lake in NH until Sunday afternoon, when I'll scurry back down to MA, shower and change at home and scoot out again in time to join another friend and his family to celebrate his birthday. The best part? The birthday boy is cooking(!) and, as you should all know by now, when he puts on his cape he becomes SUPERCHEF!!!

For the record, none of the local TV weathercasters mentioned rain for today on last night's news, but of course there are Persians and poodles all over the place out there. According to my pals who are outside Keene, NH, there's been no rain so far today but it looks like it's going to pour any minute there, too. It'll probably hit as soon as I pull into town, with my luck.

Sunny disposition, my ass.

And then there were how many?

Link blatantly stolen from Brian.

White eyebrow hairs: 1
White nostril hairs: 1
Whiteheads: 0
Blackheads: I prefer to think of them as new moles
Bags under the eyes: Too large for the overhead compartment
Hits from the ugly stick: 7.2
Hits on the Snooz Bar: 8
Minutes late to work: 14
Disposition: Sunny

Inspired by Another Shelley.

The last comment I left on a blog today:

"I *know*. It makes my eyeballs pucker just thinking about it."

This refers to:

a) The toe-curling sex I had that one time.
b) All the money I've lost betting on the Red Sox this season.
c) That weird scratchy throat thing right before you get the flu.
d) Any recipe involving bacon and Tang™.

No fair guessing if you've been to the site in question. You know who you are.

I can't even remember the mnemonic we learned in elementary school beyond, "My very eager mother." And now it's time to come up with a whole new one to remember not just nine planets in our solar system but what an international panel of scientists today declared to be twelve.

In order from the sun, they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon, and Xena.
[Ed.: As of 8/23/06, Pluto and the extra three dwarf "planets" are out, according to the International Astronomical Union.]

Here's my best shot so far:

My very eager mother carried Jason's suitcase up north, playing copious xylophones.

What've you got?

I haven't forgotten this blog, I swear. I'm still here. Things are ... things. I'll write when I feel like expounding, but trust me, you're not missing anything too exciting. Just good summer stuff, and that's just fine. Hope all's well in your world, too. Peace and all that.

I can't wait for the big thunder and lightning storm tonight to hit and break our heat wave. I have a whopper of a headache today from the humidity outside and the contrast of the aforementioned tundra inside my office. Elsewhere, my apartment just wouldn't cool down last night. Being on the top floor of a three-family house can be a cooling challenge, and the third (and thereafter) day of major heat with humidity is inevitably when it gets toughest to manage. The little A/C-units-that-could (I have 2) are tired, man, and they just can't keep on top of this, and really, who can blame the poor suckers? They didn't sign on for this.

Yesterday I left work right at 5 and was heading home when I heard a report on the radio about the heat. Hey, it's BIG NEWS, PEOPLE. In the BIG REPORT, folks in Boston were encouraged to use public pools and "cooling stations" which are having extended hours during this heat wave. Then the reporter noted that many people have also been taking advantage of the air conditioning in places like malls, restaurants, and movie theaters to keep cool. Well, DUH. Then this hard-hitting investigative reporter "interviewed" an employee at the stupid crappy Cleveland Circle cinema who said that attendance yesterday, just between opening at noon and the interview recorded at about 2 p.m., was already about double that of the previous day. Not exactly a big shocker, right?

But there's something about the power of suggestion, I guess, because I immediately thought: Must see movie. I switched on my little Blootooth headset thingy for my cellphone and rang up Mooviefone, which informed me that the next show at the closest theater to my house would be Monster House 3-D at 6:15. I could make it, and I did. It won't win any awards but it was enjoyable and, yes, it was nice and cool in there. I considered sneaking into a second movie, but the only other one I was interested in seeing was so packed and in such a small theater that people were sprawled on the floor and in the aisles when I wandered in. Frankly there's no movie on earth I need to see so badly that I'm gonna sit in the cinemuck for it, so I motored home to my steamy abode where my kitty meowed at me incessantly about how thirsty she was but refused to drink any water that wasn't served to her from my own palms. I'm obviously never going to get to take a vacation in the summertime for as long as Olivia lives.

My beloved feline rarely deigns to drink from the (may I say beautiful?) water bowl that I painted with my own two hands (and all the love in my heart). She went through a phase when she would drink from the faucet in the bathroom so long as I was present. The latest seems to be that, not only must I be present but I must also let the water run over or through my fingers before she MIGHT be intrigued enough to lap at it. She will happily, however, duck under the nozzle and give the top of her head a nice little drenching, so I am trying to be satisfied with the notion that she is, at least, ingesting a certain amount of water when she cleans herself after these little impromptu showers.

For the record, I have tried several different water dispensers for her, including some of those fountain-type ones, and while they seem to hold her interest for a day or two, she ultimately goes back on water-strike until I relent and give her some one-on-one faucet/hand time. And if that didn't sound so dirty, maybe I wouldn't be as heartily ashamed of spoiling her as I am.

Stay cool, babies.