too darn hot

I hate hot weather. So do the Ts, although if you put that silly Taenzer outside with her ball, she still goes like wildfire (a better metaphor than "the wind," given the temperature, don't you think?). I keep about 6 inches of water in the kiddie pool and she stops periodically to soak and cool off but it clearly doesn't bother her nearly as much as it bothers Timber. Or me.

I'm worried about Timber--his appetite has been off for about a week, and yesterday he had really oogy diarrhea. I'm going to try giving him boiled chicken and rice today and see if he'll eat that. I'm hoping that getting the AC going will help his appetite, too.

Which is what I'm going to do this morning before it gets much hotter--install the window ACs. I don't like putting them in--they block the window for the rest of the summer, even the newer ones are heavy and a pain in the butt, they make the windows rattle and the dried up old window putty fall off--one of these days I expect a window pane to just fall out from the vibrations. And you have to slant them and tape around the edges to keep the bugs out. And in the bedroom I have to slide the chest of drawers into the closet and push Taenzer's crate down to the closet, and then climb over the bed to reach the window. I'd put it in the window over Timber's crate, but I like to keep my option for fresh air when it's not totally miserable outside. I'd say they're more of a pain than they're worth, except about 4 pm on a day when it's 100 degrees outside. I want one of those portable ones you can roll from room to room, but they're still a little outside my budget.

Anyway, I need to put them in this morning before it gets too hot and I get too cranky.

Plus I have to go buy things. I'm out of food again--grocery shopping is such a chore--and I need to stop at the drugstore and the post office. I ought to go out to K-Mart, but I think I'll put that off.

And I need to work on baby jacket sleeves. I think the shower is next weekend, so I've got to get the sleeves finished so I can pop in, hand over the sweater, and get out. This one's going to be a pool party, and not only do I not swim, I don't own a swimsuit.

I'm not really in the mood to do any knitting (this is a very I-centric post, isnt it?). The van problem is sort of dominating my life at the moment. Besides the 2001 Taurus station wagon, I drove a 2003 Dodge Caravan. They were both fine--the Taurus had lots of fun bells and whistles, which I love in cars, even though it increases the number of things that can break, and the van, though pretty stripped-down, rode and handled beautifully. Either of them would be just fine, but neither of them made me say "I need this vehicle." I keep remembering how much I liked my current van the first time I saw it, and more when I drove it, and I would just like to feel that way about my next ride. I drive them for years; it would be nice to have something I *liked*. I've asked the sales rep at the local used-car place--the big one, where everybody goes (including me; that's where I got my current van--to look for something for me. It's hard, given my limited budget. I'm sure she thinks I'm going to have a downpayment, but the only way I can manage that is to get cash from one of the credit cards, which I'd rather not do. So I'm stressed about that--very stressed--and I'm also driving the van *very* carefully, hoping it will hold out until its successor shows up. They say the universe provides what you need. I hope I recognize it when it arrives.

So. Off to do the ACs.