Hot

88 degrees. (That's 31 degrees, Monika) They LIED; the high was supposed to be 83.

I hate hot weather.

I just came back from K-Mart. While I was walking the plant line, looking hopelessly for something to put in front of the roses out front, I found 2 calibrochoa (million bells), 1 in a kind of streaked orange/yellow and one in yellow, which I knew would look great in front of the raised bed by the garage (lady's mantle, yellow daylilies, a collection of asiatic lilies that's supposed to be a cream/yellow/gold/orange/red mix, but has way too many pastels in it; something I intend to address "one of these days").

I also found two lonely pink pentas. I'd have preferred a paler pink, but these will do to put in front of the roses, along with some white wave petunias. That sounds pretty nambypamby, but once the jackmani clematis starts blooming dark purple, it'll be fine, and at least the weeds won't have free run. I thought about getting a mix of dianthus, but it's a small space and I want something that will bloom most of the summer, and dianthus is about over for the year, I believe. So it's pentas and petunias this year.

I also bought some hose and some poison-ivy killer, and some on-sale pedal pushers for around the house wear. I was looking for some cool tops, but the problem is that not only did I gain a ton of weight over the winter, but I suddenly developed old-lady arms. I keep forgetting that you lose muscle-tone as you get older. Talk about hideous-looking. I've vowed to start lifting weights and eating protein to build muscle, but meanwhile I don't want anything above my elbows to show.

Anyhow, after nearly contracting heat-stroke in the store, I'm now home, and the dogs are bouncing around begging to go outside and I'm prostrate in front of the fan, murmuring faintly, "Not right now. Give me a few minutes."

It actually isn't too bad out, if you sit in the shade with a cold drink, because there's a nice breeze. And I'll hook up the new hose and put water in Taenzer's pool, which will thrill her no end.

Oh, man, I have lily bulbs to get in the ground and an astilbe to plant, and I need to move my winter clothes into the spare room and my summer clothes into the bedroom and see if any of them still fit. What I'm going to do, at least for the next half hour, is lie on the couch with my feet up and the fan on, and finish my biography of Robert Kennedy.