We have reached the dog days of summer and it is appropriately hot. It was 88 degrees at 7:45pm when I was heading home from the store. Now, I know that 88 isn't hot compared to what it is in Colorado or South Carolina, but it's hot enough to be miserable. It is now 8:30 and 86 degrees upstairs in our house. Once the sun sets, about an hour from now, we can put fans in the windows to suck in some cooler air. One of the reasons I moved away from California was the heat, summers where 110 degree days were common.

Anyone want to run through the sprinklers?

Independence Day is over for another year; our household breathes a sigh of relief. I'm not a fan of noise. My favorite music is peaceful and I like my nights quiet enough so I can hear the frogs in the gully. The one who suffers the most, however, is Putter. Because she can't understand what it is all about, she believes it is all directed at her, personally. Then there is the fact that animals' hearing is so much more sensitive than ours, so the sounds, which are loud to us, must be quite painful to Putter. Because this is a moist part of the state, fireworks are legal here, although they are supposed to be set off only on the 4th and only until midnight. Even so, firecrackers have been exploding intermittently since before the weekend. The teens down the street put on quite a display on the 3rd, as did others in the neighborhood. Poor Putter slunk around the house looking for a safe and quiet place to hide. She tried the cupboard under Derek's sink, which is usually her place of refuge, under the stairs in the garage, between the refrigerator and the wall, and settled on behind the toilet in the downstairs bathroom. Fireworks are pretty (oooo aaaah), but half an hour is usually about enough for me and I just don't understand why people keep at it until 12:30 or so.

Ashley Furniture just delivered our new sofa; Derek took care of the entire delivery. He moved the old sofa to the garage 2 days ago, decided the best route into the living room (around the side of the house and through the back door), collapsed the folding table, vacuumed the floor, and let in the movers, who were from Pakistan or India, at a guess. Putter slept through the delivery. Now....how are we going to keep her from clawing the new sofa?

I love spring; I think most people do. In the Pacific Northwest spring brings warmth and a lessening of the rain. This weekend was sunny and lovely. Sunday was warm enough that Derek and I got outside and did a bit of yard work. Spring brings the birds back with their cheerful songs in the gully, new green growth where limbs look dead, blossoms on trees, children playing outside again, women wearing bright colors again.

I also dread spring as I'm allergic to pollen. April and May seem to be the worst months, although my seasonal allergies last part way through the summer. Today I was coughing and wheezing by the time I arrived home. I almost wished I had one of Elizabeth's inhalers. It reminds me of the line from Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Okay, so seasonal allergies don't really compare to the French Revolution. *giggle*

This is the last day of my vacation. I've made 9 different kinds of cookies, which took me between 15 and 17 hours. Now I need to wrap presents, package up the cookies and mail them off. Most of the cookies came out great and all are tasty. I've enjoyed being home with Derek, watching him play Fable2 and watching several Christmas movies with him. We have so many Christmas movies that we never watch all of them: Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, Scrooge, Muppet Christmas Carol, Love Actually, A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, VeggieTales The Star of Christmas, The Nutcracker.

I really like going into hardware stores and wandering around. I suppose this comes of being with my mother when she went shopping; my mother was the "handyman" in our family. Hardware stores carry such a variety of items that I could easily spend an hour just wandering around looking. Nuts, bolts, screws, nails, all in so many sizes, some of which it is difficult to imagine on what they would be used. Hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, knives, drills, power tools. Electrical supplies, plumbing items, paint, gardening, hunting supplies. Small hardware stores are the best, as they also seem to carry "novelties". Our local store carries clothes, for instance. Hats, boots, rain gear, belts, jackets, even kids' clothes like John Deere overalls. Then there are the decorative items: cookie jars, plaques, wind chimes, Harley Mama and Harley Dude mugs, stepping stones with pictures of dogs on them. Dogs seem to be more popular than cats, at least with the hunting crowd.

 Now that it is illegal in Washington to drive while holding a cell phone to your ear, one would think that it would be more rare to see people driving while talking. Today I counted 13 drivers holding cell phones to their ears. That's just the ones I saw, remember. While driving at 70 miles per hour on the freeway I see cars, not drivers. Now, maybe Arlington and Mt Vernon are more flagrant in their disobedience, or maybe the law has made very little difference. David, what do you see in Seattle?

The leaves in the back yard all got raked up on Saturday, just in time for the wind to blow down the leaves which remained on the trees.  Even so, it looks better than before.  It was foggy when I drove to work this morning & was 33 degrees when I reached work at 7:45.  Maybe we will have snow tomorrow for Halloween, but I doubt it.  (Highly unlikely.  I don't think it has snowed before Thanksgiving since we moved here 5 years ago.  I love the snow; I don't even mind driving in it as long as everyone takes it easy.)  Back to Halloween, I have tomorrow off from work.  Some people at work will undoubtedly dress up in costumes; I usually don't.  Last year there was a pumpkin carving contest & the costumes were judged.  I just really don't like Halloween.  Derek has agreed to answer the door & give out the candy.  In return I'm making him a pumpkin pie.  That's fair, isn't it?