<Sweat> <Sweat>

It's still hot. Now it's humid as well. We've had cracking great storms the last two nights, dumping great rain on the gardens, washing the birdsh off the car, and getting quite carried away making a huge hole in a new garden bed. Triffic. No watering by hand or bucket for several days. But sheesh, the humidity. The ultimate waah happened when I visited a friend (hi there Plummet-mummy!) who has evaporative aircon in her house. Kind of cooler, but sticky. The only downfall of evap aircon as far as I can tell. It was fine when we were blobbed on the couches, sucking back g + t and admiring the cats. But move and the great curtain of sweatiness descends... it's kind of uncool to have drips coming off your chin. And icky.

I cooked my ass off last week, entertaining house guests. There were amazing feats of ovening, grilling, salading, opening of bottles and eating; oh my, the eating! I'm glad I did it cos now we are happily making our way through some very good corned beef and some interesting salads. I amaze myself with what I can do if I don't think about it too much. The carrot salad was particularly good - grate carrot, apple and ginger. Mix with a bit of shredded coconut, a small slosh of balsamic vinegar, and the juice of a small ruby grapefruit. Nom.

But this is not really a recipe site, unless you count recipes for abstractions such as disaster, achieving serenity, the care and comforting of the furry feline, and how to garden without bending. Sometimes I alarm myself with the level of abstraction, but mostly I have part of one foot approximately in the same hemisphere as the ground....

I went shopping yesterday after Medicare paid me a nice lump sum. They were very generous, almost enough to make me forget the size of the bills I had to pay to get such a large return. I took me to the purrfume area of DJs, BAD ME. Of course I bought something. But but it were a bargain!!!! Three pocket sprays of 'Covet' for the price of one I tell you. On the strength of that I felt I could afford the sale price of small bottles of 'Angel', so now I have two. This is merely cautious pantry management principles being put to work on another kind of cupboard collection, ie as soon as one is close to running out, replace it. And gosh I could be left with an empty bottle at any time! I must be vigilant I tell you.

We won't discuss WHICH bottle, or point out that I have dozens, will we??

Today brought to you by M's birthday celebrations, hurray for him! And yum to the Thai dinner and pink champers. And yay for the birthday party tomorrow, there will be cake I tell you. I was going to be very organised and start tonight, but meh. I'm still hot, and the cooler in the bedroom is calling to me. I have a new edition of my fave magazine, several borrowed books to get thru (thanks to Shadow's-daddy and his joint collection!), one of M's xmas present books to attack, and at least 30 crosswords lined up for my delectation. You just don't know you're alive until you've delectated a crossword, trust me.

Today also brought to you by easy weeding after the rain; the pleasure of spending nearly a whole day in my silk nightie setting a new sloth record; Maccy looking equally pleased with hisself for excaping, and pissed-off for being founded and putted back inside; a serious drenching of 'Covet' for wearing out to dinner; and a strange sense of optimism.