Well, I'm sitting in the nice, air-conditioned house . . . It's 9:53 pm as I write this, and still 84 degrees outside. It has been an amazingly hot (and rainy!) summer. There were 9 days over 90 in June, which is apparently well above average, and July looks to be shaping up the same way.

Yesterday, however, was perfect. The high got to the mid-80s, and it was sunny and clear as a bell. I got in a nice, lo-oong bike ride; I went to Chelsea, a small town near here (I hesitate to call it a suburb; it used to be a farming community but is increasingly a bedroom community for A2). . . I cruised along Huron River Drive (I bet you can guess which river it's next to, and a pretty ride it is indeed) to Dexter, and then took the Dexter-Chelsea Road, which was a pleasant 6 miles through farmland and much flatter than I'd anticipated. I had a nice breakfast at Zou Zou's, a small restaurant in downtown Chelsea that caters to bicyclists (this is a very popular ride with the Ann Arbor Bike Touring Society, many of whose denizens passed me at high speeds along the route . . . sigh. I feel like the tortoise, alas . . . ). It's 20.89 miles from our door to Zou Zou's - and probably another five miles from there to Green Lake campground, which is one of the places I'm considering for my overnight bike trip. I didn't actually continue on to Green Lake, but I thought about it . . . (I'd really prefer to go to Crooked Lake but [a] Emil and I got lost trying to find it a while back, so I'm still not entirely sure where - and how far - it is, and [b] I think the roads to Green Lake are less trafficked.)

Anyhow, I got home at around 12:30, showered, and then Emil and I went to the last day of the Art Fez. The weather was perfect - hot, but not too hot, the crowds were manageable and entertaining (the people are the best part of the fez), and the art was fun.

We got home in time for me to rush off to the pool for a short dip before going to my friend Olivia's birthday party. The party was better than I'd expected; I thought I wouldn't know anyone, but as it turns out, most of the guests were our neighbors. That was pretty nifty.

Today started out with thunderstorms; I went to the grocery store in a downpour (we needed bacon for breakfast, so I couldn't really wait). We putzed around reading the paper and then went out and bought another scanner - this time with a service contract, since we've had such dismal luck with them . . . here's my first scan. (My browser scaled this down to 49% and I had to click the magnifying glass to see it properly - you have to be able to read the text within the image to understand why this is so darned funny.) I really hope this scanner sticks around for a while; I can see that I'm going to get a massive kick out of it . . .

Anyhow, then it was off to the pool, then home for dinner. I actually used the oven, albeit briefly and at low heat (to keep things warm for a bit), which seemed like just gross, uber-consumptionist, imperialist American extravagance on a scorcher like today . . . Now you know my weakness: Air conditioning. Thank god for air conditioning . . .