In the Hot Zone

Today it was about 106 degrees outside. If we were normal people, we would hide out in our air-conditioned home. Unfortunately, our abnormal air conditioning situation keeps our apartment comparable to the great outdoors. We live in the upstairs portion of an older house, so there is no central air. We have window units in each of the bedrooms (one of which we use for our computer room/library). Several months ago we bought a swamp cooler to cool off the living room. It keeps the air circulating but doesn't really cool off the room. Finally we decided to take matters into our own hands. Roy retrieved a window unit we had in storage and "installed" it in the kitchen. By installed, I mean he put it on a table, pushed the back of it out the window, and tied it down so it wouldn't fall out the window. Oh, and he also taped up the rest of the open window with cardboard. The word "ghetto-fabulous" comes to mind. (I call it one word because it's hypenated.) Check it out:



Yes, those are books and magazines propping up the unit. Nice, huh? It does a good job cooling down the kitchen, naturally. However, the living room is still toasty. I figure that this is a character-building experience. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

In other news, we went out to escape the heat and to see Stardust. However, upon getting to the movie theatre, we realized that we really shouldn't be spending money on movies right now. That is how broke we are, my friends. Instead we went to Target and bought a few necessary items with gift cards left over from the wedding.

I also finished reading Memories of my Melancholy Whores. It took me a little over a day to read it. I am a huge fan of the 3 Marquez books I have read, but this one was not nearly as good, in my opinion. Reading this book made me realize how long it has been since a book has come along and absolutely swept me off my feet. I miss the feeling of being absolutely satisfied by a book.

I can't believe it's already September! Kerwin is also alarmed by how fast time is going by:



Roy and Woogas are both pretty zen about the whole thing:



Happy September! Let's hear it for the end of summer (but apparently not the end of the heat).