ChiKat, I was gonna pimp the Forester! I don't have one, but my friend does and it's niiiiiiiiice.

I got a Forester last September, and I'm still VERY pleased with it

See? Forester gooood.

Also, ~30 MPG highway according to EPA

Mine's more like 23MPG city, 26/27MPG highway. Not tragic, but not as good as that. I also have an older model than Theo. Mine's a 2003.

I wish there was a place that sold really good hamburgers on the way home from work, because that's what I want to have for dinner.

I don't think there is though.

Jeez, sara. It's 60 here!

In other annoying news, I'm going to the suburbs for a party this weekend, one friend has offered to drive, and it's somehow becoming drama. I think driving is crazy, but if she wants to pick me up and drop me home, she can feel free! Why is this turning into group decision-making?!? I swear to god, this is the last thing I do with more than three other people.

Oh, sarameg! No! If you need something strange that really does work, take a baseball cap and put it on. Then, slide an ice cube under the hat so it sits on your head and melts its cool loveliness on you.

I learned this during my first full summer in Chicago when it was the worst heat wave in recorded history and I didn't have air conditioning.

Some people around here may remember the summer of 2002 when I admitted that I sat wearing a bag of frozen peas on my head when I was at home . (AC broke for the first time.) It's actually not that bad, my feet just get hot. The rest of me is moderately adjusted.

This heat is supposed to pass sometime tomorrow.

But they fucking will fix my ac. And I may present my electric bill this month to corporate.

Some people around here may remember the summer of 2002 when I admitted that I sat wearing a bag of frozen peas on my head when I was at home . (AC broke for the first time.) It's actually not that bad, my feet just get hot. The rest of me is moderately adjusted.

Little trick courtesy of the red kangaroo (and my mother): run cold water into a basin, and put your hands and wrists in. Because the blood vessels are close to the surface of your skin there, doing this will cool the blood, which then gets carried around your body and helps cool the rest of you.

Of course, any other cooling agent such as the bag of frozen peas can likewise be applied to the wrists.

Yep, I've done that too. Coldpack around the neck helps too. The reverse (hot) works well in winter too. Same principle, reverse effect.

OK, so I'm watching the Frontline thing on AIDS. And I just saw a President actually RESPOND to the charges of a heckler, taking responsibility, not making glib, looking tormented and saddened to admit fault. And admitting failure. Not a President I was particularly pleased with a lot of the time, but THAT was accountability. God, I miss that.

I have Targeted. I have a memory foam pillow and a home planaterium. WHEE!

I also have pizza slices and I need to eat those.

msbelle, have you ever a desire to make a special field trip in NM to a real live telescope, I can hook you big time.

OH! Speaking of which, my dad had a Tale from the Telescope. Often in the evenings, they open up the ops building (it doesn't have ac but for the computer room) including the doors. An observer wandered out of the control room to see... a Very Large black bear walking into the foyer.

Oops. It turned and left upon seeing the human but OMGWTF! Foyer opens immediately into a common kitchen and living room area. Had the observer not come out, it'd likely have been a kitchen raid. I told him they need to get a screen door or something.

not that a screen door would do much to deter a black bear that smelled food.

No telescope, but thanks. NYC skies don't so much work for telescopes - not that I have any knowledge of that.