Ghana beat la Republica Checa? That's hot. (I get the World Cup schedule from the chalkboard outside the Mexican bar.)

So you know how when you launder pillows and comforters, they tell you to throw a couple of tennis balls in the drier?

...Where do people get tennis balls? Am I imagining the fact that they used to sell tennis balls in grocery/drug stores in the summer? Cheap ones, sure, but I'm not going to play tennis with them anyway. I hit a lot of stores today -- I wasn't just looking for tennis balls, but I did look for them while I was out. Nobody sells them anymore. Do I have to go to the Sports Authority to do laundry? Does everyone just have tennis balls, like they spontaneously generate? Do Allen wrenches hatch into if you leave them in a dark closet for long enough, so nobody needs to buy them? Does nobody launder pillows anymore, so it doesn't come up? I even looked in the laundry aisle to see if maybe there was some new, high-tech thing people use nowadays, with microchips and fluff-sensing technology. But no. I looked in the pet-toy aisle, thinking there'd be some tennis-ball-like object that would work, but everything there is made of plastic or rawhide.

It's the most minor of problems, but it vexes.

Although it might explain why the tennis court behind my building is always deserted.

Target, or costco, or maybe even Longs or Walgreen's type stores.

You can also steal tennis balls from tennis championships. This might not fit with your timeline or travel budget, though.

Where do people get tennis balls?

They're suprisingly widely available. I've gotten then at Walgreens, the hardware store and the corner store. 7-11 would have them. Sporting Goods stores, obviously. Try a big drugstore - I'm sure they'd have them.

Strega, if your sneakers are clean, throw them in. I wash the kids' sneakers when I'm washing the comforters or pillows.

I have a cold and cannot smell anything. Not even the chicken I put in the slow cooker last night, which I almost forgot about entirely. Instead of doing anything constructive today, I read about wank, watered the plants, and watched What Not To Wear.

I'm hoping that the snotmonster will go away by tomorrow morning so I can drive back to Michigan for Father's Day.

Best wishes to you and to your family in this difficult time, Zenkitty.

I swear to you, I've looked in drugstores, grocery stores, dollar stores, and the sporting-good section of some department store I can't recall the name of. It's a conspiracy!

Hardware stores didn't occur to me, though. Next time I get filters for the AC I'll look. The sneaker idea is a good one, too. I have a cheap pair that I only really wear on the Nordictrack so they're not ooky.

This has been your first-world crisis for the day. Now I will make a mojito!

They sell plastic spikey balls at BB&B as non-chemical fabric softeners, I bet those would work.

I am hot and sweaty. I think a shower is in order. Then a cold beverage.