Caribs (us, not the Indians) use ovens 12 months of the year. I've never quite understood "light summer food". I'd have hot breakfast lunch and dinner all year round in the tropics if I could.

Thank you, Amy. No reason I needed that info...

And Jesse, that dessert thing is ADORABLE.

Caribs (us, not the Indians) use ovens 12 months of the year. I've never quite understood "light summer food".

I'm fine with eating hot food, or cooking it on the stove. It's just that my air conditioner is really not that strong, and turning on the oven raises the temperature of the whole apartment. I'll use the oven if it's a cool-ish day when I can open the windows and turn on the fans and be reasonably comfortable, but it doesn't look like we're going to have any of those days for a while.

I thought you guys would appreciate that.

My apartment is super hot. It's barely cool now, and it's 60 degrees out and I've had all the windows open all day.

This morning after he'd eaten his fill and I'd completed my walk, the one friendly alley cat (I shall name him Thomas O'Malley) hopped up on the steps next to me and meowed until I started petting him. One of the restaurant guys on my block says he's been living in the alley since he was a kitten, but he was clearly socialized with people early on if he wants affection as well as food/water.

Timelies all!

Friend of ours from Boston was in town visiting people and organized(sort of) a dinner mission tonight. He's staying with us through tomorrow.

Uh-oh. One of these days, Mister O'Malley'll follow you inside....

Jesse, do you have a fan you could put in one window to draw air through? That's how I cool things off when it gets cool enough at some point in the day. Leaving it in last night, it was actually chilly in my house in the morning.

ION, I found Pumpkin's chip in one of her intense cuddling sessions. I figure Loki's is buried under fat...

Jesse, do you have a fan you could put in one window to draw air through?

The problem overnight is that I only like to have one window (of four in the apartment) open. One is on the fire escape, and the one by my bed has a super loud compressor or some shit outside. The other one has the a/c in it. A day like today is no problem, but 75 degrees are sad because I end up with the a/c on half the time.

Jesse, that's a really sweet story. One of the things I really regret about the way my folks retired is that they left the area where they had some friends and moved a couple of times. And then my sister & I insisted they come out here, where the only people they knew were us.

As a result, they were almost completely socially isolated, as we hadn't realized how impossible it was for even Dad to connect with people, given how difficult Mom was. It's really lovely to see that your father continues to have social interaction with a lot of people.

Speaking of Dad, we got a lot of paperwork and medical stuff done today, and now I have book club but I'm exhausted. Bah.

I'm hoping my parents can stay in their city for as long as possibly as they've got a huge community there. Duh, they've been there 39 years!

eta: And they really love it there.

But it is nice knowing that I have senior apartments that are really community-driven, as well as higher levels of care, nearby, should they need to be closer to one of us. I figure my SIL will call dibs, and she's such a people person, she wouldn't let them isolate either.

I do think my parents are very good at socially engaging. Probably better than their daughter; I'm much better at it than I used to be, but sometimes their social calendar just sounds exhausting to me!

Uh-oh. One of these days, Mister O'Malley'll follow you inside....

I'm fine with that as long as he's OK with remaining an indoor/outdoor cat whose litter box is the great outdoors. I have exposed brick walls, hardwood floors, and mostly wood furniture, so my apartment has relatively little that's vulnerable to feline destruction.