I Capitulate

For the past two years, I've had my sister Aces's old a/c unit sitting in my living room. When she moved to AZ, it became one of the castoffs my mom gave me as she decluttered the house. I never put it in because 1) this house was built in 1914, with cross-ventilation as its primary design function and 2) in Cleveland you really don't need it. No, seriously--aside from my first apartment, I haven't had a/c since I moved here for college. And I think I ran that unit 3 times. Even the 4th of July in 1999, when it hit 100 degrees inside my bedroom in the second apartment and I left the house to go anywhere else, I haven't broken down on the a/c. There's maybe 10 really hot days a summer. It's not like NJ, where most of August is an ozone action day and I could barely breathe outside. And after a while, you get into the spirit of living in the heat. It's a lifestyle, like all that eating locally from farmers jazz.

You sleep a little less in summer, even with open windows. You get up earlier, when it's cool out. You drink lots of fluids, and forget to eat. You hang out outside on the porch. You run fans, and mist your sheets to that the evaporation cools you as you fall asleep. Put a bowl of ice in front of the fan for a little freshness. Or you take a bath or shower before retiring and just let the moistness lay on your skin. Sandals, skirts and a t-shirt. You wear lightweight, flower-colored clothes. Sometimes you sleep downstairs because it's cooler, or outside.

It was 87 degrees at 11am when I finished mowing the lawn, and after I finished my bath and book I put the a/c in the kitchen. I first tried it in the dining room last weekend, when it was also very hot and muggy out, but the outlet I plugged it in is dead and I was so tired from wrestling it that I gave up. But today! I plugged it in, it worked and I sat in front of it for 20 minutes. I even put Mencken in my lap and told him "See? It makes it cooler!" He was unimpressed. They are all still in the basement window.

It feels like the end of an era.

Cat Stories

I took Mencken to the vet yesterday. I planned to take both boys to the vet, but guess who seems to have gotten too big for the carrier? Yes, Mr. "I'm not fat! I'm a Fronch kitty", aka Sugar Cain.

Mencken weighs 13.8 pounds. He was paid many compliments on his nice looks and behavior, even though he cried the entire time he was in the car. It took 2 hours down at Gateway. I was exhausted. Lots of dogs.

Here's the story I sent some of you about last week's adventure:

oh, so i am taking that big broken dresser out to the street and i put cain in basement because he is so bad running outside all the time.

mencken has been very docile around the door. until now. he sees his chance and he is off like the races under the neighbor's car because who knows when he will get another chance?

i keep an eye on him. i try to sweet talk him. baby is in window with big eyes. cain is beside him, goading him. "do it for me, brother!"

he runs across neighbor's lawn into a bush. he thinks i can't see him, that i will lose interest and go home. parker comes running out from behind the garage and ducks into the bush and hisses, "i see you. i hiss at you. you are bad kitty! this is my yard! this is my street!"

i grab him. and as i am holding him rotten neighbor comes out of his house to make conversation about this. and as i hand mencken the compliment of being the smart (and shrewd) cat, he wrestles himself out of my arms, clawing me to pieces on my shoulder and all on my forearms, bleeding, bleeding, blood, and runs under the other neighbor's car.

it takes tuna this time.

For Cleveland Tea Lovers: Osiyo Teahouse

So Audax and I got together for tea here today. Selection of tea is A++, we had a knowledgeable server and the decor is lovely, but the prices are steep (pardon the pun). We rather thought that had Mrs. Ticklemore's been open, we'd have gotten more food for less dosh, even factoring in $6 for gas.

Party Time!

I have a copy of After Dinner Games: 40 Of The Greatest After Dinner Games, that I was going to sell, but since it only fetches 75 cents on half.com I decided to keep it. Well, that, and the suggestion that you should get your guests snockered and play "Are You There, Mr. Moriarty?" The rules of the game: 2 guests lay on the floor blindfolded and are given rolled up newspapers. They take turns calling out "Are you there, Mr. Moriarty?" to which they must answer yes, and then each tries to hit the other in the head with the newspaper! Super fun!

An Appreciation Of Miss Maud Silver

If you haven't tuned to PBS "Mystery!" in a while, they've been showing good stuff lately. First was a series called "Jericho" about coppers in 1950's London, and now they're running more of the new Miss Marple series. These are beautifully designed and shot, filled with great post war fashion and decor. Totally capitalizing on the mid-century modern craze, but Geraldine McEwan's Miss Marple is so delightfully sly. Genevieve and I want to spend our old-ladyhood solving mysteries and knocking back drinks while playing matchmaker. Also, I either don't remember the plots or they've reworked them to fit the post WW2 timeline and it's all new to me.

But what I wish they'd consider doing is reviving Patricia Wentworth's Miss Maud Silver. I went on a kick of reading these about 4 years ago. Thankfully CPL has quite the supply and even some reprints of really trippy non-mysteries she wrote before she created this mystery series. (Seriously--there's one that revolves around the identity of a possible heiress raised by a butler on a remote island after a shipwreck when she was an infant, and another that's a murder plot thwarted by a Loch Ness monster situation.) Miss Silver is a former governess turned professional detective, another old lady who knits and matches up the lovelorn. Wentworth's characterization is better than Christie's, and she does more with switching between points of view. Some of the plots are creepy dark and violent. My latest read, The Alington Inheritance was described by the Chicago Sunday Tribune as "realistic countryside drama of greed, desperation, and a thread of romance." Just what you need after a long day at work.

I'm kinda sad Mickey Spillane is dead. It makes me want to plug some devious broad in memorium.

Books Read

• Fitcher's Brides--Gregory Frost
• Cue The Easter Bunny--Liz Evans
• Not A Creature Was Stirring--Jane Haddam
• Neither Five Nor Three--Helen MacInnes
• The Venetian Affair--Helen MacInnes
• Anatomy of A Murder--Robert Travers

New Boy In Town

This morning I made the acquaintance of another cat in the neighborhood, an orange tabby I've named Benchley. Very tame, very affectionate. He was in my driveway and I stopped the car. He let me pet him, and then climbed in and made himself comfortable against the back window. I didn't think it wise to take him for coffee, so I let him off down the street and told him to go back to my house. And when I came back, there he was! He rubbed me while Cain screamed at him from behind the door. Then I went inside and they all had a staring contest.

What I've Read--The Mindless Avoidance Edition

• Locked Room--Laurie King
• The Headmaster's Wife--Jane Haddam
• Secrets of a Summer's Night--Lisa Kleypas
• True Believers--Jane Haddam
• Skeleton Key--Jane Haddam
• Hardscrabble Road--Jane Haddam
• My Latest Grievance--Elinor Lipman
• Uncle Andy's--James Warhola
• Superman, True Brit--Kim Johnson & John Cleese, et al.
• BAB, A Sub-Deb--Mary Roberts Rhinehart
• Conspiracy Theory--Jane Haddam
• Intuition--Allegra Goodman
• It's Like This, Cat--Emily Neville
• Somebody Else's Music--Jane Haddam
• Charmed to Death--Shirley Damsgaard
• Show Her The Money--Stephanie Feagan
• The Scarlet Pimpernel--Baroness Orczy
• Parker Pyne Investigates--Agatha Christie
• Double Down--Tess Hudson

Apologies, Everyone

I've been having a combination of computer troubles, real life and travel that has interrupted the whole blogging thing. In various news:

• Sidecar: He spent much of May and June at the Petsmart. He was also adopted! But the woman returned him after a week because her cat wouldn't adjust to him. Sigh. Not his fault. So he's back with me, still lovely, still well-mannered, and even sweeter--although he still runs away from noise and sharp movements, he has decided that he likes being petted and will come to me and nudge my hand until I comply. He even wants belly rubs! It's amazing! He is also an excellent and vicious fly-catcher.
• The house: Well, I got the furnace serviced for fall, the Cleveland Restoration Society out for advice (and really, they had none) and someone to look at jacking up the concrete steps in back. The answer is that it can't be done. I was so excited. I also painted the closet, a project I started last September. Now it's becoming clear that I need to get the apple trees removed. They are too big for the space and planted too close to the house. Joy. I also bought a lawnmower this weekend, and easy-start mower that I could assemble....but not start. Well, after half an hour I got it started, but now it starts then dies. Splendid. Next project for the indoors is to paint my bedroom. Outside--who knows? I need to buy some stones to landscape the front bed. The garden is doing very well these days. I have little peppers and a tomato and too much sage.
• What else? Work is work. I've read lots, and am bursting with opinion. The neighbors are annoying. I visited Genevieve over Bloomsday weekend and had a wonderful time. It was the most relaxed I've been in forever. Still haven't bought a computer, but am considering a deal that gets me an ipod nano and a Mac Book for $1100. Bless that student discount.
• School: I need to visit my advisor and find a paper topic/practicum for fall. Then I am done.
• Future: One of the things I've been doing inside the house is freecycling and donating like mad, and putting aside some of the furniture to sell. I graduate in December, and then I'm going to sell the house and do heaven knows what. I love my house--I love the excellent light, tons of windows, the hardwood floors, the back balcony--but I don't love the upkeep and expense. And it's too much room for one woman and two or three cats. I'd like to be free of it. It took a lot of feeling around the emotions that are tied to this place to come to that conclusion though. And considering that the house down the street that I think is very nice has been on the market for 9 months and is currently listed for $15,000 under its purchase price of last year, I'm not sure how it all will work out.