I found a delightful new diary today--weetabix. She's great. I've been reading her archives and nodding my head furiously.

It was freakin' hot today. Portland doesn't get too hot as a rule, so when we have a 90+ degree day, everyone sits up and takes notice. Or rather, we lie around with our tongues hanging out of our mouths like overheated dogs while we piss and moan about the heat.

It's not like we're in Fort Worth or Cleveland or something. No, we're just a bunch of pantywaisted, pale-as-a-mushroom, web-toed, rusted Oregonians looking around with bewildered expressions at the big hot glowing thing in the sky.

I wanted to do lots of things today but it was just too hot and so I could do nothing except sit around and comment on how hot and sweaty I felt. Oh, and I took a nap. Naps are good. Especially on hot days.

Tonight was bookgroup night. Our numbers were few--only five. I'm having something of a dilemma. My sister's best friend moved here and I invited her to be in bookgroup. She excitedly came but then after a few sessions, chose not to read a book that she didn't like the name of (The Virgin Suicides), then missed a few more times, then said she was taking the summer off and would be back in September when she expected to be able to present book titles and then host two months later. She hasn't been in contact with me at all to find out what the books are that we're reading or anything. She's a very fundamentalist Christian--Pentacostal, in fact--and while she's extremely nice and social, I'm just kind of thinking that she's not going to work very well with the group. She nixes books that she thinks she won't like and she takes seasons off (we don't do that, as a rule). But how do you uninvite someone from a group? And she's my sister's best friend. I just don't know what to do. What I want is for her to just offer to leave so I don't have to do anything. I keep thinking that if we choose enough books that don't appeal to her, she'll leave of her own accord. I wonder how much she'll like Pope Joan and Me Talk Pretty One Day. Maybe we can get some more suicide books going--she was sure she'd have hated that one. Why am I such a wimp about stuff that?

Our discussion tonight was on Guterson's East Side of the Mountain. I found the book to be a disappointment. I *loved* his Snow Falling on Cedars but this book, while very well written, was not compelling and didn't pull me in at all. I couldn't even finish it--I had to skim to catch up. It just didn't interest me. I think Pope Joan will be much more interesting.

Ed painted the inside of Joey's playhouse and tomorrow we'll put the tiles on the floor and clean out her closet so we can put in the organizer. We're going to redo her room. Gone will be the ballerinas. Instead, we'll have Amazonian Rain Forest. She's absolutely certain about that. Parrots and vines and monkeys. No snakes.

Now is the time in Lobotomyland when we eat a bowl of cereal before going to bed. Ta!

--L