It’s the first morning in weeks that I’ve been able to take the newspaper and coffee outdoors and enjoy them by the pond.  It’s even nicer than before since I put the canopies over it to give the fish some shade.  Yeah, the tent poles and ropes may not be particularly aesthetic, but it’s kind of cool to have this fabric floating in the wind over my head.  Now I just need some guys in loincloths with giant feather fans, maybe someone playing the lyre, and a juggler. . .heh.

OK, I think that houseflies are probably the most disgusting creature on the planet.  I start off my opinion of them with general loathing.  Now I also hate and despise them.  We had to leave the beach today after a very short time because they were swarming all over us and biting.  I don’t know why us – there were plenty of people on the beach, they could have spread the love somewhere else, but at one point while my hands were full of beach stuff, there were at least a dozen on each of my legs having a feast.  All I can hope is that I wasn’t dessert after a main course of dog poop.  Gag!

So, yesterday we barely left the house.  I was a useless vegetable most of the day, playing with my sims, doing some cleaning up around the house, but today there was no avoiding going outside, because we have friends visiting, and that means. . .BEACH TRIP!!!

Even at the beach, the heat and humidity were miserable.  The breeze was coming off the bay, too, which meant biting flies, and I couldn’t go in the water, either.  Ick.  Well, it was still a nice beach day, and we came home for dinner, then took the kids out for rides and fireworks.  Now we have five girls strewn about the floor of the family room – I hope they fall asleep sometime before it’s time to wake up.  We might try to hit the beach again tomorrow before everyone has to leave. 

At least one fish has bit the dust, probably in good part because of the heat, so the girls have been throwing ice cubes into the pond.  We’re going to have to keep an eye on it so we don’t have really icky stuff going on in the water.  The plants I planted, even with Soil Moist around the root balls, are drooping miserably.  The neighborhood is quiet – even the people with pools are staying indoors.  Horrible, horrible stuff.  I feel really bad for the people who can’t escape this.