The Tour D'Air Conditioners 2011

I live in a house with no central air. The majority of the time, this is not an issue. A few well placed window air conditioners and I can survive the summer (by well placed I mean in my room. I cannot sleep in a hot room).

This year, the window units have not been enough. Like most of the midsection of the country, Milwaukee is experiencing a nasty heatwave. Temperatures in the 90s and heat indexes in the 100s. Add in our usual humidity and you have an uncomfortable situation all the way around.

Our usual trusty window AC is working overtime and only manages to cool our room to 82 at any given time. And in case you were wondering 82 is not cool. The situation downstairs is not much better. The living room and dining room have french windows which are incompatible with window units. The strategically placed fans do nothing but circulate the already hot air.

The only solution I can come up with to keep the family cool is to leave the house. Tuesday we went to the in-laws house conveniently equipped with central air. The Lion cub napped there while my sister-in-law and I took Bunny and the cousins to the pool.

Yesterday there was a tour of local establishments with air conditioning: the bank, the library, the mall and the grocery store. Normally I loathe grocery shopping with children but it was my favorite stop yesterday. Why the change? Freezer cases! I think we found an excuse to open every one to look for waffles, pizza, ice cream and popsicles.

Today the kids are visiting their grandma. I have taken my laptop and retreated to the safety (and air conditioning) of the local coffee shop. I haven't ruled out a trip to the movies either.

Tomorrow will bring some relief with a forecasted high of 82 (yay!). We may even be able to turn off a fan or two.

Whirlwind

My life is typically boring. I have a routine that gets me through the week. The weekends are usually spent with family time. We rarely have any engagements or special events. Even in the summertime when weddings, barbeques and vacations usually clutter the calendar, ours is relatively clear.

But for some reason, we are busy this summer. And everything we have to do is crammed into the month of July. A family reunion was followed immediately by a trip to a circus carnival, followed by a barbeque.

We will then add parties and concerts to the mix. Saturday will bring us to the triple bill of Poison, Def Lepard and Cheap Trick (admit it you are so jealous). Sunday a garden party at the Zoo for my husband's company's annual meeting. Then a concert on Tuesday with the annual meeting featuring ... Kool and the Gang and ... Danny Gokey (and now you are even more jealous of me).

Then I'm off to BlogHer and LobbyCon on Thursday for a fun filled weekend of meeting and greeting a bunch of really cool bloggers. There will be all sorts of cool parties and events to go to. I am really excited.

To finish off July and usher in August, we all jet off to New York City to visit our very best friends.

And then we come home and pass out.

Summer Camp, But Why Mommy Style

Who knew that going to the park could get boring? That playing on the playground could become a chore? Who knew that running and jumping could tire you out?


Its summer. (Well technically not summer and it sure doesn't feel like summer here) We are already on our summer schedule activities, gymnastics, play dates, park visits and trips to the zoo. I didn't schedule too much because she's only 3 1/2 and if I'm being honest, I kinda forgot to sign up for some things.

But we've been doing these for a while now and it seems kind of boring. So I'm looking for other activities to break up the routine. I thought even if she's not going to camp, we could have our own camp.

On the schedule are

Nature walks


Map reading


Arts and Crafts




Gardening and landscaping (plus less work for me)*


Trips to the beach*



And most importantly, swimming*


*Note these are pictures from last summer because we haven't actually done this stuff yet.

Summertime and the Living Is Easy

It is officially summertime here in Sconnie. 80 degrees, 80% humidity and random thunderstorms. Check, check and check.

Yesterday Bunny and I decided to lounge by the pool in the afternoon. She and her dinos went for a dip while I relaxed in the shade of an apple tree. It was beautiful. I lounged on the deck in my chair, drank fresh squeezed lemondade, caught up on my reading and occasionally dipped a toe in the pool.

Or at least that's how it went in my head. In reality I dragged her little blue plastic pool out into the back yard and filled it with water from the hose. I then grabbed a blanket,threw it on the grass and plunked down. There was no fresh squeezed lemonade, only tap water. Bunny did have fun with her dinos but there was the occasional freak out of "Mommy I don't like flies". While I repeatedly coated myself and her with mosquito repellant. Only it didn't repel the mosquitos, they actually seemed to like it. I finally resorted to squirting the mosquitos with the bug spray if only to annoy them in a futile attempt to keep them away from us.

Last night I lay in bed counting my bites. I had 10 on my right leg and about 4 on my left. And I realized the solution to our problem, move. But since a move doesn't seem to be on the horizon, we'll put the pool on the driveway next time surrounded by 1 million citronella candles.