It's Too Darn Hot, 110 in the Shade, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof...

Can you tell my background is in theatre?

You know it's ridiculously hot when you wear clinical strength deodorant and it fails. Yikes! With the holiday weekend here, we are planning on spending some of it at the lake house with Michael's dad and stepmom and some good family friends. Well, ok, Billa and I will spend only one day because going to the lake really wears me out and I need a day to recover from the sun and the stress.

Truth be told, I am not a fan of natural water, especially water in which you cannot see or touch the bottom. Not only that, but I get stuck with baby watching duty the whole time since everybody inevtiably does one of two things: 1) ride jet skis or 2) lay out. Being redheaded, I can't lay out if I want to live to see 50 (my goal is 105 folks, so skincare is important!) and I absolutlely hate jet skis (they're disgusting abominations for the environment). Soooo...given that there isn't really anything else to do, well, being so near a large body of water and the mother of a small toddler who runs faster than Speedy Gonzalez makes for a nightmare scenario in my book. Billa and I will most likely be inside the lake house staying out of the sun and the heat anyway, and I don't see the point in spending a whole weekend doing that somewhere else when I could be doing it in the comfort of my own home, which I would be doing anyway. Plus, I don't want to burn anyone's retinas with my awesome blindingly white legs or pudgy fat ass and waistline. Ugh. THAT is a whole 'nother can of worms we just won't open tonight!

I will enjoy seeing everyone though and since there are only two jet skis, perhaps I might enjoy myself a bit more since there will be more hands to take, er...ENJOY the baby :o) And who knows, maybe it will be cool enough to sit on the porch instead of in the house. Lake breezes do wonders, I hear.

My holiday weekend actually started this afternoon; my office is closed tomorrow and they let us all out early today, so Michael and I went and saw Transformers, which was freaking awesome. I know a lot of people are tearing it up in the press, but seriously, folks, if I'm going to drop $20 on a pair of movie tickets, I want to be ENTERTAINED. I'd prefer to watch an Oscar worthy movie in the comfort of my own home with a glass of wine and thankful that I don't have to the share the viewing experience with some bloody idiot who is too dumb to appreciate a fine cinematic performance. Because inevitably, there is always THAT GUY in the theatre who is loud, obnoxious, and just doesn't get it. I'd rather spend the $20 on a nice bottle of red and the rental and have a far better time of it.

Tomorrow my friend Julia is bringing her kids over for a playdate of sorts. Her son Alexander is about the same age as Billa and Mathilda is 6. Mathilda (who happens to be my godsister since my folks are her godparents) and I are going to be baking while the little ones play together. And Julia and I will be catching up on everything all the while. Julia is a dear friend from high school who was one of the advisors for my Explorer Post and we have been on many a camping trip together. She's seen me at my worst (crouching bootless on a rock in the middle of a freezing river in Colorado panicking over having lost one of my boots in the aforementioned river...that's also a story for another time!) and at my weirdest (being on the same said camping trip wearing teeny little buns all over my head...or sitting on top of my backpack with banana chips over my eyes singing I'm a Little Teapot during one particularly grueling trip). Yes, a friend that witnesses that and hasn't run screaming for the hills is definitely a friend for life.

We've got a busy weekend and I hope that all of you will have ann equally funfilled weekend too. Happy (safe) Fourth of July, y'all!

Patriotically yours,
Kelly & the Gang