The Heat, it is oppressive.

I am being forced to prepare for a vacation an entire WEEK before the trip will actually take place! What with work and a rather last-minute weekend trip to Arkansas for a wedding, I am actually thinking about packing, doing laundry and getting the house cleaned an entire seven days before departure.

This is just WRONG. In fact, when it comes down to it, I'm pretty sure all the shock of preparing entirely too early for a trip will cause me to become paralyzed until I end up just staying awake half the night right before we leave for Oregon doing all those things I have on my list for today and tomorrow.

Speaking of my to-do list, John and I did get one thing done last Sunday (of all things! that's about a week and a half too early!). Central Market has a delightful assortment of wheat and soy-free snack bars and bulk trail mixes - perfect for days of hiking or driving around.

Oh, I am looking forward to being in a place where the heat index is not 110 degrees!

It is most unfortunate that soup and crock-pot recipes are the easiest, cheapest things to cook up at home. Because who wants to have soup for dinner when all you want to do is sit in a tub of ice cubes while munching on a half-gallon of chocolate, coconut, pecan ice cream?

No one. That's who.

I confess I have forced the issue several times already this summer, but the money I'm saving in a pot of soup is, in all likelihood, being replaced (or exceeded) by the extra money spent turning the air conditioner down to 70 in order to enjoy the soup. There are only so many salads you can eat, you know?

Maybe we'll just start having ice cream for dinner. Or, in my case, some Coconut Bliss frozen dessert.

P.S. With the heat and humidity come the mosquitoes. In some strange defiance of logic, I have a mosquito bite on the bottom of my foot! There is no getting around it: if you have to walk, it's going to itch. And it is nigh impossible to scratch the bottom of your foot. Come to think of it, it is not really that improbable to have a mosquito bite the sole of my foot seeing as I run around barefoot outside much more than my mother would approve of. It is just too hot to put anything on my feet. (Or I'm too lazy to go find my shoes when the need to go outdoors arises. Whatever.)