Hot!

It has been HOT here. Our apartment windows face south and west, and we dressed them (actually, the wonderfully efficient and high-energy Big Cooks dressed them) when we moved in during the winter, so they are wearing white gauzy curtains designed to let as much sunlight in as possible. In the late afternoon, the apartment is ablaze with sunshine, and the temperature reaches what feels like a good 20 degrees above the temperature outside. We've been preparing food in advance, in order to avoid cooking in the kitchen during the Hot Zone, and we had one picnic dinner in the park, with fountain-romping. Portland has lots of fantastic interactive-type fountains, and Dutch loves them. She was wearing swimtrunks and sandals, and I was amazed by how powerful gender conventions are - whenever I saw her, I had to remind myself that she's not a boy. She has longish hair, and of course I am the world expert on her nether regions (a title I will be happy to relinquish) and am pretty clear on her gender, but the fact that she was wearing swimshorts and not a girl swimsuit nearly counterbalanced that knowledge.

Anyway, it's been hot. Horribly, can't-sleep, wish-I-had-air-conditioning-screw-global-warming hot. But it's getting better - today was in the mid-90s and we all felt cool and relaxed. And just now we had a mini-thunder-storm with actual rain!