At least an hour of heavy rain in the middle of the night! I didn't sleep very well, was reading until almost midnight and then woke up during the thunder and lightning.

Zoe was acting a little better last night after being pretty sick for 24 hours or so. We were sure she was on her last legs, but Ray says she wagged her tail this morning.

Slept even later this morning, 6:45. Ray had taken Cameron with him, but Zoe seems to be ill. She is old and may be dying...she wouldn't eat a biscuit when he offered it. I picked a few blueberries, but they are about to decline... we may have to go pay to pick some somewhere so we can freeze some.

After breakfast and bath (the secret of life), took Mom to yoga. Ray waited while I went in at my office and got the smoke alarms that had to be returned to Lowe's. Stopped downtown to pay my fine for my speeding ticket ($170!), just before the deadline. Court date was July 1. I had to go through a metal detector to get into the building, as I have done many times. They said, "do you have a metal nail file in here?" "Yes." "Well, you'll have to take it back outside." "Can't I just leave it here--I'm only going to be a few minutes, I just have to pay a fine." "No, if you leave it in the building, we will confiscate it and throw it away." Jeez, I have brought that same purse with the same nail file in this building many times... I went outside and set it on a ledge, then went back in, through the metal detector again...paid my fine, and left, picking up my nail file on the way.

Dropped Ray in front of his building, drove out to Lowe's and returned the smoke detectors. I bought a couple books for myself, no willpower: Vegetable Gardening in Georgia and Backyard Chickens. I felt a little decadent, but I am sure we will enjoy them.

Back to the office, spent some time recoding the QuickBooks entries and hoping that they will be acceptable. Went to Kroger and bought lots of milk, fruit and some other things for the residents, including baby wipes and dishwashing liquid. I left a little early to take a reimbursement request to HED and a grant report to United Way. Logged a few miles today for work. It was hot.

Then I went to see my counselor, Robyn. I really like her and I am always torn about going to her, because I would like to be friends, but you can't be friends with your counselor. On the other hand, it is great to have someone to talk to and feel completely comfortable with. She doesn't patronize me, she knows I know the drill. And she is not the non-committal, stereotypical: how do you feel about that? (although she did ask me that once today). I didn't really know where to start, so I started talking about my Dad when we were growing up and on through about a year ago, talking some about my kids, and my visits to France. She agreed I needed to cover the background and next week I will talk more about right now. At one point, I said I should write a book, but it seems like a lot of work. She said it might be therapeutic...I might be getting closer to doing it. The other day I took a pen and a pad and sat down to write, but the pen didn't work! I took that as a sign and read instead... Sigh.

Now I am home and I realize I have been writing about today instead of yesterday, so I will have nothing to say if I have time to write tomorrow...and I have lost yesterday entirely.

Well, I did go to a new doctor yesterday for a physical. I liked her. She is Jeanne Marie Martin and her partner is Melissa Martin, but they are not related! I waited more than 30 minutes and there were lots of screaming babies and she doesn't do gynecological exams, so I will have to get another doctor for that. But I liked her, so I guess that's good. Also the office was too cold and when I mentioned it to the clerk, she said, "just step outside." That's the point--it isn't healthy to have it too cold inside to make too much of a contrast...

Slept until 6:30 this morning; jumped up and said, "oh, I better wake up Ray." but he was already up. Went to sleep about 10, so don't know why I slept so much. It didn't make me feel cheerful, but sort of groggy.

On Sunday, we had a good presentation by Kate and Dan about Buddhism and the choir did well with its song by Brian Tate. We had 4th Sunday lunch. Ray and I talked about driving up north somewhere to find a cooler place to swim in a lake. In the end, we just went to Legion Pool for the afternoon.

After supper, we went to Despy Karlas' memorial service. It was not that sad; she was 91 and had a good life as a concert pianist. The service featured recordings of her playing some of her favorite pieces: Debussy, Chopin, Scarlatti. And several very eloquent people told things about her. She remarried in her 70s and they appeared to be very happy. She became grandma to his young grandchildren in Sweden. I was a little jealous, not of her playing ability, but of the admiration and respect expressed. Saw lots of people from the community and ate some wonderful little desserts: chocolate mousse and lemon tarts from Lindsey's.

Picked some more blueberries and had them with granola and milk for breakfast. yum. Also blackberries are falling off the bushes and onto the ground, because it's too hot and humid to pick them all. Walked the dogs out to the mailbox; Cameron has hurt his foot. He was fine at first and then about halfway started limping, holding his left hind foot up while he walked along. Halfway home, he sat down for a while. This started a couple days ago. He ran off after a deer and came back limping. The Captain has examined his foot and didn't find anything obviously wrong.

I made some ginger cookies from one of my make-ahead cookbooks. You mix them up and roll them into balls and freeze them to bake later. So they are ready to bake if we have any days that we want to turn the oven on.

Then it was time for Pilates--only 5 of us this time and Cathleen was in our class! That was fun. Then a quick visit to the farmers' market (they close at noon). We got onions and scallions, potatoes, bread and some grass-fed ground beef.

Lunch: iced tea, fresh bread from the market (multi-grain baguette from Luna), a little salami and cheese and tomato from the garden, as well as corn on the cob (from the market)! yum.

Then Vanessa and I went to the mall and she bought two bathing suits. I tried on one that looked okay, but it was $93 for the top and $45 for the bottom! I didn't love it that much!

A little later, Ray and I zoomed downtown. It's Athfest, but too hot to stand around outside and listen to music. We did go to a screening of Pushin' Up Daisies, a local movie with some of our friends in it (Kelly, Allen, Lisa). It was quite funny and strange; a faux-documentary shot in Crawfordville and Washington, GA, involving zombies...

Then we rushed home again to pick up the Captain and Vanessa. We went to the Land Trust fund-raiser at the Botanical Gardens. It was really nice and we knew a lot of people there who chatted with us. Hors d'oeuvres from Farm 255, wine from Gosford Wine (Cabernet Sauvignon was delicious). My favorite entertainment: the silent auction. Sometimes I have trouble finding things to bid on, that are good values and I like them. This one was great, lots that I wanted that was a good bargain, although as the night went on, most of my things got bidded up too high (which is good for the organization). One thing I don't really understand, why people would buy a $75 gift certificate for $100...I know it is a way to help the cause and a compliment to the donor, but I don't really get it. I did get a week at Amelia Island for only $1000 and 2 nights at Tybee! Oops...hope I can still pay the mortgage in a few days, bad timing.

When we arrived, there was a lovely piece of green fabric hanging down from somewhere near the ceiling (which is very high at the botanical gardens). I thought it was part of the decorations, but no, it was part of the entertainment. Two different "dancers" climbed up and twisted themselves around for our amusement, in time to live music. It was quite amazing and this picture does not do it justice.

We left before 10, a reasonable time, and slept well.

Really hot--100 degrees. Thunder and lightning for hours, but I don't think there was enough rain to measure. The dogs were nervous.

At work, I attended a training about financial management. The trainer was good and knowledgeable, although most of the information was review for me. Reassuring, but not very helpful. It kind of made me want to be a professor...Mailed off applications for dental insurance for three employees including me. Went to the Food Bank with Clay, who carried a heavy box for me. They had some good stuff, but were clearing the floor to take inventory, so did not have everything we needed. It was 2:30 when I got back, though, and so hot, I really didn't want to go to the grocery store to buy more stuff. They have milk and bread, so they won't starve.

When I left, it seemed too hot and I was too tired to even go to the pool. Ray and I stopped at the library and he picked out some good-looking mindless things for me to read. I think that is the correct response to the weather--hole up in the air conditioning and read until it gets cooler.

Managed to pull myself together after an hour in the cool and make some supper, which I thought was good but Ray didn't like, although he managed to choke it down. There was a sauce with orange juice and he said you know I don't like citrus sauces...I said no I don't. Maybe I'll remember next time. Watched some TV, but my back started threatening to do its thing--maybe I should have gone to the pool after all. I lay down and went to sleep and it is somewhat better this morning, but makes me a little nervous. I hope pilates will help.

I slept late this morning, because I had trouble falling asleep last night. So no time for blogging this morning.

The heat continues to be incredible, hitting 100 at times. The pool was kind of warm and not that nice, but still probably better than not going to the pool. Ray played with his little friend Lily and her friend Ireland and their brothers. The Moms watched happily. Went home to pick up my Mom and Dad and brought them too. The whole process took about an hour, but actually what else was I going to do with my time? Too hot for anything, no energy. Ate a Good Humor Oreo bar.

Ray had a Democratic Committee meeting, so he ate some leftovers early. We ate leftovers too and then he had cucumbers and cherry tomatoes with onions and olives and dressing when he got home. I wonder if I could live on that?

Big family meeting; my parents are considering a variety of ideas for where they will live next, but some of them require a waiting period and they wanted to be sure it was okay if they stayed here a while longer, as well as what we could do to make everything go smoothly.

I was pretty grumpy yesterday. A woman from an insurance agency came to meet with me. Then Maureen, the CPA from the Board showed up. She wants me to go back through January 2009 and recode all the QuickBooks entries. She admits that she's a little compulsive, but as a CPA she has to be. She talks about keeping Maureen happy... I do appreciate her expertise, but I'm not sure how long it will take me.

I told her I had a lunch appointment and I know she was disappointed. Then Becky was late and I was starving and ate a lot of chips and cheese dip and a shrimp burrito and rice. Then I felt kind of gross for awhile. When I went back to the office, there was an email from the Treasurer that the financial statement didn't seem right. I made some changes and called her to talk about it. At 3, met some of the members of the Democratic committee at a building they are thinking of renting for headquarters starting in /august. It needs a lot of work, someone had started some interior demolition and taken down the walls, so there are exposed wires and holes in the ceiling. So we didn't go swimming.

I was pretty antisocial at potluck. Singing helped, but this is the last rehearsal until August. There was a sort of party afterward and more stuff to eat. I tried to be moderate...Thomas, our wonderful pianist, is moving to NY with his partner in August. He has never been there and doesn't know anything about it.