Once again decamping

Decamping* to my bedroom, as it's cooler than the living room. I think there are two factors in play here:

The bedroom is at the northeast corner of the house, and so when, as they say, the sun's over the yardarm, it's not shining on this side of the house. In the afternoons, especially late afternoon as the sun is low in the sky, my living room gets the full blast of the sun.

Also, my bedroom has, I think, three vents for the AC system, my living room only has two, and my living room is about 1 1/2 times the size of my bedroom. And I've got one vent mostly closed on the recommendation of the piano tuner, though I think he said really it was heat in the winter that's worse.

(*Heh. I don't camp, I de-camp. Maybe de-camping is even farther from "real" camping than "glamping" is - at a minimum, to be happy, I need a functional bathroom (ideally in the same vicinity as my bed and not requiring venturing outside in the dark), a place to lie down that is free of bugs, and temperatures cool enough to be comfortable. Camping here outdoors this week would be *awful* given how hot it is, and given that the low last night was about 80 F)

But yeah. I've got my stats book (going to try to do a couple more Pomodoros yet today), and I have the "Mr. Tumnus' house" ambient sounds (which reminds me of winter so hopefully will make me feel cooler, though another one I like is the Calming Ravenclaw common room, which is good for studying to and also gives you at least the illusion of there being a cat about).

And it was a good mail day. The yarn for my Ginny's Cardigan came and I am very pleased with the color, it is just right. (You can't always tell on a monitor; that's one risk of having to order stuff online). I don't know but that might be the next sweater I start....

And this:

See that word right there? FALL. Boom. It's going to be fall again some day. I just have to make it through a couple more months.

While I don't want ice or related, I do hope we have a somewhat-cold winter after this summer, and I have lots of opportunities to wear my knits.

Also, I did order a copy of "Pacific Knits" - I guess in addition to supporting the designers, some of the cost goes to Ravelry, which is nice. (There was a Bob sticker on the back of the mailer)

Yes, that's a baby on the front, but most of the designs are either multisized or in adult sizes. There's also an interesting pair of lace socks in there as well as the other stuff I noticed when I ordered it.

This is usually the time of year I start longing for fall. Not just because of the heat but because summer gets sort of tedious. I start thinking of making soup, or of casseroles, the kind of food that appeals in fall but not so much in summer. And I get tired of all my thin, light little dresses.

I also weary of the....immutability?....of the weather here. You can pretty much predict Summer with a few sentences:

Hot, humid, if there's rain it will be very spotty and in the late afternoon, high pressure will set in and it will be dry and miserably hot and you can't get away from the burning eye of the sun.

It wasn't like that in Ohio where we would get a couple hot weeks but then mercifully a cold front (and a genuine one, not what they call "cool" fronts here) would blow in across Lake Erie and we'd get a few days back into the 70s. (I don't remember it *ever* hitting 100 in Ohio when I was growing up. Maybe it got close a few times...here it's a regular occurrence)


I will say, despite the heat? I made a cup of my favorite tea (the peppermint-bark one, which is a mix of black and green teas, chocolate flavoring, and mint leaves) AND I PUT GOLDEN SYRUP IN IT. I had been drinking my tea unsugared for quite a while because of the blood work and this diet thing and today I just decided "forget it, today is a "cheat day" and did it.

That may be how I have to proceed with trying to lose some weight: eat very carefully (limiting processed carbohydrates, in particular, that seems to be the thing that is the biggest obstacle to me dropping weight) most days, and then one or two days a week eat how I'd like to eat (within reason, but I never went crazy even when I wasn't trying to restrict calories: a "cheat day" would likely mean I ate dessert and I had sugar in my tea and I ate more bread and didn't worry so much about stuffing in all the vegetables I'm supposed to)

That said, for the rest of the times? I found an herbal mint tea called "Buttermint" (mint leaves and vanilla flavoring) that is quite nice on its own, and also, no caffeine, so if I want it at night I can have it.