Good news! I’ve finally come to terms with the whole June thing, which means that I can now sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of the month. So talk freely, friends, and don’t worry about pushing me into the arms of a nervous breakdown by mentioning June in the present tense. I’m not ready to think about July yet, so good thing July is far, far away, huh?

Anyway, hi. How are you? Did your family survive the temperature spikes that broke records all over the US last week? (Things I never thought I’d say in June: “Whew! I’m glad it’s only going to be 98 degrees today!”)

Except for the multiple near-death experiences I had last week when I checked the temperature and found out it was three digits long, our summer has actually been going reasonably well. So far I/we:

- Deleted my Twitter account, because Twitter is stupid, as I suspected it was. (If you happen to use and love Twitter, don’t take that as an insult. It’s not that I think that Tweeting is incompatible with being an intelligent, capable person; I just don’t understand why you’d want to communicate in blips of 140 characters when email and blogging and even the phone are available options. A differing of personal preferences. That’s all.)

- Went to Florida for a week to visit family. The kids loved the beach, but were sadly unable to tunnel to China, which is what they appeared to be trying to do with their collection of flimsy plastic shovels of various size and color. That kind of project probably requires a two week vacation instead of just one.

- Managed to stay alive for 24 hours in my grandparents’ Florida home without air conditioning (their A/C died the day we were driving to see them, which is something I might laugh about someday) (but probably not, because it was 101 degrees the long next day that we spent waiting for an A/C tech to show up). Does that make me eligible for Survivor or WHAT?

- Managed to stay alive for 2 hours in our home after our A/C went out two days after we got back from Florida before we retreated to an air-conditioned hotel room. 2 WHOLE HOURS. I’ll take your stunned silence for awe and admiration. Thankfully, our A/C was fixed this morning, and we only had to sell one of our children to pay for it.

- Read some books.

- Have been able to keep sanity intact through Em’s latest phase, which isn’t so much the “Terrible Two’s” as it is “Two-and-a-half going on Fourteen — With an Attitude.” The most minor, trivial incident will cause her to cry and run away to her bedroom, where she will slam the door only the way that one who has suffered great injustice can. On following this drama in the form of a little girl to her room and cracking open the recently slammed door, you will be greeted by the words, “Just go away!” in the most victimized tone ever adopted by a two-year-old, and those words will be followed by more wailing as she buries her face in her pillow and waves you away. Or screams at you.

Just today at lunch she declared that she doesn’t like people, presumably because it was a person who told her she had to sit the right way in her booster seat and stop pushing the chair back so she didn’t topple over. PEOPLE. DISGUSTING, MEDDLESOME, FUN-KILLING PEOPLE. My sanity is still intact, but my eyes have been in danger of rolling right out of their sockets.

Anyway, I think we have done some other stuff since I last posted, but I can’t think of it right now. I’m far too distracted by a guilty conscience: I was supposed to use this evening to make out a menu plan and grocery list. And clean out the fridge. So I’m going to quick! do those other two things right after I think up a title for this pointless rambling post.