Sunday Stealing

The Summertime Meme

1.) What first tells you that Summer is here? Forget the calendar. For me, it's summer when I can get away with sandals and don't have to deal with socks.

2.) Name your five of your favorite distinctively Summer habits or customs. Maintained pedicure, sandals, beer, visit to Wrigley Field, frozen yogurt at the local stand

3.) What is your favorite smell of Summer?  Barbecue

4.) What is your favorite taste of Summer? Barbecue

5.) Favorite Summer memory? I have so many that revolve around Wrigley Field.

6.) Extreme heat or extreme cold? Which would you choose and why? I hate hot weather. Because I hate it, that's why. (Hot weather makes me grumpy. Don't fuck with me.)

7.) What books do you plan to read for the season? Right now I'm reading The Lost Husband. Next up is Bad Dog: A Love Story.

8.) What is your favorite part of summer? Singing "Go, Cubs, Go."

9.) What's your favorite quintessentially summer food? Least favorite? Favorite: barbecue. Least favorite: cantaloupe.

10.) Best beverage to beat the summer heat: Beer

11.) Least favorite/most annoying thing related to summer? Hot weather. Really, anything over 85º is excessive and in extremely bad taste.

12.) Pick one: the lake /the beach. I don't understand this question, in that I've never been to a lake that was surrounded by pavement. When you have a lake, you have a beach, don't you?

13.) Most amusing summer vacation trip you've ever taken? I don't travel over the summer. I visit friends in FL at Christmastime and take off by myself in the spring.

14.) Most ridiculous/cringe-inducing/blush-provoking summer outfit you have seen? (Bonus points if you yourself were wearing it!) Nothing specific comes to mind, although the thing that makes me cringe and look away is when people with white, cracked heels and thick, yellow nails insist on wearing sandals. Put a sock on it!

15.) Your absolute dream summer afternoon would be Sitting behind home plate at Wrigley Field.

16.) If you could go anywhere on summer vacation where would you go? I think it would be great fun to experience my hometown of Chicago like a tourist. Hit a museum or two, people watch at Navy Pier, stroll Oak Street at dusk and collapse into a really nice hotel, like the Whitehall, for a shower and then room service while wearing a nice, fluffy robe. Sigh. The only thing that keeps me from doing it right now is $$$. Maybe next year.

SHOUT OUT TO KATHY W: I do read your entries every week and you always make me smile. However, Google Plus or Google Chrome or whatever won't let me log in so I can't comment. Sorry. (And sorry about "the incident" on the boat.)

Woke up and found myself looking at Paul Newman (ca 1966)

Got up very early this morning and dropped a small bag of groceries off at the local food pantry before taking Reynaldo to the vet. When we got home I was exhausted. So I lay down on the new futon (just for a minute) and woke up more than an hour later to Paul Newman.

Harper is one of my favorite Newman movies. I know it's not art. No one in the movie is especially noble and yet many characters are very likeable, which presents something of a conundrum, morally. But it's very unselfconsciously funny -- thanks to Newman's innate charm and William Goldman's slick, smartassy script.

After the movie I did my grocery shopping (and even though I had a list I still forgot stuff -- stuff I forgot to put on the list!) and now I'm watching the Cub game and doing laundry (this week I'm bleaching my whites). And drinking a margarita. Feeling very zen. Tequila will do that.