Today's illustrious band:

Lose Your Cool

Brought to you by the high heat and humidity of this past weekend. My central air unit did indeed lose its cool on Saturday. This was a distressing development, as I had done my usual Saturday workout marathon: think a couple hours' worth of heavy-duty aerobic activity in a second-floor room with other sweating bodies, small windows and weak ceiling fans. I was, to put it mildly, ready for some climate-controlled relaxation. Imagine my displeasure, then, when I came home to a stuffy house with no chilled air circulating through the vents. The mechanism that cools the air seems to be working, but the one that blows it into the rooms is not.

I changed the furnace filter — and I urge the rest of you to go do the same right now, 'cuz they can get pretty gross — flipped some switches, consulted my friends from the home-improvement magazine and reset the circuitbreakers, but to no avail. A call to the repair guys suggests that my outdoor cooling unit may have iced up due to high humidity and low freon levels, and possibly the gross filter, so a service person is coming to bail me out over lunch tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

Aside from a sewer problem earlier in the year, which was solved by a helpful neighbor, this will be my first major home repair event since moving to Sensational Acres. How come this milestone isn't more exciting?

And speaking of Sensational Acres, I've just learned that Mom is coming next month to help me celebrate my 2nd anniversary in my humble abode. All you locals are invited over for tea and scones, and if you have suggestions about fun stuff to do around the Twin Cities in the fall, by all means send them on.