Michelle, you made that whole race experience sound wretched. Better tuck some toilet paper in your pocket while you're at it. If you should chance on a time-warp place, you know it'll be out of TP next to the hole. And yes, you do kind of adapt - last time I was in Seattle for a "heat wave" we were fine (except my mom put us in a guest room in her upstairs with no fans or A/C; we dragged our bedding downstairs and slept in her office/library for the rest of the stay.) Living with it all summer in Texas, though, even Texans get really tired of it.

Adding to the clutter, but in a good way - I finally ordered a dress form mannequin. After reading reviews I shopped Amazon and eBay and found an adjustable dress form to use for photographing and sewing. I think I could even take it off of the base and put the torso in my photo cube for photography of short things or beads. It's a black cloth covered one, so it should display beadwork nicely (should I ever actually get around to doing the beading I am set up for.) My daughter and I texted back and forth about the uses and materials; some of these are extremely flimsy and the reviews at Amazon were scathing. (I borrowed one of my daughter's dress forms for a while, but she uses them all of the time with her costume design work. I couldn't get away with forgetting to return it.)