Many Canadians envy people who live in warmer areas, but I'm not one of them. Over the several years of these threads, Stilly's accounts of summer in Texas have convinced me (as if I had ever needed convincing!) that I should stay right here in Ontario, with all its pettifogging politics and winter woes.

Years ago, Edmund and I visited the battlefield park at Chancellorsville on a summer day that the park staff described as "not bad" for July. Half an hour of strolling the trench lines was enough to send me scuttling back to the air-conditioned visitors' centre with the splitting headache of imminent heatstroke, while Edmund happily larked about the baking landscape and cross-examined the ranger about the death of Stonewall Jackson. I'm even less heat-tolerant now than I was then.

The state of my face has improved still more, and I'm almost back to normal with two more days of antibiotic to go.

I am now in possession of a ridiculously expensive new iPhone that works just as well as the old one did until it didn't any more. The set-up process is supposed to be slickly automatic, but I spent all afternoon trying to do it as recommended, from the old phone to the new one by Bluetooth, only to have the file transfer crap fail at the very last moment THREE TIMES IN A ROW! Finally, I did it the not-recommended manual way and finished in time for supper.

The household strategic reserve of cat litter is dangerously low, and I need more drugs. Hey-ho, off for some more un-fun spending.