Summa, summa, summa time!

Heat wave is dominating New Jersey, and our air conditioners are doing their darndest to churn out cold air. Did a little more summerizing around here, and am happy to see my once-drowned but now-rehabilitated caladiums popping back up and opening their leaves. Will post some pics of them soon--just wanna give them some more time to grow tall.

In the meantime, I'm white-knuckling it until Saturday, when John and I will depart for a day at our beloved Ocean City (New Jersey, not Maryland). Gosh I miss my beach. So looking forward to a day in the sand and surf because it's the one time and place I can completely unplug from all worry and ties to real life back on the mainland. Ahhh.

Went to tea with some girlfriends after work today, which was a much-needed disconnect from work. Sipped a delicious ginger peach iced tea, and we split a Mediterranean platter with pita, hummus, babagonoush, and tebolah. Yes, I likely misspelled them, and yes, I'm too lazy to search the proper spelling. Then I stopped off at Target to pick up some last-minute beach essentials (new floppy hat and flops), and also to scope the cute strapless knit dresses that were in the ad for this week. Well, seems I waited too long and all the cute ones in my size got snapped up. Tried one on a size too large and it looked nice, but was juuuust big enough that it didn't fit right. I may cave and order the one I like in the size I need online. Thinking that over. Then...the adventure with the maxi dress.

The maxi dress, folks, is supposed to be the breeziest piece in a woman's summer wardrobe, yes? Throw it on and dash to the grocery store, dockside drinks, twilight dunes...I could feel the breeze in my air as I closed the fitting room door. Then, I realized I might actually be too stupid to navigate one. The spaghetti straps for the slip were attached to the overlay so they'd stay together while in the store. This bamboozled me because the dress could not be shimmied up over my hips, so I had to put it on over my head. Because the straps were attached, I kept getting both arms through both straps, and the overlay was choking me. This happened in varying maddening degrees long past when I should have given up. But finally, I flipped the overlay inside-out, pulled the slip on (arms in the proper holes) and then flipped the overlay over my head and into place. Badda bing! Had I stepped out of the fitting room, everyone would have though I just woke up looking fabulous, never knowing I was struggling like a mofo behind closed doors.

Will post pics of the new stuff later on, but for now, summer in my dining room: