Today is the first day that we’ve gotten a break from the miserable heat wave that hit a large portion of the US. Fortunately, Mark and I timed our purchase of a second air conditioner for the apartment living room perfectly, almost as soon as it was installed the muggy heat descended on the City. We no longer have to barricade ourselves in the cool bedroom when our top floor, southern exposed apartment starts to turn into an oven. At our cottage, the surrounding trees and grass make the heat more bearable and this is our air conditioner:

Because it’s detached from the house and a couple of yards from our back door, it’s been referred to by various people as a gazebo, a screened-in porch and, my favorite, a sleeping porch. (I prefer to sleep in the comfort and safety of my bedroom, but when my brother came to visit he slept out there very comfortably, on an inflatable mattress.) We just call it the porch, and during the summer it’s where we eat most of our meals.  It’s also my temporary studio/office and our living room – last night we discussed the possibility of bringing the tv out here.

We haven’t yet dragged the tv out here, but we do set up our waffle iron, electric griddle, and toaster for Sunday breakfasts and I’ve brought out my sewing machine for various projects. For the past couple of months, it’s been my favorite spot for working on my class projects for the textile design class I’ve been taking at FIT. My class (a condensed summer semester means 2 nights a week from 6pm – 9pm), work and gardening have been keeping me busy, but I’ve really enjoyed it. Classes ended this week and I’ve already signed up for the follow-up class for the Fall semester.

By the way, the waffles that Mark is digging into in the photo above are our favorite Mark Bittman yeast waffle recipe, “Overnight Waffles”. I know that about 99% of you just lost all interest when you read “overnight”, but I promise you, it takes maybe 10 minutes the night before to mix the ingredients and the reward is great. I’ve prepared the batter the night before after having fallen asleep on the couch to a movie. It can be a struggle to drag myself from the couch to the kitchen, but the next morning, I’m always so glad I did. And I wake up to this science experiment: