i slept well, but woke up already feeling sticky. today would be the day - as foretold by various local meteorologists - of the hottest temperature so far this summer. despite having the AC on standby, i'd only use it as a last resort. instead, i had all the blinds drawn and the oscillating fan on high. even then, it was 82 degrees inside the house. outside however was 92 degrees and rising, and combined with a high humidity, it would feel like 105 degrees by day's end.

it's actually not so bad. one thing i'm really good at is lounging around and not expending too much energy. nevertheless, i was tempted to go outside for a while, just to see how hot it really is. 

sometime in the afternoon i finally broke down and turned on the AC, but still only for 15 minutes until it got cool enough for me to turn it off. air conditioning is like a highly addictive drug on hot days, and just as soon as i shut it down, i was yearning for it to go back on again. so it went the rest of the day, the intermittent running of the air conditioner.

i left the house in the late afternoon, after watching the world cup match between the netherlands and uruguay. i biked to the super market to get some orange juice and milk. it was hot outside, but far less humid than i'd imagined, and actually quite bearable. on my way back home though, after being in the air conditioned comfort of the super market, i began to feel a little bit of that humidity and couldn't wait to get back so i could take another shower.

i ran into my next door neighbor franz - or should i say my next next door neighbor. he and his wife jen really wanted to buy the condo they'd been renting from renee their landlord for the past 8 years. the place is such a cash cow for renee that she was reluctant to sell it, so franz and jen ended up buying the first floor condo next door (it wasn't even on the market; they contacted the owners directly, who live in the next town over). they told me about it back in may, but i was surprised to see them already moving this past weekend. i wonder who will move in to renee's place now?

it's hard not to hear about the girl with the dragon tattoo by stieg larsson. wanting to see what the hype was all about, i downloaded the swedish film adaptation of the first book (why read when you can watch?). it was okay, but nothing really warranting the international buzz it's now generating, or the american remake. however, i did download the 2 other movies and am in the process of watching them as well.

the one thing from the first movie that i found absolutely fascinating had nothing to do with the plot or the characters; it was actually the scene where the main character goes to jail for 3 months (near the film's end) for slandering a powerful businessman. this supposed swedish jail looked more like a college dorm, with opened doors, almost no security, and not a single bar (as in cage). they're even allowed to have laptops and internet access in their cells!