As if someone flipped a switch, it is suddenly summer. After a cool, breezy night, interrupted only by the raucous screeches of raccoons in the tree next to our bedroom windows, we woke to tropical steaminess. It was in the 80s before noon.

We spent the morning working. I cleaned the house first and then moved outside, where my husband was pruning the enormous euonymus in front of the house. I set to work on the two lilacs, each even bigger than the euonymus. There is a bumper crop of flowers this year, so much so that the bushes are nearly doubled over with their weight. I barely made a dent in the project before I had enough fragrant blossoms to fill ten vases and carry an enormous bouquet to the neighbors. AJ ran out to play with The Girl Next Door while I finished floral arrangements and vacuumed. The thermometer kept rising.

By lunchtime we could take it no longer and turned on the air conditioning. The neighbor boy across the street, hearing the happy shrieking of AJ and The Girl Next Door, came over to run around the yard. Of the three of them (all going into kindergarten next year), AJ is the only one with a lawn big enough for baseball. It�s looking like we may have a lot of small guests this summer.

When the children were pink-cheeked and panting, we gave them ice water and sent them home. I tucked AJ into bed and read the next chapter of 101 Dalmations and promised to take him to the pool, which opens today, when he woke up. To be honest, I�m dying for a dip in the cool water myself. I�ve been dreaming of watermelon Italian ice from Mario�s on Taylor street all morning. Mario makes the best Italian ice in the world, with frozen chunks of watermelon and lemon amongst the ice itself. Perfect for a steamy summer day.

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