Small favors in August

I understand why all of Europe goes on vacation for a month during August.  It’s absolutely miserably hot and the last thing that anyone wants to be doing is working.  Even the mosquitoes have buzzed to a pause and quit biting during the day.  Unfortunately, instead of going on a month-long vacation to the azure coast, I’m stuck in the middle of Texas heat that tries its hardest to kill you.  These are my lifesavers of late, the things that keep my sanity in the moments where I’m about to shrivel up into a strip of human jerky:

Rain - The rain, oh the rain.  Texans can recall the exact time of day that it starts raining again.  We pause outdoors, despite the deluge, to catch that welcome scent of damp earth and hot pavement when we first experience rain after a month without.  I never thought I’d be so happy to see a gray sky but here I am, dancing a sleepy little rain dance.  We’re getting rain this entire week, and it’s dropping temps into the 80s.  So we can actually venture outside without immediately becoming desiccated husks.

Ballcaps - I’ve finally fallen firmly into the ballcap camp.  I’ve never been a fan of them before, somehow unable to see how their universal utility could apply to me, unique individual that I am.  After “borrowing” an endless supply of B’s caps, I’ve gone out and purchased the most redneck baseball caps known to man - I have one from Tractor Supply, Cabela’s, and Texas Humor.  The camo one is by far my favourite, unsurprisingly, because of the obnoxious Texas-ness of it.  But it’s saved the general public from looking at my sweaty, messy hair and also saved my hair from the bird droppings at lunch the other day.  That’s a win-win situation, folks.

My New Tx Humor Cap

Pickled things - Pickle-flavoured popcorn, fried pickles, everything pickled.  I ate fried pickles and cheddar cheese waffle fries and didn’t have to eat anything else for the next two days.  I’ll have some more of that please, thanks.

Kitchen appliances - I know you guys are all thinking, how random does this list get?  I brought home my KitchenAid stand mixer that’s been living at my parents’ house and just last week, B bought a slow cooker.  We’ve been whipping up tasty treats every since (homemade oatmeal raisin cookies last night).  This weekend, I tried this balsamic mustard tri-tip slow cooker recipe.  When I stumbled into my apartment five hours later, it was as if a magical cooking fairy had prepared dinner and summoned up an enticing aroma to dance around my kitchen.

And now the interactive part of the blog experience.  Share with me your favourite ballcaps, pickled things, and slow cooker recipes in the comments below?  Please please please help save my sanity.