Summer? No!!! Not Yet!

A week ago, I was happy to see temperatures in the 80s. It made for great motorcycling weather. Actual sunshine and warm temps were nice for a couple of days.

But it’s April, people. April. And that means it is way, Way, WAY too early in the year to get hot! So enough already.

Although heat does have its perks…

Like margaritas. What a great way to beat the heat (if I do say so myself)!

But I can’t be beating the heat midday while I am working. I just can’t. It’s against the rules, of course, and would render me pretty ineffective, which can be very bad when working under a tight deadline trying to balance 400 lines of Excel calculations.

Anyway… by Monday, I was tired of the heat. It actually got downright hot. I don’t remember the exact high temperature for the day, but it was close to 90. By Tuesday, it was in the 90s for sure.

Now, the thought of turning on the A/C in April is appalling. Sort of. Mainly because A/C = higher energy bills. But as I lay sweltering in bed on Tuesday night (sort of) struggling to get to sleep, I kept thinking of the little thermometer in my office. The one that said the high temperature on Tuesday IN MY OFFICE was 92. And that’s with the ceiling fan on high and the window wide open.

There’s a frugal gene in Hubby’s bloodline. He really hates turning turning the A/C on too early in the year. I do, too, but I also hate to be hot. Wednesday morning I was all ready to go check into a hotel if Hubby wouldn’t let me turn the A/C on. But when I told him it hit 92 in my office the previous day, he said something to the effect of “quit whining and turn the air conditioner on.” It took me all of about three milliseconds to close all the windows and slide the thermostat switch from OFF to COOL.

Ah… sweet relief. It was so much easier to work that day. And the next day. This morning, however (Friday), I turned the A/C off. It was 49 degrees when I let the dogs out. And today’s high is only supposed to be 60.

Spring is back. Thank. GOD.

Seriously, I hate to be hot. Although it was a great excuse to whip up a blender full of my famous blue margaritas. (Not that I need an excuse, really.)

I imbibed happily on Wednesday afternoon while grilling some chicken for dinner. Is this a great summer image or what?

Yum. My favorite way to eat grilled chicken is very thinly sliced, marinated, cooled, cut into small strips and sprinkled on a fresh garden salad. Double yum.

One of the best improvements Hubby has done here at the MD abode was to run a natural gas line out to the patio for the grill. So we can use it anytime, year-round, without ever having to worry about running out of propane. Whenever we get a hankering for something grilled (or “barbecued” as my Belgian friend would say), we can have it. I’ve cooked out there in all kinds of weather, too. Rain, sleet, snow, ice. Really.

The girls like to hang out with me while I am cooking outside. (They like to hang out with me inside, too, but I always kick them out of my indoor kitchen because then tend to get under foot.)

Meg is my most faithful “guardian” (i.e., most diligent dog when it comes to waiting for droppage).

You can’t see K in the above image, but she wasn’t far away. She was waiting on the top step.

It doesn’t take long at all to grill chicken that is very thinly sliced. But then I had to let it sit for a while so it could cool thoroughly. There’s nothing worse, to me, than hot meat on a cold salad. Ew.

The REAL reason I took pictures of the margarita the other day is the strawberry. I’d never thought to garnish my margarita with a strawberry. But that’s probably just because I never had fresh strawberries on hand before while drinking margaritas. It’s pretty, isn’t it?

I just may have started a new trend…

While I am totally not ready for Summer yet, I must say that I’m glad the grill no longer looks like this.

Here’s something earworm-inducing to get your Friday started.