Friday night I got home a little early, so I went out to enjoy my back garden (rather than work in it.) I sat there with my citronella candle, reading, and realized the candle wasn't doing a fantabulous job of keeping the mosquitos at bay. Undaunted, I continued reading until it grew too dark.

Did I mention we've had something like 7 deaths from West Nile Virus recently?

On Saturday I went to the beach and enjoyed a little swimming in Lake Michigan. A helpful lifeguard came by to tell us that the next beach over (about 20 feet away) was closed because of high bacteria levels (E. coli) but that they couldn't officially close this stretch of beach because it hadn't been tested.

He just wanted us to know the wind hadn't been carrying the untreated human sewage far enough away from the beaches where it's dumped.

And yet, I didn't stop swimming. (I already knew how Chicago handles its sewage and how blase they are about pollution.)

So here I am, skirting the edge, tempting fate, living with wild abandon
Sitting in my back garden.
Swimming in the lake.
Laughing at death.

Books: Will they ever be done? There just aren't enough hours in the day. I have picked up another reader, though. I'll let you know what he thinks.