Summer's still here, but it seems to have one foot out the door.

It's still hot during the day, but it cools off at night. It's getting dark earlier - it's not even 8:30 and it's pretty dark out there.

It doesn't feel like fall yet - we haven't had one of those days where the air is crisp and you know summer is over - but we're getting there.

I've enjoyed my summer. I got sunburned more times than is healthy. I went camping (sunburn #2). I wrestled with the half-dead tree. I visited with friends and family. I watched baby rabbits on the lawn. I worked from the patio. I dug out that annoying thorned vine that grows by my compost bin.

I ate ice cream in Old Montreal. I made (and ate) orange-yogurt popsicles. I ate tomatoes still warm from the sun. I BBQed - steak, pork chops, chicken, salmon.

I went to Italian Week on Preston. I canoed on Dows Lake. I went to the Carp Farmer's Market (sunburn #1). I sat in the courtyard at work and read a book in the sun. I figured out how to rid the kitchen of fruit flies (a glass with a little apple cider vinegar and a splash of dish soap). I went to Calypso (sunburn #2). I slept with the fan on and didn't get cold.

School supplies are on sale. (I love school supplies, even though I haven't been in school since 1994).

Soon it will be time to get back into a routine. Boxing's first - I have just over two weeks until the fall session starts. A few weeks later, Sparks will start and I'll be back in my normal routine.

And that's OK.

Some years I don't want fall to start because it doesn't feel like I've had a summer. (2008, I am looking at you.) This year, I'm ready.

Everything's growing

The recent heat wave has done two things:
1) killed off the smaller plants in my garden
2)made the cucumbers and tomatoes grow like crazy. My tomato plants are up to my elbow. The cucumber leaves are big enough to hide a rabbit or two. (This is not hypothetical.)

Today I picked the first cucumber of the year. (It was really, really good.)

The tomatoes are growing as well, but something has been eating some of the green tomatoes. I'm not really sure what - mostly the wildlife leaves the tomatoes and cucumbers alone, although a local raccoon has been known to eat the only ear of corn and leave the cob on the back step (as an insult, I assume).

Sadly, this amazing growth has not been limited to the great outdoors. That's right, the fruit flies are back. This year they like the teakettle, the outside of the fruit fly trap, and the kitchen tap. (Note to fruit flies: none of those things are food.)

As a result, a "no dirty dishes of any type on the counter" rule has been instituted. (Yes, this includes a cutting board that has been used once.)

(Sadly, the fruit flies don't care - they seem to like plastic more than anything else.)

(How do I not have a fruit fly tag? I whine about them every year.)

Preservation

I think I've mentioned before that I have a vegetable garden. It usually turns out poorly - only tomatoes and cucumbers grow well. My priority is the tomatoes, so I'm not too upset by that.

This year, the only thing that grew was the tomatoes. The last 3 weeks have been hot and sunny, and the tomatoes are going crazy. In order to use some of them (and hopefully dispose of some of the fruit flies that have again invaded my kitchen), today I canned tomatoes. I sterilized 4 pint jars. After that, I boiled water and put the tomatoes in the boiling water for a minute or so, then took them out and put them into cold water. This makes them easy to skin, so I skinned them and put them in the jars, pressing down on each one to remove the air from the jar. When the jars had about 1/2 an inch of space left in them, I put in 1/2 tsp of coarse salt. Next I put the lids on the jars and put them in the canner, then processed them for 20 minutes.

When they were done, I took them out, set them on the counter, and waited for them to seal. When they did, I tightened the lids and they were done.

I've made tomato juice before, and that is much better when it's homemade. Hopefully the canned tomatoes will be as good.

Miscellaneous

Thanks to my friend Jennifer, I bought some amazing fruit fly traps. They don't get rid of 100% of them, but I don't get swarmed while going in to the bathroom anymore. (I really don't understand why fruit flies are so fond of my bathroom mirror.)

Anyway, for anyone who is interested, the trap consists of a small plastic jar with a screw-on top, and a horizontal tube that the fruit flies use to enter the trap. When you get the trap, you need to soak the lure in water for 15 seconds, then put it in the bottom of the jar. There is a sticky card as well - you remove the backing, fold it so that the sticky side faces the horizontal tube, and put it in the jar. Screw the lid back on, wait 12 hours or so, then laugh manically at the trapped fruit flies. (I checked it earlier than that, but, just as a watched pot never boils, a watched fruit fly trap never attracts fruit flies.)

They are made by Contech (http://www.contech-inc.com) , and sold at Canadian tire.

This really wasn't intended to be a commercial, but I do like the fruit fly traps.

In other news, remember how I was supposed to start boxing again this week? The summer session got cancelled. No boxing until fall.

That gives me the following choices:
- pick up a class at the gym on Tuesdays
- remember that, while in theory I go to the gym on Thursdays, in practice I really don't, and just accept 3 days a week for the summer.

I think we all know which way I'm going to go.

In other news, I finally changed the second light bulb in my fridge.

While I was on my cruise, both light bulbs burnt out. Well, actually, the second light bulb burnt out. I didn't realize there were two until I went to change it, so the first one could have been burnt out for ages.

Anyway, the way my fridge is designed, there is a light bulb on each side. They are covered with a plastic cage - presumably to prevent you from breaking the bulb while putting something into or out of the fridge.

The cage on the right side fell out about 8 years ago. I wasn't able to figure out how to put it back in. It stayed on the top shelf of the fridge for a while. People would come over, mock me for not being able to put it back in, try to put it back, fail, and then stop mocking. Finally I gave up.

That bulb was easy to change, and I replaced that one as soon as I bought the bulbs.

The second bulb, however, was still covered by the cage, and I'm here to tell you that, if putting the cage back on is hard, removing it is equally hard. I tried to turn the bulb with the cage still in place, with limited success.

This morning I decided enough was enough - either I'd get the bulb changed, or I'd give up & put the new bulb away.

After a little maneuvering, I managed to remove the bulb with the cage intact. Yay!

I then grabbed the new bulb, went to put it in, and ... dropped it on the floor, where it shattered.

Luckily, this was before I bought groceries, so "light bulb" went on to the grocery list. (I lost the list before I got to the grocery store, but I remembered the bulb, so all was well.)

This time, I was more careful, and I finally succeeded. I hope these replacement bulbs last another 9 years so I don't have to do this anytime soon.