It’s so hot here that the local Chamber of Commerce has actually changed the name of Apple Valley officially. The Chamber president is shown at right posing with the new city signs.

Yesterday, we hit a high of 99 degrees. And it’s still only May. It’s in the 90s again today, and I have to mow the lawn before Laurie gets back from New York. Stupid procrastinator….

The girls and I decided to spend the day in Wisconsin yesterday at Willow River State Park. It’s about a 30-minute drive from here. We brought a picnic lunch. They swam in one of the two lakes there. We hiked a couple of trails including one that went straight downhill to the bottom of the Willow Falls gorge, which was spectacular. But you know the problem with a trail that goes straight downhill, don’t you? When you hike back to the scorching hot car, the return trip is straight UPhill. Dang it was hot! Did I mention that already?

The central air has been running for about 72 hours straight now. Might as well open a vein and pay the gas company now. Wonder how much I could get for the cats on eBay?

Went and saw one of my favorite singers last night in Minneapolis with my buddy Chris Terzich. John Prine was great — he sang about 40 songs, many of them from his first couple of albums from back in the early ’70s. The crowd went nuts over “Flag Decal” and “Sam Stone,” two songs about the Vietnam War. He had a great three-piece bluegrass band backing him. Made me a bit nostalgic for college, where I first saw him in concert. It’s there that my buddy Lou Ruprecht and I played John Prine songs on guitar on the sundeck of Gilbert Addams dorm with the now-famous actress Jayne Brook. Check John out on Austin City Limits TV show here. In the words of the man himself, “Ahhhh, baby, we gotta go now.”

You try to be a good mom and what do you get?

I got rid of my gas-guzzling BMW the other day. Traded it in on a used Nissan Altima. The Nissan has many of the same options and features as the BMW, but it will get over 30 miles per gallon on the highway. Woo hoo! The new car is the same color as the one pictured above, crystal blue metallic. Katie was with me when I went to the dealer to look at cars and quickly steered me to the most colorful car on the lot. You see, she has this crazy notion that the Nissan will be hers in three years when she gets her driver’s license. That’s why I splurged on the model with the enhanced safety features, including airbags all around the car and antilock brakes. I’m still not ready for Katie to drive, though …

Katie was honored Thursday evening at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul for earning her Silver Award, Girl Scouting’s second-highest honor. She and the other members of her troop (shown above at their recent Bridging ceremony) will now begin work on their Gold Award, which is equivalent to the Eagle Award in Boy Scouting. We’re very proud of all of the hard work she has put in.

Jesse, our little soccer star, scored 4 goals Wednesday night as the Laser Lemons (don’t ask) defeated the Orange team 7-4 in Eagan Valley Athletic Association play.

I am doing a report on a small country in Africa, Malawi. This should be an interesting report, I have to fill out a packet on Malawi, which includes making a map of Malawi, finding out its average climate and much, much more!