They started jackhammering outside my window at 9:30 this morning. It could have been worse (and by worse I mean earlier) I know, but I was still displeased. This is the week I'm indulging my usually-latent Harry Potter appreciation (because obsession lumps me in with all those other people) and staying up late reading books five and six. I didn't exactly mean to dive back into the books again, but after seeing the fifth movie, I had to go back and see if it was really true that there was no quidditch at all that year. Of course there was. There were actually lots of things that happen in the book that the director chose to omit from the movie, so I'm pretty disappointed with it, and also glad to read the book again, in a sped-up, skimming, refresher sort of way. But anyway, my point is that I was up with Potter until wayyy late, and then the jackhammers wouldn't let me sleep as late as I'd planned. Boo!

In happier news, besides Harry Potter (which kind of counts as fake reading, I feel like) I'm replacing my J.D. Salinger crush with a Dave Eggers infatuation (how many degrees between a crush and an infatuation? "Some but not too many" is what I was going for) and now I'm reading How We Are Hungry, after finish AHWOSG and YSKOV. People have been recommending Eggers to me for ages, so I'm glad I'm finally listening and agreeing. Only, the thing is, I keep buying new books, even as the piles grow perilously around my feet, slowly engulfing inch after inch of precious floor-space in my living and bed rooms. Then again, there's still room in the kitchen. I feel like this might be my Thing in life - that demon I struggle with until it eventually overcomes me on my deathbed and my dying wish is that I'd ever actually been able to finish all the books in my pile, even Don Quixote. Then again, I kind of hope my To Be Read pile never does run out, because the day there are no more books I want to read is the day I'm cashing in my chips and checking out anyway. So Dave Eggers. Those of you who have read and loved Giraffes? Giraffes! should read him if you haven't already. After all, he is half of Dr. and Mr. Haggis-On-Whey, so how could you not expect great things?

Other news. Since summer, I've slowly been making my way toward a regular shower-every-other-day schedule, and it's pretty amazing. Do other people do this? I think they probably do, and no one ever told me how much more free time I'd have if I just started washing myself half as often. So far no one seems to have noticed, or at least I've gotten no complaint-type comments about my appearance/odor lately. And this weekend I met a scad of new people, so I hope I was presentable. Usually being introduced to groups of other peoples' friends kind of puts me off, since it creates that whole "you're an outsider because we all know each other and you don't" vibe, but this weekend the people were actually nice. We even had some jokes, which I always consider a good sigh. Jokes and cake.

And Julie came! Julie came to see me a couple of days ago, and we tried to barbecue on my George Foreman grill. It makes me kind of sad to type that, since the George is about as far away from authentic, outdoor grilling as a girl can get, but we had only certain resources at our disposal, and a real grill was not one of them. Electricity was also only one of them part of the time. (I swear to god, all of this construction is going to drive me insane this summer, with my power and water cutting out at will, the water pressure going all wonky, along with my road being blocked off half the time and loud equipment running most of the time. Also, Hi, I'm Kristin, and I'm a compulsive whiner). At least we didn't bake our chicken in the oven like wussies. We did other things too, mostly involving staying cool since Grand Rapids decided to become a sauna recently. At least my third-floor attic apartment did. Where the hell did my cross-breezes go!? Of course they skip out as soon as company comes.

The last two paragraphs could be extensively elaborated, but that delicious summer lethargy is calling me over to the reading chair, where I last left Harry Potter about to do something exciting that probably wasn't in the movie. So back I go. Let this count as my July update. I'll see you kids in August (or, as I like to call it, The Sunday Night of Months. I also usually make a gagging, "blech" kind of sound when I say it).