OK, look. This summer has been crap. It started out pretty fabulous: 80 degrees on Memorial weekend in Alaska? Unheard of. I was all "Yaaaaay! This is going to be the best summer EVAR!" But I was wrong. Rain, rain, and more rain.

And when you suffer through nine months of winter for the sole purpose of experiencing some of the very best and most beautiful summer weather in the world, as I do, and then that weather never comes? Insanity ensues.

First, you try to stay positive. "A little rain will just make everything greener and more fabulous and happy happy happy!" Then you think you'll just try to enjoy these couple weeks of wet weather, because any day now it's going to be scorching. Helps keep the wildfires at bay. But pretty soon after that, when the rain has stretched on through July and you know damn well that any real "summer" weather in August is unlikely... Then you start getting a little desperate. Panicky, even.

So a few weeks ago, when it was a little drizzly and Matt was off being an Alaska man in the woods somewhere, Lillia and I sat around reading stories. Then we ate. Then we watched a Strawberry Shortcake movie. Then we ate some more. Read more stories. By the time she went down for her nap - and left me all alone with my boredom - I was on the verge of institutionalization.

So when she woke up, I gave her a snack, put on her coat and shoes, and we drove over to the little local annual festival down the street. She rode a pony named Fireball. She went on a carousel. She went on the big slide. Three times. She won a little stuffed penguin at a fishing game booth and named it Gloria. She ate cotton candy. Then she started throwing fits so I knew it was time to go home.

      

But. Weeks later, she is still telling people about the "Fegetable" and Fireball and the big slide. And the fact that the sun wasn't shining doesn't seem to have made one bit of difference to her. The festival helped calm me down for a while, made me feel like we had some fun this summer.

But that was weeks ago. And it's STILL RAINING.

In order to escape the monotony this time, we are taking it to a new level. We leave for Idaho next Tuesday morning. It may not be a tropical vacation, but it's sunny and hot. And that is fan-freaking-tastic.