Hey Julie? You want some brownies?

I made brownies last night for my family. Not anything special, just the basic box brownie with a scoop of vanilla on top. It made me think of the summer of 2002. That was the "summer of the brownie" and "the summer of the failed cooler."

Julie had moved into the back sun room in the Vassar house, and Jenny was in China for a bit. With Jenny gone, Julie and I could make dessert every night with nobody telling us no, or reminding us of calories and fat content. It was fabulous. We went through too many brownie boxes to count.

And while reminiscing about that summer, I was reminded of the two weeks from hell when our air conditioning went out after Jenny got back. Now, this wasn't really an air conditioner, but a swamp cooler. Everybody knows that swamp coolers are great, until the temp goes over 100 and then they do nothing. This particular summer was very hot, as we all remember, and our cooler went out the very day that our landlord flew to Ireland for a two week vacation. It was awful. I was teaching summer school and Jenny was year round, so we came home every day and found some way to get cool. We went to a movie, Boarders, too much shopping at Marshall's, and I even seem to remember a great picture of Woody, Sara, Jenny and I in the back yard in the wading pool drinking some sort of icy adult beverage. I will surely look for that and scan it in for all to see.

Anyhow, I hope that I am not jinxing my air conditioner to go out by making many brownies this summer! :) That would be horrible!