Hot

People, it is hot.

The bugs are gone.

My glasses fog up when I open the front door.

The humidity has been so consistently high that the water I set out on the front porch for the cats has not evaporated at all. (They do come inside at their leisure so it's not like I make them drink hot water all day. Please don't call the ASPCA on me.)

Most telling though is that I actually turned up the thermostat a few degrees today in a vain measure to lessen the stress placed upon our local electric company. See how responsible I am?

I've been spending the day looking through piles of recipes and gardening tips I've collected from magazines over the years and getting wrapped up in Lost in Austen on some cable channel I've never heard of before. My main refreshment today has been ice water with a packet of True Lemon (not to mention this Iced Coffee with breakfast) but one of my favorite summertime (or anytime) drinks is one I (by way of my mother) discovered at Starbucks:

Passion Iced Tea (unsweetened) with Lemonade
Makes about 3 quarts

• Two bags of Tazo Passion Tea (the purple box, recently found at Whole Foods)
• One can frozen Minute Maid Pink Lemonade concentrate (regular Lemonade is good too)
• Water

Boil enough water to fill a teapot to steep the tea and steep the tea a good ten minutes. Pour into a pitcher large enough to hold 3 quarts. Add the lemonade concentrate, making sure to hold the can as close to the tea as possible if it's still mostly frozen - it'll plop and splash. Add the 4 1/3 cups of water as directed on the can. Stir. Add ice if desired (and if you have the room) but not too much as it'll dilute everything. Chill it if you can wait, pour immediately over ice if you can't, and be charmed by the sweet-tart taste and the pretty raspberry color.