The alarm went off as it should. I, however, utterly failed to rise or shine this morning. Instead, my body’s decided that the onset of stiflingly hot temperatures in my room is a good excuse to turn my insides, er, inside out, for lack of a more delicate way to put it.

Luckily my bathroom is a mere few steps away from my bed. Whee.

Hopefully I’ll be back to something resembling normal, albeit a weakly normal, tomorrow…

(In case you’re thinking, “But it hasn’t really been that hot yet,” my room has a magical talent for trapping and amplifying heat, and it’s non-trivial to generate a decent airflow through it. I may have to break down and buy an air conditioner after all. I remember what last summer was like only too well.)

With Alex away at the coast, I decided that today would be a Father/Daughter outing. When presented with a set of options, Erica immediately decided that the zoo was the place to be. And so, off we went.

First, of course, we had to stop for food. I took her to the Pizza Schmizza that’s near one of the bus stops downtown (the service was markedly improved over that of when Dawn and I went, last weekend). Then we hit the MAX up to Washington Square Park Zoo, where we arrived just in time to see the one of the performances of “Discover Birds” on its inaugural date of the summer. Hawks, scavengers, owls, ducks and an eagle all graced the auditorium. (The Harris’ Hawk graced someone’s shirt before leaving one of the platforms, though. And this is why you don’t sit right next to those things.) We also made a point of seeing the goats, bears, penguins, meerkats, giraffe and butterflies.

Afterward Erica decided that the best thing to do next would be… to come home and play some games with her Dad. Aww! That’s my girl. I decided to introduce her to Empire Earth, since we’ve always had fun playing the various “Age Of” games over the years. Several hours later… we emerged victorious over our enemies. For what it’s worth, she outfought and outproduced me, though I did better at epoch advancements and research. It was her second wonder that triggered the win timer, not a minute too soon as it turns out we’d been at it much longer than I thought we would be. Whoops.

When I finally got her home (thanks in large part to a lift offered by the roomie), I received my Father’s Day present: A t-shirt that reads, “Bank of Dad” and done up like an ATM. “Enter excuse or sob story, then press —->” and the buttons are marked Clothes, Road Trip, Tuition, Bail, Pizza and Concert. The “Deposits” slot is cobwebbed over, and the cash dispenser slot is labeled “Take Money And Run.”

I said, “Heck, you should’ve given me the shirt before we left…”

(I was just joking, mind you. Erica was a complete sweetheart the entire time, not once begging me for money. She’s the best daughter an underqualified dad like me could want, I tell ya.)

I don’t have enough for an entry, but I have enough for some bullet points…

• The new Garbage album, “Bleed Like Me,” is quite good. The new Kotoko album, “Glass no Kaze,” is better overall than her first album, “Hane,” but features fewer actual standout tracks.
• I may never “get” military sci-fi. I’ve tried, mind you, and will probably try again before I give up completely.
• When you try to go to a pub for lunch and one out of the first three to arrive has forgotten their ID, it’s an annoyance. When, later, it turns out that two of the five have forgotten, well, that’s a sign that the gathering needs to take place elsewhere.
• The kids are out of school, now. I expect Wendi to go absolutely bonkers in a few short days.
• I’ve seen a bit of the new Doctor Who series, now, and it’s not too shabby. On a related note, I liked the first season of The 4400 better than the new season so far.
• I have a rubber-duck-themed shower curtain now. May the gods have mercy on my soul.
• I’m very, very glad that I get paid tomorrow… and my resolve to closely track my transactions is considerably stronger now than it was a couple of weeks ago.

Good: Dawn arrived in town! Yay!

Bad: Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade interfering with transit downtown to meet Dawn.

Good: Breadsticks dipped in alfredo sauce at Pizza Schmizza.

Bad: Lousy service at same.

Smelly: Urine-soaked bus interior on the way out to Molly’s for birthday BBQ.

Bad: Forgetting about lack of allergy meds until arrival.

Good: Molly’s cooking.

Also Good: Hanging out with cool people at the BBQ.

Bad: Having unsolicited amateur chiropractic work done, resulting in hours of back pain.

Good: Howl’s Moving Castle.

Also Good: Dinner at Kells afterward.

And now, even more Good: Going to bed at the end of a long and interesting day…

Psssst. Don’t make a big fuss about it, but today is somebody’s birthday…

No, wait, I take that back. Go right ahead and make a fuss about it. Heh. (Love you, dear heart!)

And tomorrow? Tomorrow is not only another day, but another birthday…

On Saturday, I went down to see the kids at the “fun center,” a carnival of sorts assembled for the duration of Portland’s Rose Festival. Oddly enough, this marks the first year I’ve set foot anywhere near the rides. One of the last things Erica did before we left involved petting a variety of animals as well as riding a pony. Being the awesome Dad that I am, I made a point of taking pictures… which meant being close enough to the animals to come away with an allergy-induced headache and crud-filled lungs. Whee!

Yesterday evening was spent almost entirely on Lil’s living room floor. (There were other people present; get your minds out of the gutter.) Problem is, that’s where the cats spend most of their time, so once again I came away from a social event with a headache and crud-filled lungs. Extra-whee!

Last night I almost entirely failed to sleep, because I was wheezing, sniffling and sneezing for hours… and I found that I was all out of medications to alleviate those damnable symptoms. Whoopsie.

I need to stock my cabinet a bit more thoroughly, I think. I was a Boy Scout, back in the day, so why am I not Being Prepared? Hmm?

Anyway… being allergic to animals and to pollen sucks. One set of allergens makes me itch and sneeze, the other makes my lungs incapable of taking in very much air. Ugh.