It's finally storming! All summer I've been waiting for a good, Midwestern thunderstorm and have been disappointed, but now we've got one. It's very satisfying, especially since the weather has been relentlessly beautiful: deep blue skies without a cloud in sight, upper-70s, nice breeze. I was actually starting to get sick of it. I know I should appreciate every lovely moment because it's only a matter of months before it gets kicked to pieces by winter's jack-booted thuggery, but sometimes you just want to lay on your couch and watch six hours of Law & Order: SVU without feeling guilty about it! Is that too much to ask?!

The added bonus to this pleasant thunderstorm is that it has stopped the strange, pounding construction noise from a few streets over. I'm guessing it's construction, because what else could it be, unless Optimus Prime has suddenly shown up in Madison. Though it's strange that it continues into the late evening. Also it has kept the total morons in my neighborhood from lighting off loud, obnoxious fireworks. Like I've said, you can find rednecks anywhere.

Yes, yes, I know this is completely pointless and rambly, and really the only reason I'm posting is that I have to stay awake another half-hour so I can take my stupid typhoid vaccine. I forgot that I had to take it today (the last dose, hooray!), and I was cavalierly eating Combos until I remembered, and since I have to wait 2-3 hours after eating to take it (and then another hour before I can eat again, and I had to take four doses, every other day, with a glass of chilled water. Could this be any more complicated?), I'm trying to keep myself awake.

Hopefully my next post will be very good news, but since I don't want to jinx it, all you readers (all four or five of you) will just have to wait with bated breath to see what it might be! Or you could just ask my parents.

Hiking in Wisconsin is not quite the same as hiking in other places. Most notably for the fact that it's boring. Some friends and I went camping last weekend to Yellowstone Lake, and while the lake was quite nice, the hike? Yawn. The first part was around the lake and near a wetland, so that was pretty (we saw a heron), but after that it was pretty much like hiking through someone's pasture. I think Kentucky and Virginia just spoiled me on hiking. I'm used to seeing this:



instead of this:



Oh well. It was fun anyway. There were lots of hotdogs and s'mores.

The lakes here have started to really smell. I mean, really smell. Like someone dumped 2000 gallons of Eau de Sewer Stank into them. Apparently it's blue-green algae, which looks like this:



This is why fertilizing your lawn is bad. And people are still swimming in the lake! Gross! It doesn't help that it's really, really hot here (in the mid-90s) and it hasn't rained in awhile. I'm actually glad I don't have lakefront property at the moment. I do wish I had air conditioning because my apartment is approximately the temperature of the surface of the sun. Thank god tomorrow it's going to be back to normal (low 80s).

I uploaded a bunch of photos from camping, around town, the coffeeshop where I work, etc. They're here if you're interested.