Air Conditioning Rules!

Oh, it's so hot.  Like 34 degrees hot.  For that reason the boys and I did not go outside today but staying in the living room and played in the air conditioning.  They used their bouncy house and balls this morning then played library for a while.  I had my massage and it was the best yet.  Since my stomach wasn't feeling the greatest I asked Lena to just do my head, neck and feet so I wouldn't have to turn over for her to massage my back.  I realized that turning over and laying on my stomach for a half hour actually might be undoing the work she has done on my head.  I dozed off a bit then woke up when she was done with my feet.  I said goodbye to her then rolled over on my side and apparently fell right to sleep.  When I opened my eyes it was quarter to twelve (I think she had finished at eleven) and my door was closed.  I came out to the living room to find Nicholas and Ryan still watching their iPods on the couch.  Ayi had left and the boys were just hanging out.  I had hoped she would have at least locked the door, but no.  I guess I had better not do that again!

For the rest of the day we had lunch then built Busch Gardens out of the Thomas train set and our collection of animal figurines.  We watched television and I got caught up on some emailing.  It was what you would call a 'lazy day of summer'.  After supper I remembered that Sue was coming to Celine's house this evening so I went over there hoping that Ryan's curtains would be ready.  Alas, they were not.  Since blue was not available she brought some swatches for me to pick out a new color.  I chose a grayish silver and they should be ready on Tuesday.  In the meantime she fixed my lovely leather purse, putting the zipper pull back on and fixing the stitching.  Grand total for that repair job: 20yuan! ($3).

On the way back from Celine's I stopped into the 'fitness club' here at Eastern Venice.  As you may remember from my post All I Can Say Is "Yuck!" the pool was less than par.  Well, we received word that they had started fixing up the place so I wanted to check it out.  They did do some painting to brighten the place up and the 'gymnasium room' is becoming a dance/yoga studio.  From this room I could check out the pool.  It is filled up now and there were several people swimming in it.  The deck had been cleaned and did look somewhat better.  A girl who worked there came over to talk to me and I told her that we had been there before and it looks better now.  Her English wasn't the best and she asked if I thought it looked better than other clubs.  I quickly said, "No, but it does look better than it did one month ago".  Eventually she understood what I meant.  I asked her about the locker room so she took me to see it.  It does have more than one light bulb now and the place is cleaner, but still not up to my standards.  I also mentioned about the smoking outside the locker rooms and on the pool deck and how disgusting it was.  She told me about the memberships and asked which one I wanted to buy.  Ha!  I told her I would wait until everything was done before deciding that.  There is supposed to be exercise equipment arriving but she didn't seem to know what it was or where it would be going.  I will check it out again in a couple of weeks and see where they are at.  It would be convenient to be able to go on the treadmill there and the membership isn't too much for one year.  The only bad thing about it is that they now charge to use the ping pong tables where they were free before.  They offer lessons now though.  I'll be signing up for those asap.

Tomorrow I must get out or risk going shack-wacky.  We will see where we end up.  Adios amigos!