Today is a stay in the house, . . .

. . .settle near the air-conditioning, and, ideally, get some organizing and some writing done. My office is kind of messy.  There's too much stuff for the room I have, what with an exercise ball, two guitars, a tv, a turntable on top a table, an easy chair, a good size desk, office chair, tons of books and scattered papers, I am overwhelmed with stuff at the moment.  Last week, I bought 4 dozen file folders to reorganize the scattered papers.  They have been sitting on the floor.  Today, I will try to actually use those folders.

               I am opting for the zen approach to the problems of SUMMERPLAY.  A little meditation, a momentary chant, a smile, then fix them.

                We have two great chairs to add to the lobby of the Avalon Inn.  From where did they come?  Linda, Lucy, and I were heading to Panera's this morning, when, just down our street, we saw these excellent wicker porch chairs sitting by the road, waiting to be picked up by the garbage men.  What to do?  Become a garbage picker?  Immediately, I decided yes, and Linda agreed, although she buried her head, lest someone see us at this.  I hung a U-turn, leaped from the car, tossed the chairs in the back seat, which alarmed Lucy who was already sitting there, hopped back, drove back to our house, and secreted them in the garage.  (That is se'creted as in put them somewhere in secret, not secrete'd as in what a gland does with a hormone.  I don't know how to secrete a chair.)  The chairs are fabulous, although they appear to be shedding dry paint.  I plan on hosing and vacuuming that problem away.  With some bright cushions, they will be the bomb!  In fact, don't tell her I told you, but I believe Linda is planning on keeping our roadside treasure after ARTHUR REDUX is over.  She'll probably claim she found them in some trendy next-to-new shop.  You ought to see the $125 shabby chic shelf that is on our porch already.  Now that's the bomb!

                 "Secret" and "secrete" reminded me of another interesting English rule, this one a spelling rule, which I will share with my friend Scott and others who might be interested.  Let's title this rule, "Why 'Counselor' Should be Spelled with Only One L not Two."  When adding an ending to multiple syllable verbs that end in consonants like "counsel" or "travel or "secret."  Or like "occur" or "compel" or "control," the accented syllable determines whether or not one should double that final consonant.  If the first syllable is accented as in the word "travel," then one does not double the "l" in "traveler" or "traveling."  If the second syllable (or it could be the third or fourth) is accented as in "compel," then one* needs to double the final consonant.  This is one of the more "compelling" spelling rules that I know.  Certainly, there will be exceptions to this rule, but not very many.

                  Kudos to Jigs for designing our poster!

*Who is this "one" people are always writing about?