Don’t accidentally leave a mini-watermelon on your counter Thursday morning, before leaving for four days and having turned up the air conditioner to 82 degrees. It’ll cave in during your absence and ooze liquid all over your counter, somehow looking like a crime scene in an R-rated movie. The smell is distinctly not good, too.

I’ll spare you the photos because even I couldn’t bear snapping a shot of the yuck.

One of the best things about summer, I’ve decided, is the sudden bounty of fresh local vegetables. I needed to use some of the remnants of this week’s CSA share, but was feeling uninspired. Ended up just cutting up a couple of squash, a white onion, and half a pint of yellow cherry tomatoes. Dumped them on a pan, put a few drops of red chili oil on top of them, some fresh ground salt and pepper, and roasted them in the oven.

It’s amazing how good veggies that were picked just a few days ago that never had to be frozen will taste in a situation like this. Ahhhh. Summer, you’re not so bad after all. I almost (but not quite) forgive you for those 100+ degree days last month.

It’s that time of year. The most evil time of year. The time when Girl Scout cookies are on sale.

I freely admit that I am powerless when it comes to those little bites of deliciousness. Especially the Thin Mints and Samoas, although Tagalongs are a close third. (Or, if you’re in a different part of the country, those latter two might be called the boring names of Caramel DeLites* and Peanut Butter Patties.)

Every year, I tell myself that I’m not going to buy any. I don’t need them. (My waistline certainly doesn’t.) There are other snacks out there I can buy instead. And yet… and yet… Well, so far I’ve only bought one box of Thin Mints. I actually picked it up a week and a half ago as I was leaving the grocery store. The Girl Scouts were out, I walked past them, and then was almost to my car when I turned around and went back and bought the box. Their siren call was hard to ignore.

As soon as I got home, though, I threw them into the back of my freezer. Frozen Thin Mints actually taste better than regular ones, but it also means that I can promptly forget about them. This is a good thing because otherwise I run the risk of eating half a box in the space of about 20 minutes. And so they sat there, completely forgotten about, until someone on Livejournal mentioned selling cookies. *sigh*

So far, I’ve eaten five of them. Three at first, then two more a couple of minutes later. I’m hoping that by writing this up I can push past the craving. And I suddenly have sympathy for people trying to quit smoking.

That said, there is one kind of Girl Scout cookie that I can always pass by, and those are the nasty shortbread Trefoil cookies. I think I’d rather just eat sawdust. Bleah. Bring those into my house all you want, they are about as exciting as watching paint dry. At least I have immunity to one variety, I suppose.

How long until Girl Scout cookie season ends?

* — I don’t know who they’re fooling, there’s absolutely nothing “lite” about them.

While heading up to a friend’s shindig this afternoon, it hit me that if I took the Baltimore-Washington Parkway up to the top of the Beltway (instead of the George Washington Parkway up to the side of the Beltway), I’d drive right past IKEA. And since I recently used up the last of my lingonberry preserves, well… a trip to the IKEA “grocery store” might be in order.

If you’ve never had lingonberries before, it’s a tiny bit hard to describe them. They’re a little tart but sweet at the same time, and they’re an essential ingredient on swedish pancakes. (Places like IHOP actually offer a lingonberry syrup for their swedish pancakes.) As I’ve been on a pancake kick lately (and really, why not?), more lingonberry preserves was a must.

I actually picked up two other similar foods that I’ve never eaten before, though; cloudberry preserves, and gooseberry jam. I have no idea what either of them taste like, but how can I resist something called a cloudberry? It sounds like what Frodo and Sam would have picked off of bushes on their trip to Mordor. Or maybe something Mario would eat to get a temporary power-up while trying to save Princess Peach from Bowser. I, for one, can’t wait to try them. (A gooseberry doesn’t sound quite as interesting. But in the interest of trying something new I bought it.)

If I had been going directly home I suspect I would have bought stuff out of the frozen section, too, but I was saved by warmer temperatures outside this weekend. Perhaps next time I’m up in the area…