The weather man here keeps talking about "Extreme Heat," as if it were a sport or something. I'm still completely swamped, and the heat doesn't help.

The picture here shows where #2 daughter works. She says it's very cold there. I'm envious.

On the other hand, I have a window, and no nearby cubicles.

On the third hand, I am surrounded by video game playing boys who simultaneously watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, not to mention the dogs.

I have so much work that it hardly matters, though,and #2 daughter is not only working 10 hours shifts but also working for me.

#1 daughter is helping me with the mountains of unbillable work. If she does that, then I can do more billable work and pay her.

This is the plan.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a TV show about a group of completely depraved people.

My boys claim that it's the modern equivalent of Seinfeld, just as Burn Notice is the modern equivalent of MacGyvor. Or however that's spelled. I'm not sure than Seinfeld ever seemed completely depraved. Granted, the characters aren't admirable, you wouldn't want to know them in real life, but there's no cannibalism, Kramer never decides to become a terrorist, the gang doesn't get together and throw a Molotov cocktail into Newman's window.

Are we actually more tolerant of depravity and violence so that we need to kick it up a notch in order to remain entertained? My kids think so.

This is a statue from our trip to the Big City. We've been back for a while, but I thought you'd enjoy it. 

One of the jobs I got while in the Big City is currently in progress. I'm writing about a guy who does Pressure Point Knockouts. In the course of this, I've watched a whole bunch of videos of this fighting technique, though I still don't know how to do it.

It reminds me of fainting goats. This guy goes calmly up to people, touches them with no apparent effort, and they go down like a sack of bricks.

The guy's expression never even changes.

I've done him a bunch of marketing pieces and he likes them, so today I'll finish up with his sales pages.

Then I'll finish up the underwear catalog guy, after which I'll be moving on to an outfitter.

#1 daughter is, meanwhile, clearing up all the other sites that aren't finished yet because the designer's not through, or more frequently because we're waiting on the client. She's also trying to keep up with the people who've asked for proposals and not followed up with us, and the many people who haven't paid us.

If you have a salaried job and sometimes yearn for the American Dream of owning your own business, do keep in mind the unpleasantness of collections. We went online to see whether there was any good advice out there, and found some suggestions, most of which we are already doing. We also found the story of a designer who calmly explained that he was going to sit out in the lobby until he was paid, removing one article of clothing at a time and, when he had no more to remove, sitting naked in their lobby till they cut his check.

He admitted that this wouldn't work as well for a woman.

Here is a new piece of knitting. Not because I've finished the Flying Diagonals cardigan, which I haven't, but because I was traveling and needed something without shaping. We'll see what happens with it.

I have gotten back to trying to work normal working hours, so last night I knocked off at a reasonable time (#1 daughter and I have agreed that 8-6 is reasonable) and knitted and read Sophie Green on my Kindle. I like the Sophie Green books, of which Ugley Business, the current one, is the second. Sophie has accidentally become a spy, as so often happens in real life, and while she has no training of any kind, barrels on ahead through her various adventures with courage and verve. She reminds me of #2 daughter a little bit, for some reason.

I think that #2 daughter would like to learn Pressure Point Knockouts so she could fell grown men with a single casual blow.

Yesterday we hit the farmers market for peaches and squash and cukes, and also worked on our public art posts.

Then we had lunch, and talked about arguments.

The girls were saying that they liked bickering. They enjoy those fast-paced arguments over whether Android or iPhone is better.

Not I. I like a lively discussion about something so abstract that there is clearly no right answer. The nature of altruism, for example.

#1 daughter was right on that. "I'm not altruistic," she said, "and I'm not sure that anyone is." She brought out a number of salient points, but she also seemed to be contradicting herself.

"But there," I objected, "you're describing actions that are altruistic."

She pointed a finger at me and fixed me with a gaze that said, "this clinches it!" I waited with bated breath for the laser-like response that was clearly on its way.

"That," she said triumphantly, "is because I don't know what that word means!"

That was the end of that argument, of course.