So tired of eating cold dinners. If I'd wanted to live with day-in, day-out temps hovering around 100°, I'd have moved to Phoenix. Tonight I made a chilled cucumber soup from USA Weekend magazine that tasted good though the consistency was weird and I was starving about an hour afterward.

Went to see the new Harry Potter movie today. Though I liked the Cuarón vision over Chris Columbus' by far, it was nice to see all the cool little magical touches again that make the wizarding world so enchanting. I don't remember as many of these in Order of the Phoenix, but I only saw the movie once. David Yates, writer Steve Kloves and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel (Amélie) make a good team.

I'm watching the latest episode of The Next Food Network Star as I write this, and this one convinces me that Susie, Bob and Bobby are really the sadistic bullies I've always suspected they were. If the host of some podunk morning show randomly decided to slop hot sauce all over something Bobby Flay made he would have murdered the guy right there on the spot with a paring knife. And there is no way in hell they would have walked onto Paula Deen's set in the middle of a shoot and swapped out her butter for tofu, or suddenly stopped Boobs De Laurentiis mid pasta and told her she had to make something Cuban. They had the nerve to chastise Jamika for showing she was mad??? Because Bobby's never, ever been visibly enraged on camera. Nor Alton Brown. What pisses me off about this show is that they consistently subject these people to standards that not a single one of the current stars had to deal with, and what has it gotten them? In five seasons, they found one legitimate breakout in Guy Fieri. Maybe it's time to rethink the show?