trying to beat the heat

Let me preface this post by saying that I am, in no way, complaining about the warm weather we've been having. In fact, I hate to mention the words warm and weather in the same sentence, for fear Mother Nature might overhear me and think she's been too generous.

Anyway.

If you read the story of Wiskers the Wonder Cat that I posted last week, you'll recall that we are now trying to keep our windows closed when we're not in a room. So, when we went to bed last night (the first night home after a week of vacation) we kept all windows, except the one in our bedroom, closed. And we have to keep the bedroom door closed, otherwise baby cats No. 1 and No. 2 lick their daddy's face so he can stay awake and play with them all night. 

Anyway.

Long story short, our bedroom is a pressure cooker. It's worse than any other apartment I've ever lived in. I woke up last night at hourly intervals and stood next to the window, willing any little bit of breeze to hit my face. No dice. It was a sauna. And our little fan is basically just pushing around the warm air. So, my question is, how are we going to deal with this? The summer weather is really just ramping up and there should (knock on wood) be many more hot days and nights ahead, but we have to keep the windows closed and the bedroom door shut. And an air conditioner isn't an option with our large, old windows.

I'm sure we're not the only ones dealing with this. Come on DIYers, how do you beat the heat?