The country comes together a couple of times a year to celebrate our freedom. People get a random day off in the middle of the week. They spend this day eating watermelon, burgers, and hot dogs. They watch fireworks and, hopefully, find time for family.

In the interests of sharing in the familial patriotism, my husband and I drove over three hundred miles to spend time with friends and family. I made the mistake of telling people that I could call them. With changing traffic patterns, alleged construction, and potential for pit stops, we couldn't guarantee a time of arrival.

My brother not only stayed by his phone, but began anxiously calling before our earliest prognosticated time of arrival. (He is his mother's son.) I reminded him of our hopeful arrival time and promised to call him when we crossed into the wild and wonderful mountain state. This seemed to allay his fears that he'd miss us forcing him and the kids to have lunch with us. I still don't know how my husband can handle being surrounded by four versions of me. (He may secretly be Superman.)

My aunt got tied up with helping her neighbor, which means she didn't receive my message about our imminent arrival. Luckily, I knew this was a possibility, so we were able to see her. She even introduced us to some neighborhood strays. With a little more time, I think I could have made an adorable little tabby ball of fur into a dear friend. Sadly, I had promised another friend I would be visiting her in the late afternoon or early evening, so we had to get rolling again.

I texted my friend and we got back on the road. A half hour later, I thought it was odd that I hadn't heard back from her. Of course, on twisty back roads, my signal often gets dropped and the message doesn't come through until three days later. I texted her again. I received no response. We continued until we reached the right exit (another 15 or so minutes later). We searched for her house, using the guidance of directions from google. The crazy directions sent us a mile down a road when her house was at the corner of that road and the one we turned off of. We finally found her house. She wasn't there. It was hot. I was annoyed. Thus we continued our journey.

my friend e-mailed me at 8:30pm to let me know she wasn't going to make it. I am pretty sure that 8:30 falls well beyond early evening. I would have been happier had she just cancelled on me when she realized other plans came up (which obviously happened in the morning or afternoon--well before my first text). Of course, this reminds me how rude we're all becoming. It's sad that we have the technology to stay in fairly constant contact with people, but we still neglect them.

Anyway, we arrived at the in-laws' house much earlier than we expected. We unloaded the blueberry pie and black and blueberry crumble pie bars and proceeded to relax. Eventually, we called to let his parents know we were there. They referred us to the correct channel for the Pittsburgh fireworks. While grandma, granpap, mom, and dad waited to get away from their viewing location, we got to watch the New York festivities, which heavily featured the work of Usher, who was the creative consultant. That's better than sitting in traffic from what I hear. Granpap decided to jump out of the car and yell at people at one point. You have to love those feisty 80 year olds. I aspire to be one.

It saddens me that I have to wait until 11am to begin celebrating the 7-11 holiday. For the past two years, I have found myself in close proximity to the home of the Slurpee way before this time. This morning, I was only off by an hour. Needless to say, I made a trip to claim my prize later in the day. The store instituted a new policy where they dispense your frozen happiness for you on this auspicious day. Somehow, I didn't think he would understand, "Mix the cherry and the coke." Lucky for him, the cherry wasn't frozen yet, so he didn't have to translate hobbit obsession speak.

Some might believe I don't deserve such a reward, but I disagree completely. Despite neglecting this journal again, I have accomplished quite a bit lately. I've been trying out all of my recipes that involve blueberries since I decided to purchase ten pounds of blueberries a week ago. Don't worry, I froze most of them, so I won't be featured in the new Smurf movie.

What has kept me most busy involves my friends Sledgie, Crow, Rub, Ham, and Driver. (Before you start thinking I've joined some sort of gang, they are a little sledgehammer, a crowbar, a rubber mallet, a hammer, and a screwdriver.) They have been assisting me with another demo project. I decided it was about time to remodel our office, which still sported some retro paneling and only one book shelf. Most of the walls have come down. Now I just need to vanquish the mess left in the wake of hurricane Bella and help my husband slide those new walls into place, mud (clearly, I still love mud after all these years), paint, and get professionals to replace the carpeting, and then I can have more shelves.

I'm hoping to have most of this resolved by the middle of next week, so I can move onto the most important thing in the world: baking a delicious cake!

I've had so many amusing moments in the past couple of weeks, but I neglected the opportunity to share it with my one (two?) faithful reader(s). For your reading pleasure, I shall share a few.

As you should know, July means celebration. In celebration of my own notorious birth, I took a trip with my love. We rented a cozy little cabin with our own tiny kitchen and a heart-shaped tub. More importantly, our getaway took us into close proximity of some of my amazing friends.

The oldest daughter of one friend, who is about five, greeted us on arrival at her house. She regaled us with stories about jumping on the trampoline and creating her own news reports. She even interviewed Beryllium. Impressive, eh?

the daughter's of another friend both have Angelman's syndrome, so they were more excited to hang out with my husband than me. They treated us to a couple of rounds of Uno. They won. They may have cheated a little. I was busy trying to remember the rules. They smiled the whole time and didn't get offended that I didn't understand sign language. I really should learn more thank "thank you".

I also got a late night lesson on bridge. I became very confused. I may have even fell off a bridge and floundered around in the water a little as my friends tried to explain how to bid and the rules of trump. I'd try to explain it to you, but I only processed about two pieces of information.

We also ventured into a local cavern. This required discussing moonshine. Our youthful guide recapped everything I learned from the Duke boys and Sheriff Andy Taylor. I tried really hard not to giggle. He also cautioned us to watch our heads because of low-hanging rock formations. I conquered all with my hobbit height. I didn't even have to tilt my neck. The guide informed me that most adults weren't able to do that. I really should have been allowed to buy a child's ticket.

The rest of our trip was punctuated by eating Ho-hos (they're back!) and walking over to the trout pond. This seemed to be the best location to access the internet. We also got to watch the trout jumping out of the water, so we didn't lack entertainment.

I also got to watch three brothers do some synchronized dancing as they waited for their food to be ready at California Tortilla. I surprised myself by holding in my giggles. The taco salad I was eating probably helped with that.

Also, I picked up some more fabric for my next great costume. Now if I can just get some remodeling done so I have enough floor space to cut out the pieces...