Happy Independence Day!!!!!

Oh, wait, that was yesterday? Sorry. I wonder if Hallmark makes "Happy Belated Birthday" cards you can give to the greatest country on the planet?

I went to a wonderful cookout yesterday at my sisters. I had the best time running around the park with my oldest son Ethan, my brother in law Sean, my niece Shannon, and my future brother in law Rich. We played catch with an Aerobie (I hadn't played with one of these in YEARS and that's a shame), it was SO much fun.

My brother in law Sean is generally on the other side of the political spectrum than yours truly (hell, MOST of my family is at least a little LEFT of me), but it was really nice that we agreed our Country should be migrating toward nuclear power. The cost of doing it these days is substantially higher than if we'd done it during the 70's (when France did it), but most of the safety issues since then have been ironed out and with recycling of much of the waste generated, it just makes sense.

Nice to get a win last night to start the series with the Cardinals. It was awfully classy of them to give Jim Edmonds a standing O at his first at bat. Too bad he didn't do much yesterday at the dish. He'll have to hit a couple HR's today to make up for yesterday, which the Porembski Hitmen sorely need (my fantasy baseball team).

One of my sisters was kind enough to tip me off to this (courtesy of www.everydaycheapskate.com):

Home Depot offers free Kids Workshops on the first Saturday of each month from 9 a.m. to noon, at all Home Depot stores. Kids ages 5 to 12 get to make fun projects like toolboxes, fire trucks and mail organizers as well as other more educational projects like a birdhouse, bughouse and even a Declaration of Independence frame kit. Each kid also receives a kid-sized orange apron like the Home Depot associates wear in the stores and an achievement pin. Go to www.homedepot.com and type 'kids workshops' in the search box, to find the schedule for the Home Depot closest to you.

I took the boys after swimming lessons today and we built birdhouses. We had so much fun and it was FREE!!!!! Something tells me we'll be going back on August First to build flag holders, and every first of the month thereafter. THANKS FRANCINE!!!!