So far, today has been a quiet day. I imagine that as it gets darker outside, it will become louder. Several of my neighbors have been setting off fireworks for the last few months. I enjoy fireworks as much as the next person does. However, I do not think that they have as much visual impact during the day as they would at night. Of course, I do not enjoy listening to the racket well past midnight. At least I do not have to work for a few days. Therefore, if the noise keeps me up tonight, I can sleep in tomorrow.

As always, I hope that everyone had a safe holiday yesterday and that you did not lose any fingers and toes. When I was in Pennsylvania last week, I was tempted to bring home some fireworks. But, without money, it is hard to buy fireworks.

Rachel and I went to her mother's house for some food. I probably ate enough where I will not have to eat for the rest of the week. And, even though we did not light any fireworks, Rachel and I still had a good time. We played badminton for a while. We do not use a net or keep score. We just try to keep the shuttlecocks off the roof.

Rachel had her splint removed last Monday. The doctor said that everything looked okay. He told her that he should have made the scar longer to connect with her Tigger tattoo. That way, it would look like Tigger was climbing something.

I hope that everyone had a fun and safe Independence Day this year. I had the day off, so I was planning to sleep for most of the day. But, since my new class (Philosophy 101) started, I compromised by getting up in the middle of morning. After doing my exercise routine and getting breakfast, I started doing my schoolwork. After eight weeks of inactivity, it was nice to start again. In my excitement, I misread the class's chat time. All of my prior professors have had their chats in the evening.

When we got our dog Emily, we had problems seeing her in our backyard at night. She has a dark coat and at the time we didn't have much lighting in the back yard. So, we picked up a flashing ID tag at the local PETsMART. The tag is pretty cool. It only lights up when it's dark and when there is motion. This is exactly what we wanted.

I hope that everyone had a safe Fourth of July. I spent the afternoon and most of the night at my parents-in-law's house. Since we were going to be away from the house for more than a couple of hours, we decided to take the entire family. We took a picture of Kara, Kelly and Emily in their crate ready to go. It's hard to tell in the picture, but each of them is wearing an American flag bandana. Also, each one of them is wearing an item that lights up. Emily has a dog bone, Kara has a picture of fireworks and Kelly has an American flag.