Blessed Summer

Today is the day, my friends! Today is the day that welcomes in the most glorious time of the year: SUMMER!

I love everything about summer...even the mosquitoes. And do you know why? It is because they hate me. It's true. They hate my guts. They think I stink. And because of that, they never bite me.

I know many of you may hate me right now. I'm sorry. Maybe you just need to stink more? I don't know.

So here is my list of favorite summer things...

1. Homemade ice cream in EXTREMELY LARGE quantities.

That's it. That's my list.

Okay, not really. I have more things I love about summer, including:

2. My fave holiday - the 4th of July!

3. The Gage Beach. This is not a beach at all, rather an extremely large, extremely cold artesian pool in the middle of the Great Plains. I am headed there next week so there will be more to come on this.

4. Warm evenings.

5. Vacation. This could be my favorite word in the history of words. Well, that and "frequent flyer miles." Okay, that's three words.

6. Cookouts. The smell of a grill is like nothing else. I think you could cook a shoe on a grill and it would smell just as good. But please, don't do that to your shoes.

7. Getting a tan. In theory, people actually tan when they lay in the sun. Even though this does not really apply to me, the act of laying in the sun is glorious.

8. Fruit. I love fruit.

9. Summer birthdays. We have three in my family in the month of June. Tomorrow is Claire's. She is going to be 15. Oh wait. Actually, she will be 28. Sorry about that.

10. That feeling that everything, if even for a moment, is right with the world. I never have that feeling in the dead of winter.

Happy Summer, peeps.