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July 4th, 2012

It’s the Fourth of July. If you are not American, you’re still invited to celebrated with us. After all, I celebrated the Queen’s Jubilee. It’s too hot to barbecue so we’ll dine on lettuce wraps, and blueberry muffins (if I’m brave enough to turn on the oven), whilst sipping fresh lemonade. For dessert, I made Strawberry Sparkle Cake. For a blogger who does not cook, it actually turned out pretty well… Well, I only screwed up separating one egg out of 15; ever since cousin Carla taught me to separate egg whites using my hand I very seldom screw up.

It’s hot. I don’t plan to venture outside, except to change the direction of my sprinkler. I do open and close my back door all day every day for my campers, but even with the puppy pools set up nobody lasts long outside.

Usually I start my Fourth of July morning with fireworks and barking, but this morning my neighbor decided to beat the heat and mow her lawn at 5:30a.m. The fireworks started at 6a.m. Barking began at 6:01a.m, I run camp like General Patton over the Fourth of July week and make it as stress-free an experience as I can. This year’s campers seem to be coping pretty well,

Happy 41st Birthday Koko—the world’s most accomplished gorilla—having mastered more than 1,000 words in American Sign Language. In doing so, she has helped overturn age-old preconceptions about the limits of animal intelligence, expressing thoughts and emotions of astonishing sophistication. She has also been featured in THE NEW YORK TIMES, her face has graced the covers of prestigious magazines, three books have been written about her, and scientists hang on her every word. She has even had her life story told on TV—playing herself, of course!

Ok, let’s just admit it this Fourth of July post is boring. BORING. I even used the word ‘whilst’ to try to jazz things up… Though I’m pretty sure it didn’t help! I know, I know: my neighbor mowing her lawn… fascinating right? Not!  Koko has some potential, but what has Koko done lately? Not much.

So, I’m going to save you from myself and end this post with a few riveting Fourth Of July “Did You Know” facts, and hope to be back tomorrow with my tap shoes back on…

• Hotdogs: 155 million hot dogs will be consumed on July 4th. That’s enough to stretch from L.A. to D.C. five times, with hot dogs left over.

• John Adams was a party poop: Adams,went to his grave refusing to take part Independence Day celebrations on the 4th of July. According to Adams, the colonies truly broke from tyranny on July 2nd – the day that the members of the Continental Congress first voted to approve the Declaration of Independence.

• Let’s be honest: human beings love to blow things up: Our wallets confirm this fact: American consumers will spend more than $600 million on fireworks this Fourth, according to H&R Block.

• The Fourth Became a National Holiday In 1870: Americans began observing the Fourth of July as early as 1777, when the first-ever major celebration in Philadelphia included a parade, a thirteen-shot cannon salute, and fireworks. One of the first city-wide annual festivals began in Eastport, Maine, which still boasts the largest Fourth of July celebration in the state. Massachusetts became the first state to recognize the Fourth as an official holiday in 1781. Congress made Independence Day a national holiday as part a bill in 1870 to recognize at a federal level the holidays that were already recognized in every state of the Union.

• Let Liberty Ring: Thirty-one places in the United States feature the word “liberty” in their names, in honor of the Declaration of Independence and the principle it enshrined. The most populous as of July 1, 2008 is Liberty, Mo., but Iowa has more “liberty” towns than any other state: Libertyville, New Liberty, North Liberty and West Liberty. Eleven cities, towns, and villages claim “Independence” for their name, with Independence, Mo. being the most populous — as well as being the childhood home of the country’s 33rd president, Harry S. Truman.

• Let’s Party: Independence Day is the sixth most popular party holiday during the calendar, and the only one that falls during the summer months. July 4th falls behind cold-weather fiestas like Halloween and the Super Bowl, though the holiday does beat out Labor Day with more than four times as many parties.

Happy Fourth of July!