Fourth of July! Freedom is worth celebrating. I wish our country had more of it. Something to think about.

Temperature maxed out at 95. I know this for a fact because I ventured out of Tony's air-conditioned room from 9:30 to 2:30 to sell cheapo festive beads at Edgewater Park, along with Pat, Jackal, and Josh (who got us the “in”). We've all decided that we're never doing it again unless they pay twice as much per hour next year. Then we'd think about it.

At 2:30 sharp we got out of that hotbed of heat and beelined for the party at the DiFranco's. I didn't bring swim trunks, but that didn't stop me from chilling in the pool out back. Played some volleyball and ate some fantastic Italian sausage, prepared by a DiFranco. Then I sat in the air-conditioned (is this a recurring theme? okay, but it was hot today, jeez!) indoors and watched the U.S. women's soccer team defeat Brazil. These women are damn good! Also they seem to play soccer pretty well.