If we weren’t already doing a lot of traveling in August, I would be all over this.

Spirit Airlines has fares starting at $8 each way.  This is not a typo.

Hi dudes, it’s me. The long weekend was very nice, and now I have a short work week. The party went well; people seemed to enjoy the food, drink, and companionship. I wish the weather had been a bit less stiflingly humid so we could have been outside more, but overall it was nice.

On Monday we went out to my grandparents’ house for a family get-together and celebration of my cousin Betsy’s 30th birthday. Two of the visitors included my cousin Debi’s cute kids, 3.5-year-old Max and 4-month-old Meredith. Meredith has changed so much since I last saw her. Her hobbies include lying on her back and kicking and making googily noises.

Denny and I had a nice grill-out for the Fourth of July; it was a gorgeous evening, which we spent on our porch eating garlic-rosemary New York strips with asiago-paprika butter, along with some grilled corn on the cob and potatoes. After that, I gathered up some raspberries from our ever-prolific bush, which we enjoyed over ice cream. We also finished off a nice bottle of Spanish tempranillo/cab that was left over from the party.

That reminds me, the party guests were so generous with wine! I had already bought a fair amount to use in sangría, so the bottles brought by guests went mostly unopened (except for the aforementioned tempranillo/cab). I’m sorry if the people who brought them were hoping to partake, but people seemed to be enjoying the sangría and other beverages that were chilling in the coolers.

I’m especially excited to try the vinho verde (a Portuguese white that we’ve been enjoying in our recent Lusophilia phase), brought by the lovely Sue, and the malbec (an Argentine red that we’ve been enjoying since we had it at a food/wine event), brought by the dashing Mark and beautiful Leah. Their adorable toddler daughter Ava probably didn’t help pick it out, but she added to the party by entertaining our elderly neighbors with her gymnastics.

It was also fun to see my friends Ben and Buffy’s little boy, Eliott. He’s only 10 months old, but he’s started walking. It’s really sweet to watch how excited he gets about walking, like he’s thrilled by the fact that he, too, is a biped. He held my fingers as he walked unsteadily around our living room, squealing with delight all the way. Then he sat down to enjoy our magazine selection, except he didn’t let go of my fingers. Little dude has a good grip.