Longtime readers may recall our cherry tree in the backyard that explodes 'round 'bout this time of year.

Today we spent about an hour picking cherries. We ended up with about twelve gallons and haven't even dented the surface. Longtime readers will recall this isn't unusual.

So we called our friends and will be delivering cherries tonight on our way up north for the holiday.

If we weren't headed up north tonight, I'd make a pie or a cobbler or a crisp or a cake or something. As it is, we'll eat cherries for dinner and spit out the pits.

For dinner there is also the rest of Rice's birthday dinner: fried chicken and fried rice, which is full of veggies -- red peppers, scallions, sugar snap peas, corn, etc. Not terribly traditional perhaps, but good nonetheless, and I emptied out the 'fridge. That's my normal recipe anyway -- what veggies do I have to throw into this?

Next door a Mariachi band is practicing. I've opened the windows and keep hanging out in my master bath so I can hear them play. They're not so bad, you know? After dinner, if I have time, I may take the kids on by so they can hear.

What a great country, where I can open my windows and not hear what one would usually expect, but something from another culture and country, that still reminds me of some good times.

Happy 4th, all you Americans. (And since I believe only Americans read this, happy holiday, all.) With all its current problems, it's still a wonderful country to live in. We just have some cleaning up to do.