I got up at 7 this morning to get the potato salad finished. And guess what? My refrigerator has been acting wacky and not maintaining even temperatures so some of the potatoes FROZE! First they burn and then they freeze!

Fortunately not many of them were destroyed, I only had to toss a few little pieces. It took me about an hour to chop the egg whites, mash the yolks, mix them with mayo and be done with it!

I thought I was quite clever in my presentation though. I lined a red, white and blue basket (that one of the kids gave me) with aluminum foil and plastic wrap, and put the potato salad in that. It was cute.

I got my act together and got to my mother’s house at about 11. (I’m trying to get out of the habit of calling it my parent’s house, because that sounds so weird now.) There really wasn’t anything to do there seeing we were grilling that popular American feast of hot dogs and hamburgers.

My brother and his family got there at about noon, and he took over the cooking. All I had to do was get out the condiments and chips etc. Simple enough.

It was at about this point that I realized that I had left the dozen ears of corn at my apartment.

Sigh. I guess my organizational skills continue to be questionable.

Lunch was fine, I ate with the kids on the porch. It was another one of those brutally humid days where there was barely a breath of air stirring, and the porch was less oppressive than the rest of the house. My mother, brother and sister-in-law ate inside, which was good for mom. I’m sure she’s sick of my other brother and myself. This gave her someone different to talk to.

Matilda was looking for family stories, as usual, and wanted to go up into the attic to see what toys from "the old days" (ouch!) were up there. The attic was way too hot for a day like today, we’ll have to save it for sometime in the fall.

I took both kids down into the basement instead. My father’s tools are all down there, as well as a crayon box he made for us when we were kids, and Keith is taking a woodworking class this summer so he’s into all those boy toys. My brother came down to look around as well.

We have so much that we need to get through. My father was a stamp collector and let me tell you there are HUNDREDS of books of stamps. They are all meticulously organized and categorized, mounted into book after book. I don’t the collection is worth a fortune, but it spans about seventy years and covers countries that don’t even exist any more. We are going to have to find a way to have these appraised and figure out what to do with them.

We poked around there for quite a while, and I found a picture album for Matilda so she went upstairs to get the scoop on when and where each of the pictures would have been taken and what was going on.

We all left at about 3:30.

I am quite happy to say that I have no plans for tonight. I really do love staying at home and watching the Boston Pops on television. The concert is simulcast, so I turn on all of my radios so I can have "surround sound".

I sing along with all the patriotic stuff and really crank the volume for the "1812 Overture." It probably bugs the neighbors but I love this little tradition of mine.

I am changing the tradition just slightly tonight, because I am not eating my favorite ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food), I discovered a new Ben and Jerry’s called "Pulp Addiction" which is an orange and chocolate combination.

Obviously the idea of dieting is not considered today.