I have decided that reading is a sport for any weather. This week the temperatures in New York spiked somewhere around 103, and thus turning pages indoors won out over a lot of outdoor activities, though floating in an oversized tube in the pool was pretty nice, too. I still want someone to calculate how many pages one needs to turn to shed one pound --- and how fast one needs to turn them. I do think reading is my favorite sport --- think of the exercise that my mind gets from it!

I hope you're enjoying your summer as much as I am. It's hard to believe that July 4th is already upon us! What happened to June? I hope you all will be able to share the holiday with family and friends, and celebrate all that makes our nation great. This is always a special time for reflection as well as honoring our servicemen and women at home and abroad who sacrifice every day for our country. I love fireworks and am hoping I can find a display of them somewhere near the house as I am not traveling this weekend. So many towns have slashed fireworks from their budgets with so many other things requiring their dollars.

Now that summer vacation is in full swing, we’re betting that most of you haven’t even glanced at your assigned summer reading lists yet. That’s okay, we won’t tell if you won’t! If you’re looking to squeeze in some fun and exciting “me-reading” before hunkering down to tackle those "chore" books, we can certainly provide you with more than enough excuses to fine-tune your procrastination skills for just a little while longer.

Now that summer vacation is in full swing, we’re betting that many of your kids haven't even glanced at their assigned summer reading lists yet. That’s okay, they are certainly not alone! But before they start hunkering down to tackle those "chore" books, we can provide them with more than enough excuses to fine-tune their procrastination skills for just a little while longer.