Just in case you haven't noticed, the general mantra of my life is "man, where did the time go?" And that's about everything: the years, the summer, the weekend -- I'm always stunned when it goes too fast, like I haven't had this life experience a million times before.

Lots of beaching, two tracking and sparklers later, 4th of July is done again. Start the countdown to Christmas, it'll be here next week.

Seriously though. I bopped into Target for a minute yesterday to return some stuff, and I was lured into the bowels because A.) it doesn't take much and B.) all the summer stuff is on sale. You'd think tomorrow the leaves are going to start falling, because Target is going hard into "back to school". But whatever, our live cycle is basically one marketing campaign to the next and I'll take advantage because you know what? Summer actually just began.  Here come the dog days, and may they last.

***

I took Dukers to the parade in Frankfort and this Mom-of-the-Year forgot to bring his shoes. After I decided to not bring his stroller of course, because I figured he'd want to walk. So I carried my 25lb burrito for the better part of two hours and earned every bite of the hot dogs I ate that afternoon.