When I was a little girl my dad and I made a deal: he'd come to my tea parties if I'd watch football with him on Sundays. (This was way before NFL games aired nearly every day of the week!)

Having tea with Dad was nothing short of hilarious. He'd sit in a tiny chair at my little table and use his thumb and forefinger to lift the toy teacup. He'd drink my pretend tea with his pinky finger sticking out and do his best royal English accent. He'd always say something like, "Oh dear! I've spilled my tea. Be a princess and ring for the upstairs maid will you dahhhling?" (Just writing about it still makes me laugh out loud.)

Once our tea party was finished, we'd head downstairs to catch the game. During the commercials Dad would pretend to run plays with me, which (I realize now) is how he taught me the rules. It's also how he taught me to love football.

I don't have a lot of tea parties these days but I never miss an NFL game. The pre-season starts on Aug. 3 with a match-up between the Cowboys and the Cardinals. I'll be right there in front of my TV doing what Dad taught me to do: looking for the newest star players, predicting which team will make the playoffs, and maybe even running a few mock plays with my kids. They don't love football yet but I'm working on it. I think of it as a generational passing game - I pass down what my dad taught me and my kids catch my football bug. That way I'll always have someone to watch with - no matter what day or night the games are played.

I've collected model planes, vintage aviator goggles and helmets, and shirts and pajamas with flight themes since I was five. I even begged my parents for a bed shaped like a jet (I didn't get it). All because of Emilia Earhart. To girls like me, she was a bona-fide hero. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She founded the Ninety-Nines for female pilots. She was one of the first advocates for women's rights. She was strong, independent, and, after her disappearance in July 1937, completely mysterious. 

I still have piles of books about her in my attic. Well...they were in my attic. Now they're spread all over my kitchen table - a mess I blame on the History Channel's special "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence”. The show claimed to have solved the 80-year-old mystery of her disappearance: Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were taken captive by the Japanese military after crash landing near the Marshall Islands. The central piece of supporting evidence was a photo of Earhart sitting on a dock with her back to the camera with Noonan standing in the foreground.

Her capture by the Japanese seemed to fit with the idea that Earhart might have been working for the U.S. government. Though she had no official military record, one conspiracy theory still holds a firm grip on the American imagination: Amelia was a spy. The photo seemed to lend credence to the theory, which was exciting to say the least. But two days after the show aired the photo - directly from U.S Naval Intelligence files - was debunked by Ric Gillespie. A lifetime Earhart researcher, Gillespie noticed that the caption had been doctored and went looking for the original. He found it in a tour book in the National Library of Japan - the photo was taken two years before Earhart and Noonan set out to circle the world.

Amelia Earhart Day is celebrated on her birthday (July 24) every year. I thought we'd finally have the answers this year, but as the holiday approaches the truth remains hidden. But maybe that's okay. After all these years, maybe having the mystery is better than solving it.

When it's hot, my family will go to any lengths to keep the house cool (while making sure the AC bill doesn't break the bank!) We keep the shades drawn against the heat of the day. We leave the lights off until it gets so dark that we start bumping into things. All heat generating appliances are banned, including blowdryers and curling irons - everyone has to wear their "summer hair".

So turning on the oven or stovetop? No way. Not going to happen.

Since I can remember, the backyard grill has been our summer stove. My grandfather taught us how to grill steaks, burgers, hotdogs, and chicken, of course, but he also showed us how to make yummy potatoes, vegetables, and even fruits on the grill. Fish is trickier, but once you get the hang of it - use a grill basket and don't leave it on too long - a freshly caught trout makes a quick, easy, and healthy dinner.

The men in my family have always fancied themselves Master Grillers, which makes summer cooking their domain. That doesn't bother us one bit. Just like generations of women before us, we're perfectly happy to sip wine and chat while the men sweat it out over an open flame. After all, it's family tradition!

When the Beatles first crashed onto the American music scene, a reporter asked the seemingly innocent question, "How do you find America?" To which drummer Ringo Starr replied, "Turn left at Greenland." The reporter was, of course, asking how the Fab Four liked America but, always the jokester, Starr delivered the first of many tongue-in-cheek Ringo-isms that Americans would come to know and love him for. His sense of humor has always been one of his most adorable traits - to me anyway.

"America," Ringo said, "it's like Britain, but with buttons." He also said, "I am a big Beatles fan. And, you know, unbeknownst to anyone, I used to be one." Perhaps his most famous quote is the one he gave shortly after being greeted by throngs of screaming fans on his first visit in 1964. "So this is America," he said. "They must be out of their minds."

Ringo must have 'found' that he liked America. He stayed here and kept on playing, becoming one of the top ten drummers in the world. He's played drums for former bandmates George Harrison and John Lennon (Yoko too) and dozens of other American and British rock bands. Today he tours with his group Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, which features some of the most iconic rock & roll players of our time. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice - once for his work with the Beatles (1988) and again for his solo career (2013).

"First and foremost I am a drummer. After that, I'm other things" Ringo said once. "But I didn't play drums to make money." At age 77, Ringo Starr is the richest drummer of all time. He's still "bashing" at those drums and still not doing it for the money. For Ringo, it's always been about the music.