Happy Fourth of July!

Friday Night Block Party
It's comedy central in Old Town tonight, with five time NMHEA Comedian of the Year award winner Steven Michael Quezada and other local talent. Discover Old Town and have a laugh.
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Where: Charlevoix Street in Old Town
Cost: Free

Fourth of July
No matter where you live in Albuquerque, there's an event for the Fourth. Head out for a parade, some flag football, or enter your best pie in a baking contest. Or decorate your bike for the Fourth and be in the parade. And fireworks will be blazing, so find out where.

Visit the Baby Animals
If you haven't been to the zoo in a while, this weekend is a great opportunity to go. There are new baby animals to see, and some on the way. Baby boy Mosi the giraffe was born on May 21. A female giraffe, Kivulid was born June 19. And Rozie the Asian elephant, who was born at the zoo, is expecting. Stop by and say hello.

_{Sean Gallup/Getty Images}

Summer has a lot to offer, when extended daylight hours make it easy to get out and do something fun. Best of all, these alternatives have no cost or very little cost involved.

Want to find out a little more about different cultures? The City of Albuquerque has a series of live music and dance every Thursday night this summer, called Cultural Sunsets. Each week features the music and dance of a different culture at the Old Town Plaza.

On July 2 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., the Odara Dance Ensemble will bring a little bit of Brazil Albuquerque. Odara's Samba music is a popular Brazilian dance form and a type of music, traditionally linked with the Rio Carnival that happens every February in Brazil. The group features live percussionists and reggae dance.

There will be fun for the kids as well, so make this a low cost family night excursion. From 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., an arts and crafts workshop on the plaza will give the kids something to do besides dance. For more information, call 311 or visit the City’s website.

There are post game fireworks at the Albuquerque Isotopes game tonight. See what sparkles before the Fourth. The gates open at 5:30 p.m. and the game begins at 7:05 p.m. The home team plays against the Memphis Redbirds.

Yes, we can. We can figure out where this mural is. Give your guess in the Comments section below.

Wordless Wednesdays and Albuquerque Pictures on Aileen's Albuquerque Blog

By now, we've all heard the tragic news about the four teens who died as a result of being hit head on by a drunk driver. So many ironies exist in this story. Each teen was poised to begin a new and productive life. The 27 year old Scott Owens who killed them may or may not have been driving drunk. He refused a blood alcohol test, but he appeared disoriented at the scene. All the circumstantial evidence points toward him driving while drunk. If he was indeed drunk while driving, it wasn't his first time. Some people never learn.

According to the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), an estimated 12,998 people in 2007 died nationally in traffic crashes that involved a driver with a blood alcohol level that was over the legal limit. Nearly 13,000 people, isn't that a small town? A village, at the least? No matter how you look at it, that's a lot of lives. And in New Mexico, of the 411 traffic fatalities that occurred that same year, 169 involved alcohol. 15 of those deaths occurred with children 12 or under. No matter where you live in the state or in Albuquerque, chances are you know someone who has been affected by a drunk driver.

So while Scott Owens walked away from the crash with little injury, four young people died. Sometimes when I tell my son that life isn't fair, it is stories such as these that illustrate it best. Kate Klein, Alyssa Trouw, Julian Martinez and Rose Simmons, each of whom was just beginning a productive life, were killed by a presumed drunk driver who had a record of drunk driving. No, life isn't fair.

New Mexico has toughened up its drunk driving laws in the past few years. But when accidents such as these happen, you have to ask, is it enough? What will it take to turn these statistics around? Will we ever drink responsibly? What can we do to ensure that we do?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. What do you think? And is there anything we can do to make this kind of tragedy go away?