Happy Independence Day!!

[fenchurch]

It's been a pretty fun holiday... stayed up way too late last night getting food ready for today (the potato salad and the brine/marinade for the ribs -- neither are tough, but are a bit more difficult when you realize after midnight that you're missing some ingredients), but that was largely my own fault for not starting them earlier. Then I got woken up at around 6:30 this morning because our power had gone out (I have no idea why) and when it came back on, one of our many pieces of electronica had decided to share its joy at once again receiving power by giving a nice loud BEEP. Thankfully, I eventually got back to sleep.

taradaktyl called a bit after 9:00 to see if I still wanted to go walking, so I rolled out of bed, grabbed a banana and some water and headed over to her place... following that up with a bit of mowing and yardwork. Yeah, I know how to party.

Dinner was fun, with Rackham's dad (who has been visiting this week), Rackham's brother and his family (who moved to the area a few weeks ago), as well as tomte and gidgiddoni. We had my family's traditional potato salad (made this time with Hain's Light Safflower Mayo -- works wonderfully and reduces the Points values by half) and Guamanian-style ribs, then decided to take advantage of seasonal goodness with strawberry shortcake for dessert. Yum!! And, of course, we watched our standard movies for the 4th of July: 1776 and Independence Day.

Now we get to hear the neighborhood explode around us for the rest of the night. One of the advantages? joys? perils? of living in unincorporated King County -- no extra city rules banning fireworks, so everyone sets 'em off. I really don't mind, since it's only once a year... but I am rather grateful that they decided to crack down on the fireworks in the park behind our house. Sure it made for a good show from our back porch in the past, but was a lot less fun when they were setting them off at 2:00am, just down the hill from our bedroom window.

Hope you all had a great day, even if it wasn't a holiday for you!

Comments

[captainofidiots.livejournal.com]

Which area do you live in, if you don't mind me asking? (Forgive, I'm a wee-bit tipsy/buzzed/drunk) The boy lives in Redmond.

PS. Happy fourth to you as well!!!!

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

I live in the Juanita area, just north of Kirkland and not too far from Totem Lake.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Well, I live in a City and we still get somebody shooting off fireworks around here. In fact, last year someone bought quite a few of the really big ones somewhere and fired them off in the little Park down my Street. You could see the results waaay above the trees, it was pretty spectacular.

And I re-watched a good chunk of John Adams , which seemed an appropriate thing to view.

[rosiewook.livejournal.com]

Biggest aggravation from last night was the fireworks after midnight. And, of course, they couldn't do them all at once. Keep quiet just long enough for me to drift back to sleep...

Geez, people. The sun is fully down by 9pm around here. Could you kindly limit it to just a couple of hours?

[pmgoose.livejournal.com]

And, of course, we watched our standard movies for the 4th of July: 1776 and Independence Day.

AWESOME!

[shakatany.livejournal.com]

My favorite musical is "1776" - they really had a way with words in those days (much of the dialog was taken from actual correspodence and eyewitness accounts). I think it should be shown every July 4th like "The Christmas Story" (and tons of other movies) is shown at Xmas and "The Ten Commandments" is shown at Easter. I, of course, learned all about the events of 1776 at school but until I watched the movie it had never sunk in how not everyone thought independence was a good idea (seems so obvious now), that there was a lot of compromises involved including the big one dealing with slavery and the very real possibility of defeat hung over the proceedings. I have the DVD but as I am housesitting I had to see it on TCM late at night. I watched it almost to the bitter end even though I have it on DVD and I've watched it umpteen times.

Glad you had a great time with friends and family.

Shakatany

[tomte.livejournal.com]

Thanks for inviting us. Those Guamanian ribs were particularly delicious. And the company wasn't bad either. :)