(Mis)Happy Fourth of July

One of the few things that went just right was dessert:
real vanilla ice cream with peaches, blueberries, and
raspberries from the farmers market. After dinner I'd
packed everything in tupperware, in my lunchbox, in the
freezer, so it was barely melted by the time we ate it.

Our Fourth of July consisted of a series of minor mishaps that didn't manage to spoil our enjoyment. It all started with a hefty package of ribs I had bought at the farmers market. I sent DH out to light the coals while I worked on the fixings inside (Thai rice noodles and raw veggies). Our timing would have been great, but the coals didn't "take" the first time. A scrap of paper, half a dozen matches, a little more lighter fluid, and several minutes later we finally had a fire. Maybe too much fire. Half an hour or so later, the ribs turned out fine, slathered in a mixture of plum sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame seed oil, and soy sauce. (Same great sauce as last time, but the ribs were actually cooked through this time!)

We cleaned up and then listened to A Capitol Fourth on our local public radio station while working on our respective computers. Finally it was time to hop on our bicycles and head into town to watch the fireworks. With 45 minutes to go, the traffic wasn't too bad, but as we got closer, I noticed many people camping out in a nearby park, and even in parking lots along the main artery. We pulled over to discuss the relative de/merits of being in front of the bandstand (music) or farther back (more light pollution but easier to get out afterwards). With 30 minutes to go, traffic had increased considerably, I decided we shouldn't chance the major 4-way intersection in the dark on our bikes, so we turned south and ended up in a field behind the Hooters and the Steak N Shake. This turned out to be due west of the launch site, which would have been great, if we hadn't managed to plant ourselves directly behind a light pole. Go figure.

DH said he'd had enough of peppy popular patriotic tunes already, but he lent me his phone to try to download the radio app so we could listen to the local broadcast anyway. I had even brought my earbuds so we could both listen without disturbing the people sitting around us. It would have been great, but his phone wouldn't connect to the internet and/or download the Apple-affiliated program. So we just curled up on our blanket and watched the show. The whole half hour we only talked once about whether the money could be better spent on our struggling local public libraries. I was proud of our restraint.

Afterwards, we ditched the main thoroughfares and biked home by side roads with a number of other folks. That would have been great, if DH's headlight hadn't died and the residential roads around here had streetlamps. Between the two of us we had enough wattage to arrive safely home sweet home. It was a (mis)happy Fourth of July. We hope yours was at least as enjoyable!