A NAFTA Fourth of July

Today I planned to make us burgers from the leftover tourtière (French Canadian meat pie) filling that was such a misadventure to make (I'd forgotten about asking the housing inspector to fix the wiring so that we could actually use the oven that day!). Unfortunately, even with an extra egg, the (partially thawed) mixture of ground meat, celery, and oats wouldn't clump together to form patties, so I changed the menu from burgers with pickles and Old Bay popcorn to what amounted to Canadian tacos with peppers (and wine coolers bottled in Rochester, NY). It was truly a NAFTA Fourth of July.

The experience reminded me of other (mis)happy Independence Days we've had, from the year we struggled with the grill and watched fireworks from behind the Steak N Shake to the year we tried to bike 12 miles (including nearly straight up the last mile to our destination), and I got a flat tire 3.5 miles from the end.