For those of you who celebrate the US's Independence Day, what are your plans?
We're having a few friends over for some burgers, brats, and beers. Also picked up some fire works...so we'll explode a few things too. Virginia has weird laws about fire works...no fire crackers, no M-80s....nothing that goes higher than 15'. So it's a bit lame. But, according to my neighbor, where I am I have a good view of 3 different firework displays, so it should be pretty cool.
i plan to go down to the old state house and see the annual reading of the declaration of independence. its an old boston tradition that i haven't seen yet.
i haven't really made plans for the rest of the day. i'll probably end up down on the charles river to watch the fireworks (boston has the "national" fireworks show)
trying to decide if we want to have our 13 month old little one go into the fairgrounds to see the big fireworks show. I think he'd really like it, but it'll be past his bed time and stands a chance of just totally freaking him out. Saturday is a cookout/pool party with some friends about 1.5 hour drive away.
Interesting. I wonder what they call the ones in DC? (No, I'm serious. If Boston has the "National" fireworks, then DC must have the "Country" fireworks or something?
i think its called that because its televised nationally. and boston is older than DC. and, um, if they didn't call it that then a bunch of angry bostonians would start doing things and when that happens, all hell breaks loose.
Take him/her. Ours enjoyed it when they were that young. As long as you can give him/her an extra nap or time to sleep in the next day, you should be ok...
I want to get up and go see Wall*E before the day gets going. My wife did mention some sort of picnic in a park. Which I'm not all that psyched on because 1) I have allergies - they're mostly around the June timeframe, and if we get some rain tomorrow that might mitigate it, but still. 2) Park bathrooms. :^/ 3) Most stuff I eat isn't really picnic food. Either that, or I have to go out and buy stuff. Which we'd have to do if we hung out and cooked out but..eh. Dunno.
Yeah, that's the short answer, I don't know what we're doing. :)
I...see, the 4th is also my mom's birthday, and she'll be in Cali with my sister. We were all together last year, on a sailboat on Charleston Harbor, then parked the boat by the U.S.S. Yorktown, where they shot off fireworks. This year will epic fail by comparison. So there's that. I miss my mommy, and I don't have any plans.
Upside: I get the day off and a 3-day weekend as a result. :)
Might go see Gonzo, if any theaters in this town are carrying it on opening night. Otherwise we might take advantage of being bicycle commuters to actually go downtown for the fireworks without spending two hours in traffic to get back out of downtown afterwards. But I like the idea of the whole reading of the Declaration thing... maybe we'll do a few shots of something patriotic and try that down on Front St. in a rather loud voice.
I'll be eating hotdogs and drinking weak beer in honour of my USian buddies, and watching a classic US documentary about July 4th - I think it is called Independence Day. ;^)
(On second thoughts, I might ditch the US beer and have real alcohol...)
Its a township. Nothing major, but not a tiny parade, either. Working with my church's float and handing out flavor-ices to the kids along the route...
Our street is having a block party. Considering my kid is three now, I wonder if she'll enjoy it as much as I did the one on my parent's street when I was a kid?
Local alcoholing hole (well, I rarely drink water there, so how about some truth in advertising for you) is smoking a couple of whole pigs. $15 all you can eat smoked pig meat. We'll be up there for lunch getting our drink and eat on. Then walk to Piedmont Park for some fun in the sun. Then back to the bar for more food and drink. Then down to our friend's bar to see if we can get on the roof to watch the 3 fireworks displays (Buckhead, Midtown, and Decatur) I could see last year from the bar down the street. May work some Wii bowling in there if we get too hot at the park.
a bunch of angry bostonians would start doing things and when that happens, all hell breaks loose.
yeah, it'd suck if a bunch of tea got dumped in harbor again. ;-)
Oh wait... I just remembered the "Mooninite" issue. Let them call it what they want. If we don't they'll tie up 911 lines with reports of "terrorist bombs exploding in the sky".
Brother and SIL are in MI now, driving in to OH tomorrow. Parents are out in Jackson Hole, back no the 5th. So the plan is for the 5th instead. Of course the parents are getting in late (5pm?) so that means they will only show up towards the end and there will be no Flag Cake (pound cake, whipped cream, strawberries for the stripes, blueberries for the star field). My trial is over and so I'll be able to leave at my original planned time tomorrow at noon and get in ~5. Going out to eat at the usual as we didn't go there the *last* time I was in town (with horrible consequences: we tried someplace new and the food was undercooked and our meals came out an hour after we ordered and it was sorta nasty and even though we were comp'd everything but the beers... no. It was a bad experience). But the Broham and the Sisham and I will eat the usual and taunt our parents who go there all the time without us.
We'll need to get a lot of picnic stuff from the parents' so we might do that on the 4th. The SIL works, so my brother and I will have to find something to do. You know what? I kinda want to go to the town's parade. Haven't done it in over a decade. We used to live so close to the town center we could walk through our neighbors' backyards and be right at the main street. Every Fourth to me was the sound of fire engine sirens crying out. Now my parents moved and I don't here that any more. Maybe see the Rich Town To the North's Big Fucking Display. We need to find something to feed ourselves.
The party on the 5th will be at my brother's and hopefully a lot of folks can attend. Fireworks will be a given (still gotta buy those). Food? Grillin' out. My Not Brother Scott, my Not SIL, SWSH and Andy No Longer In AL all need to figure out what the plan is for the weekend after next. Andy's moving at the end of the month and wants to spend more time with his family. A final decision needs to be made and tickets purchased.
I wanna see Wall-E, Hancock, and Get Smart. I might need to see My Winnipeg up here. I wonder if the clowns still throw candy?
crooked fireworks
though wiped off in an instant
leave behind
a heaven that will never
be without the scars
Well I would have been in better contact with people... except everyone's out of cell coverage... and I've been without computer/cell access during the day :P
Haven't made any concrete plans yet. Took the kids to the baseball thing in Hannover today (more about that in my blog shortly) and found out there's a baseball game this Saturday, so I may celebrate it a day late by taking the kids there. The Confessor was eager to go, though he asked if it was in a big stadium like on TV, and I had to tell him sorry, no.
I did save some sparklers and small firecrackers from New Year's, though. Probably make some burgers for lunch or something.
Who the hell knows? I don't know where I'll be. Don't know if I'll have a job. But I do know that this truck stop in TN is right next to one of those giant roadside fireworks places. The only question is: if I get fired, should I light them off inside the truck for a really, really big boom?
Shit, at this rate, I should wait until july 5th to purchase them.
I don't know what I'll be doing on the 4th. - I suppose whatever looks interesting when I do a google search on "shit to do on July 4 in Milwaukee" tomorrow night. I do know that I'll be doing the google search from the apartment I move into tomorrow. :-D So I don't actually care too much what the search turns up.
Dude, that was a few thousand miles ago. I've slept since then. :-D I will probably go back and re-read the replies, but I don't think any caught my fancy.
There is nothing at summerfest that day that would entice me to go back to summerfest. I enjoyed the one show I went to watch - even if I did get bent over for parking, and lose my pocket knife to security. :-( I was temped to go see Pat Benitar last night, but didn't. I am tempted to go on the 3rd (Kansas and Drive-by Truckers) and make a night of it. And Maybe the 6th (Lady Antebellum) I've seen notices of a few things going on at local parks, etc. and I might do one or more of those. But I'd really prefer something with less crowds, or at least not in Milwaukee. Kind of prefer something red-neckish.
I'm a bit bummed in that I'd hoped to hang out with Mike (the current full timer - until tomorrow) and Rob (the full timer who took a new position in Dec/Jan, and is now taking a new one across the country). But Rob is driving to Texas (OK, he probably got to Texas yesterday) right now, and Mike leaves for Ft Knox, and then Ft Leavenworth (student, not inmate. :-D) this weekend. The UA is in OK for a family emergency, and the other guy doing some temp active duty work is driving back to Green Bay tomorrow (Wife, Kids, etc.). The only other person I know even slightly in the area - I know slightly.
As a bonus, I not only have Friday off for the 4th, it turns out that I also have Monday off as a "training holiday". :-D I'll prolly work, though.
And AB is getting bought out by the Europeans last I heard. Strange times...
Everyone in the St. Louis area is up in arms about it. I haven't made very many friends suggesting that maybe after the Belgians purchase AB, they'll start brewing beer.
I plan to celebrate my country by blowing up small parts of it and possibly setting fire to my parents' neighbor's yard. Plus grilling at my parent's house and swinging by the local park to see a display there.
Real Ale, Independence, and Live Oak are much more likely candidates for me, but others will most likely have Lone Star and Shiner. As far as cheap-ass beers go, Lone Star's not half bad. I'll take it over Budmilloors any day. The brats are from Opa's, and are the best I've had outside of Germany. All of those are made within a stone's throw of Austin, as long as you have a good throwing arm.
It used to be better back when I was going to school at A&M. It was about $2.99 a six-pack, and I swear it used to taste better too. They hired some fucking marketing consultants who told them to double the price to increase sales. It worked. Back then, it was unheard of outside central Texas. Now that it's $6, you can find it over half the US. Bastages.
Going down to the Berkeley marina for a potluck afternoon and dinner, then fireworks at 9:30. Hopefully the fog will stay back around SF or off the coast.
boston has the "national" fireworks show 
