A2 July 4th

What's July 4th without a cookout? Without a parade?

The parade was minimal. The mayor didn't even bother to show, although John Dingell did. Interesting, when one of the most powerful men in Congress can make it to a smallish-town parade, but John Hieftje can't make the time. OTOH, he might have been on vacation, and I guess he deserves one, too.

The weather is that moist, greyish-sunnyish, hide and seek that causes naps.

Despite this, the non-cookout must go on, as who knows what the weather will do next, so we're doing a "cheat" cookout:

4th July 2007 (menu chosen by Danish son, who's experiencing the 4th with us for the first time)

barbecue chicken (cheating here - got roasted chicken and am re-roasting with bonesucking sauce - my barbecued chicken always tastes anemic)
corn on the cob
vinegar-based potato salad a la Patricia Wells
cabbage-apple slaw
hot fudge sundaes made with ciao bella ice cream and homemade fudge sauce

We also bought some firecrackers for the first time - snakes and sparklers. We'll see how that goes.

I've been reading the John Burdett Bangkok series. This has caused me to look into An Idiot's Guide to Buddhism. I browsed B&N today for Dalai Lama books and Anger by Thich Nhat Hanh. I decided to start with the Idiot's Guide and go from there. The reviews and those who reviewed (including Thich Nhat Hanh) were impressive, and I just want to see if I can even start to think about grasping the concepts.

Happy 4th. I hope that by next 4th the U.S. government will have implemented some more globally-minded policies, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm still grateful to have this country and the opportunities it provided to my ancestors and to me. I'm also hoping that we can re-establish ourselves as global helpers, rather than global conquerors. Here's to a more celebratory 4th next year. Cheers!