A 4th of July Saga

Come, friends, family...gather 'round. I have a story to tell. Please believe me when I say that this story is as factual as I can make it, and does not infer blame on anybody. I should also say that our 4th of July weekend, thus far, has not gone as planned.

Lo Gung took Thursday off of work to celebrate with us and spend time with his parents, who are visiting us this week. (Hence my complete lack of posting this week. Haven't you learned yet? When I have anything worth posting about, I'll be too busy doing to post!) We all bundled into the car and took an hours drive into Hyde Park, NY to the Culinary Institute of America. I have to say - our visit to the CIA was probably the highlight of my two months here so far...and I plan on going back. Every time I have visitors in town. Consider yourself warned. I'll talk about that in a separate post, though. We stayed a little too long in New York and BBJ protested (read: screamed) the entire hour's car ride back home. (It was way past her naptime, and she knew we wouldn't let her fall asleep in the car. She was not pleased with the world.) We got her home, got her all squared away and tucked into her crib, and we all settled in for a long quiet afternoon.

Lo Gung and his father took off to play tennis and I danced around the kitchen, preparing dishes for a tailgate picnic we'd been invited to that evening. You see, here in Malltown, we celebrate the 4th of July on July 3rd. Makes perfect sense, right? (Well, it does if you're within an hour of New York City! Their fireworks shows would trump ours, I think.) My neighbor invited us to a VIP tailgate party for all the airport employees and their friends. (The show was visible from the mall parking lot...but really cool people got to watch from the airfield, where the fireworks were being set up.) I called my neighbor, and our host, to make sure I knew where to meet them and when...only to get her answering machine. Oh no! They'd already left! We decided it was all for the best and fired up our own grill. We grilled our wings and our corn, ate our carrot slaw and called it an evening. BBJ had an early bed time. It turned out to be VERY lucky that we didn't go to the show - I didn't hear our neighbor pull in until at least after 11! Can you imagine what BBJ would have been like at 11 pm? It turned out that Lo Gung and I had a perfect view of the whole show from the dock in our backyard. Sweet!

Today got a little weirder. We had our Ward July 4th Breakfast this morning, complete with an indoor parade (thanks, Mr. Raincloud) and face painting. About an hour into it, Lo Gung left to pick up his sister at the train station - she and her husband are visiting for the weekend from California. However...you'll notice I only mentioned the sister? Yeah. She and her sweetie were on different flights...and his got cancelled! We drowned our sorrows in some killer sales at the mall and then Lo Gung headed back into The City with sister, mother and father in tow, to meet Uncle S, who was scheduled to land at 3:30. BBJ and I stayed home - one missed-nap freak out is enough for the week.

Our city-bound guests spent the afternoon toodling around NYC, poking around Chinatown and waiting for the sun to go down so they could get to the main attraction - the Macy's fireworks show. Uncle S. left his luggage in a locker at Grand Central. The locker room closed at 11, so they knew they'd have to hurry after the show to get back in time. They watched the show (ooh! aah!) and hurried their little hineys back to the station. Uncle S. got back to the locker room right at 11...but apparently, the locker room attendant's watch was faster than his.

So that brings us up to now. The middle of the night. Uncle S's luggage is locked in a locker in New York City. His bed is over an hour's train ride away, in my basement. Oh, and they missed the 11:10 train. The next train comes at 12:15.

Can anybody guess what he'll be doing tomorrow morning if he wants any fresh socks? All together kids - ChooChoo!

Oh, and I should say...BBJ and I had a nice evening. BBJ slept from 1:30 until 5 pm. We went out to the mall after that. I barely had time to find a pair of shorts that might fit, when the announcement came over the PA that the mall was closing. I grabbed the shorts, checked the store's return policy, paid for my purchase...and went home. (BBJ, I really did intend to let you ride the carousel again today! Promise you won't stay mad at me?) We stopped at the grocery store to get something to make us feel better. Tonight it was pecorino romano cheese, two beautiful fresh tomatoes, a small package of mock crab and a small bag of Vinegar and Sea Salt chips. I made a Chinese tomato salad out of the tomatoes and cheese (thinly slice tomatoes and top with dressing: half a green onion, a minced clove of garlic, a tablespoon of sesame oil, a tablespoon of rice vinegar and a little salt and pepper) and top with small slices of cheese. I cooked up some rice, seasoned it like sushi rice, mixed it with some seaweed flakes and topped it with a mock crab salad and called it sushi.

I think the tomatoes made my day!

Happy 4th of July, y'all.