July 6, 2009

This year's big 10th annual July 4 party was (in my opinion) a roaring success. We had 50 guests, our biggest party ever. Everyone who could be convinced to, went home with as much food as they wanted and we still have so much food left over that we had to stash some in our next door neighbor's chest freezer! Unlike what happened other years:

  1. My water heater did not choose to spill it's liquid guts during The Big Party.
  2. The fireworks in the wheelbarrow did not get out of control this year.
  3. No one at the house across the street got arrested.
  4. No on ran into any of the yard furniture.
  5. No one went crazy with the garden hose.
  6. There was no rumble at the park.
  7. There were no grill fires.
It was a very tame party, but loads of fun! The weather held out, too. We had one shower that lasted about 10 minutes, which sent everyone scurrying inside with the food, but we soon headed back out. My house is not made to entertain 50 people! After that (which, really, just made the party a little more interesting) the weather held, and we all enjoyed the big fireworks display in comfort and peace.

That was Friday. By the time we got the house cleaned up on Saturday, it was time for another party; we got to be the guests this time! Plus, we had plenty of food left over, so we had our choice of dishes to contribute.

Saturday night, a bunch of us headed out to Terry and Paula's boat. We sat on board and watched the New Haven fireworks from on the water.

We need a rest on Sunday morning, and we had a nice leisurely time. Then we decided to go out sailing. My little sloop is only 18 feet long. That's not big. The wind went to 15 knots, we had a fast running tide, and the water was very choppy, nice big swells! Gladwyn and I took the Uno out anyway. I wouldn't've done that alone, but Gladwyn is from Trinidad, he probably learned to sail before he learned to walk. I wasn't worried. Renate, however, immediately headed below. She stayed down there despite our urgings, and she occasionally made little cat-in-mortal-fear noises. So we stayed within the inner breakwater, and banged around for a couple of hours, a combination boat ride and amusement park ride. We offered to drop Renate off, but she refused. So we kept sailing. We returned to our mooring without incident, the very best kind of sail to have.

Well, we got home in time to take a bike ride after Renate had settled down a bit, enough to ride, at least. We got back in from the sailing about 3:15 yesterday afternoon. At 8:30 in the evening she was still complaining that it felt like the world was pitching and heaving around her.

NOTE: Explaining that things could be worse, that it really could be pitching and rolling, is not the correct approach to take in a situation like this. I'm fairly sure I'll remember that now.

Otherwise, what a great weekend!