Independence Day

OK, I've uploaded more, more, more wedding photos. That'll be it til I get more from other guests and/or I find that 12th disposable camera.

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In a fit of leftover wedding organization and as a way of ushering in wedded life, I started cleaning out and reorganizing the kitchen cabinets yesterday to make room for wedding booty. (Our new china is soooo beautiful!) (I'm married! I have matching china!) I'm not quite done, but I'm a little sore today from all the bending and scraping of shelf paper that's been affixed for about five years too long. Uploading photos and writing thank-you notes and getting ready for our little bbq with friends tonight has prevented me from finishing this task today, but it's been good to jettison some old crap I've been hauling around since college and flea market finds that just never worked out. And it's a joy to open cabinets and smile rather than cringe. If only I could be this dedicated to cleaning more often...

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We're going to watch the big fireworks show from our backyard tonight, hoses at the ready. The synagogue people who own the hillside behind our home hired workers to cut down the growth that they planted for erosion control earlier this year, because now it's dry fuel. I feel sorry for the poor guy out there now with a weed eater trying to clear a few acres of grass and weeds before dark.

Have I mentioned M's heroic Fourth of July story? A couple of years ago, M joined all of our hoses and had them on and ready to spray, just in case something went awry with our neighborhood Independence Day celebration, which is very vigorous given our proximity to the Fairgrounds where the big show happens and very drunken given our neighbors. Sure enough, an illegal rocket shot back between our homes and ignited the dry, weedy hill behind us. M sprang into action, jumped the fence with the hose (which thankfully reached the fire) like a pro, and was expertly dousing the conflagration by the time other neighbors arrived with a dog dish and gallon-pail filled with water. I remember watching him running up the hill and being transfixed by panic at how large the fire had become in just a few seconds. Our lives might be very different now if he wasn't prepared, or if the hose hadn't been long enough.

This is Rex's most upsetting day. He barks himself hoarse at all the fireworks, poor little dog.