Where There's Smoke...

Summertime heat and humidity conspire to make my laziness an art form. I am the Mistress of Lazy Town. Has anyone seen that weird TV show called “Lazy Town"?? It is freaky. I mean, freakier than Teletubbies, freaky.

The weekend was a good one. Dinner at my parents on Saturday with some other couples and a woman from France who came here on her own over 40 years ago and still sounds like she is visiting for the first time. Her accent eet eez very theek. She commiserated with Pete for a bit about being a foreigner here and gave some sound advice: Stop comparing. Here is here and England is England. That’s what she said. Pete had an epiphany that night, in fact. He was feeling crap all week and I’m fairly certain he was fighting off whatever virus gave my daughter a fever for two days the other week, but he was miserable. We were both getting tired of it, actually, but he realized he needs to be more proactive in his stance here—stop hiding in the basement. I thought he enjoyed hiding in the basement, but it turns out it isn’t doing much for his mental health.

So Sunday we went to Charlie and Cecily’s for a good ol’ BBQ, because they don’t have enough to keep them busy with a three-week old baby! It was a bit chaotic for a while there, but fun. Four couples, a ten-year-old, two three-year-olds, an almost one-year-old and Tori, plus three dogs and multiple cats! Neighbors stopped by for a little while with their 18-month old as well.

We set up a sprinkler in the front yard for a while so the kids could cool off, though a storm was brewing already by that time. Eventually torrential rains and thunder and lightening that had all three dogs shivering and cowering and our girl Pansy (aptly named) running upstairs to hide. Then the power went out after one couple and two kids had left. We lit candles and went out to the porch where it had cooled off considerably. Neighbors began wandering out onto their porches as well. The rain stopped and the power remained off, and so we decided it was time to light some fireworks.

It was a holiday weekend, after all. Our friend had bought a huge array of fireworks from Target of all places, so we didn’t expect too much from them and didn’t want to get carried away when we were in a respectable neighborhood. We started with sparklers and then urged Pete to be the one to go out in the driveway and light our first choice, ‘the whistler’.

All it did was make a TON of smoke and an ear-piercing noise that had dogs barking from miles and miles around. Next he lit the ‘crackling waterfall’ which was much more impressive. Even the neighbors applauded.

 

Lastly, we chose a bigger one called ‘the hummingbird’—it began as a loud whistle but quickly and thankfully stopped with the noise and spurted out green and red and white sparks in every direction for an incredible amount of time. It was then we realized just how much smoke we were creating as we looked up and noticed that it looked as if a forest fire was in the area.

So today is the Fourth of July and Pete is very curious to experience the oddity of it all as we celebrate our independence from his country of origin. We are supposed to have hot dogs and hamburgers at my parents’ house and then walk down to our little town that has a pretty decent fireworks display every year, but the forecast is calling for major thunderstorms tonight and the festivities may be cancelled.

I hope all of you have safe and fun celebrations wherever you are, and for my international friends—well, Happy Tuesday. ;-) 

Comments

[Closet Metro]

"the Mistress of Lazy Town"? *wiggles eyebrows*
How YOU doin?

[Cecily]

LOL. No more bbq's for us, me thinks. I'm still tired.

Really? Storms? Sigh.

So shore-on-the-sly this week? heh.

[menoblog]

Freakier than Teletubbies? No way!

[Heather]

Hmmm...will have to stay clear of Lazy Town.

Sounds like you had a fun holiday! We only did sparklers with the kids - enough playing with fire for us. Mine are still a little freaked out by fireworks.

[julie]

Wow, your own fireworks sounded amazing. Were you at Narberth last night? I was, along with the usual McCullough assortment. Wasn't it amazing?

[amanda]

aw, i heart fireworks. i only saw a few from a distance yesterday. you pennsylvanians have all the fun. :) (illegal in NY)

[Neil]

Impressive fireworks. I didn't even know it was legal to buy them anymore -- especially at Target!

[Shelli]

I hope you had a good time yesterday/. And that Tori is just gorgeous, isn't she?!

[Bridgette]

We celebrated with an Englishman last night too - it was fun. He was fascinated/confused by all the hoopla surrouding the holiday. He skipped the fireworks, though. Missed the best part!