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rikibethWent to see the Riverfront fireworks last night. Very nice.
Last year, I was still in culinary school, and although I was baking all the time, it didn't leave me too burnt out to cook savory things at home. Also, I think last year I might have had an extra day off in there sometime. Last year, I did homemade fried chicken, and French potato salad, and the amazing lemonade, and we had a homemade picnic while we watched from street level.
This year, I was working, and had been cooking for six hours before I came home, and I was pretty burnt. And I'd been too tired generally to plan a picnic. And we discovered last week that if you make the fantastic lemonade with Splenda instead of sugar, a lot of its charm is lost, and it tastes too close to Crystal Light to be worth the effort of mashing all those lemon slices.
We did a supermarket grab-and-go picnic instead. Their fried chicken, their potato salad, carrot and celery sticks and dip, a block of smoked cheddar, and a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies. Cartons of Minute Maid limeade and diet iced tea. We'd been clever and assembled our own plates and utensils and cups from home.
The spot we'd sat in last year had no sightlines now because of the new construction. Okay, Constitution Plaza, if we can get a place to park. The State House garage was charging $5, so that seemed like a reasonable option. Parking accomplished.
We staked out a spot with our chairs right by the Phoenix building and the bridge, with mostly excellent sight lines. The new construction did block the lowest bursts, but not horribly.
The gaggle of young women who stood behind us for a while did NOT enhance the experience. Look, I understand that it's crowded. But it wasn't so crowded that she had to stand with her ass practically touching my head, and there was NO reason for her to casually rest her hand on the back of MY CHAIR. I am mystified by some people's notions of personal space.
Then a little boy, not yet two, and insanely cute, came running up out of nowhere and stood by Charlotte's chair and just *stared* at her. His dad was following behind. I pulled out our bubble soap and started blowing bubbles for him. That was fun, actually.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shadowflyer called Charlotte "Charisma Girl" and told her she must only use her powers for good. She didn't understand what he was talking about, even after we defined the word "charisma" for her and reminded her of the nine-year-old boy at a performance in Bridgeport who neglected his ice cream in favor of talking with her. I guess that's a good thing.
Talkedshadowflyer out of making an ATM run just so he could buy a blinky spinny toy like one the little boy had. Yeesh, we just spent a couple of hours LAST weekend throwing stuff like that OUT of Charlotte's toy room... I mentioned having other things I wanted to spend that money on, like Bath & Body Works ylang-ylang/myrrh body scrub.
Today the store is closed. We have fireworks for the back yard.
Happy Fourth, everyone.
Last year, I was still in culinary school, and although I was baking all the time, it didn't leave me too burnt out to cook savory things at home. Also, I think last year I might have had an extra day off in there sometime. Last year, I did homemade fried chicken, and French potato salad, and the amazing lemonade, and we had a homemade picnic while we watched from street level.
This year, I was working, and had been cooking for six hours before I came home, and I was pretty burnt. And I'd been too tired generally to plan a picnic. And we discovered last week that if you make the fantastic lemonade with Splenda instead of sugar, a lot of its charm is lost, and it tastes too close to Crystal Light to be worth the effort of mashing all those lemon slices.
We did a supermarket grab-and-go picnic instead. Their fried chicken, their potato salad, carrot and celery sticks and dip, a block of smoked cheddar, and a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies. Cartons of Minute Maid limeade and diet iced tea. We'd been clever and assembled our own plates and utensils and cups from home.
The spot we'd sat in last year had no sightlines now because of the new construction. Okay, Constitution Plaza, if we can get a place to park. The State House garage was charging $5, so that seemed like a reasonable option. Parking accomplished.
We staked out a spot with our chairs right by the Phoenix building and the bridge, with mostly excellent sight lines. The new construction did block the lowest bursts, but not horribly.
The gaggle of young women who stood behind us for a while did NOT enhance the experience. Look, I understand that it's crowded. But it wasn't so crowded that she had to stand with her ass practically touching my head, and there was NO reason for her to casually rest her hand on the back of MY CHAIR. I am mystified by some people's notions of personal space.
Then a little boy, not yet two, and insanely cute, came running up out of nowhere and stood by Charlotte's chair and just *stared* at her. His dad was following behind. I pulled out our bubble soap and started blowing bubbles for him. That was fun, actually.
shadowflyer called Charlotte "Charisma Girl" and told her she must only use her powers for good. She didn't understand what he was talking about, even after we defined the word "charisma" for her and reminded her of the nine-year-old boy at a performance in Bridgeport who neglected his ice cream in favor of talking with her. I guess that's a good thing.Talked
shadowflyer out of making an ATM run just so he could buy a blinky spinny toy like one the little boy had. Yeesh, we just spent a couple of hours LAST weekend throwing stuff like that OUT of Charlotte's toy room... I mentioned having other things I wanted to spend that money on, like Bath & Body Works ylang-ylang/myrrh body scrub.Today the store is closed. We have fireworks for the back yard.
Happy Fourth, everyone.
