Washington, DC
Wednesday, July 4th
Happy Birthday USA!!!!

Ah the fourth of July. Our nation’s birthday. How does a country celebrate its beginning you ask? That’s easy. We get together with friends and family and over drink, overeat, and then watch loud and colorful explosions. I love the US of A. The previous statements are not intended to be sarcastic. I truly believe the above things are really engrained into our culture. Instead of being ashamed of it be proud of it, I am.

Students and Faculty enjoy the SPS Olympics

The SPS students started the day with a late wake up call, 9am is late relatively speaking. After breakfast they participated in the second annual SPS Olympics. The group was divided into three groups; the Holy Devils, the Ivanhoes, and the Special Olympians, self named if you have not guessed. They competed in events that tested the physical and mental prowess. Some of the events were Knockout in Basketball, the Sudoku challenge, scavenger hunt/Albans trivia quest, and egg/water balloon toss. (Video of Egg Toss) The winner was …, it ended in a tie, particularly after the water balloon toss devolved into a water balloon fight. Fun was had by all. After cleaning up the SPS students headed off to movies then watched fireworks from the lawn outside the dorm, it is one of the higher vantage points in DC and great to watch the fireworks.

The view from Norm's roof

Pete left them right before the movies. I headed down Massachusetts Ave to Norm’s for some hanging out before heading to fireworks watching party. Norm has a 13th floor balcony, facing opposite the National Mall, and his rooftop is often overcrowded for fireworks watching. We did watch a storm come through DC from his roof’s vantage point. There was a tornado warning or watch…, which ever one of them is less alarming. I still think they need to get a better system to differentiate between the two. Anytime that there is mention of one of these comes there is automatically confusion. Invariably that confusion is cleared up by some blowhard who says they know definitively which is which. Unfortunately that blowhard is often me and do not know so go figure. Ultimately the National Park Service cleared the mall sometime @5pm. The people, and there is a lot of them, waited in parking garages and museums on the National Mall which were opened up for this very occasion. In the end it all worked out fine and the weather turned out to be just some rain that cooled down the city. The watch/warning/whatever was called off and the fireworks went off is a spectacular fashion.

Party at Fran's

So after grabbing a couple of beers we headed over to Fran house, whose balconies offered a perfect view of the air space above the mall and a therefore great for watching the fireworks. I have included a link to a video of the fireworks. My first foray into YouTube; let me know how it goes. The picture is not very good, I’m still not good with my new camera’s video features, but you get the idea. I can not thank the Memphis Tech Crew enough for their suggestions and information. I ended buying the Canon PowerShot SD1000, the 2 GB card, and extra battery. All aspects of the purchase have been well worth the investment.

Video Experiment
Fireworks Video Link 1 – Longer
Fireworks Video Link 2 – Shorter but bigger explosions
Random DC guy rapping outside the Metro stop in Chinatown
Irish Seisiun at Nanny O’Brien’s- really bad video but decent sound

Fran, who is a friend of Norm’s and an excellent cook, had a wonderful spread. Asian salad, potato salad, with bacon (everything is better with bacon), Asian short ribs and pork ribs, hot dogs, and get this…, homemade Krystal burgers, White Castle for the northern contingent. All was delicious. Pete ate well.

Food Spread at Fran's (Check out the homemade K Burgers)

Some of the ladies on the balcony

After the fireworks we head back to Norm condo and balcony for some post fireworks festivities. From his balcony you could see fireworks from other cities, official, and other neighborhoods, unofficial, unregulated, illegal, and therefore more fun. This of course was only interrupted by Karaoke, if you know Norm this makes perfect sense. Happy Birthday United States of America!!!!!!!!!

Norm kicking it with Karaoke at his place