Have A Great 4th of July!
 

Have a great 4th of July & stay safe!


While I'm at it, have a great summer, I leave for Australia tomorrow!

It's raining and miserable here in Pittsburgh. I was going to go down to the point and watch the huge fireworks display. However, with all of the rain, it's going to be a mudpit, and i'm just not in the mood to mud wrestle with a bunch of yinzers with mullets.

In the Chicago area, there are fireworks displays yesterday as well as today for the holiday. It was great to see them from a distance in the sky as opposed to being crammed in a space with a few thousand of your closest friends.

Bon voyage Buttonz!

Happy 4th of July!!!!:)

Hope everyone has a great 4th. It's supposed to rain later on today, so I won't be going down to the Esplanade for the Pops (even though Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith will be playing).

Even tho the store was broken into at 3:30 this am, it finally quit raining.

Is now hot in KC!

Hope the peeps in the East get some dry time! :) You need it. We ahve been pop corn fart dry here!:(

Going to sit back and have BBQ Ribs and Baked Beans with Corn on Cob.

Please, everyone be safe.

We have only been here for 230 Years and still Young!:)

Anthem
 

For your 4th of July pleasure, the entire Star Spangled Banner: (with a comment or two)

(1st verse, the question)
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

(2nd verse, the answer)
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

(3rd verse, the one we don't sing anymore because the British are our allies)
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

(4th verse, my favorite, and one of the most stirring!)
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Retrieved from "http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner"

For some history and commentary check out this page: http://www.purewatergazette.net/asimov.htm

Famed science fiction writer Isaac Asimov discusses the anthem and where it came from.

Happy 4th of July!

They have already started the fireworks here, even though sunset has yet to happen.

Some of the neighbors have been setting off fireworks since yesterday.

Though on the plus side, I can watch fireworks right from my window.

:)

Yep Me too and is fun watching the Adult Kids doing it.

Cheaper for Me!:D

Happy 230 Birthday America!!!!!!!

heh, ironic that I spent my entire 4th of July looking into how to immigrate back to Britain. It was an absolutely MISERABLE day in Pittsburgh, got sent home from work before I even got there :).