We had a lovely 4th of July – I got caught up on the laundry and some other sundry things. We celebrated Joab’s 10th birthday with a requested burrito dinner. Jeremy went all out and bought beef – delicious. You know it’s a special occasion when there is beef in the house (you can drastically cut your carbon footprint by just cutting a lot of beef out of your diet – no need to go to vegetarian or vegan to make a big difference).
It was fun, there were balloons, our trusty HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner which has celebrated at least 15 years of family and friends’ birthdays.
I also made the requested chocolate/chocolate cupcakes. I upped my game by piping the frosting. The frosting was excellent, but I thought the cake was still too dry. I tried switching from a butter/dutch processed cocoa, to an oil/natural cocoa recipe and while it was better (better meaning quite good still..), I still didn’t knock it out of the park. I think I’m baking them too long, or leaving them in the hot muffin tin while they cool too long so. It’s hard to see them cooking because it’s hard to see them brown because they are already brown. A good chocolate cake is my holy grail. I will keep trying (this is a subtle thing, I acknowledge, they still all got demolished by this morning). I don’t think I can call myself a real baker until I get this chocolate cake under my belt. (Just like I don’t really think I can call myself a guitar player until I can play barre chords – I’m working on those too).
This is the chicken, not the beef. lol. We don’t grill that much, so it was a bit of a learning curve for Jeremy.
Felix came home from a shift at the pool and after the birthday party, the two of us headed to the Rockville fireworks. I haven’t been in a long, long time (over a decade, I’m sure) – these are descended from my childhood fireworks, the same ones I saw when I was a kiddo. I was super impressed, lots of parking, mostly good signage and the vibe was amazing. I get discouraged a lot about the state of our union, but sitting here packed with my fellow citizens – so diverse – all ages, races, languages, food, laughing and TOGETHER. I got to feel that American feeling again and hope that we rise up and do what’s right. We may stumble along the way, but what is it about the arc of justice?
We tried to get snacks – corn dog and/or poutine, but the lines were too long. Felix drew our fellow attendees.
And it was beautiful. Now that I’m in my 50s, you kind of realize that US history is very, very short. Like when you are a kid, 1925 sounds like the dinosaur age, but now you realize it’s like the length of your life but backwards from the day you were born. I’ve been reading some books about 1915, 1918, etc. WWI. All quiet on the western front (WWI), Dead Wake about the sinking of the Lusitania, now I’m reading about the 1918 flu and see that all these things overlapped and how everyone was going crazy then too and these crazy terrible patterns repeat themselves, but hopefully, we keep reaching for the light.
