We had a nice weekend, here at the Big Blue House. On Friday we attempted to watch the fireworks at Stone Harbor, at the other side of the Island. We headed off in a caravan of cars, intending to watch the fireworks from the deck of the house on 85th Street. However, there were a few snags in the plan. First of all, the fireworks were scheduled to begin at 9:00, and not at 9:30 as Cliff had thought. So we were racing madly—well, as madly as one can race when one is driving at 25 mph, which is the strictly-enforced speed limit down here—trying to reach 85th in time for the fireworks to start. Second, about one- and-a-half minutes before the fireworks began, it started to rain. Third, someone had parked their car blocking the driveway to the house on 85th, so we couldn't park the cars anywhere near the house. So we rolled up the car windows and parked on the street, enjoying the fireworks as best we could through the rain. Then we joined the long, long line of cars attempting to get back to Avalon, stopping for bedraggled pedestrians as much as possible. I think the drive back lasted about three-times as long as the actual fireworks display.

On Saturday the Teutsches packed up and headed north to New York, stopping at Ikea on the way. Mike, Tom, Christiane and Baby Erik drove up to spend the second week here. As some space opened up at 85th, they opted to stay there; Tommy maintains that the baby accessories take up enough space to fill up the place, and this way we'll have a little extra room when the Bucher-Dials arrive tomorrow. Avalon had scheduled a "Family Fun Day" at the beach, so we headed over and enjoyed steel-band music, face painting, a juggler, a magician, and balloon animals. We had much better luck with the weather this time, and the fireworks were very nice. Cliff and Kai coordinated an "ooohhh" and "aaaahh" call-and-response for the fireworks, which seemed to work well. The musical accompaniment, provided by the local radio station, was a John Philip Sousa medley, which sounded very patriotic right up until the point where it broke into the theme from Monty Python, which, unfortunately due to lifelong association, doesn't remind us much of our American patriotism. But that's pretty darned minor. We had a good time.

The rest of the time we've spent going to the beach, hanging out at the playground or around the house, and cooking/washing many, many dishes. I've devoted most of my time here to knitting, working on a shawl. However, I've gotten to about one-quarter of the way through it (which represents a good many hours' work, especially considering I've started over twice already), and I think I'm going to have to start over with smaller needles to get the look of stitches that I want. But it's a pasttime, so I'm just happy to be able to sit around knitting. On Friday I hope to perform surgery on my Mac Mini, which desperately needs more RAM, but which even Apple-certified technicians at the Apple store refuse to attempt. Really. I figure I'll have lots of moral support if I try it here. So if there's suddenly a deafening silence from me online, you'll know what's happened.

Harumi, who has a nicer camera and more patience, has graciously offered her pictures from the past week and a half as well.