Sunday, July 6, 2008 ... 4th Fireworks and Food, in reverse order of how it really happened, and a bit more Duncan

Right before 10 p.m., after we'd eaten all sorts of great food and either thrown the Aerobie or watched it being thrown and/or sat around talking and enjoying the beautiful day and being together, we walked two blocks up to stand in an empty parking lot to see the tip tops of the fireworks being shot off 22 blocks west, down on the Willamette River. The guys walked Grandma slowly and carefully and brought along this desk chair. Leland pushed her back down the slight decline when the show was over. Ready, set, go! Making memories!

I took a few photos which are not at all representative of the actual show. However, I thought--what the hay!--I'll post them. At the bottom of most of the photos is the top of a one-story apartment building or a really good Mexican restaurant, Nuestra Cocina.









Here's the only firework we had, compliments of Kimberly and Tom. She picked it up after its performance (see the next two photos) and held it for this photo.

Loud squeals, rapidly changing colors--both marked the path of the little paper truck firework. It's visible between these two bursts of green light.

Look closely and you can see the tiny paper truck, fire shooting out the grill

Asparagus ready for the grill

Seeming to come, almost, from Lamont's thumb, olive oil drizzles onto an onion slice. If you look closely, you can just see the bottle to the left of his hand.

Fresh Walla Walla sweet onions and slices of potatoes, grillin'

This huge pan holds the slabs of ribs that had first been smoked about four hours before going into the pan and being covered with industrial plastic wrap. Lamont told me that they then went into a warm oven for at least an hour. As far as spices go, the only one I know about for sure is Peruvian hot peppers--I got a blast with one bite that lasted through several swallows of sweet iced tea!

Leland got the slabs of ribs out of the pan one at a time and sliced them into two-bone pieces. I believe he sliced the flank steaks, too.

Yummy, sweet, yummy fresh grilled corn.

Fresh asparagus on the grill. I know for sure it got sprinkled with salt and chili flake, plus drizzled and tossed with olive oil--not sure about anything else except that, as Mama told Aunt Baker on the phone this afternoon, it was really, really good.

Lamont's paper platter; Kailey made the Fred Meyer run for all of the paper goods, plastic goods, etc.

Michelle and Vincent enjoyed their 4th of July dinner. After a couple of bites, Vincent said to Lamont, "Hey man, it's a shame none of this is edible!" Vincent came back again and again for ribs. Mama observed, "Vincent really likes that meat." I did, too. The guys made us a fine, fine meal.

Here's Grandma! She graciously stopped chewing for the photo, ha, ha!

Lindsay made this lovely cake from a recipe of her mom's. She iced it with marscarpone cheese, topped with fresh cherries and powdered sugar. Both of us got a kick out of the fact that as I focused in on the cake, I got the sprinkling of the sugar!

Duncan gets to look and not touch because he's on a special diet. Brixx, the rottweiler, will be over later on with her folks and claim this great big bone as her own.

Duncan and Scooner appear to have a meeting of the minds