the 'other' holiday

g'day
yup, it's July 4th and red, white & blue abound... but are you really celebrating the full holiday?

According to my Tyco calendar (a free-bee from Marshall's company that is totally excellent) it's also "Fil-American Friendship Day" in the Philippines. Does that mean we get to run out and hug all the Filipino people we can find on the street? Whoo-hoo!!! Great news for me, Filipino men are awesome salsa dancers and maybe I'll find a rueda* bunch out of the deal. Or I'll just phone Carmen, my Philippine friend who I went out dancing with last night. I hope she forgives me for not remembering to wish her a 'happy Fil-American Friendship Day'. I'm sure she would have looked at me like I was nuts, she's lived in the USA for 40 year.

To celebrate 'the 4th' today we are invited for bar-b-que to our friends home, the Newbauers'. I teach the Newbauer girls swimming, very cute, smart, kids. They are a nice family to hang with. Dana (dad) is an engineer so he & Marshall speak a similar language. Lisa (mom) is an anaesthesiologist at St. Mary's Hospital and does acupuncture for pain management. I had her give me a treatment for my allergies and it worked great. Even she was amazed. Marissa (7) and Diana (almost 4) are terrific swimmers and a lot of fun to teach. I've baked an apple pie and a gigantic challah to take to the bar-b-que. I know the challah doesn't quite fit into the traditional 4th of July food chain but Dana mentioned once that he loves that bread so I thought it would be a nice change of pace.

Madison is now up visiting for the next 2 weeks. I hope she has a good time with us. We have her enrolled in the Bucks County Community College camp for 5 days doing an 'explorer/science/nature' program. The second week of her stay Marshall plans to take holiday time and do day trips with her to see his family and just hang out. Later in the month the airplane is due for it's annual inspection. The "Marshall Plan" is to fly the plane out to Fort Wayne, leave it there with our favorite mechanic (and all around great guy), Mark Kutter, for the week. Fly commercially from Fort Wayne to Europe, do business stuff from Monday to Friday, then fly back to Fort Wayne, pick up the plane and head for home. Yes, it's how we do things around here. I'll probably stay home and tend the garden. I'll wait until Marshall needs to go to the Orient and then tag along behind him on a trip like that.

Time to get the day rolling. I have a swimming lesson this morning then off to the Bar-b-que. It's going to be a hot one, 97 degrees as per the weather channel. I hope there will be fireworks too somewhere along the way.

Happy red, white and blue to you too!

xox
m


*Casino Rueda is salsa dancing done with couple in a circle, switching off partners as one person calls "moves". Sort of salsa square dancing.... look it up on YouTube, trust me.