SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.

LETTER FROM HAWAII

Longtime readers of the Salad Bowl - again, this means you, Mom - know that we celebrate the Fourth of July in a big way around these parts. Roman Candle duels at 50 paces. Bottle rockets aimed at small children. Singed leg hair, corn cob throwing, the works. It's been a real large time in our neighborhood for the past couple years.

And you also know that our major co-conspirators in explosives, friends Drew and Susan and Mike and Autumn, moved away last month.

That doesn't mean we can't still have fun.

Patrick and Autumn and Grace and I thought it might be fun - since I have to work today - to throw together a little shrimp boil/corn-and-burger-palooza to welcome the new neighbors Saturday night. It was a rousing success.





Not only did it give us the chance to meet some new friends, it gave Patrick the chance to christen his turkey fryer pot with four pounds of boiling shrimp. (My pot is in the foreground, choked with summer corn.





Between our families, the new families and a couple neighborhood waifs looking for a free meal, we fed about 15 people. Not as many as our previous outings, but a solid start nonetheless. (That's Charlie, The Perfect Baby on the right.)





And McDuff, The Perfect Dog came by for a visit.

I was heartened to learn that McDuff now has his own blog. A sample entry:

PIZZA, PIZZA, PIZZA.
I am the type of guy who loves PIZZA, when my master and his wife have pizza, I sit and stare at the PIZZA, my mouth waters, and I get to watch them eat it. Well last night, they had Pizza, and left me out. So I waited until THEY finished, hoping they would give me some. No luck. They ate almost all of the PIZZA and then left the room. Well I decided that this was my chance to make the big raid on the table and get MY OWN PIZZA. I went in to the kitchen and STOLE a large slice of PIZZA, right out of the box. They didnt know it untill I walked into the Front room chewing something. They Found out I had PIZZA, so I was caught. I was found guilty of stealing PIZZA. I was sentenced to 1 Hr. of time behind bars in my kennel. The only thing I learned from this is that I will do it again. So why dont they just give me pizza.

After reading this, I think every dog should have a blog, really.

All of this makes us miss our friends, so it's always good to hear that a compadre and his clan are settling in nicely in Hawaii:

Hey Guys;

All is well here and we are almost settled into a rouine. We are awaiting our last shipment that should arrive some time next week. All the other "Stuff" has been unpacked (thanks to Susan) and the house looks great.

The holiday weekend is upon us and you all will be noticeably missing from our festivities. That coupled by the fact that we can not have personal fireworks on base will make my 4th of July very quiet... and safe!

The Commanding General has a BBQ that day which we have been invited to. After that, we will watch the Base fireworks which also include an Artillery Firing Battery for the national salute. All of this within walking distance to my house!!!

Will write again soon...

Drew

Drew also sends along this photo of his boy, Curtis, going all Greg Brady on us.

On behalf of the Salad Bowl, I'd like to extend hearty wishes for a happy and safe Fourth of July, no matter where on the globe you are.

Posted by Jeff at July 4, 2005 07:42 AM | TrackBack