Emily Rocks Her New 'Do

But she won't let me take her picture. We just finished with Emily's hair appointment and now we're waiting at Pizza Hut for our pasta tray. After a few attempts which she thwarted, I finally got this shot on the sly.

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Dog Tired

The dogs are a bit worn out after tearing across the yard and digging around the fence. They managed to stay in, though, because I think I've plugged all the places they can get out.

Sun and Clouds

It burns! It burns!

I was driving home from Norman this sunny afternoon and I was struck by how beautiful everything was, even in this intense heat. (We're close to 100 in the afternoon.) What better thing to do then, than to pull out the Blackberry and try to capture it?

Only problem? I was doing this on the fly and I ended up getting more of the sun than the clouds.

Tried again and, ah, here we go. This is a little more of what I was looking for:

I shot this using one hand while I drove nearly 55 MPH so forgive me if it's a little off.

A sunny, hot day. The fields are green, the sky blue, the clouds white. That's no bad thing.

Walking The Dogs

We took the dogs to Earlywine park for a walk around the 1.5 mile track and they did pretty well. They're not quite used to the leash yet but Emily's a great teacher.

Afterwards, we took a rest:



Both of the dogs were pretty tuckered out:



A little rest, some cool water, and they were back at it, tumbling and growling with one another when they got home.

4th of July, 2008

We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and had the ol' folks and Aunt Adoree and Uncle Don over for dinner. Baked beans, potato salad, hard-boiled eggs, chips and then for dessert, ice cream and chocolate cake. Things done about right.

After they left, there was still much of the day left. The 4th is the one holiday that really gets started once the most of the day has passed. We headed out to Yukon to a park where the Oklahoma City Philharmonic was slotted to play. (Yeah, I know: what's the Oklahoma City Philharmonic doing playing in Yukon? Well, they'd played in OKC the night but their main gig was booked out of town. That's the way it's been done for the last few years so go figure.)

We made it to the park at around 7:30 and staked our claim:



Emily brought the dogs and Rachel brought along her latest beau:



Hmm. Don't quite know what the gang sign she's flashing signifies. I'm sure it's something positive. And it looks like it's required to be flashed for all pictures:



As we waited, some of us grew a little more intensely patriotic:



A local C&W band played and then around 8:30 the Philharmonic took over. We weren't far from the stage and the acoustics in the open air were excellent from where we sat. The variety of music was impressive: patriotic numbers, of course, and movie themes and Oklahoma related pieces. Some vocals, too. Wonderful.

The fireworks started right when the Philharmonic finished a little over an hour later. Piped in music accompanied them and the display was mightily awesome. We had great seats for that, too, but we were a little downwind so that some of the debris landed on us. Poor Pepper lost bladder control after the first barrage while she was sitting on Emily's lap but Rachel's friend was a good enough sport to hold her throughout.

It lasted for a good thirty minutes and ended with applause. We hiked back to the car, loaded up, headed home. On the way home, from the Interstate, you could see other fireworks displays out in the distance. Amazing that there was so many but then again maybe not so amazing.

A great country and a great celebration.