An elephant and a donkey sat together on the top of the monkey's cage at the zoo, enjoying a fireworks show some distance away. The donkey brought the champaign, the cheap-ass elephant brought the plastic cups, and together they sat, sipping happily to the bombs bursting. Then the elephant raised his glass and said to the donkey, "Lets make a toast. To America the beautiful!" "No," said the donkey, "to America the ideal." Happy Birthday, America. Now take a big breath and blow out the fires as we wish for a better next year. Began the day at work (which was icky, but that's work), managed to get away by one and Kris and I went to the lake where Jackie, Tim, Santan, and Joey were waiting for us on the boat. We spent a couple hours on the desert beach where the sand is more like shattered glass beneath your feet and the water is a different temperature every few inches you go down. After that and after much deliberation, we ended up meeting up with a large group at Jessica C's house and then drove up to Mummy Mnt. to see fireworks. We could see about six different shows going on at once, depending on which direction you looked, so that was neat. By the time that ended, Kris and I were tired and hungry (it was nine now and we hadn't eaten yet) so we opted out of going to someone else's house and went to his house instead where we grilled our own burgers and virtually crashed. And that, in a nut shell, was my Forth of July. Carrie