You know how, every once in a while, you come up with just the perfect retort to something someone says to you, and no one you know is there to hear it? Well, welcome to reason #12 why I started a blog.

I zipped out this afternoon to pick up just a few more fireworks. (Margaret mentioned offhandedly that people at work had expressed total delight at the idea of shooting down parachute fireworks with Roman candles, and dammit I didn’t buy any parachutes!) While I was out I stopped in at the nearby Starbucks to burn off some of the $20 gift card that a friend’s Dad had generously given me as a thank-you for salvaging the data on his ailing-and-failing computer. While I was waiting for my order, I mentioned to the java jockey behind the counter that I was out buying (still more) fireworks. The lady at the counter paused in the middle of handing a five-dollar bill to the cashier for her venti Frappucino, turned to me and, brandishing the fiver in my face, said with a sneer, “Why don’t you just burn up a few of these instead?”

To which I promptly replied, “….says the woman buying a five dollar cup of coffee.” 😛

NPR did their traditional yearly reading of the Declaration of Independence this morning. Just beautiful. Also possibly the best conceivable use of the stirring but approximately twenty-year-long New Age musical piece “On the Threshold of Liberty” by Mark Isham.

Happy Independence Day, everyone. Happy Birthday, America.