July 4th day/afternoon/evening 2009

(credit for the pic: http://tinyurl.com/qemb5g)
==

Since there wasn't anything of interest on the four channels of 'local' television yesterday, we just watched movies on various DVDs that we've collected over the years. Knowing that we had seen them all at least 3-4 times meant that anyone who had an inkling to do something besides sit and stare at the television was free, as always, to do other stuff, and did. Which is actually a pretty typical theme for our TV viewing. I chose not to watch much on 'the tube', which meant I spent a lot of my time outside tinkering. For instance, I brought an empty lidded, metal can out of the shed and labeled it "glass only". Previously we just put whatever glass we had to dispose of in an old empty plastic ex cat litter bucket and either left it on the porch or put it in the shed. No one around here recycles or even takes glass so we just store wherever we have empty space. Another can that was being used to keep large bags of rabbit pellets for use as litter for the cats' litter pans was empty, so I put a label on it that says, "Non Recyclables, Non Burnables. Junk" on it. Then went around the porch and collected empty spray cans of wasp spray or whatever and put them in that can. When it gets full we'll decide how best to get rid of it.
==
We played a few game of Wii Bowling. I did pretty well except that by the end of the session (3 games) my "status" had dropped below "professional". So when the ladies (DW & DD) who were the competition went to do other things, I played several games trying to get my status back up to pro and working on finding the best/most consistent method of lane placement and ball throwing. In the end I did get my status to the 'pro' level. In the late afternoon, after the girls got up from their nap, we once again played on the Wii (bowling) and then did some bowling 'training' by playing what is called "Power Bowling". That is suppose to help you figure out a way to knock as many pins as possible down in 10 frames that the amount of pins increases frame by frame depending on how many pins you make fall. Frame #1 is 10 pins. Frame #10 is usually 91 pins. Whoever has the highest total after those 10 gets bragging rights, but if you knock over a LOT of pins you can get a virtual medal. My wife did the best and got a silver medal. My daughter and I played around 5 games where she won 4 out of the 5 but the last one I won, which just happened to by my best game so far and got me a Silver medal as well. The reason we played so many Power Bowling Training games was because I couldn't have my 16 year old daughter out scoring me on the very first day she had done it, lol, when I had done it several times on prior days so should've been much better. Nothing like some competition to bring out ones best, eh?
==
I also played a few games of Wii Tennis using one of my two Mii's that wasn't at the pro level to try and get him there. Since it was my newest Mii it had a pretty low status so it's going to take several more winning games against the Wii Coms to get him to become a pro. Once he gets there I want to team him up with my regular Wii Sports Mii in a partner's game against the Wii System's players and see how that goes. Anyway, it's not going to take very many more games of the alternative Mii playing the System Mii's before his level enters the pro level. See, I've found a way to expend very little energy using the remote/racket by using just wrist flicks (as opposed to full arm swings) so I win 99.9% of Wii Tennis matches. *grin*
==
Then around 7:30 p.m we headed up to the Long Lane park where they shoot off fireworks every fourth of July and watched said event. Once it was dark enough for them to begin and then did, I wished I had taken my camera. I didn't bring it because before we left the house I was thinking, "Fireworks are fireworks and everyone knows what they look like", but since they (the fireworks professionals) decided to shoot them off closer to the park than they had previous years they displays seemed bigger and brighter. That of course would've meant better pictures, but nooooooo, I didn't have the camera. *sigh*
==

That, my reader friends, is how we spent the 4th of July in the year 2009.
Hope your day was awesome as well!
==