Dependence Day

For the Fourth of July, we had a simple plan. It was frugal, it was fun, it was shot to heck. Our plan involved sleeping late, or at least late to us. I was then going to do the grocery shopping alone. We would use the pool pass to keep ourselves cool and entertained. For dinner, we'd dine on homemade hamburgers. The day would be finished off with the small fireworks display that happens locally. No fuss, no muss, no extra money spent.

So, I did get to sleep late. Well, late for me, anyway. Then, at around 11 am, the phone rang and innocently enough, I answered. Meme. Meme with a plot. Trouble. With a capitol T, it rhymes with P and that stands for Plot. Who knows how many days this had been cooking up in that brain of hers? But, typical Meme, she calls at 11 that morning.... Did we want to meet them in Shiner?

Shiner, Texas, home of the Spoetzl Brewery, hosts the Half Moon Holidays every year on the first weekend in July. The Spoetzl Brewery is home to Shiner Beers. (A little history here: Shiner Bock is the beer I went to college with.) I had never heard of the Half Moon Holidays, and I looked up the website that my mom emailed me. I finally told her we'd call her back.

After arm twisting and teeth gnashing, it was decided that we would indeed, drive the 120 miles to Shiner and meet them at the festival. I can't even go into all of the reasons without making myself crazy, so lets just say we did it.

It was a great drive down. We even went through a pretty heavy rain storm, which had us very confused as it had been so long since we had seen rain in person. It seems to only happen on tv these days. The weather was very nice for the Fourth and it wasn't hot at all. We arrived at the Half Moon Holidays to find that almost everything that had been listed in my mom's newspaper was happening on Saturday the 5th, and not on Friday the 4th. *sigh* No pony rides, no tornado slides, not much of anything really.

I spent most of the time on a nice shady park bench shooting the breeze with Pop. DH and Hoot trolled the few craft booths and played on the playground. They had an old fashioned merry-go-round that thrilled Hoot to no end. It also reinforced our belief that he is fearless. Every time he flew off, he laughed and got right back on.

DH gave in to his shopping gene and bought me a homemade toy and Hoot a wooden frog. We shared a nice cold Shiner. Then we all went to dinner at a little steakhouse called Werner's. It was a great dinner, but when the waitress asked if we wanted the check split, DH said, "No, I'll take it" with way too much gusto. So, that was another unplanned expense for an unplanned expensive day.

The Old People, (which I'm not supposed to call them anymore, but hey, what the heck) had a great time. Hoot had a great time. So, really we all had a great time. But, it was a $111 great time. So not planned.

At the bookstore:
To the lady who painted her toenails in my Children's Department:
I'm not sure what impressed me the most. That you were incredibly limber and took up very little floor space during your toe painting? That you didn't spill a drop of paint on my carpet? Or that you pulled toe separators out of your purse?