Yesterday we had a great time with the whole family. Domenic, Erica, Myles, Colby, Nancy, Domenic, John, Katie, Margaret, and Janet all came up for our local food 4th of July grill out. We all had a awesome time.

All of the boys, at one point or another, other than Poppa Dom got in the pool. Isaac ventured in in his super raft which we have christened the Dawn Treader (we are reading that book at bed time right now). It was cool, not cold, at 62 degrees. Our little Isaac got blue lips and a shivering chin, but refused to get out, especially when Dad was pushing him. Myles got in for a little bit, as did Colby. John and Dom both JUMPED in to the thrill of all at the party.

Couple of funny stories.

Myles seems to like going into the workshop and making stuff, even if it means just screwing some screws into wood. Yesterday we decided to make a block with a hole through the dead center. I used a jig I had made to find the center and then used a Forstner bit to drill the hole. I took the bit out of the chuck and even the shaft of the bit was still a little hot. I grabbed it and said "Yowza! That's hot." It wasn't like burn-your-skin hot, but it was definitely warm to the touch. Here is what happened afterwords, almost verbatim:

Myles: Can I touch it?
Me: No, its hot.
Myles: Are you okay?
Me: Yeah, I didn't get burned, its just hot.
Myles: So can I touch it?
Me: No, its hot.
Myles: Why is it hot?
Me: Friction.
Myles: What's friction?
Me: Friction happens when you rub things together. It makes the things rubbing together get hot.
Myles: Really? Like what?
Me: Rub your hands together. Start slow.

[Myles rubs his hands together]

Me: Now go faster.

[Myles rubs his hands together faster]

Me: And faster. Now is it getting hotter?
Myles: YES!
Me: You can stop. That's friction.
Myles: So can I touch the bit now?
Me: No, its hot.
Myles: How can it still be hot?
Me: Because it was going much faster than your hands, like 200 times faster.
Myles: Can I see? I want to touch the bit.
Me: OKAY, fine (I tested it first).
Myles: Yowza! That's hot. Why did you let me touch it?
Me: Sometimes, the only way you can learn things is through experience. I answered all your questions and you still wanted to touch it. So go ahead, learn by experience.
Myles: Whew! I hope that is the last time I learn something through experience.

Oh my god. That is the funniest thing I have ever heard someone say. I about died laughing. He just looked at me with a serious face. We can only do simple projects because all of the tools are too loud and too dangerous, so it was drill press, screwdriver, and sander only. Myles liked the Festool sander, even he noticed no dust.

Later in the day Myles and I were playing with sparklers. I was trying to make a big sparkler sprinkler by combining the sparklers into a tight cluster, but I couldn't get them to stay. I went and got some foam insulation and stuck them in it. It worked well. We set the bouquet of sparklers just outside the bulkhead door with a pail of water at the ready and lit the sparklers. They burned just as we had imagined them to until the very end when the insulation caught on fire. It stunk up the joint and precipitated a visit from Auntie Bianca. She came downstairs and said: "Boys it smells like you are letting off sparklers in the basement. Is that true?" I said: "No. We have not let off sparklers IN the basement." Myles hopped to my defense: "Auntie Bianca that's right. We have not let them off in the basement, we just did it right out side the basement door." Needless to say that answer was not as acceptable as mine. We stopped the sparklers until later.

In the end, everyone had a good time and I now have a new story when someone asks me what is the funniest thing you have ever heard someone say.

More on the 4th itself later.

We have a party every year on the 4th of July, it being one of my very favorite holidays, and this year is no different. We got the pool all ready, the backyard is prepped, and though we haven't got the side yard all to our liking, we are ready. This year we decided on a theme for the party and the theme is about as patriotic as you can get: ALL LOCAL. Everything we are going to be serving--eats and drinks--is all local. Here is a run down.

We got hamburgers from a local butcher (Central St. Butcher in Leominster, and they use local cows). They don't have a site, they are too busy chopping up delicious cows, chickens, lambs, goats, and pigs to make a website.

Ice Cream from Rota Springs, our favorite ice cream place. It is really local, like the cows are right behind the ice cream stand. Here is a picture of Isaac and I at Rota Springs last weekend looking at the cows (and yes, he went crazy, he loves animals):



We got chips from a local chip company, Wachusett Chips.

We got our soda from Polar Beverages, a soda and seltzer company in Worcester.

We got our beer from a few local breweries: Sam Adams (it feels like cheating, but its not, they are local, in JP as a matter of fact), Smuttynose, and Harpoon.

Bread and buns are from a local bakery we found that is awesome: Union Bread Company in Leominster. The best part of the bakery, other than the baked goods, is that it is on the way home from Lowes. I can very easily see a trip to Lowes on Saturday morning with Isaac with a stop at Union Bread Company in the future. It will help recreate the Mama DiSalvos pit stop that my Dad and I used to do (and still do when we go back to Ohio). They have AWESOME prosciutto.

Even the ketchup is local. This week I went to a local Nashua restaurant, Peddler's Daughter, and got a gallon of their AWESOME nutmeg chunky ketchup. It is really quite good.

Because all of the stuff is local and most needs to be fresh, Isaac and Dad had a mission today. We had to go get all the stuff, along with a hose caddy (our old one broke). So we got suited up and hit the pavement in Subbie. Here is the video footage from our adventure.







P.S.: Second Mission with Isaac = AWESOME; our first one was here.

Isaac has taken to cruising, which, apparently is the official collective name of that form of locomotion involving moving while holding on to a stationary object. Isaac can cruise with the best of them (I was going to say "Like Tom Cruise" but then he got all weirdo, so let's hope he doesn't go down that path). In fact, I feel like he could cruise around a traffic cone for an hour or two and be plenty happy. Here is a video of him cruising inside:



And outside:



Seriously, he'd cruise around a cow patty if it provided enough support.