• I’m sure that it was merely a coincidence that Irish Woman planned our little getaway so that we stayed at a lodge across the lake from Boo’s summer camp.
• Boo managed to lose his right sneaker, his right shower shoe, his wallet, and one of the badges he earned while at camp.
  • That, right there, is talent, pure talent.
• I learned this week that I have developed expensive tastes.  When presented with a flight of mid to high end bourbons, my favorite was the $250 a bottle barrel-strength selection.
• Contrasts in dining experiences:
  • Tuesday night, we had cheap appetizers and beer in plastic cups while we fed bits of bread to ducks and turtles.  We had to finish up quickly, because the dock-side restaurant was about to be blown away by the remnants of a hurricane.
  • Wednesday night, we had dinner at a high-end restaurant in Louisville, with meticulously crafted pasta and sauce.  Our dinner companions ranged from a middle-aged accountant with either a wholly improperly dressed daughter or a very well dressed trophy wife, along with the usual assortment of hipsters and retirees.
  • Personally, I preferred the ducks and cheap beer.
• You know you’ve gone outside of the big city when you notice that all of the folks in the neighborhood have bear-proof trash containers.
• There are two kinds of people who guide you through a bourbon tasting:
  • “You will notice that the nose of this single-barrel, small-batch bourbon includes caramel, charcoal briquets, and tooled leather.  A small sip will bring you a spiciness on the front end, with sweet notes of cherry, vanilla, and and pipe tobacco.  The finish is warm and sustained.”
  • “Now, take a sniff of that glass in front of you.  Good, huh?  Take a sip, there, and roll it around a bit.  You’ll taste the rye on the tip of your tongue, and the sugar in the middle.  That baby will burn all the way down.  That’s what we call the Kentucky Hug.”

• Things I am not allowed to say aloud at the mall:
  • If that woman gets one more face lift, she’s going to have a goatee.
  • Look, sweetheart, they’re having a sale at the maternity store!
  • Do you want weasel on a stick or deep fried weasel wrapped in pretzel?
  • Is that the sushi bar or the foot massage place I smell?
• Only Satan would put the Lego store next to the Apple store. But, I will forgive them for the new Apollo 11 set. Now, how do I justify $100 for a bunch of legos?
• If I walk past four empty booths to get to your hostess station, don’t tell me there won’t be a table-for-two available for 35 minutes.
• They say don’t eat your feelings. I say eat something so that your feelings don’t slip their leash and consume the world.

On this day in 1776, a group of men stood together to declare that they were more than subjects of a faraway power. They declared that there were certain things worth fighting for, worth dying for.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

Now, 243 years later, we need reminding that we are descended from such men. We need reminding that, as citizens, we rule those we choose to serve in government. We need reminding that, should we not hang together, we shall certainly hang separately.

No matter how much we disagree, or how deeply our disagreements cut, that we are all Americans. We breathe the same air, rise from the same soil, bleed the same lifeblood for our cause. Yes, we come from a myriad of peoples and experiences. Yes, there has been injustice in our history, as well as our present.

We do not always meet the standard we set for ourselves, but it should never be for lack of trying.

Now, we stand apart from one another, and we risk destroying all that has been built and achieved in 243 years of strife and striving.

Even as we teeter on the edge of the abyss, we must hold one another up. We must stand together, unconquered, unbowed. No matter what the world, or even we ourselves, throw at us, we should never forget that we are Americans, by birth or by choice.

Together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish, nothing we cannot defend. Only we can bring down this shining city upon a hill, only we can destroy what the blood of patriots has purchased.

I wish all of you the joy of this Independence Day, no matter how you choose to celebrate.

America Invicta, so long as we stand together.