Celebrating Independence in the Motherland

Our fourth of July barbecue was so much sweeter for being in England--what could be more satisfying than celebrating sticking it to the Brits on their home turf? The whole no fireworks thing is kind of painful, true, but the giant flag we hung up and the copies of the Declaration of Independence Brent hung around the city made up for the loss I'd say. There was, of course, a big thunderstorm as we were preparing for the party, but, as Jeff pointed out, "This is appropriate weather, England should be sad. I bet it's sunny as hell in America." It luckily stopped raining just as the bbq was starting and we were able to go outside, only the English chairs did stick it to us by being completely soaked, and the English trees did their part by dripping all over us. We told ourselves they were "drops of independence" and made the best of it. Other highlights were Andy's daughter beating him with her big inflatable stars and stripes bat (no idea where the hell she found that in England...) as we all cheered that it was a reenactment of the Revolution, and drinking "freedom brews," i.e. Budweiser. Not to mention when Brent made this comment: "I'm gonna call up Budweiser, it's only like one o'clock there, and be like, you've got this lion on these, a British lion no less, and I'm gonna blow up your factory when I get home." Yay for patriotism. Speaking of America, the other day a couple of us ran into these guys who, for some reason, wanted to get their picture taken with us, and when they found out we were American kept yelling things like "I love McDonald's" and "God Bless George Bush" Then as they were leaving, I got: "Enjoy America!" What are you supposed to respond to that? I told them to enjoy England.