Happy 4th!

It's absolutely beautiful out, and everywhere you look Chicagoans are out enjoying all the city has to offer.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Arlington to bet on the ponies. I came thisclose to winning on two boxed trifectas. I can't tell you how frustrating that was. I am entirely convinced that with more practice I will completely master the skill of forecasting horse races and become instantly rich. My husband is behind this plan (naturally). His capacity for love and faith in me, of course, is why I married him.

When we got home from the track we went out on the roof deck to watch fireworks. I suppose if you'd asked me I would have guessed it would be a pretty good show, but holy crap I had no idea it would be that crazy! It was shock and awe out there. 360 degrees of bright, crackling, lights. (All of it, I'm sure, was high grade, semi-legal, and recently imported from the great state of Indiana.) I kept swiveling around oohing and aahing. (Actually, as I type this, I'm realizing that I probably looked like a developmentally challenged 3 year-old. LOL.) About 11 pm or so our next door neighbors started to set off a few fireworks on their roof -- fun and first, then a few got a bit close for comfort and we opted to head in. Good thing because Ringo and Jethro were freaking out at the noise. We tried to comfort them a bit, but they ended up spending much of the night under our bed.

This morning we slept in and then went for bike ride along the lake and checked out Soul Coughing playing at Taste of Chicago. They sounded great. Much better than I remembered them being. Its amazing what playing outside in a fantastic festival atmosphere does for a band's sound.

We're back at home now, relaxing after watching the end of the World Cup game. The cats are back under the bed though. The crazy Italians across the street are setting off victory fireworks in the street in broad daylight. Between that and the fireworks tonight, I'm thinking we won't see the kitties out from under the bed again until August.

Some pics of our day yesterday...

My notes before race #9... when I was absolutely sure I was going to be rich...

I won't show you what I looked like after the race was over. Needless to say it wasn't pretty.

I tried to capture the fireworks over the city. Didn't really get a good shot, but here's a glimpse of the ones our neighbors set off that put the cats over the edge: