I spent my July 4th with Marie, Cole, and Kenji. The day started at Marie’s house where we had an udon lunch together at Cole’s kiddie table. Afterwards, I played with his new toys – a bunch of different characters from the movie “Cars”. I also brought my laptop and did some work while I was there. In the meantime, I introduced Cole to the internet. We played some online Elmo games and messed around with the Photo Booth program on my macbook. He certainly got a kick out of seeing himself on the screen.

Meanwhile, Jes was preparing some ribs for the BBQ that they were having at Jimmy’s house. So, we turned on iChat and Cole got to wave to Jesse. Eventually Cole got pretty grumpy and we decided to put him down for a nap. Unfortunately he was so excited by the internet games and everything else that was going on that he wasn’t really cooperating. Before he could start climbing on the furniture again, Jes got back online, looked him straight in the eye, and said “Hey, aren’t you supposed to go neh neh?!” Cole was so scared of him that he walked himself over to the futon with a really guilty look on his face and asked Marie for a pillow. He kept looking over to my laptop to check if Jes was watching. Since Jes was still watching him, it was only a matter of minutes before he fell asleep. It worked like a charm! Marie was so shocked since it usually takes at least 30 minutes or lots of coaxing to get him to fall asleep.

Once people arrived at Jimmy’s house, they came by to say “hello” to me. It was pretty neat being about to talk to see and talk to them. In fact, Jes put the laptop (me) at the dinner table with everyone. It was as if I was seated at the table with them. I could see who was there, what they ate, and could hear what they were saying. All I was missing was a taste of the ribs and a beer in my hand. Virtual BBQ!

The evening ended with dinner at On the Border, a walk around the shopping village for a balloon sword for Cole, and then a nice long walk down to the local park. We sat on the grass and watched the fireworks. We also witnessed a huge car crash involving at least 6 cars and a turned-over truck. Crazy.

Here are photos from the day’s events. Enjoy!