4th of July happenings, tea!!! rain!!! etc etc etc....

hello everyone! all 2 of ya! lol! well, had an interesting 4th of July week, weekend..whatever...... actually, the 4th of July was on Thursday, the 6th was the 4th of July parade in this town, which Ive uploaded to my Flickr page... http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockyspics/sets/72157634515249901/   there's the link in case you want to peruse.  any who, I decided to sleep in a bit, which made me run a bit late, you see, they close the highway at...well, they were supposed to close the highway at 10 am, it was more like 10:30 or so..anyway, i got out of the house late and was heading down forest park Dr and saw a deputy talking to cars as they went down the road, i turned right and headed a different route, thankfully got to where i was hoping to go..subway, for my yearly tradition, i get a foot long breakfast sandwich, then head over to my store, well, where i work, and eat, then walk down and watch the parade...since i have a new employer, and new store owner, i decided to sit in the truck and eat...it was actually pretty cool for a change.  then i went and talked with Mary, at the flooring store next door, then Ken and Blondie of Blondie's deli next door asked Mary to take their pics next to their sign, so i ended up walking over there and helping with that endeavor... then, it was finally time to walk to the parade.  I took tons of pics, as you can tell from my Flickr page, and there's  even a pic of me standing on the parade route! (fair warning) lol! i usually stand on the highway at he end of forest park Dr......people still threw candy even though they are not supposed to, and i even saw a water balloon being tossed..shame shame.......it looked as if it was going to rain, it got might cool for a bit....it started raining after i was safely inside Blondie's eating a great pulled pork sandwich!  my nephew and his girlfriend came up for a few days, as as usual, the town was absolutely packed....I'm sure glad its over..lol! on a good note, because of all the rain, mom and dad could finally enjoy the giant sparklers i got them a couple years back, even got my nephew and girlfriend outside for a few sparklers.....I figured Sunday was going to be a day of rest..lol! i ended up going to bashas in snowflake and finishing my laundry when i got home.....i don't mind shopping, i really don't, the kids decided to leave that day instead of Monday so it gave mom and dad extra time with the grand kids.....and tonight....Monday..i brewed loose leaf tea for the first time! i even got my first teapot in the mail today! woo hoo! well, actually just loose tea, its the same stuff that's usually in the teabags....twinings English breakfast...i have so really good loose leaf teas on order from stash tea co, and harvest delight, i got some satisphur assam, a really good black tea, and a really good oolong tea, cant remember the name....cant wait to get them! i really need to get away from sodas for the most part, so i am going to try to drink more tea......the teapot i got was on eBay for 5 bucks! its a 4 cup pot..perfect for me! and i got a tea kettle from work, someone brought it in for consignment, get a screaming deal on that as well!  and i even got brave and bought some Starbucks Italian roast coffee, it was on sale so i decided to give it a go..i absolutely love it! the darker the roast the better in my opinion! lets see, what else....my garden is doing OK, my poor orange pepper plant got beat to crap by the torrential deluge we had the other day....tons of hail, wind etc..hopefully it will bounce back..hopefully......oh, and Ive started my shed and closet etc spring cleaning, Ive already thrown tons of stuff away...its one of those situations I'm sure everyone has been in...you find something neat that you cant seem to live without, something that will complete some project or another, you're thrilled to death you found it! however, it sits in the shed or closet or wherever for a few years, and when you come across it again, you have absolutely no clue why you had it, or cant believe you wasted money or energy taking it or buying it.....well, Ive got tons of crap like that, so Ive decided to have a purge...lol! also, i haven't mentioned in this blog yet, although Ive mentioned it on Facebook and twitter, my dad is having heart issues, hes have arrhythmia, he had a procedure a couple weeks back to see whats going on, they didn't find a clot thankfully, they put him on a new pill of some sort, he had a checkup today, and hes still in arrhythmia, i guess they are going to leave him on the pills and re-check the icd(pacemaker) so see if its faulty, then perhaps another procedure of some type....i don't know..its very worrisome though.....hoping for the best...mom even mentioned transplant a time or two..not good to hear that..oh well....also, found out a couple weeks ago, my sister has cancer, leukemia to be exact..she started chemo, then they sent her home, her insurance wasn't going to pay to keep her in the hospital any longer, then she ended up back in the hospital with pneumonia, now shes home again......i don't know what going to happen, but it doesn't look good, keeping up hope though......then in the middle of all this we find out we have termites! gees! thankfully not as bad as we thought, we have to have part of the back porch rebuilt and the whole house sprayed....gonna cost a pretty penny.....sigh......if its not one thing its another.....well, time for bed.......cant think of anything Ive left out.....except i bought new super Mario bros Wii and he guide for it...a lot harder than i imagined it would be....oh well, takes my mind off things.....i really want to start playing xenoblade chronicles again, just have to find the time! until next time.....