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The Fourth of July

It was another awesome Fourth of July in Seward, Nebraska. Because I slept too late, I missed seeing Brent, Rachel, and Alicia cross the finish line on their morning races. But I got to do all the other regular stuff.

Touring the town square and its many booths of merchandise, I bought two items: A new silver ring, and a bottle of bee pollen. I don’t believe the outrageous claims about the efficacy of bee pollen, but I was curious to see how it tasted.

Warning from the seller:  Bee pollen can give you bad diarrhea.  Yikes!

While eating a funnel cake and drinking lemonade, we sat in the band shell to watch a show. There was a band playing patriotic tunes. It was directed by a guy I keep seeing everywhere. I’ve seen him on the road to Lincoln, he was in Walmart, he was driving in Seward while I was walking to Harold and Beth’s…
Am I stalking him? Is he stalking me?

Who IS he, and why do I keep seeing him?

We watched the parade from Brent and Sandra’s. They have the most awesome parade-watching house in town. Check out their huge wrap-around porch!
Sadly, there were only four Czech queens in the parade.

Sweet!

The most difficult challenge of the day was preparing the beverage pond at Brent and Sandra’s. I usually go along with Lloyd to do this task. Since he isn’t here, it was up to me and Lauren to do it. She started buying drinks ahead of time, but they were all too womany, so we went to the grocery store to get some manly beers.

What?!?  A beer aisle in the grocery store?  You don't see THAT in Maryland.

We also needed lots of ice.

Twenty-five bags.  We got eight more later.

The drinks and ice are always put into a large tub that under normal circumstances is used to water cattle. This one is solely dedicated to being the Fourth of July drink pond. To extract a drink, you must undergo a test of will as you plunge your arm up to your bicep into bone-chilling water.

Coooold!

Only after we were done did we read Lloyd’s notes to his self, so we have a bunch of wine coolers and soda left and we had no beans. But I think we did a good job anyway. I think we would have made Lloyd proud. Yay, Lauren and Brad! Yay, Fourth of July!

19 Comments

  1. Kim

    (Sorry, Beth, I haven’t switched my picture to Chuck E. Cheese)

    I think we need a Bradaptationland reunion on the 4th of July in Seward. Let’s start planning for 2009! Very Americana.

    I was watching our nation’s past time – surprise! – and watching Patrick’s coach get thrown out of the game.

    • Beth

      You Brad-land people MUST come to Seward next year. Seriously, it’s AWESOME, and must be experienced first hand. Fun stuff to do, great food (even though I missed my funnel cake this year, dnag it), but best of all – GREAT FRIENDS!! YAY for the 4th of July in Seward!! YAY!

    • Michele

      Patrick’s coach, meaning your husband?

      • Kim

        Yes. One and the same!

  2. Lauren

    Brad, you are so funny. Thanks for being there to butch up the drink selection. And thanks for knowing that we had to go to the back room to get the ice. (An earnest young man helped us at the store, and he appreciated the knowledge, too. As we left, he told a co-worker, “I’m glad they came back here to get it – they bought 25 bags of ice!”

  3. Deborah

    Ah, yes, the beverage pond. Good times. . . good times.

  4. kiwe

    Bee Pollen Popcorn
    1/2 cup popcorn (unpopped)
    1/3 cup vegetable oil
    1 teaspoon bee pollen**
    Approximately 2 teaspoons salt (to taste)
    Approximately 2 teaspoons sugar (to taste)

    Heat oil over medium high heat in a large, heavy duty saucepan. Place 3 kernels of popcorn in saucepan and cover. When they pop, you’ll know the oil is hot enough. Pour remaining popcorn kernels into saucepan and shake continuously until popping bascally stops, leaving lid open enough to release steam. (You’ll want to wear oven mitts, because the pan will get quite hot.) Remove from heat.

    Grind bee pollen to a fine powder in a coffee grinder or flax seed mill. Sprinkle over popcorn and stir. Add salt and sugar to taste and stir to ensure that bee pollen, salt and sugar are distributed evenly.

    • Brad

      Have you had this? Must the popcorn be popped as directed, or can it be microwaved? Did it give you horrible diarrhea?

      • kiwe

        I have had it. It’s good. I have not tried it with microwave popcorn, but I think it would trump out any nutritional value of the pollen if you did. There was no gastrointestinal problems, just don’t eat too much of it. And bee pollen stimulates ovarian function, just in case you wanted to know!

  5. Peggy

    Wow! Bee pollen sounds like a cure all … have you tried it yet? Are you just gonna swallow a heaping teaspoon or what? What are the directions? How’s it taste? This is something I think I need.

    Glad you all had another sunny fun 4th!

    • Kristi

      I’ve used our local bee pollen. I do believe it was helpful. OR maybe I’ve out grown my allergies. Hmmm. Anyway, it tasted like chalk. Yuck. There were no side effects for me, but the health benefits are impressive. Happy Eating, Brad the Bee.

  6. Deborah

    I ate bee pollen to help out with allergies. I don’t know which was worse. Good luck.

  7. Annette

    Bill Kuhn, but you really knew that, right?

  8. Annette

    By the way, I bought a toe ring from around the square. It is an amazing resemblance to our ring. Maybe mine really isn’t a toe ring? Maybe you should try fitting yours around your big toe?!

  9. Carol

    “Direct from the Producer” the label says, eh…well, I’m picturing Jerry Seinfeld as an animated bee in a factory yelling “Pull the jars up right here, boys!” and pointing his tiny animated bee buttocks right at the opening, you know? Cut out the middle-man insect.

  10. Karla

    Did you mean to reference Lloyd’s notes to himself, instead of his self? Did you take English classes at some Lutheran boarding school, or something? 😉

    • Brad

      His comment clearly says “Note to self”. If he’s not talking to his self, whose self is it? 🙂

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