Are there any drummers in the house? Can you play me in with a good drum call please? THANKS.

Hello and welcome to year three of the 10-on-10 collaborative project. [insert awesome drumming here] I can’t believe we have already completed two full years of this great project. If you aren’t familiar with the project, click on that link up there and you can read about how we all got started. Courtney Z has recruited a few new photographers for our third year, rounding out our numbers to 10 total. So now we have 10 photos, on the 10th day of the month, shared by 10 different photographers…if that’s not fate I don’t know what is. The basic mission will remain the same for us all: Document and share 10 photos from our personal lives. We can’t show work work, it has to be something unrelated to any other obligation. Photos that we take just for the fun of taking a photo.

So as in months past I will first link to my fellow collaborators. Please stop by and spend some time with each of them, particularly our newcomers. Let’s make them all feel welcome, yeah?

And now to my July photos. As you likely remember (maybe not, it has been a long week), last weekend we celebrated July 4. Independence Day. The Fourth of July. America! I had a busy but great day jumping around to a few different homes. And a store full of patio furniture.

It all started with a grill. Doesn’t it always on the Fourth? A dear friend of ours gifted us this little fellow as he didn’t have a need for two grills at his house (though, perhaps he’s not dreaming big enough — two grills, ALL the hot dogs!!). So I dusted the little fellow down and placed him on our little patio. Our little, sadly empty patio. Our little, sadly empty patio that we have had at our fingertips for two years now, and still haven’t fully utilized with patio furniture and garden parties. So naturally we decided July 4 was the day to remedy the situation.

above/// I said, “Give me your best lounge-y face,” and that is what he did. I don’t think he knows how to truly lounge. We’ll figure it out!

We spent probably too much time jumping from lounge-y patio chair to lounge-y patio chair. Is this the right one? Is it that one with the twice-as-thick cushion? (Yes, always yes.) What about this finish, or that one with the darker wood? This one is twice as many dollars, that one needs to be moved off the platform to get a better feel for what it’s like to sit in it. You get the idea. We finally settled on THE chairs. And THE cushions. And they will be here this weekend. There will be an inaugural celebration to welcome them to our patio. There will be a ribbon and giant scissors as is only appropriate.

But, it wasn’t just the lounge chairs. Guys, I found THE rocking chair. Did you know you should have a rocking chair in every patio set? Well, I’m here to tell you that yes, you do. The chair in question is comfortable and beautiful and I may never leave it. And it was a floor sample so we got a discount and could walk it right out the door like bandits. So we did.

What’s that? It’s an outdoor, patio rocking chair and why is it in the house? Because, guys, because. I’m going to use it in all the rooms all the time, moving it from place to place as I please, so don’t argue with me.

After the furniture frenzy we finally got on with it. “It” being proper Fourth of July celebrating. Like visiting the family folk.

above/// She wins the prize for most patriotic in the family. For the day anyway. The question really is, have you America’ed today?

I not-so-jokingly joked that we should celebrate the day by taking an afternoon snooze. My brother embraced the opportunity. He’s good that way. Always down to adventure or to lay low and fully veg out on a couch while patriotic shows play on the television.

Don’t even try to navigate through a July 4th weekend without a good offering of hot dogs or brats or other grilled items. Just don’t. It would be unpatriotic. Also, throw in some apple pie for extra flair. Extra flair also always required.

Which leaves us to the evening activities. FIREWORKS! Somehow we failed to procure sparklers or even any of those little poppers you throw on the ground and they make loud tiny explosions, but we did get to climb to the roof of a municipal building and watch the city’s fireworks display. Dan was hired to photograph the whole July 4 festival, so he was out there most of the day, but I jaunted on out in the evening and joined him on the roof.

Don’t count, because yes, there are stripes missing from the flag there. And some stars. I had to crop creatively so as not to include the price tag affixed to the lower part of the flag. Hopefully that won’t be considered treasonous behavior. What can you do? The Fourth of July is a holiday celebrating the treasonous behavior of our ancestors. So here’s to you, gentlemen (and women) of history. Until next time!