All Hail The Star Spangled Banner and our beautiful flag.

Well, we did the fourth right! We all had our flags out, oh, yea, they were already out. We had Hotdogs, and Hamburgers, and of course Apple Pie. The day was made happy by a drink I invented, which was named yesterday the "razillion brazutsi" It is a Raspberry-rum Lemonade. We also experimented with a little asti-spumante in the razillion and we made a "Yooster". These drinks are sure to become a staple at lush lane gatherings. The night was complete after a $320 light show, compliments of Mike...I know I am a complete firecracker wuss, but I was the biggest fan, when they were all done, and no one had been arrested, caught on fire, although Rodney came close, and no car or house burst into flames. :) I thought I would add the complete words to our national anthem here, so we can ponder the greatest of this hymn. Have a Great Day recovering from the fun. ********************************************************************

The Star-Spangled Banner

—Francis Scott Key, 1814

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!