Continued from part one.

Rains Wednesday evening and Thursday morning had not been boding well for the Independence Day celebrations, but nature had smiled on us benevolently with sun throughout the afternoon's grilling festivities, and as sundown approached, we were further rewarded with clear skies for the upcoming fireworks extravaganza.

As we waited on the rooftop deck, we could see smaller shows of illegal fireworks being shot off in various neighborhoods around Austin.

We were disappointed to find we couldn't hear the symphony concert from where we were—most other concerts at Auditorium Shores can be heard quite well at my building, but I suppose they must tone it down for classical music despite letting the rock-n-roll blare loudly across the river.

We didn't even hear the big Howitzer cannons firing, as they typically do in the 1812 Overture grand finale of the symphony concert. Perhaps they didn't use the Howitzers this year due to the soggy conditions in the park...

In any event, once the fireworks display began, we had little reason to feel we had missed anything of major importance. It was a truly spectacular display as always, with several types we had never seen before.

There's not much else I can say about the fireworks. The images really speak for themselves, but don't do justice to the show by any means.

After the fireworks, we went back to the apartment for a last round of cookies. Continuing the multi-cultural theme of our celebrations, we discussed bizarre Japanese game shows, and then watched the high points of the bizarre Japanese anime, Revolutionary Girl Utena.

To sum up the movie, sword-fighting schoolgirls with definite lesbian tendencies turn into cars to escape their incomprehensible surreal fantasy world so they can arrive naked and intertwined in the post-apocalyptic "real world". No subtext there.

Believe it or not, in Japan, this is typical teenage-girl fare. God bless Japan for keeping us entertained.

On that unusual ending note, the party disbanded. All in all, an excellent Fourth of July.

And leftover bratwursts for me! Let me say once again that culinary diversity is the flavor of patriotism I can most easily get behind. Yeah, America! Woohoo!