It was great to spend another 4^th in Seward after missing it last year out in the mountains. I'm biased since I grew up there, but I love seeing my hometown go from 6,000 to 60,000 people in one day. Plus, it's dad's birthday, so that always makes it a little more special.

The only part of the day that was a little disappointing was the lack of local "celebrities" at the parade. For years, we get the usual suspects and everyone trying to earn those extra votes to get into Congress like Ben Nelson and Tom Osborne. So who was there to replace these big wigs? We were graced by the presence of Jeff Fortenbarry and the parade's Grand Marshal, Sam Koch.

To make the weekend it even better, I learned the famous mint julep recipe and got to play 9 holes of golf with my parents.

Once we returned to Omaha, it was time to get the car looked at after all of the hail damage from the big storm that blew through Omaha (check the previous post). Luckily(?) for me, State Farm Catastrophe response team said that my car had some of the most extensive damages that they've seen so far. To put it lightly, if you took what my car was worth a few minutes before the hail started hitting it, the damages totaled 43% of it's entire value. Here's to finding a body shop that will be able to make it look like new.