Make some noise

Tonight, as I was busily fighting a war against the Japanese in Civilization III, I heard a loud explosion. Like, right outside of my building loud explosion. Having not seeing today's terror alert color chart (is it orange or red? Does anyone know? Does anyone care?) and knowing how refineries and petrochem plants routinely blow-up here in Sweat Sock City, I did what any thinking girl would do: I kept beating up on the Japanese (not too hard to do, I might add, as I had MUSKETMEN and they were attacking me with PIKEMEN -- essentially soliders with sticks, which as we all know, are no match for GUNS). But after a few minutes, the explosions were getting louder and they weren't moving away from me.

So I roused myself from the computer (and the war I was winning!) and went out onto the balcony. Across the courtyard, other people were coming out onto their balconies. Just beyond my building, firecrackers were lighting up the sky. Obviously, someone somewhere took those flimsy firecracker stalls up on their offer and purchased 1 firecracker and got 12 for free. It was quite beautiful, except for the whole part it not being New Year's Eve or Day even or WHAT ABOUT THE ENTIRE STATE BEING UNDER A FIRE BAN? These were professional grade firecrackers, the type Sweat Sock City shoots off during the Fourth of July for instance. Anyway, I watched for a bit, and then feeling all warm and generous towards humankind, I offered the Japanese a peace treaty, which they gratefully accepted.