At the parade, we saw someone just straight up hand out a beer (was she handing out more?) instead of/in addition to the usual candy. Sadly, there were way fewer horses than usual and not a single wagon.

Fireworks were awesome as usual except the set off location was different from where it was before so I didn't get as close as I would have otherwise. It's annoying af how they play music during the fireworks and I couldn't get far enough from the speakers. Shut up pls I'm here to listen to explosions.

Ate a half pound chili cheese dog. Kind of gross. Got a fancy lemonade. Absolutely delicious.

It was short notice because I am a fool but I got to hang out with a friend I haven't seen since I got married! We were invited to crash dinner with her family which was her whole side of the family and her in-laws too. I forgot how much I liked her parents, they're so sweet. She is the one who has 3 daughters and her brother has only daughters too so it's all granddaughters for her mom. #feminist win

I used to be of the opinion that using condoms (or any other barrier method) with a FABM isn't fundamentally different from using condoms/barriers all the time, but I no longer think that. Most people who use barriers don't use them every single time, and most people who use FABMs don't abstain during the full fertile window every single cycle. So there's a lot of space for the methods to complement each other. If you're going to skip barriers sometimes, knowing your fertile window helps you pick low risk/no risk times to do that. If you're using a FABM, using a barrier in the fertile window is obviously less risky than saying fuck it and having unprotected sex anyway.

It's riskier than perfect use of either method since there's two failure points (failure of barrier during fertile window + failure of FABM in identifying fertile window). Plus, it's only an option if barriers are fundamentally acceptable - if you're interested in a FABM because you don't want to use barriers at all, that's not going to help you.

Perfect use efficacy stats for barriers come from couples using them 100% of the time, which means some barrier failures happen when pregnancy is unlikely/impossible anyway. There's something to be said for the fact that if you only use barriers during the fertile window, you're guaranteeing that if the barrier fails, it's when pregnancy is (potentially) possible. So your chances of pregnancy are higher than the perfect use failure rate for the barrier (but probably lower than typical use, since you're not skipping it entirely on risky days).

I think it's interesting how different women will mitigate that risk (if they make an effort to do so). Some use two methods in the fertile window, while others might just abstain on the highest risk days and use a barrier the rest of the fertile window.*

*One variant of this is abstaining after a positive LH test; some women might use EC if a barrier fails, and levonorgestrel (Plan B & generics - if you ever need it, get the generic for like $10 not the $50 name brand) doesn't delay ovulation if the LH surge has already started. Ulipristal acetate (ella) is better at delaying ovulation after the LH surge has started but it requires a prescription. Because there's stupid people everywhere I feel it necessary to point out that you shouldn't use LH testing to decide whether (or which) EC to use unless you're using a real FABM to contextualize things properly. For women who aren't charting (or using HBC - ulipristal acetate interferes with HBC), any EC is more effective than no EC and it's really a matter of risk aversion & accessibility whether to choose levonorgestrel or ulipristal acetate (and perhaps weight, since ulipristal acetate is more effective than levonorgestrel at higher weights).