Fair Enough

We went to the State Fair this weekend with Ryan and Krsitie. They'd never been. And the weather was lovely. It's usually eleventy-jillion degrees and humid as Florida in August around here, and this year it's been different. It was about 85 degrees, sunny, breezy, and relatively low humidity.

Kristie and Vicki rode a couple of rides -- we've never done that before. I'd do it for a buck or two a ride, but most of them are $5. That means $10 a couple per ride. Of course, what they really want you to do is buy a $25 "wrist band" and you can ride all day. But that would be $50 a couple and we really didn't want to ride rides that much. But Kristie and Vicki did the flume and this thing called the Himalayan.... Ryan and I watched. They looked like they had fun. I'm not sure it was worth the $20. But hey.

We had the requisite corn dogs and funnel cakes (but didn't go for the trifecta with cotton candy). We also had fried green tomatoes. Oh, and I had a fried jalapeño on a stick. We're not used to that much grease anymore. We were a little queasy last evening after we got home.

Adam from work showed up. He grew up in Queens, NY and lived in Boston after that. He hadn't been to a State Fair before. So this was a new cultural experience for him.

We always like to look at the art building -- I especially like the photography. I should enter for fun. And we also like the flower arrangements. The 4-H building has everything from cake decorating to banjo building, with quilting and dress making, baking and a zillion other things. Some amazing stuff.

Cows, rabbits, (the horses were already gone), a small petting zoo, the Conservation building, country singer Candy Coburn free at the Budweiser stage, lots of odd products and snake oil and pots and pans and pianos and jewelry and leather and .... in what I like to call the "Ron Popeil" buildings. And lots of people watching.

A couple of weeks ago Ryan and I went on walkabout on one of the most humid days of the year (thankfully it wasn't as hot as it had been, but it was hot enough). We blew the heck out of some phone books with various firearms and then used what was left for a camp fire to clean it up. This summer's been so wet that Cedar Creek -- typically a series of puddles at best this time of year, was flowing well enough for people to float it. I'd never seen it that high outside of winter or spring. And even then it's usually not flowing like this.

We actually ended up getting in after lunch. It was about shoulder deep. A bit muddy, but realistically it was as clean as Cedar Creek ever gets. The current was pretty strong, too.

Slipped and fell on my way off the island (acutally, both of us did -- really slippery mud) and I ripped my left shoulder pretty good. It hurts any time I move it out of a certain minimal range and I can't lay on it. It's going to take a long time to heal. I'm working on it with ice, ibuprofen, and exercise.

We babysat little Trenton a couple of weekends ago overnight on Friday/Saturday. It was his first overnight away from Momma. We had a really good evening with him. He likes sitting up, but he needs propping. He tries to sit up himself though and he's so proud when we sit him in his boppy pillow or on the couch. He also likes making noise at you -- it's like he's trying to immitate "talking" but of course can't actually do it.

He ended up sleeping 7 straight hours -- about as long as he's ever slept -- and after he was fed, he slept another three. He'd hardly slept the day before, so we got him back to momma well-rested.

And we've been lucky enough to have him a few times since then. Kristin and Brian have decided (with our encouragement) that Wednesday night is "date night" and we will take care of Trenton while they are out.