State Fair and....

I haven't really been in the mood to blog this week, because I was so crabby from the quitting smoking thing. I feel better now. Tuesday My Sweetie took a half day off and we went to the Texas State Fair. MS and I go every year, but we're very odd about it. We only do a few things. We usually only stay a few hours. We were there 3 hours Tuesday. We get there, we get coupons, I get a beer. Then we wander through the midway and point at all the rides we will never ride and say "Aw, hell no!" Then MS grabs something hideous to eat - this time was a fried twinkie. I grabbed a sausage on a stick. I took about 6 bites and tossed it into the garbage can teaming with bees. (That's going to be some nasty honey they make from what they were getting in there.) Then I stop at the darts & balloons booth, plunk down $5 for 3 darts, take out all 3 balloons and get a smallish stuffed animal and pin it to my belt loop. Next we head out of the midway to the creative arts building.

I love the crafts pavilion. I used to go just to see the photography, but now I look at everything. The quilts are my second favorite thing, but I even look at the canned items. I like to argue in my head with the judges. "How on earth is THIS quilt better than that quilt?" But as I have no earthly idea how quilts are assembled - and I'm guessing the judges do - I'm sure they knew what they were doing. Now with the photography, that's different. I took photography in college AND I know what looks good, so some of their choices just baffled me. I was going to enter a photo last year but after printing out the rules and reading all 7 pages three times, my lazy brain took over and was like, "Well maybe next year." The trouble was I wanted to submit a panoramic shot of a New Orleans cemetery and the rules didn't seem to apply to that size. At least as far as I could tell. Oh and did I mention the creative arts building is air-conditioned? Oh, wait, did I mention it was 93 degrees? And that 93 was the regular air temperature. I'd guess the temperature coming off of the asphalt at the fair was slightly warmer. Slightly? Hah! It was HOT.

And when I get hot at the fair, I take a beer break and get a frozen peach Bellini, park my butt on a bench in the Pan American arena and watch dogs perform. I love those sheep dogs. The show we saw wasn't the normal sheep dogs with sheep. This show was sheep dogs and one Australian cattle dog doing cool Frisbee-related tricks. Those dogs always impress the hell out of me. I could never have a dog like that. I don't think I could get out of bed every day knowing my dog was smarter than me. After the dog show we walked along that exhibit near the petting zoo part. Each cage has something mundane: cats, dogs, ducks, bunnies. So at each cage I act like it's something I've never seen before. "DUCKS! Look Honey! DUCKS!" That's why I only ever have the one peach Bellini. So I go to grab another beer and decide on tamales. The guys says "steamed or fried?" Well, steamed, I say. Then I walk around for the next 20 minutes going, "What the hell is a fried tamale?" I've lived in Texas since 1979, and I have absolutely no recollection of a fried tamale. So then I'm thinking, "Hmmmm, well they did fry that twinkie." So maybe frying is just an option for any food item. Maybe next year I'll try a fried barbecue sandwich.

I was gonna say that was all we did, but I remember we went to the auto show. My Sweetie fell in love with the Saturn sports car that comes out in 2006 or whatever. It's here if you're into that sort of thing: http://www.saturn.com/saturn/vehicles/futurevehicles/sky_hi/index.jsp I said "Yeah that would make a lot of sense if we both drove 2 seaters." I mean my Ranger has those pretend seats in the back of the cab, but I can't picture anyone ever fitting on one except maybe Mary-Kate Olsen and I most likely will never offer her a ride. Anyway, that's about all we did. We caught a little bit of rush hour traffic but were home around 5:15. I went straight to my recliner and crashed for a good hour and a half. Then as Tuesday sucks for TV - except for My Name is Earl, which is hilarious, we watched the the first 4 episodes of the first season of the Sopranos. That's about it for Tuesday.

Wednesday - Meals on Wheels was fairly uneventful except the food was different and it smelled really good. They had pork barbecue with the sides of black-eyed peas and cabbage and it came with a hamburger bun so you could make a pork barbecue sandwich. Pork barbecue sandwiches are a staple in North Carolina. It made me a little homesick. Not so much for the state, but for the state's pork barbecue. My one client was so happy to see me. When I told her I'd be back in 2 weeks, she thought I had said I'd be gone for the next 2 weeks. She's so sweet. Well then Bennigan's was boring. I had this young girl bartender. I pretty much ate and left. I was debating whether or not to get one more beer when this hideous regular and her mother came in. It was a sign. Oh I did get an e-mail from Jeanette. She's a licensed home inspector and has been sent to the gulf coast to inspect the damaged homes and said she would call me from Houston Thursday - which is legally today I guess. I'm hoping maybe we can meet in Austin when she's done. Her e-mail was vague and I will know more tomorrow (today). I hope.