Thanksgiving...

A few shots of Thanksgiving at our house.

one more about the fair...

I can't resist posting a few shots of the 4*H stuff here in our area. After having done a few fair booths myself, I always enjoy checking the offerings of other local clubs. My favorite this year was the one about being stuck in 4*H fun. 

Seems to me that being "stuck" in something is really a bad thing, isn't it? I don't know, but their booth looks more like the scene of an accident than getting stuck in fun. The vehicle seems to be completely submerged in mud. Makes you wonder if there are any bodies of 4*H'ers in there. 

Why do booth decorators think it is cute to paste photos of children's heads onto homemade cartoon bodies? Around 1% of the time this is cute. The other 99.9999% percent it is just plain creepy. Or maybe the above is really what Zach looks like these days. Maybe he got injured in a freak Market swine/woodworking/welding mishap.

So here is a cute booth with wanted posters that list each lil' outlaw... oops, club member. Some of the kids appear to be missing in action- my guess is that Sebastion wasn't big on attending club meetings. Or maybe he was really good at hiding out from the club authorities. No matter, the booth creators post a blank poster for him anyway. WTF? 

This booth had an Oz theme complete with munchkins. Nothing too unusual. I've seen that one done before. But WTF is the one on the right doing with his hand?!!! What kind of activites are we having in 4*H anyway?!! This guy appears to be stuck in 4*H fun a bit too much.

Even more fun at the fair...

I can't resist posting a few more random images from the fair. It's almost over. I am so sad that the fair only comes once a year  :-(

Hmmm. Ralph is a colonel. Perhaps he could open Kernel Ralph's and run Kernel Dan out of business. Perhaps Ralph could become the cornhole king of the county. Sigh. A girl can dream. 

Only in Wayne county can you find a  punk rocker hosing off a dairy cow's hiney. 

To another chicken this guy is a bad ass mo'fo.

Miniature horses have it rough. Not only did human beings breed them to the point where their bodies are ridiculously uncomfortable and distorted...

...they also give them humiliating names. When will someone realize that Snickers is a majestic creature deserving of our respect!

OMG! If this thing didn't have an entry ticket and a ribbon on it, it would look like someone abandoned their newborn. Call 911 anyway just to be sure.

I will end this post with the cutest thing I saw all day. Awwwwwww! He looks like a lil' wild eyed doe.

More fun at the fair...

Here are a few more random pix from our day at the fair. We had so much fun. It's a shame it only comes once a year....

Above, the girls are checking out a giant pumpkin. This one wasn't the largest, but it was the most photogenic.  The picture below shows some sort of winter squash. I don't know why, but everytime I  see one of these, I think of that obese woman in West Virginia that had the huge tumor removed a couple of years ago.

 This has to be the most amazingly beautiful squash I've ever seen. The photo doesn't do it justice. I noticed it came in second and had to find the squash that beat it. Below is the first place winner. WTH? I guess I don't know enough about squash anatomy or something...

 Catherine thought some deep-fried cookie dough sounded like a great lunch... check out the shot below.

Live and learn, right?

I know that meat is a large part of most people's diets, but somehow this seems so creepy. Pictured are photos of the actual steers and the lovely steaks they made. They all had names too. I think I am making humus for dinner tonight.

 In the same vein, many of the chicken exhibitors named their entries cute food names like the above. If the chickens ever take control and rule the world like I am sure they want to, I would never want to be the guy who called his chicken Cordon Bleu or Deep Fried. Those folks are going to be the first to die in the chicken revolution.

 Alright! WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS! 'FESS UP NOW!!!!!!

The closest thing to a kiddie beauty pageant in Wayne County.

Freak show at the fair...

There is a new vegetable category at the fair this year. It is called Freaks of Nature- Gardening and other Crops. This surprised me a bit. I didn't think the word freak was acceptable to use anymore. Maybe it is or isn't, it just seems like labeling something a freak (even if it is a vegetable) is wrong somehow...
Well, let's all embrace our differences and gawk at this year's offerings. There were a lot of entries, I am guessing the freak category is here to stay.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but it looks like the pumpkin grew on top of a deer antler.  The antler is embedded around the side of the pumpkin. I am not sure if it was planned or if the rack was a happy accident.

This is weird. This is supposed to be a tassel at the top of a corn stalk. This tassel grew an ear of corn instead. 

Somehow a gourd became a beehive. If this happened on our place, my hubby would have shot it with a shotgun from the safety of his truck.

This entry was my favorite freak. Here we have an empty plate, an exhibition tag that is torn and stained, no ribbon, and no vegetable. It looks more like a crime scene! I wonder what misfortune befell this entry? Maybe someone didn't pay their protection fee or what not.

This cucumber looks like something you'd pick up at the dog park.

A wide view of the freaks. Someone should call Maury Po*vich.

Can you find the freak? Don't tell me it's one of the girls. I know that already.... the freak entries are the unusually tall stalks of corn in the center. The one next to J must be 16 feet high!  Boo-yah!

This display was not part of the freak exhibit. This one only freaked me out. Why the baby? Why the American flag? Why the red pepper? Why why WHY?

On second thought, if you can't celebrate a basket full of summer vegetables with a doll in a flower costume festooned with American flags, then the terrorists have won.

Yee Haw! It's fair week! :)

This year's fair is going to require several blog posts I'm afraid. I saw so much to comment on. I will start with some of the home economics displays.
The girls entered the arts and crafts categories. This was the first year Margo entered in the adult division. People around here take their fair artwork entries soooo seriously. The adult division is a whole new ball game for Margo. She entered four pictures and won ribbons for three of them. She did well. Catherine got four, two firsts, one second and one third. Juliet entered one in the craft division, earning a second behind Catherine.
The girls entries pale in comparison to some of the stuff entered in the other home ec divisions. Here are some of the cakes.

A world of war*craft cake. I think these people were my neigbors once. I hear players get obsessed with this game and play it for days on end. I am surprised they took some time away to create this.  It didn't win anything. I suppose the fair judges are not gamers.

A positive affirmation for fairgoers... "thank you! so are you!"

This adorable cow seems to be saying "WTF! Somebody give me some $#%&ing ears!"
Not to worry, it did have some very small ears on the other side of it's bulbous head. Meow- I am critical, but I really couldn't do a better job...

Ok, let's move on to some of the other stuff in the home ec building. Here is the frock that won best in show...

It's a lovely ensemble sewn out of the finest poly knit cammy. For the woman who hunts down dinner during the day, then enjoy a night on the town without the fuss of changing.
I thought this dress was an oddity, but then I saw these...

 Another camoflage dress... maybe it's a new trend I am not aware of. Maybe I am reading the wrong fashion magazines.

 I love this one- repurposing old fast food wrappers. Juliet... I think we've found your Homecoming attire! Juliet? Juliet?

OK, this dress was truly amazing. Somehow, someone sewed it out of corn leaves. It is assembled as carefully as a dress sewn from fabric. I should have gotten a shot of the back. It had a bustle made out of corn tassels. Super cool... and when you are done with it, you can put it by the curb on leaf clean-up day.

Trippin' down memory lane...

OK, so the girls had a violin lesson at the local art center today. This gave me a chance to peruse the brochures in the reception area. Much to my surprise, I found this one which discusses ways to give art center scholarships to children in the community. One of the happy children on the cover is none other than Juliet, I am guessing circa 2005. It looks like she is creating something in clay.
All of the other kids in the brochure are white. I am guessing that Juliet's photo was chosen because at the time she looked like a person of color. LOL, swim team changed her race every year. Just sayin'.

J in her pre-dark child days...