2014 Fair!! ~ Day 3

Today was a nice, easy day. It helped that we got over 8 hours of sleep. We weren't supposed to, but we never set an alarm for church since it starts at 10:45am. We are always awake in plenty of time to get there before the service starts. Today we woke up at 10:30am. Ooops. We did rush ourselves there just in time to hear the tail end of the sermon...about not letting personal pursuits detract from your relationship with God. Ooops again.

Once inside the Yellow (not pearly) Gate, we headed for lunch and then spent the day leisurely looking at flowers and vegetables and sheep and goats and 4-H/FFA information posters about things like anthrax and malaria in penguins and gorilla diseases. It was a very...informative...day.

Here are some highlights:

Patience, fast feet, and determination pay off
We hung out in the Horse Arena for a bit. It was Draft Horse Day. One competition involved a team of four horses pulling a log around the dirt. The human driver was supposed to stand on the log and sort of dirt ski around the arena. Unfortunately, one of the horses got spooked and suddenly all four of them started running around quite fast. The driver had to jump off the log since it wasn't safe to stand there anymore, but he couldn't let go of the complicated array of reins either, since they would have gotten dangerously snarled. So the guy was left with running impressively fast behind the four big horses who were trying desperately to escape the show ring. With lots of help from other horse folk, the horse team eventually stopped, the driver regrouped, and they eventually won first place. I wonder if it works the same way in the Open Class Llama Obstacle Course competition?

Very fast horsies...not intentionally

At least we clip their nails
Today was the last day the cats are at the Fair. Tomorrow they will be replaced by dogs. We saw "4-H Cat Grooming Contest" on the schedule and thought it to be a great cat finale. Both Rob and I hoped it meant the kids were going to compete in licking their cats clean and perhaps gnawing mats out of their pets' fur (it really is a good thing we found each other, Rob and me).

Instead, the contest turned out to be demonstrations about how to prepare your kitty for a cat show. We learned about flea combs and special ear wipes and cat toothpaste you can get at PetSmart. We also learned that baby powder works well to absorb oils where your cat is petted most. And that a chamois cloth works best to pick up loose hairs and dandruff. Mostly, though, we concluded that aren't nearly the awesome cat parents we thought we were and that we probably deserve all the hairballs we have to clean up.

Personally, I think someone should market a cat-grooming chamois cloth and call it the ShamMeow!®

Lesson learned: Don't eat a salty soft pretzel while wearing a sports bra

The concert was pretty much a classic rock radio station
We didn't attend tonight's concert but we were enough in earshot that we heard their last six songs. The songs caught our ears because they were all familiar. I know nothing about Lone Star (I guess I could Google them but it's late). All I know is they played songs by Pink Floyd, ZZ Top, the Beatles, Bryan Adams, KISS, and Thin Lizzy. And they filled less than half of the grandstands. Glad we went to go see Jerry instead.

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
We finally made it to a show of our favorite hypnotist. We are Jerry Harris groupies and will likely see most of his remaining 14 shows. We will never be brave enough to volunteer to go on stage, but we love watching people who are. 

The highlight of tonight's show was a young girl probably 14 years old. She arrived on-stage, fully conscious, with a princess wave and a lot of stage presence. Luckily, she was highly hypnotizable so she stole the show as she performed as a back-up dancer for Beyonce, strutted the cat walk as a fashion model, and blew our minds with blurry fast feet when informed she was a river dancer. Chatting briefly with her dad after the show, I found out she actually is a river dancer -- a champion one, even. That explained the freakishly high kicks and the enviable comfort on stage.

Stats
Today's much more sturdy waistband yielded a better showing on the pedometer. With some extra walking just to keep my back happy, I recorded 4.12 miles today. Yay!

The re-entry hand stamp animal tonight was a duck. Mostly it's a blob of blue ink, but we were assured it is in fact a duck.

Today's Fair Food Feast Parade is dedicated to three friends who won't be seeing it. They have each told me that they are avoiding my pictures in an effort to stay true to their weight-loss efforts. Don't worry Debbie, Gretchen, and Shelley...it's very likely that I am gaining the weight you are losing this week! Stay strong, ladies!  And time to click away...

Teriyaki chicken and yakisoba noodles smoothered in Sriracha sauce, from Patrick's Hawaiian Cafe.  My notes from last year were right -- really tasty!  Especially the chicken.

Hawaiian Shaved Ice with Lime (YAY!) and Banana (eventually BOO!).  I typically don't like artificial banana flavoring, but I like Banana Slurpees so I thought this might work.  It really didn't.

Finishing every last ice chunk of my free sample of frozen lemonade

Chocolate covered frozen banana with sprinkles AND nuts.  Hit the mid-afternoon spot.

Tried out the new Fruit Smoothies place outside the Grandstands.  Here I am pipe-smoking a strawberry-banana-orange smoothie.  It was pretty good but I tend to prefer my smoothies with a little dairy in them (like yogurt).  This was good but a little too icy for me.

The Salty Pretzel.  The salt was itchy.

Pastrami sandwich from the Church Ladies Pie Booth.  I quizzed the cashier on whether it came with mayo.  Then I suddenly remembered...it's THE FAIR!  I CAN EAT MAYO!  Bring on the mayo!

And potato chips!  Bring on the potato chips!  This is the only time of the year I allow myself to eat a whole (admittedly wimpy) bag of potato chips.  And yet I still have guilt written all over my face.

360 days since my last Deluxe Elephant Ear from Boppin' Bo's Malt Shoppe.  Ice cream, strawberries, and whipped cream atop fried sugary cinnamony dough.  MMMMMM!  I shared this with Rob and it was worth the wait.