Sunday, September 23, 2007

Take Me Out to the State Fair: Observing Humanity in it's Most Raw Form

Todd took me to the Utah State Fair last weekend.

take me out to the fairgrounds...

We went on the last night of the fair, so people were out in all their fair splendor. I wish I had been a little more brazen about my photo-documentation. People dress CRAZY to go to the fair. Because we went at dusk, the nice people had left for the evening and the weirdos were out and about. We had not been there five minutes when we saw this:

santa checking out the gas stoves

Santa checking out the gas stoves...no joke. Later that night we saw Santa being followed around by little kids begging for pictures with him. Santa was there for a good time, not for publicity. Ah, the curse of celebrity...

the ferris wheel

Isn't this classic? Iconic? It was such a lovely night! Who can resist a fair?

carnival night sky

By this time, we were scouting out the rides and looking for corndogs and funnel cakes. But we had to meet Tyler & Brittany and Tyanna & Chris. They were at the grandstand watching the tractor pull.

the tractor pull

A tractor pull consists of various parts of machinery none of which look like tractors. I couldn't tell if the tractors were supposed to do the pulling or be pulled.

the gang

Brittany really wanted to go on some rides, but we decided to go see the animals first. This is really my favorite part of the fair...the animal judging.

pig auction

This is the pig auction.

pig being abused by a 4-H-er

This is the pig being bullied and abused by the 4-H-er. She was also bullying and abusing us by telling us to MOVE! (Yes, she was talking to US that way and not the pig...charming.)

sheep shearing

This sheep was getting a hair cut...a wool cut. Sheep are really cute from a distance, but up close, they are freaky looking.

After the animal viewing, we located the only ride Brittany wanted to go on. She plans on it all year, and had previously asked me to be her ride partner. I readily agreed. The tickets for the rides were about $.85 per ticket and each ride took 2-5 tickets. Fairs are not for the rich (or the wise). Brittany and I got in line and Todd got a corndog...a huge corndog.

looks harmless enough

Concealed with in the corndog was a deadly weapon. I'm glad he did not impale himself.

concealed is a deadly weapon


Brittany's ride of choice: THE ZIPPER

the ride...the experience

You get into a cage and get flipped around while going up and down. I guess the ride DOES look vaguely like a giant zipper.

Here is the nice carnival man who closed us into the death cage.

getting into the cage of death

The cage is VERY small with a VERY tight bar that closes down over your lap. Here we go:

here we go

They only load every other car at a time, so we got off to a slow start, but from the second we got into the cage it was non-stop laughter. The anticipation was killing us as the slowly filled the other cages. Some cages stayed empty to what we speculated was vomit damage.

Once we got started it was non-stop laughing and flipping and screaming. The cage flipped over and over and my HUGE necklace kept hitting my teeth. I had to hold onto it with one hand and hold on to dear life with the other.

blue sparkles fying past

All those blue sparkling cages was a sight to behold. After an eternity of spinning and flipping and laughing and screaming, they slowed down to let more people off and on. Somehow our cage got forgotten and the ride started up again. For one scary moment we both imagined being forgotten for the rest of the night, and the bile began to rise.

we are in a cage...for reals

One round was fun and hilarious, but the during the second round the laughter was a little more manic...tinged with slight panic. I had tears streaming from laughing so hard.

Oh the relief of getting off!

no turning back now

We made it!

zipper survivors

We all had tickets left over, so we went on a smaller ride called Moby Dick. It was fun, too with lots of laughing and screaming. I was hoarse and beginning to cough up phlegm. I needed a funnel cake.


i'm sitting on blue sparlking vinyl

Weeeeee!


here we go


After a couple of $4 corndogs and $5 sodas, we found the funnel cake stand. We consumed our entire daily allotment of calories in one sitting. YUM! Then we watched Tyanna, Chris, Brittany, and Tyler play dodge ball. Way fun.

tether ball champs

It was a $40 dollars well spent for some carnal pleasure at the carnival.

Adieu until next year...

Join us next year!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Two Lady Chickens and One of Questionable Gender

We love our chickens! They have brought us a lot of joy from the get-go. This summer, with the help of Mo and Dad, I built them a house of their own. A coop if you will. we looked at the fancy coops at the seed and feed, but it cost $300! So I took a photo of the professional one and copied it. Guess how much mine cost?...$294.78. So much for self-sufficiency and ingenuity. But here it is:

the coop that carrie built

Since we don't know that much about chickens we don't know what they need. For instance, they have begun to lay eggs (!!!!) but like to hide them in the yard (they LIVE for escape) or under the coop where it is hard for us to get them. I know this is normal chicken behavior, but I think I need to build them a "safe place" for their egg laying. (I actually SAW an egg come out of Pansy, it was awesome. She just laid it and kept on walking. I think she had been holding it for a couple of days.)

Here are the grown chickens:

Rosie, the Rhode Island Red...

the Rhode Island Red

Rosie lays brown eggs. Rosie is the most friendly and unafraid. She will always come right up to me and let me touch her and pick her up. She likes people more than Pansy or Basil.

Pansy, an Araucana, yes, she is supposed to have those crazy neck feathers...

Pansy dead on

Pansy was our first "layer" and lays blue-green eggs...very Martha Stewart... Pansy is the most "worldly" of our chickens. She was the first to become "a woman" and therefore holds a "motherly" role in the flock...

And this is Basil, the other Araucana...

Basil

Basil got an herb name rather than a flower name because I was suspect of her/his gender from the beginning. I suspected that she might be a rooster, which she definitely is not, but she has yet to grow a comb (the red wobbly thing) and she doesn't yet lay eggs. She is the most shy and unassuming of the chickens and I love her anyway.

Don't chicken have a "raptor" feel close up? Like you could mistake a really big chicken for a non-flying eagle?

the Aracaunas

They are sweet birds who love their chicken food and fruit. They hate being penned up in the dog run (now the chicken run) because they are used to roaming free. But Todd and I became increasingly concerned the farther they wondered. When our friends called us one day to say that they found the chickens crossing the road (hilarious...I know) we decided to contain them a little.

Basil's in the house

But now they have safety, and constant shade, and shelter from sprinklers and rain. If anyone needs fresh eggs...we'll put in an order.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Really?







Which Twilight novel character are you?




You're Esme Cullen - Your maternal instinct to take care of people and be kind draw people towards you. You're compassionate and loving, yet firm when you need to be. You appreciate hard work and value the beautiful results of your dedication to any project.
Take this quiz!








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