A "Fair" Weekend

Friday July 29, 2016

This weekend we saw the latest Woody Allen picture, “Café Society,” which is pretty typical Woody Allen fare. Boy meets girl. Girl already has boyfriend. Boy falls in love with girl, etc. Being a Woody Allen movie you can probably guess it doesn’t end happily, but life doesn’t always have a happy ending, so at least it’s somewhat realistic in that sense.

I love how Hollywood was depicted in the early days of motion pictures (the sound era) when Ginger Rogers and Judy Garland were still ingénues, and the concrete was barely dry on the Walk of Fame. I would have loved to have been alive then when things were still exciting and new in Hollywood.

Paired with “The Great Gatsby” you’d have a perfect weekend of glitz, glamour and the golden age of Hollywood.

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Today we went to the Ohio State Fair. I last recall having visited in 2007 when I went with my sister and her family along with my parents who were visiting. Here’s what I remember of that day:

It was hot! (it's always hot during the fair).
Ashley and I paid .50 to see the world's smallest horse. We weren't allowed to take pictures, so I don't have evidence on film.
Ashley participated in one of the shows where they asked a bunch of kids to crouch on the ground in a row while a dog jumped over them - Evil Knieval style. Quite cute.

Ashley did the attraction where they strap you in and you get bounced around like being a bug in a web made out of bungee cords.

Ashley threw up in the hay wagon shuttle on the way back to the parking lot.

This year it was hot again, but only mid 80s, and a little cloudy early on.

We saw two shows - the Retriever dogs in Action (more discipline lessons than actual action; left after about a half an hour);

and the All-Ohio State Fair Band which do a show mid afternoon complete with drum majors taking turns showing off their baton twirling skills. I'm still waiting for one of them to throw up the baton and have it come down on someone's head (like it often did when Karen and I played with ours when we were young).

Sampled some of the bad-for-you, but oh-so-good fair food. I had a deep fried peanut butter & jelly sandwich and Andrew had a strip of bacon on a stick that had been coated in maple syrup, among other things (apparently not very filling as he later had french fries and a Klondike bar).

As far as animals go, we walked by the chicken cages (they were near a stall selling old printer blocks) and the sheep pens; also saw some very bloated cows.

My favorite thing was a tie between all the art & contest entries, and getting to tour a genuine tiny house (maybe 200-250 square feet) and an Airstream trailer (which was much preferable to me).

All in all a pretty affordable day out, especially as we brought our own water and just refilled our bottles at one of the water fountains. I only spent $8 on food, $8 on souvenirs (also won a free t-shirt), and $6@ on discount tickets.

 Have a good week & a great month everyone!