Life with the Three Crazy Dogs

Yep, I went to the Minnesota State Fair on Friday, August 30th with Simmie.  She drove to the bus terminal on Hwy 13 and I met her there in the evening.  I bought the fair ticket from the convenience store at work at a discounted price fo $8 for each ticket.  The price per ticket at the ticket booth at the fair grounds is $11.  We took the Metro Transit which costs us $5 inclusive of the return trip.  It’s considered cheap as parking fees at the fair areas comes to $20 and $25 depending on where you park.  This is first time I took the bus to the fair.  Save all the hassle of the jam and parking.  There are buses every 15 minutes to the State Fair.  It’s very convenient and I wish buses are that convenient on other regular days. :(

 The bus drops us off at the designated lot for buses from all over the metro – Bloomington, Burnsville-Savage, and can’t remember where else.  Get off the bus, gave our tickets at one of the entrances (didn’t see which entrance street it was), over the overhead bridge and right to the Miracle of Birth Center.

What a quinkie dink with that guy pushing a stroller when I was taking that picture!!!  We walked right into a crowd of observers observing the birth of a calf.  See the TVs up there, the veteranian is helping the cow with the birth of her calf/calves.  It was quite bloody, the vet had his gloved up arm all the way inside the cow, pulling on the chain.  (DB said if the vet had to put a chain on the calf that means the calf is position upside down – leg first and the vet has to work quick to get the calf out.)  The birth was happening right smack in the birth center, inside the building.  There were cameras surrounding the birth area.  I wanted to stay to watch the entire birth, but I was too hungry.  It was already past my dinner time.  Stomach was screaming for some deep fried food.  I could still eat even watching the gross looking stuff, no probs for me.

My first chow was the foot long hot dog followed by a small corn dog.  No fair is complete without mawing down a corn dog.  Then for some pork chops on a stick.  Most of every food in the Fair are on a stick.  The pork chop was a little too charred but it still tasted good.  I must be just plain greedy!  Next on the menu I thought of getting was walleye on a stick but I didn’t get it.  For some reason I’m too paranoid that there are some bones on the fillet and I might happen to swallow those bones.

 

Another food that is a must at the Fair are Cheese Curds.  They are deep fried cheese curds, very good but a sure fire heart attack, artery clogger food.  I didn’t get it coz I know I won’t be able to eat the entire serving. 

Simmie mentioned about the Nitro ice-cream and we found it.  The scream was so smooth, best ever ice-cream I ever had.  I googled nitro ice-cream and found a recipe for it but where do you find liquid nitrogen?  Hah, like I’m gonna try it. 

Our next dairy food and our last meal for the night was Dipping Dots, tiny bits of super freezing cold ice-cream, much older than the Nitro scream.  While still eating these little dots, we look took a jaunt to Sweet Martha’s Cookies.

Sweet Martha’s is famous at the State Fair.  I had to buy a bucket since both DB and I are cookie monsters.  There were “yan san, yan hoi” (people mountain, people sea) standing at lines that were forming all over the cookie booth.  Finally got to a bucket and Simmie got pictures of me with the sweet smelling cookies.  Honest to God, after consuming all the sweet diary icre-cream, the cookie was the last thing I wanted to eat, but I still ate a piece but it didn’t taste the best.  We both needed water and we were full, stomach loaded with lactose and I was kinda worried too since I am lactose intolerant now, I was not looking forward for a major diarheaa.  Luckily, no stomach aches. 

There are a lot to see at the Fair.  We walked along the streets and saw the Republican, McCain’s booth.  So, where is the Democrat, Obama’s booth.  We could not find the Democrat’s booth which has to be somewhere.  Yeah, the lady VP elect McCain picked!!!  What a disaster waiting to happen!  And I just heard on the evening news that Pallin’s 17-year old daughter is pregnant.  I can see how the Donkeys gonna bombard the Elephants. 

Anyways, on our way out we stopped by the diary barn where the goats were residing.  At the State Fair, farmers load their farm animals (goats, swines, cows, horses, roosters, turkeys) to compete for medals – which is the best looking animal, gua?  But we were at the goats barn, the goats were darn cute though.  One even tried to bite the plastic bag with the cookies in it, the picture below.  I even saw one of the farmers milking the goat, the goat that has just given birth.  There were definitely a lot of pregnant goats in that barn, probably waiting to be delivered in the Miracle of Birth Center.

 

From the diary barn, we were going to head out to the gates but then I wanted to see the horses.  We found some petting horses.  I didn’t take any pictures on my camera but Simmie took some of me with her phone and camera.  The horse are such lovely creatures.  Love them.

And that was the last place we visited.  Walked to the bus site and catch our bus back to the terminal.  Bus came, got into our seats and waited for more fair goers to board the bus.  Actually more drunkards boarded the bus and it was darn noisy.  To me, as long as they are bugging me, I’m fine with it.  I lived with a drunkard for 6 years i know how loud it can be and I can tolerate it.  Simmie on the other hand was uncomfortable with those doorknobs.  I have to say it was a bus ride from hell but we were all safe and I am not complaining.  It got me to point B to point A where our cars were. 

Overall, I thought I would spend a lot more money than I thought.  I only spent about $30+ at the fair.  I guess I’m kinda reminding myself that the food prices have all gone up, so I was a little kedukut.  I would go again next year just for the food and farm animals….I should just move to the farm……

It’s Labor Day today.  No work till Tuesday but for me it will be till next Monday, Sept 8th.  I took the rest of the week off to burn some vacation hours.  It’s nice to get up on a Monday morning and not rushing to get ready for work.  I still get up around 5-ish on my days off.  I know I’m nuts, I can sleep in but 5-ish or 5:40 is sleeping in for me.  I’m up early to get my walks in before the weather turns nasty humid and hot.  By the way, this little fella is already 8 months old but he looks like he’s a year old and that was what the folks out in the dog park said.  He still has more to grow.  Guess I shouldn’t be calling “little fella”.  Should be calling him the “young man”. :)

Today will be the so-call last day of summer for the kids, too.  Back to school tomorrow.  Fall is here.  Good weather today.  Forcasters say it’s going to be a hot one today with the highs of 90F and wind gusting up to 29mph.  Jeez, thanks but I definitely don’t welcome the heat.  I am waiting for the rest of the week’s weather with temps in the 70’s during the day and 50’s in the evening/night.  Free air-conditioning for us, that means I can save some on my electric bill.  The air has been going on for the whole past few weeks. 

These past few days the weather was great for me.  They were in the upper 70’s, lower 80’s up till Friday.  I am waiting for the temps to drop a little bit more so I can transplant my perennials, the lillies.  I have ordered more of them and they yet to arrive.  They will ship to me in mid September.  I was hoping they will ship sooner so I could make use of my 5 days off to plant them.  Oh well, I will find time to plant them when they arrive before the first frost….

The first sign of fall……Cooper’s paws are quite raw from his constant licking due to allergies from pollen(left).  Ranger’s allergies is getting worse.  The inside of his legs are quite bald from his licking, chewing and gnawing.  Some parts of the insides of Ranger’s legs are actually raw where it’s past the skin and bleeding.  The little fella, Chase, is scratching, too, but not as bad as the two older ones.  Been bathing the two older boys with hydrocortisone and lidocaine shampoo to ease their itchiness on their paws.  Before their walks, I will spray Genesis, a topical steroid spray, and rub it in on their paws and legs.  Why before their walks is to distract them and let the application soak in to their skin.  If I spray their paws and let them do their thing in the house, they will lick the application off in a heart beat.

Next, fall is around the corner when the leaves are turning.  (Not a good picture.  Taken today on my walk this morning.)

I had my eyes checked three weeks ago with another doctor.  My usual doc was all booked up.  My eye sight is getting worse which I noticed it when I was at work working on the humoungous spreadsheets.  I decided to go in for a check when I could not read the numbers on my co-worker’s monitor.  I wanted to get  Lasik surgery a few years ago but no can do.  The prescription for my left eye were too high to even consider this procedure.  Anyways, this different doc Stout did a horrible job in fitting my contacts.  I am suppose to see out with these new contacts, but all I could see were blurry things.  I’m now scheduled to see my regular doc next week.  What a disaster that was.