Fair's Fair

Cousin/Roommate and I went to the Lane County Fair tonight. I had big plans to eat funnel cake, corn dogs and Hawaiian ice, but instead had a plate of passable pad thai and a cherry Pepsi -- the latter after being overtaken by nausea on the Tilt-O-Whirl.

Unfortunately this means I was a complete wuss and reneged on my agreement to ride The Zipper. Yeah ... yeah ... Get off my back. It was too much. So what. The tilt of the whirl really gets to you when you're riding on a belly full of pad thai. Anyway, I figure I can save The Zipper for next year. It's fitting to finally ride The Zipper when you're over 40.

While on the subject of age, I'd like to say that although I'd prefer to be like my grandfather who would ride anything at any amusement park at any age, regardless of health limitations ("they don't have to know about my heart"), I find that I'm turning into my grandmother, who used to drag us around the floral exhibitions and quilt displays when we were kids (Mein Gott! I still remember sitting in a stuffy exhibition hall watching a fountain show called Magic Water --- just fountains with colored lights ... dude ...). I love the textiles and the baked goods under netting. Today was opening day, so the cakes still looked pretty fresh. They're even better about 4 days into the fair. I know the chocolate meringue is not going to make it all the way to the end.

It kind of ruined it when I noticed that the cakes, cookies, muffins and breads were almost all made by the same kid. I always thought that the fair was the Grail quest of some obscure 4-H Club in Veneta, but instead it's completely eclipsed some single over-achiever named Ashley. Her sister Stacey had a few competing breads, but they didn't have the ribbons like Ashley's entries. Kind of like the Schumacher brothers in Formula 1: Michael is always getting first prize; Ralph has to settle with runner-up, no matter how well-formed his pound cake is. Galling.