In Which We Have A Merry Christmas

Hello ape friends! Here we are, finally at Christmas Eve.

Tonight my family will be spending our time eating crab legs, Poté and probably some clam chowder as well.

mmm...Poté

Then the people will play some board games, open a single present and I'll spend my time rotating between laps and getting lots of love.

So, because I will be chillaxin and having a good time today, here's some fun Christmas/Winter related stuff on the interwebs, just for you!

Happy Holidays, pals - I'll see you next week!

In Which The Fest Is Over

October is an awesome month for many different reasons. Halloween, fall, pumpkins etc., etc.

One sad thing about October, though, is that it signals the end of the MN Renaissance Festival season. Sad boosh.

So for this week, my posts will be full of photos of the awesomeness that is the Renfest. I will be posting Monday-Friday this week in order to fit it all in.

Today, I will showcase the delicious, delicious food, since it's Monday and I'd rather look at nummy pics than do work or whatever.

Because we go every weekend we have plenty of time to try tons of different foods. There are a few things we get every time (cheese curds, berries and cream) but in general we zazz it up every weekend.

Onto the food pics!

beer cheese soup in a bread bowl. A staple on any cooler days

turkey leg

Florentine ice. It will make your lips red

beef on weck. Twin and I don't like it, but Brother gets it a few times a year

scotch egg. YUM

banger sausage

berries and cream. I wish I had some right now

fried cauliflower and mushrooms

cheese curds. drooooool. I like these better than the MN State Fair curds, regardless of what Hannah says on her blog

spinach pie. I eat this every weekend and this year I bought a whole pie, frozen, to eat later this winter

ribs. We just found these this year. DELICIOUS

roasted boar. SO. GOOD.

Chicken on a stick.

Tomorrow, the awesome costumes that can be found

In Which I'm Confronted With Crazy People

Hiya everyone! How have you all been? Did anything exciting happen during my away time from the interwebs? I'll be spending much of today catching up on everyone's blogs.

While I'm doing that, let me tell you a funny story that happened to me two weeks ago.

Do you guys have Jimmy John's where you live? If not, Jimmy John's is a sub shop where they sell delicious samiches.





Every year they do a Customer Appreciation day where you can get one of their delish samiches for only $1. Which is awesome.

BUT the deal is it's only 1 PER CUSTOMER, so you can't go there and pick up two $1 samiches for you and your spouse who isn't there with you.

So, I decided on Customer Appreciation Day, I would get a samich for lunch, even though I knew there would be a long line. And there is indeed a long line outside the restaurant. But even though it's really busy, there's plenty of parking. In the parking lot is a minivan which is illegally parked. Instead of actually parking in one of the many open spots, the van is parked on the end of the aisle.

What minivan driver didn't know, was, there was a cop in the parking lot. So cop pulls up next to illegally parked minivan and gets out. Ahead of me in the line a lady tells the cop the van is hers, and the cop tells her she can't park there.

So the lady is forced to lose her spot in line to move her van.

The Old Man in front of me applauds the cop.

The lady then parks her van, sits in it a second, and then drives away.
I assume it's because she's pissed she lost her spot in line, but the Old Man says to me she must have been embarrassed. We then have a conversation along these lines:

Me: I don't know why she just didn't park. There's plenty of open spaces
OM: she must have been too lazy
Me: It doesn't make any sense
OM: I see people doing that at the grocery store all the time. People should just follow the rules.


By this time OM and I are in the restaurant. There are 2 registers and we each order our samiches.

Then the Old Man PAYS FOR MY SAMICH!

I'm completely touched by OM's generosity. Yes it's only $1, but still. I had been having a crappy day up until then and his $1 completely turned it around.

As he walks out of the restaurant ahead of me, I thank him again and we each wish each other a good day.

I get my samich (JJ BLT, btw) and leave the store. I see the OM in the parking lot ahead of me.

Now, everyone remembers the rules of the Customer Appreciation Day, right?

As I'm watching OM, he gets to his car, changes his shirt and GETS BACK IN THE LINE!

I'm completely stunned. Here this OM has a conversation with me about how people need to follow the rules, he applauds the police officer, he pays for my samich, and then it turns out he's a lying cheater.

WTF?

Moral of the story? I think it could go a few ways:

1. All people can be assholes
2. Even assholes can be nice people.
3. People are just crazy.

In Which We Hit The Fair

Happy Labor Day to all my pals in the states! I hope you are having a good time!

As Hannah and Matthew already mentioned, late August running through Labor Day is the Great Minnesota Get Together (aka the MN State Fair)!

Excitement! Drama! Food!!!

The MN State Fair is the second largest in the country, trailing only a bit behind Texas. It is the sauce that covers our awesome (well one of many sauces)

The State fair was first held in 1859, a year after MN was granted statehood. It spans over 320 acres and has been held every year except 1861,1862 due to the Civil War and Dakota Indian Conflict, 1945 due to war time fuel shortages and 1946 due to a polio epidemic.

2009 set an attendance record (last record was 2001) with 1,790,497 attendees. So far this year the attendance is at 1,211,031 attendees (not yet counting Sat, Sun on Mon) so as you can see, it's a big deal in our state.

Here's a fun timelapse video of one of the corners in the state fair (Jusdson and Nelson Sts) from open to close so you can get an idea of the crowds:



Judson and Nelson - Minnesota State Fair from Ochen K. on Vimeo.

Onto the pictures!

Most everyone in MN knows the real reason you go to the fair is to eat.
OR, maybe to check out the strange fashion and hair choices of many of the attendees:



BUT it's still primarily an agriculture fair.

Every year you can see baby pigs:



And every year one boar gets the honor of being known as the biggest boar.

this is reggie. He's 2 years old and weighs 1450 lbs

And giant pumpkins? You betcha we have them:

First place pumpkin: 1100 lbs

Also crop art. Art made from crops (mostly seeds and corn)

Depending on which day you go you can see chickens and rabbits and goats. But there are always cattle, horses, sheep and pigs.




Also you can hit the MN DNR area and check out the fish we can find in our lakes and rivers.



But, as said above, the real reason most Minnesotans attend is so we can stuff our faces with food, most of it on a stick.
It's always good to attend with a few friends or family members, so you share the food and therefore try as many different food option as possible.

Australian Battered Potatoes

Dole Ice Cream

Deep fried candy bar on a stick. Snickers

Big fat bacon (on a stick) (one of my all time favorite things to eat. EVAH)

Turkey samich

Deep fried Banana split

Corn on the cob

Spiral potato chips


Chicken fried bacon (new this year and already a fav of mine)

CORN DOGS!!!

In Which I Share A Garden Update

So it's been a little over a month since we planted the veggie garden, and almost everything is going fantastic.

Here's a quick look at the flower garden. It's got some sort of blight going on and killing the lillies, but there are so many that it's still pretty.

We also have a garter snake living in the garden. He suns himself in the lawn until he sees us coming, then he books it to hide in the lillies. I tried to get a pic of him the other day, but he's just too fast.

But here's some proof (with my foot for size comparison)

we've named him Pepper. Because he spices up our lives...

The herbs are doing pretty well. Though for some reason the thyme up and died. It was doing the best of all the herbs too. I guess it wanted to go out in a blaze of glory

basil, parsley, rosemary

Also the wildflowers I won from Summer actually seem to be doing quite well, regardless of the digging a squirrel did early on

The veggie garden is doing awesome. First our red potatoes came up. We have some planted in this potato bag and some coming up in a pile of leaves we never got around to composting.

what's taters, precious?

Here's a full pic of the whole veggie garden

From left to right again:

Asparagus and scallions. The empty spot in front of the scallions was supposed to be spinach. But apart from two little plants that came up under the Roma tomato plant, nothing emerged. sadface.


The scallions are awesome, because no matter how tiny they are, they still smell and taste amazing. We pulled a whole bunch to thin them out and put them in some fried rice.

The Roma tomato plant and the cherry tomato plant, which is about 5 feet tall.
They've both got tomaters growing.

cherry tomato

Roma tomato

Then we have the green beans behind the tomatoes.

Next is the golden bell pepper and the lilac bell pepper. The lilac already has peppers.





Behind them the peas! Peas are great because you can harvest them so much sooner than the other veggies.

YUM

The cantaloupe is spreading nicely. We're really hoping the melons turn out tasty, because nothing beats a sweet cantaloupe.

Then we have the lettuce:



And the carrots:



And finally the cucumber, which is crawling up the a-frame nicely





And the zucchini:








So there you have it. We're excited to be getting close to the time when we'll be able to eat some of the veggies.

How are your gardens coming?