Orange County Fair 13

Last week (on my birthday), I went to the Orange County Fair. My review of the day is in the form of a Thursday 13. 

1. Just after we arrived (and after we'd perused the crafty area), I spied a booth selling lemonade. I ordered a frozen strawberry lemonade. And it ended up being more trouble than it was worth. (They had to go to another booth to get the drink? It was unclear.) The drink was tasty, after I did get it. But they were doing the paper straw thing (deep sigh), so the straw disintegrated long before I finished.

Frozen Strawberry Lemonade

2. Pumpkin in the "farm" section of the fair.

3. On the other side of the pathway from the pumpkins.

4. In the floral arrangement building.

5. Also in the floral arrangement building. This is made to look like a Pente board, which, considering I just talked about Pente in last week's Thursday 13, I just had to include. (There was a tableau of floral arrangements made to look like games.)

6. Fair food. No, I did not sample any of these wares. (A funnel cake chicken sandwich? Really?) But I couldn't pass up a shot of what you could order. (Lunch was fish-n-chips.)

7. After lunch, we hit the hobbies area. This was from collections. I had to take a pic of this Barbie collection for Jamie. 

7. (Cont.) The rest of the Barbies.

8. Same building as the collections was the table settings. I don't normally care about table settings, but Twilight Zone?

9. Still in the same building, the quilts. The dresses are made from old handkerchiefs. 

10. And, of course, the reason we were in the building in the first place, the knitting. This is such a great way to use up leftover yarn. I aspire to this level of creativity. As you can see, it won a ribbon.

11. Cosplay is a category one can enter their creations in. And this one caught my eye. (Still the same building.)

12. Very busy image (sorry!), but in the middle is what I was looking at--a crocheted dragon. As you can see, it's huge. 

13. After this, we went into visual arts (photography, painting, and woodworking). I did not take pics of pictures. We left soon after that. And I was wiped out. At the car as I took off my backpack I hit my ear with the strap, and my earring flew off. I managed to find the front, but the back was gone. (We looked for a while. Moved our car. Alas, it probably ended up under the car next to us, and while we poked our heads under as far as we could go, it was not far enough.) 

We were only there about four hours. It was not a terribly hot day. But, I still managed to get sunburned on those bits of skin I missed with the sunscreen. The story of my life.

Does your county hold a fair? Do you go? (Technically, this isn't "my" county fair as I live in Los Angeles County, but I'm so near the border with Orange County. And LA County's fair is so much farther away.) 

Last Week 13

Last week was a different sort of week for me. What better way to recap it than to do it as a Thursday 13? 

1. Since my car was in the shop, I figured on a pretty quiet week. My only outings on Monday and Tuesday were to take a not-quite-two-mile walk in the evenings. 

2. Then on Wednesday, I went to the Orange County Fair. I went with my father, so he drove. (They're limiting tickets, and tickets have to be bought online ahead of time.)

3. Due to no car and OC Fair tickets, I had to turn down an opportunity to work on Wednesday. I informed the sub caller about my lack of car. There was one school open, the continuation high school, so while I wasn't expecting to get much in the way of work, I knew it was possible.

4. The fair had fewer exhibits than normal, but two caught my eye. First, in the quilting area: 

Plague masks. Brilliant choice considering the times.

Then, in the crochet area: 

I'm just terribly impressed with this snail. Judging by the ribbons, I wasn't the only one.

4. Then on Thursday, I managed to get a ride to go grocery shopping. I wore a new hip bag/purse that I had purchased at the fair. Alas, as soon as I took it off, one of the clasps broke. 

I contacted the seller who put me in touch with the company behind the bags. They're sending me a replacement clasp.

5. Also upon returning home from grocery shopping, I found a message from the shop about my car. It was done? 

When I talked to them the prior Tuesday, they informed me that the part I needed was going to take seven to ten days to get to them. I was given an estimate of middle of August to get it back. 

But, they told me the part arrived that morning and they finished the install that day. 

6. So, I got my car back earlier than expected. Whew! Expensive (car is a 1993 model), but at least now it starts. (That was the issue. I couldn't get it to start. It's been an intermittent problem for a while now. Once it starts it's fine.) 

7. Since I got the car back in the later afternoon, I figured I'd update the sub caller as to my mobility the next day. 

8. Friday morning. 7:15 AM. Phone rings... (More about this in Friday's post.)

9. Oh, and while this is all going on, the sink in my bathroom started to drip on Sunday. Landlady tried to fix. No dice. The person she called to fix could come out and look at it on Saturday.

10. Of course, the problem ended up not being an easy fix. So, he couldn't finish fixing the sink Saturday. Said he'd be back Sunday. Then he cancelled Sunday... 

11. My summer vacation is officially over today. Today is the first day of school for all the schools in the district. (Read: the traditional high schools and the middle schools. And the elementary schools, but I avoid those.) 

12. As of the writing of this post, I was scheduled to work today. I was actually scheduled to work all week (at the continuation high school which started their year three weeks ago). This means I get to type this sentence in next year's end of year stats post: "I worked the first day of school..."

13. I did, in fact, type that sentence in last year's end of year stats post. Along with "...and I worked the last day of school." We'll see if I get a last day of school for this school year as well.

Fair Fun

Last week I went to the Orange County Fair...

There was lots of crazy food. Burgers with Krispy Kreme donuts as buns. Bacon covered pickles. Deep fried whatever. You know, the usual. As for me, I decided I just wanted a huge hot dog...

I'm boring that way.

We started off in the craft area. I've been contemplating making a shawl. I found some inspiration...

And someone really knows how to felt...

The first time I walked right by this frog purse. I only noticed it on my second pass...

We also perused the jewelry makers, the wood workers, and the visual arts. There were some talented artists and photographers judging by the works displayed.

Eventually we made it outside. (It wasn't the hottest day of the week that we went. It was probably the second hottest, however.)

I felt sorry for this pig...

She just kinda looks miserable. The sign behind her said she was due on July 30th (less than a week from when we went), so she's very pregnant. And it was hot. But by now she should be feeling a whole lot lighter.

Then we hit collections. Someone had taken selfies with a bunch of sports heroes. As I'm not a sports aficionado, none of the faces were familiar to me. Although I did like the autographs from the Star Wars stars.

In the same building were the plant displays. This one made me think of Pam...

Do you have any old shoes hanging around...?

And then we were on our way out...

I lucked out and didn't get sunburned. That's what happens when I remember the sunscreen. Yay!

When does your local area have a county fair? (LA County's fair is in September. [I live in LA County but I'm near the border with Orange County. OC's fair is closer.] We always hear about it because the commercials are brilliant.)

At the Orange County Fair

Last week I made my annual trip to the Orange County Fair.

I'm not much of a ride person. Or really, an eat-all-the-crazy-things person. But, I was hungry, so I got a simple "little" hot dog...

And I got to share in the Australian Battered Potatoes (a fair favorite)...

It wasn't terribly hot. A bit humid. We looked at all the exhibits. Someone had done a version of Girl with a Pearl Earring, only this "girl" had "pearl" earbuds and an iPod.

But the exhibits I look forward to the most are the knitting and crochet. Naturally. And there always seems to be one that grabs my interest. Or makes me laugh. Or both. This year...

As you can see, she won a ribbon for her work. Well deserved. (I'm looking at the octopus hat.) I'm in awe of her creativity.

Before we left, we had to have dessert. I thought about the s'mores donut. And the deep fried Twinkies got a look. In the end, we went for the traditional funnel cake. (I forgot to take a picture before it was eaten, so I got a picture of the booth.)

Then we went to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. (Much cheaper than the fair.)

And I didn't get sunburned! (This is huge. For me.)