Camera fixed!

Ok, the camera isn’t fixed so much as rigged.  I hooked it up to the laptop, and hooked the laptop up to the computer, and I was able to get my pictures off.  I’ve made an executive decision to buy a new camera.  Doesn’t have to be top of the line, but this one is only 2mp and lacks a good zoom.  It also tends to take blurry pictures in Marc’s hands, so I need some sort of stabilizer.  I’m open to suggestions – I’m thinking about a Canon.

On Friday afternoon I picked Marc up from work and we went to the Kentucky State Fair

I’m aware that going to the fair is possibly the cheesiest American activity of all time.  It’s made even sadder by the fact that I’m fascinated by all the parts of the fair that everyone else thinks is lame.  Giant corn and tomatoes?  I’m all over that.  Please.  I don’t think I want to live in a world where it’s uncool to look at giant mutant vegetables.  But there’s more to the fair than that.  For instance, it’s educational.

See?  There are more chickens than people in the world.  If I hadn’t gone to the fair I wouldn’t have recognized the imminent danger of the world being taken over by giant plastic chickens.  I’m worried that no one will be able to fight the giant chickens except the giant plastic people

This is Freddy Farmer.  Some guy sits in the booth overhead and makes Freddy “talk” to people.  This has been going on for 50 years.  Sadly, even little kids aren’t fooled by this sort of thing anymore.  Plus he’s lame.  When this picture was taken he said “Oh, another picture!  Smile little lady!”

The fair is also where you can find the strange craft competitions.  I’ve never entered personally, although certainly my embroidery skills are good enough.  The first prize is like 25 dollars, which makes it seem not really worth it.  The only advantage is that then I would be forced to actually frame something.

There’s art:

I’m not sure that just drawing Hello Kitty qualifies you for competition…  And then there’s the cross stitch

Yes, that’s right… patriotic boy scout cross stitch done by an actual boy scout.  Who I am very concerned about.  You can’t tell here, but it’s big and entirely filled in.  It must have taken over 100+ hours, and I worry about the adolescent boy who would spend that kind of time.

There’s also a cake competition

I don’t think this even needs a caption.

The other great thing about the fair is the food – the non scary clown kind.

Apparently fried candy bars are the thing now.  Marc was so excited – this is how I got him to go to the fair.

I told him that when he dies young we’ll all know why.

Or maybe it will be because of the “Taco Dog”

It’s actually more of a taco burrito…  at any rate, it contains not only a giant hot dog but also ground beef and nacho cheese.  Absolutely disgusting.  I was content with my corn dog and half a funnel cake, thank you very much.

We saw the ugly lamp contest

Marc entered a lamp he made out of a blender last year.  He didn’t win, but he did get free fair passes.

On our way out we stopped to watch some of my students performing on one of the stages

We never actually made it to the midway, because I hate it.  I was very happy with my dorky trip, thank you very much.

On saturday I had to sing a wedding

and then we went to “Brew at the Zoo”, which is a microbrew/ food festival.  I only got one picture, and Marc looks demented, so naturally I have to post it.

After the festival we went to a “goodbye party” for one of Marc’s friends who is becoming a monk(yes, I know…)  I didn’t get any pictures there.  We went to Cahoots, which is a dirty quasi-punk bar filled with dirty quasi-punk people.

I have been knitting in between all of this.  I’ve done 12.5 repeats on the straight section of Clapotis

Right now it measures 45″, so I’m going to add a few extra repeats to make it long enough.  Here’s a closer shot of the dropped stitch pattern

I’m close enough that I’m starting to think about my next project.  I think it will be the Odessa Hat , which should give me experience knitting with double pointed needles.

Leon has been stealing my stitch markers again.  Here I am teaching him a lesson

Unfortunately, he likes to be underneath things.  Right now he’s hiding underneath a rug in the kitchen.  I think he thinks he’s invisible.  Not so much.