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The Fair has come to mean different things to me over the years. As a small child, the Fair was a place of wonderment. It was something that was big, exciting and loud. It was also a place that my Dad, an Agriculture teacher, was in his element. It was like going to a museum with your own tour guide. He knew what all the antique farm equipment was and explained which cows were probably going to win prizes and why. We also visited all the buildings that we now skip. The ones with pottery, jams, crafts, etc.
As I got older, it became a place to bring a date and ride the Himalaya with. You were guaranteed to get close. It also was a time where I got to try a lot of different foods. The Raleigh area hadn’t yet become the diverse area that it is now. Barbecue and other Southern cuisine were still the dominant culinary choices. The smells that the Fair offered seemed very exotic to me. Speaking of exotic, the Burlesque Show was still a part of the Fair when I was younger. I remember thinking this was something very, well, strange.
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Fireball Froggy Grady
A couple of Fridays ago, “Spoon”, our neighbor caught and brought over frog (toad?). Spoon, his wife “T”, the boys and I all went into overdrive making a home for it. I had a cracked aquarium in the barn that couldn’t be used for fish so I grabbed that. I also had a bag of aquarium rocks, so I poured some in. Spoon grabbed some foliage and tossed it in. Spoon then went and found some crickets and other bugs to feed the frog/toad. While we were setting up his new living quarters Josh had named him/her “Fireball Froggy Grady”. He looked very red in the night light, so Fireball made sense.
We’ve been having a good time with him. We enjoy feeding him. He’s been loving the flies that we swat for him. He also enjoys crickets very much.
After a 10 year hiatus, Mom Grady decided to re-enter the Creedmoor 4th of July Cake Baking Contest. In the past she had walked away with four (maybe five) 1st place ribbons ($50 check) and one 2nd and 3rd place ribbon. The 2nd and 3rd place cakes both happened to be carrot cakes. According to her Cake Baking Contest Journal (she really does have one) she noted that she just didn’t think a carrot cake could take the blue ribbon. I guess the 10 year break gave her time to come up with the carrot cake that could actually take home the prize. She entered yet another carrot cake this year and her name was called out as the 1st place winner. A lot of family and friends were there to cheer her on. Her cake was delicious and definitely deserved 1st place (although I didn’t taste the rest).
Congratulations Mom!
The other night I was sitting on the steps watching the end of Madagascar with the kids. The movie ended, music began and the kids jumped up and started dancing. “Wait,” I yelled. I ran and grabbed the camera. I backed the dvd up a bit and sure enough, the same scene played out. They crack me up. Check it out below.
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We recently returned from our first family camping trip- the first of many more to come. We had a blast! The boys loved sleeping in the tent and chillin’ in their camp chairs. Nana and Pawpaw (my folks) joined us along with our little nephew Ethan. The beautiful fall weather at Hanging Rock State Park was ideal- crisp air, blue skies, and vibrant autumn foliage. Friday, Dad and I drove up with the boys and set up camp- the kids were wild with excitement! Then we hiked a short trail to a waterfall. “Waterfall” is really a relative term- it was more like a trickle, but the kids thought it was the coolest thing they had ever seen. After that, we headed back to our campsite to play and start dinner. Josh and Nate made quick friends with our neighbors- special thanks to the Betts family for helping to make our weekend so special! Alan and Mom rolled in right about dark and we got the fire going, complete with marshmallows. Big eggs and bacon breakfast and off to conquer the mountain. Yes, we did in fact go to the very top of Hanging Rock with a 2, 3 and 4 year old- about 4 miles round trip, a lot of it straight up. (Props to Alan for carrying Nate up the last leg of the trail- you’re such a great daddy!) It was awesome! Needless to say, we were pooped after that- so naps were in order. Dinner that night was fabulous- Nana and Pawpaw served a fabulous london broil with mushroom sauce and all the fixings. Deeeeelish! The boys ate their weight in pancakes the next morning and we started packing up. We hiked one more short trail before leaving- this waterfall was more impressive and we got some great pics. We will be going back to this park again- I would highly recommend it to any of you outdoorsy types.
Well, if Josh’s 4 year old class’ voting results are an indication of how the country will vote on November 4th, it will be a landslide in favor of Obama. He won yesterday 12 votes to 4 votes.
Josh shared the election process on our way home from school yesterday. He described how the Blue guy, Obama, had a lot more votes than the guy who was Red. It probably helped Obama that Josh can’t ever remember the Red guy’s name. He and Nate shout out “Obama!” every time there is an ad on (which is quite often the last few weeks).
Earlier in the day I had read that Scholastic’s election had Obama winning as well; 57% to 39%. Other vote getters were Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and Stephen Colbert. Since 1940, the Scholastic election has been right every time except twice. In 1948, kids voted for Thomas E. Dewey over Harry S. Truman. In 1960, more students voted for Richard M. Nixon than for John F. Kennedy. I guess this makes sense as most of the time the kids will vote for whomever their parents are voting for.
It was a beautiful day, so we took the kids up to Grandma’s for a visit. Her yard is park-like for the kids so it is a great place for them to wear themselves out. The drive back found the customary scene of the kids falling asleep before we are out of the city limits… a mile or two. My wife usually falls asleep before we get to the lake which is ten or so miles. The rest of the drive usually leaves me with my thoughts.
While in my thoughts I began to notice more bikers on the road than usual. It was a beautiful day and they were making the best of it. I happened to be trailing a couple of them and so I was able to witness over and over again the “biker wave” (as shown in the graphic).
I thought it was so cool that this group of people had their own “secret handshake”. Being the proud new owner of a Nissan Frontier truck and constantly spotting like minded purchasers, I thought it would be cool if we had our own wave.
Over the next few weeks I tried a bunch of waves; two fingers in a quick axe chop, flip flopping the hand in a three stooge-like manner, open handed Indian “how” while fluttering my fingers, and the list goes on. It took a while but I finally found a combination that people started responding to. I found that one finger, the middle one, raised straight up with your palm facing towards you worked the best. It is really catching on. Whenever I see other Frontier drivers, I give them the “Frontier Finger” as I like to call it and sure enough, they return the wave. Awesome.