Commitment, movies, State Fair, and...!
CURSE YOU, US MINT, FOR 'DECEIVING' ME >8(! I thought THIS would be the LAST year of the 10 year statehood quarter program with only Alaska and Hawaii to go! I've committed 10 years into collecting all the state quarters in lovely conveniently designed 50 quarter-hole booklets. You just had to RUIN the beautiful perfection by releasing 6 MORE QUARTERS next year for DC and the 5 U.S. territories of Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands! I really doubt I can find a nice booklet to put just 6 quarters inside for those unless I try and collect a quarter from both U.S. Mints (making a grand total of 12 quarters instead of 6 which I don't like doing) >8(! You just HAD to stretch out the program by one more year along with the new 10 year Presidential dollar program AND 4 new penny designs for next year! BLAST %*#_!*% YOU!
Forget Batman: The Dark Knight. Forget The Mummy (3): Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. THE BEST SUMMER MOVIE OF 2008, besides WALL-E, IS MAMMA-MIA!! I LOVED IT! It's cheesy corny romantic musical dancing fun at it's best 8D! Heck, Pierce Brosnan's awful singing actually complimented the movie quite nicely! My Mom, who is mostly an action spy mystery movie lover, even liked it o-O! The music is 100% ABBA 70s goodness! I wouldn't mind watching it again, and that's something I say rarely about any movie. If you do go watch it, stay and watch the end bit before all the long credits roll! You won't be disappointed ;)! Now if I can just say the same for the soundtrack CD's dismal volume mix, I would be in heaven!
I dragged my parents to the State Fair Sunday, and it was really a drag. I think I ended up eating most of the things we bought too ;b, so my plan on sharing food around to eat more didn't quite work that well. Anyway, we tried to do the free park-and-ride again only to sadly discover that the park-and-rides near our house wouldn't start until 1:00 p.m. for some reason X(! Luckily, we found out that my Uncle was staying home all day, so we had him drop us off at the front entrance instead.
There really wasn't much on my agenda besides food since my parents were in tow. If they weren't with me, I probably would have gone into more buildings (i.e. the Merchandise Mart, the Fine Arts and Crafts Building, the Environmental Building, the Grandstand, etc.) for some sightseeing =/. This year though, Mom has a permanent bum knee, so she got a knee brace. She still can't walk or stand for very long though, so I didn't want to drag her around too much. I did manage to get her to go to the Education Building near the front entrance to pick up some free pencils at least which she could use for her sudoku. After that, we hit our must-eat food stops! The Corn Roast is FABULOUS as always! I don't think I can find any sweeter corn anywhere if I tried =9! After we each ate a $3.00 cob of corn, we stopped along the way at AM 1500 for Rosemary/rosemary and KARE-11 for me to get this year's pressed pennies!
KARE-11 2008 State Fair pressed pennies!
KARE-11 is right next door to the best grilled pork chop stand in the State Fair! I went to buy 2 hot ones while I let Mom and Dad stay at KARE-11's barn to wait. I picked up a cheap bargain Prairie Home Companion CD for only $3.00 at MPR's booth next to the pork chop stand along with free MPR host trading cards. I was surprised at how short and efficient the pork chop stand had gotten since last I went. There were now 2 order-only lines and 2 pick-up lines, making for much shorter waits. The 2 chops I got nearly burned my hand with their grilled goodness X(, but it was worth the burning sensation when I bit into the thick juicy charbroiled chop X9!
I saw that Sven Sundgaard was scheduled for a signing at KARE-11's barn from 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., so I made note of that after we finished our chops and left for the Dairy Building. Every year, I'm SO tempted to get some dairy milkshake goodness from the Dairy Building, but I'm always discouraged by the long lines. It was no exception this year, again, so I still didn't get any dairy milkshake goodness. Our next stop was the Food Building. I just had to try O'Gara's leprechaun legs/coated fried green beans with chipotle ranch cream dip as well as the new fish tacos and fried ice cream just next to O'Garas. I admit those were a bit disappointing and didn't really live up to the hype of 'new' great fair foods. The leprechaun legs were okay. They tasted like the usual fried up fare. The fist tacos were slim on the filling, and I really didn't like the sweet mango vinaigrette sauce that was in it. The fried ice cream wasn't really fried I thought. I think it was just coated with a thin layer of toasted coconut crumbs topped with chocolate sauce and whipped cream =/. I don't think I will wasting my calories on either of those next year.
By this time, it was past 3:00 p.m., so I asked if I could go back to KARE-11's barn to meet Sven. I left my parents by the Food Building and hurried back to the barn only to sadly find out that Sven wouldn't be showing up until 3:30 p.m. XP! Since I got there around 3:15 p.m., I thought I could wait a bit. I lined up behind some other people who were also waiting for Sven. 2 women who were behind me jokingly expressed how much they 'loved' Sven XD. In fact, KARE-11's barn was even selling Sven T-shirts too! The people that lined up behind the 2 women all had Sven T-shirts on for signing! At 3:30 p.m., Sven was still a no show, and we still continued to wait while cursing Sven's lateness at the same time X}! I wish I had brought my cellphone, so I could tell my parents what was going on, but I didn't. I decided to abandon my Sven quest around 3:50 p.m. because I had already left my parents for a good 40 minutes or so, and I didn't want them to wait any longer. I talked with the KARE-11 booth people, and they said Sven should show, eventually, because he had to do the 5:00 p.m. news cast there. They said Saturday, Sven was supposed to be there at 3:30 p.m. too, but didn't actually come until 4:10 p.m.. I couldn't afford to wait any longer, so I told my line mates the news before heading back to the Food Building. DAMN YOU, SVEN!
I was also dehydrated at this point, so I bought a lingoberry snow cone from the stand next to the Food Building before looking for my parents. They were still there where I had left them except Dad had gone back in the Food Building and bought a batch of freshly cut and fried potato chips, which we had tried last year and didn't like. He couldn't resist buying them again ;b! They taste like ordinary potato chips from a bag, so they weren't anything special. At least this year, we saved our remainder with one of the plastic bags we had gotten earlier from the Dairy Building. Before leaving the Food Building, I bought another bunch of Axel's bull bites for Mom to try which I had remembered were pretty good last year. Mom wasn't impressed and neither was Dad who hated the spices Axel's used ;P.
The next stop was the Agriculture and Horticulture Building next door for honey and apple goodness! I got a cup of the State Fair only honey ice cream with sunflower seeds to share with my Mom instead of a cone. The cup was only $0.25 more than the cone and you got a lot more ice cream to share =9! Inside, I looked and found the apple freeze, a frozen stick of apple cider in a slim plastic push bag for $0.75. It was refreshingly cold, but it was extremely sour X(! I swear it must have been made with Granny Smith apple juice or something. Again, another new fair treat disappointment, but at least it was only $0.75.
After I had left Mom and Dad sitting outside the Food Building for ~40 minutes, I thought I should skip seeing more things, but I was able to convince them to go for one more stop: The International Bazaar! I must say, I really like the new layout for the Bazaar! It has been completely redesigned for more walking aisles in between each group of vendors! There is now one extra horizontal aisle that cuts through the original blocks, and the existing aisles were expanded too! It made for much better air circulation throughout the venue. I think the only thing that saddened me though was that the shaved ice stand that was in the Bazaar is now gone to make for more vendor and food space ;(.
Our final stop before leaving the Fair was Sweet Martha's for some oven fresh cookies =9! At that time, I was pretty full though, so I debated with Mom whether to just get a cone of chocolate chip cookies or a pail (which has ~4 dozen cookies). Mom really liked Sweet Martha's other cookie flavors, especially oatmeal raisin, but Martha doesn't sell those at the Fair --;. Martha DOES offer them to the nearby TIES classes though which was how Mom first tasted Sweet Martha's cookies. After much debate and arguing, we/Mom decided it was more economical to buy a pail of cookies instead of a cone ;b! Mom noted to me that everyone who had bought a pail was leaving the stand with big happy smiling faces vs. the people who had only bought cones ;P! Sure, Mom, whatever you say >;)! As was customary for Sweet Martha, we got an overflowing pail of cookies, and, despite my fullness, we quickly reduced that to a level that almost allowed us to cover the bucket with the top! The pail of cookies is still at home now on the dining room table at the same level though. I'll eat some when I go home tonight.
So, here's our tally for this year:
for a grand total of $125.25 for 3 people o~O! Mom had found it amusing that she overhead someone talk on the cellphone earlier at the Fair saying, "I just spent $25.00 on food, and I'm STILL HUNGRY!" I can believe it XP! Although the Fair had asked food vendors to keep prices the same as last year in lieu of the rising cost of gas, travel, and food in general to not overburden fairgoers, a few things still rose in cost. I think corn last year was $2.50/ear, and Mom said pork chops were $5.00 each. So much for keeping prices the same too --;!
Finally, I almost SCREAMED Friday when I saw I got this in the mail!
David Tennant!
I really didn't think I would get my self-addressed stamped envelope or photo back 8D! I had to ask for help on postage to send a 9" x 12" cardboard envelope with a photo from the UK to the US in UK pounds, plus I had to ask my adviser to get me UK stamps (because I can't find a USPS that sells International Reply Coupons/IRCs here that people overseas can use to exchange for postage in their country's stamps to mail things free of charge). Now that I know 2 UK pounds in stamps is enough, I'm going to write to my next UK celebrity later this week X)!
Forget Batman: The Dark Knight. Forget The Mummy (3): Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. THE BEST SUMMER MOVIE OF 2008, besides WALL-E, IS MAMMA-MIA!! I LOVED IT! It's cheesy corny romantic musical dancing fun at it's best 8D! Heck, Pierce Brosnan's awful singing actually complimented the movie quite nicely! My Mom, who is mostly an action spy mystery movie lover, even liked it o-O! The music is 100% ABBA 70s goodness! I wouldn't mind watching it again, and that's something I say rarely about any movie. If you do go watch it, stay and watch the end bit before all the long credits roll! You won't be disappointed ;)! Now if I can just say the same for the soundtrack CD's dismal volume mix, I would be in heaven!
I dragged my parents to the State Fair Sunday, and it was really a drag. I think I ended up eating most of the things we bought too ;b, so my plan on sharing food around to eat more didn't quite work that well. Anyway, we tried to do the free park-and-ride again only to sadly discover that the park-and-rides near our house wouldn't start until 1:00 p.m. for some reason X(! Luckily, we found out that my Uncle was staying home all day, so we had him drop us off at the front entrance instead.
There really wasn't much on my agenda besides food since my parents were in tow. If they weren't with me, I probably would have gone into more buildings (i.e. the Merchandise Mart, the Fine Arts and Crafts Building, the Environmental Building, the Grandstand, etc.) for some sightseeing =/. This year though, Mom has a permanent bum knee, so she got a knee brace. She still can't walk or stand for very long though, so I didn't want to drag her around too much. I did manage to get her to go to the Education Building near the front entrance to pick up some free pencils at least which she could use for her sudoku. After that, we hit our must-eat food stops! The Corn Roast is FABULOUS as always! I don't think I can find any sweeter corn anywhere if I tried =9! After we each ate a $3.00 cob of corn, we stopped along the way at AM 1500 for Rosemary/rosemary and KARE-11 for me to get this year's pressed pennies!
KARE-11 2008 State Fair pressed pennies!
KARE-11 is right next door to the best grilled pork chop stand in the State Fair! I went to buy 2 hot ones while I let Mom and Dad stay at KARE-11's barn to wait. I picked up a cheap bargain Prairie Home Companion CD for only $3.00 at MPR's booth next to the pork chop stand along with free MPR host trading cards. I was surprised at how short and efficient the pork chop stand had gotten since last I went. There were now 2 order-only lines and 2 pick-up lines, making for much shorter waits. The 2 chops I got nearly burned my hand with their grilled goodness X(, but it was worth the burning sensation when I bit into the thick juicy charbroiled chop X9!
I saw that Sven Sundgaard was scheduled for a signing at KARE-11's barn from 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., so I made note of that after we finished our chops and left for the Dairy Building. Every year, I'm SO tempted to get some dairy milkshake goodness from the Dairy Building, but I'm always discouraged by the long lines. It was no exception this year, again, so I still didn't get any dairy milkshake goodness. Our next stop was the Food Building. I just had to try O'Gara's leprechaun legs/coated fried green beans with chipotle ranch cream dip as well as the new fish tacos and fried ice cream just next to O'Garas. I admit those were a bit disappointing and didn't really live up to the hype of 'new' great fair foods. The leprechaun legs were okay. They tasted like the usual fried up fare. The fist tacos were slim on the filling, and I really didn't like the sweet mango vinaigrette sauce that was in it. The fried ice cream wasn't really fried I thought. I think it was just coated with a thin layer of toasted coconut crumbs topped with chocolate sauce and whipped cream =/. I don't think I will wasting my calories on either of those next year.
By this time, it was past 3:00 p.m., so I asked if I could go back to KARE-11's barn to meet Sven. I left my parents by the Food Building and hurried back to the barn only to sadly find out that Sven wouldn't be showing up until 3:30 p.m. XP! Since I got there around 3:15 p.m., I thought I could wait a bit. I lined up behind some other people who were also waiting for Sven. 2 women who were behind me jokingly expressed how much they 'loved' Sven XD. In fact, KARE-11's barn was even selling Sven T-shirts too! The people that lined up behind the 2 women all had Sven T-shirts on for signing! At 3:30 p.m., Sven was still a no show, and we still continued to wait while cursing Sven's lateness at the same time X}! I wish I had brought my cellphone, so I could tell my parents what was going on, but I didn't. I decided to abandon my Sven quest around 3:50 p.m. because I had already left my parents for a good 40 minutes or so, and I didn't want them to wait any longer. I talked with the KARE-11 booth people, and they said Sven should show, eventually, because he had to do the 5:00 p.m. news cast there. They said Saturday, Sven was supposed to be there at 3:30 p.m. too, but didn't actually come until 4:10 p.m.. I couldn't afford to wait any longer, so I told my line mates the news before heading back to the Food Building. DAMN YOU, SVEN!
I was also dehydrated at this point, so I bought a lingoberry snow cone from the stand next to the Food Building before looking for my parents. They were still there where I had left them except Dad had gone back in the Food Building and bought a batch of freshly cut and fried potato chips, which we had tried last year and didn't like. He couldn't resist buying them again ;b! They taste like ordinary potato chips from a bag, so they weren't anything special. At least this year, we saved our remainder with one of the plastic bags we had gotten earlier from the Dairy Building. Before leaving the Food Building, I bought another bunch of Axel's bull bites for Mom to try which I had remembered were pretty good last year. Mom wasn't impressed and neither was Dad who hated the spices Axel's used ;P.
The next stop was the Agriculture and Horticulture Building next door for honey and apple goodness! I got a cup of the State Fair only honey ice cream with sunflower seeds to share with my Mom instead of a cone. The cup was only $0.25 more than the cone and you got a lot more ice cream to share =9! Inside, I looked and found the apple freeze, a frozen stick of apple cider in a slim plastic push bag for $0.75. It was refreshingly cold, but it was extremely sour X(! I swear it must have been made with Granny Smith apple juice or something. Again, another new fair treat disappointment, but at least it was only $0.75.
After I had left Mom and Dad sitting outside the Food Building for ~40 minutes, I thought I should skip seeing more things, but I was able to convince them to go for one more stop: The International Bazaar! I must say, I really like the new layout for the Bazaar! It has been completely redesigned for more walking aisles in between each group of vendors! There is now one extra horizontal aisle that cuts through the original blocks, and the existing aisles were expanded too! It made for much better air circulation throughout the venue. I think the only thing that saddened me though was that the shaved ice stand that was in the Bazaar is now gone to make for more vendor and food space ;(.
Our final stop before leaving the Fair was Sweet Martha's for some oven fresh cookies =9! At that time, I was pretty full though, so I debated with Mom whether to just get a cone of chocolate chip cookies or a pail (which has ~4 dozen cookies). Mom really liked Sweet Martha's other cookie flavors, especially oatmeal raisin, but Martha doesn't sell those at the Fair --;. Martha DOES offer them to the nearby TIES classes though which was how Mom first tasted Sweet Martha's cookies. After much debate and arguing, we/Mom decided it was more economical to buy a pail of cookies instead of a cone ;b! Mom noted to me that everyone who had bought a pail was leaving the stand with big happy smiling faces vs. the people who had only bought cones ;P! Sure, Mom, whatever you say >;)! As was customary for Sweet Martha, we got an overflowing pail of cookies, and, despite my fullness, we quickly reduced that to a level that almost allowed us to cover the bucket with the top! The pail of cookies is still at home now on the dining room table at the same level though. I'll eat some when I go home tonight.
So, here's our tally for this year:
- 3 pre-sale admission tickets = $24.00
- chocolate covered mocha-cicle = $4.75
- 3 sweet roasted corn-on-a-cobs = $9.00
- 2 grilled pork chops = $13.00
- fish taco = $5.00
- fried ice cream = $4.00
- O'Gara's leprechaun legs/fried green beans = $6.00
- fresh cut and fried potato chips = $5.50
- Diet Coke for Dad = $2.00
- lingoberry snow cone = $4.25
- Axel's bull bites = $7.00
- honey ice cream with sunflower seeds in a cup = $4.50
- apple freeze = $0.75
- small dippin' dots (ice cream of the FUTURE!) = $3.50
- Sweet Martha's cookie pail = $14.00
- Prairie Home Companion bits CD = $3.00
- Joe Soucheray bobblehead for Rosemary = $15.00
for a grand total of $125.25 for 3 people o~O! Mom had found it amusing that she overhead someone talk on the cellphone earlier at the Fair saying, "I just spent $25.00 on food, and I'm STILL HUNGRY!" I can believe it XP! Although the Fair had asked food vendors to keep prices the same as last year in lieu of the rising cost of gas, travel, and food in general to not overburden fairgoers, a few things still rose in cost. I think corn last year was $2.50/ear, and Mom said pork chops were $5.00 each. So much for keeping prices the same too --;!
Finally, I almost SCREAMED Friday when I saw I got this in the mail!
David Tennant!
I really didn't think I would get my self-addressed stamped envelope or photo back 8D! I had to ask for help on postage to send a 9" x 12" cardboard envelope with a photo from the UK to the US in UK pounds, plus I had to ask my adviser to get me UK stamps (because I can't find a USPS that sells International Reply Coupons/IRCs here that people overseas can use to exchange for postage in their country's stamps to mail things free of charge). Now that I know 2 UK pounds in stamps is enough, I'm going to write to my next UK celebrity later this week X)!