A Fair Tuesday

Yes, the Fuller family sojourned to the Great Minnesota Sweat-Together yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. The state of the State Fair is fair, I am happy to state fairly.

Forgive me; I so love homonyms. Especially when their diverging definitions are so disparate as to be absurd. When you stop and think about it, can you even begin to imagine how one word could have come to represent:
1. (verb) to convey or indicate
2. (adj) cruel, spiteful or malicious
3. (noun) average

Or how about:
1. (noun) stone
2. (verb) to move gently back and forth
3. (noun) loud music

Sorry, that's just the sort of thing that amuses me. But I digress.

The State (internally autonomous partition of land under a federal government; as opposed to condition of existence or act of speaking) Fair (festive gathering; as opposed to consistent with rules and ethics, pleasingly adequate, or light in color) was fun. The main reason we went this year was to put Toby on kiddie rides. This we did, and those of you who know him will nod and chuckle appreciatively when I tell you that as he rode around in circles on the various cars and boats into which we kept strapping him, he wore an expression neither of joy nor misery (as did so many of his peers) but of fierce concentration. Furrowing his brow, he gripped their ineffectual steering wheels and peered intently forward as though charting his preordained course. Occasionally Michelle or I would be able to catch his eye from the other side of the railing and he would spare us a smile, perhaps even a short "Wheee!", but as he passed his face would again cloud with the mental effort of commanding his craft. Only after he had dismounted would he express his pleasure in the experience by clapping, babbling or trying to climb back into the vacated vehicle.

So a good time was had by all, as were cheese curds. And roasted corn, crepes, gyros, pizza bread, cookies and french fries. Ah, the glorious french fries. We neglected the more adventurous items such as the alligator meat, deep-fried Oreos, and the exciting new spaghetti-and-meatball on a stick. What can I say; we normally eat things like kale and zucchini with organic free-range chicken. Baby steps, people, especially when you're going backwards.