I had a really nice weekend. I got off work a little late because I had to make up some time from earlier in the week (I had car trouble), but it was okay. I hung out around the house and worked a little bit in the afternoon while wathing some TV and then Lori and I left for the fair. It was a long 2 hour car ride to the fairgrounds. We seriously almost turned around a couple times, but it was great when we got there. I had a polish sausage sandwich for dinner and Lori had Italian Sausage. We then split a funnel cake. After that, we headed over to the animals and checked out the chickens, ducks, other birds and bunnies. There were these cool baby ducks next to this waterslide like thing. It was hilarious how they kept falling down it. There were also these baby chicks in with a hen and they were hiding so well under her that it was hard to even get a good count of the amount of them.
I saw some ducks that reminded me of the albino duck that used to come behind our apartment at Wellspring. I really miss the ducks a lot from there. It was so cool to be able to sit out and watch them along with the tons of baby ducks. We also saw some peacocks (though they were not fanned out) and a bunny that looked kind of like Oreo but with pointy ears.
Afterwards, we went to the petting zoo area and Lori got to spend some time with her llamas. They are so greedy with the food though. We also petted a few goats and saw two of them get into a fight (one of which had and oddly shaped horn that followed his jawline instead of going up like normal) over some food. We checked out the cows briefly, but only from a distance as we did not want to step in some nasty mud that was near them.
Realizing the time, we hurried over and checked out the place where they exhibit art and produce. We saw a 166 pound pumpkin and another that I think was about 140 something pounds. There were some giant watermelons too and other impressive vegetables. We did not really have much time to peruse the art (it was about 9:50 and the area closed at 10:00), but we did notice there was an antique bike display on the upper level. Looking at it from below, I saw one of those old bikes with the huge front wheel and another that had what looked like a metal wagon wheel on it with huge spokes. By the way, I always wondered what the practicality of a huge front wheel was. Apparently this site says that since there were no chains, the wheels were attached directly to the pedals. As a result, the only way of gearing was to… make the wheel bigger so you could go further on a single rotation.
After this, we realized that we did not really want to ride any rides and were a bit low on cash anyway, so we ate about half of an elephant ear before we were too full and then got a couple caramel apples to go.
Saturday started out with disappointment as I realized that I forgot about the Honors College Champaigne Brunch until it was too late to go. I was really upset, but Lori cheered me up and we had some spaghetti together for lunch. We watched a bit of TV and then left for the Engineering Tailgate. They had barbecue, fried chicken, corn, green beans, hash, rolls, and banana pudding to eat. I stuffed myself even though it was not the best bbq and hash ever (it had a bit of a sour taste). They also had an open bar. I tried a little bit of scotch, but I did not want to drink too much. The best part though was that I saw Dr. Matthews. We had some small talk about what I was doing for work now and such. He eventually asked if we ever went to football games. I said occasionally, but it was a bit of an expense that I didn’t want to pay for a lot (this is a bit of an exaggeration though since I hadn’t been to a game since the 2004 season, jeez I can’t believe it has been that long). Anyway, he asked if I was going to that night and I said I didn’t have a ticket and then he floored me by saying “would you be interested in going if you had one?”. I was like “definitely!”. He then proceeded to give me two extra tickets he had to the game! (Actually he accidentally gave me three, but I realized and gave him back his personal ticket to the game)
So now I started the process of finding someone to go with. I called Matt Gerrald (already there), Erik Murrah (busy), Chris Altman (busy/didn’t get call in time), and Brian Cope (didn’t answer or return my call). By that point, it was definitely getting to the point where it would be a stretch to get Lori back home and get to the game before traffic got terrible. Fortunately, she said she would go with me if no one else wanted to go. So we stopped by the tailgate that Matt was at and chatted a bit (it apparently won the prize for Publix tailgate of the game) before heading over. The game turned out to be so much fun. Sure the Cocks could have played better (they only won 14-10 over a team they were hoped to significantly outclass), but a win is a win, and the best part was that Lori had a lot of fun. She really got into the cheers and watching the game, especially after I helped her understand a few of the finer points. It was exciting the whole time since it was close also. She expressed interest in going to another game this year, but we will be out of town for Florida and I imagine Clemson tickets will cost too much. We will see though.
Sunday was a good day as well. Sunday school was nice (we ran into Elizabeth and Daniel Smith afterwards too. They kept nursery, so they were not in class, but it was really good to see them for a bit, Colin is HUGE now compared to when I last saw him), Lori’s mom made pork chops, mashed potatos, and mixed veggies for lunch, and then we had my football game. The game was fun even though we lost. I wish I had played a bit more of the game, but I almost hurt myself near the beginning so I had to stay out for a few minutes. The reason it was so much fun though is because I got my first pass reception of the season! I did not make it tons far after I got it, but I was glad to at least catch it. Either way, because of how other teams faired, we are still in second place going into the playoffs which gives us a bye week. I then had a nice evening at home with Lori and got some cleaning and work done.
