Last Sunday the fam went out to the St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton country fair. Our neighbors go to EAS and have long been responsible for helping organize and gather donations for their giant rummage sale. I've gone to the sale a few times but have never spent any time at the midway. This was officially Ruby's first fair so I was excited to see how she would handle the rides. Really, she was technically too short to ride any of the rides but the nice folks monitoring a few of them let us go anyway. 

Despite the look of horror on her face in the picture below she actually LOVED the giant slide. Once she got to the bottom the first time she jumped up and immediately tried to climb back UP the slide to go again! We ended up going down with her three different times and then had to carry her kicking and screaming away from it when we ran out of tickets. I think when she's tall enough to go on all the rides an Unlimited Ride bracelet will be a good investment. 

The next ride we tried was the spinning strawberries, kind of like the spinning teacup ride. Ruby was okay with it for the most part but near the end, after Heath had been spinning and spinningspinningspinning the wheel she said very quietly, "I wanna stop....." I was not surprised that she was wanting to stop, I myself was feeling a bit nauseated as well. Heath slowed down and immediately she said, "I want to GO!" 

There was also a petting zoo. Does anyone else feel bad for the animals at petting zoos? They sell the feed for people to give the animals and they gobble the shit out of it. I picture them starving the poor animals leading up to an event just so they'll nom the hell out of the food people are giving them. But I guess some of them were eating grass so they aren't really starving...I'm sure they're fine, they just seem so desperate! Anyway. Ruby loved feeding the "GOATS!!" and although we bought several cups of feed for her she managed to charm a random dude out of his feed as well. I'm amazed at how tolerant people are with random little girls who come up to them and demand their feed. 

It's all fun and games until a goat tries to nom your hair... Thankfully she wasn't at all traumatized by this betrayal ...and I fed you all those pellets! and after a quick cry and a visit to the bunny cage she went right back to contributing to the (probably) rising rate of farm animal obesity. 


Last but not least was the pony ride. I will not go on and on about what a racket this is. But, damn! $3 for like a 50ft walk on a pony? Yeah. But likes most parents I paid it because, dammit, I knew she'd love it. And she did. And she wanted a pony. I told her she'd get a puppy before she'd get a pony. 

And last but not least, how cute is the little goat?? Come on! 

This past weekend I simply tried to distract myself as much as possible. Saturday was a Kite Fest at Jacobson Park so I took Ruby and was accompanied by friends. We spent most of the afternoon chasing her as she bolted across the open field, usually so that she could get all up in the business of some random, "PUPPY!!" that happened to be in her field of vision. Apparently a puppy kite is not as cool as the real thing. 

What is distracting? Yes. Relaxing? No way, but whatever. I am grateful for my friends and for the fact that it was finally amazing and sunny and warm. If the weather had been gray and cold...well, I probably would have spent a larger chunk of the weekend crying than I did. 

I haven't been to a Con since back in the day when my grandma and aunt would drag my brother and I to Star Trek conventions. I have memories of meeting Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton (Reading Rainbow!!) and even Patrick Stewart. My aunt paid me to stand up and ask Mr. Stewart a question at a panel discussion once- something about working with Derek Jacobi on a Shakespeare play. I remember being nervous as fudge and then stumbling on my words when it was my turn.

This weekend was the Lexington Comic and Toy convention so me and the fam decided to check it out. Before you even enter to convention hall they had Ecto 1 there. I'm a HUGE Ghostubusters fan so I was pretty excited. Of course I had to get our picture taken with Vigo. Ruby couldn't have cared less about Vigo, Ecto 1, or any of the Ghostbusters hanging out. Once she sees the movie though...then she will. I only wish she could know the awesomeness that was Ecto Cooler.