Alabama National Fair

Yes, we went to another fair.  It was pretty much the same thing as the Texas State Fair except there were a lot more rides and it was slightly smaller.  And people were cheering for Alabama and Auburn instead of Texas.  Them people love their football!

We've discovered that our favorite fair/park treat is a root beer float, because we always want ice cream but could also use a drink.  Perfect combination, right?

We got to see a bear show! as well as pig races, only here they made those little piggies swim!!  The bears looked surprisingly tame, and sure liked that honey!  (!)

I guess the highlight of the fair was The Charlie Daniels Band (they play the devil went down to georgia).  I liked the red neck music.  And I may or may not have joined in on the cheering ... you know, "HOW MANY RED NECKS OUT THERE?!!!"  "WOOOOO!"  That sort of thing.  It was funny.  I chuckled.  Ask Paul about his rock concert mentality theory.

Atlanta, GA

Our favorite thing in Atlanta was definitely the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world.  First, we got a military discount.  Right then we knew it would be a great experience.  The place was surprisingly easy to get around, and we even went back around to some exhibits for a second look.  I especially liked the "giants" section which had sharks, manta rays, and huge fish.  We were also lucky to see the river otters playing!  They were very very cute.  We touched some anemones and some rays, and mostly just took our time to see everything.  I was very impressed; definitely a must-see for Atlanta, if you ever go.

After the aquarium, we went to the world of Coca-Cola museum.  I wasn't expecting anything too exciting, especially because I don't really like Coke in the first place, but it turned out to be pretty awesome.  The museum had a 4-D ride (the kind where the chairs move too) that was cheesy but well-done.  There was a ton of memorabilia (funny word) that was cool to look at.  We sat for a while in their theater which played Coke commercials from around the world, and talked about Coca-Cola marketing.  I left there humming "Always Coca-Cola!".  And of course we loved the tasting room, which offered tastes of 60 different Coke products from around the world.  I liked most of them (a few distinct exceptions), and felt pretty bubbly when we were done.  Another must-see in Atlanta (that also gave us a military discount)!

That night we wandered around downtown some.  We bought metro cards so we didn't have to drive into downtown, which was a great idea.  We walked in Underground Atlanta, which looks like it would be awesome on all of the brochures we got from our hotel, but actually is just a run-down underground mall with a food court.  We also walked past the Georgia Dome, and the CNN building.

Later, at dinner at a place called Michon's I got some ribs.  And my oh my they were so good.  Just had to mention them.  :)  Also, while we were there we hit up The Varsity (very good onion rings, you were right Kels!), and Landmark Diner which has awesome desserts. 

On Sunday we went to church just north of Atlanta in Sandy Springs.  We chose to go up there because the temple was nearby and we wanted to walk around.  We knew it was undergoing renovations, but didn't realize the grounds would be completely shut off, so I had to just snap this picture from the car and call it good.

We went back to the hotel to change and then decided to do a little park hopping.  We took the metro to Piedmont Park, and on our way walked by the Margaret Mitchell house and museum.  Then we ran into something we didn't expect: a gay pride festival and parade!  We tried to enjoy the park despite all of the noise and people, and found a nice spot by the water to chat.

We got a little lost going back to the metro, but ended up walking through some large beautiful houses and past the Arts Center.  Then we went to Centennial Olympic Park and had some peach milkshakes that were very good.  It was a lot quieter here.  I found a cute brick right in front of the bench we were sitting in.

That night we decided to go to Turner Field to see if we could sneak into the Braves game somehow.  We got off at the closet metro and walked about 3 miles.  We didn't know it, but apparently bums and homeless guys frequent that metro, and I was a little nervous.  I kept thinking, "walk with purpose"!  Once we got there we found out they weren't selling any more tickets and no one was offering theirs or scalping.  We peered in for a while but eventually just headed back.

We were going to stay in Atlanta on Monday, but couldn't find something cheap that was open on Mondays that we both wanted to see, so we came back to Montgomery early. 

I thought Atlanta was great.  We probably could have seen a lot more had we planned a little better, but I was happy with everything we did see!  Can't wait for our next trip!

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair

On our move to Montgomery, AL we decided to stop in Dallas and go to the Texas State Fair! What a good decision! I'll let y'all experience it through pictures and such.

We walked by and admired the prize winning arts and crafts, quilts, jams, jellies, pickles, and so on.  We also walked up and down the midway, but avoided all of the carnival games, since everything at the fair is so expensive.

There were a few rides and we chose (k, I chose) to go on the Ferris Wheel, The Texas Star!  I really love ferris wheels, and this was the largest ferris wheel in North America. Great views of Dallas and the fair grounds.  Here are some pics.

 

We went to a few shows.  The bird show that we went to was pretty funny because none of the birds were doing what they were supposed to do.  They would fly somewhere and not come back, or forget how to get off stage.  But they did have a bird fly down from the Texas Star to the stage, which was really cool.  We also saw a dog show and (my favorite) a piglet race!  The little piggies were so cute, running to get to an Oreo cookie first.  Oink oink.

One of the best parts of the fair was the food.  They had anything that you could want and then they also had it fried.  We tried the fried cheesecake.  It was delicious, but it gave me a stomach ache.  The burgers, corn dogs, and root beer floats were also good.  And we finished the day off with an onion blossom.  I love onions, and this thing was amazing.

We stayed until night and watched some of the parade floats go by.  Then we waited for, what they call, the Illumination Sensation, which turned out to be a boring slide show set to country music.  The funny thing was that when there was a picture of the Texas Longhorns football team, everyone cheered louder than ever.

I had to add the picture above.  We walked past this truck and everyone was taking pictures of it, next to it, with their friends and family.  So I took a picture of them, because I think they're crazy Texans.  :)

And wow, I almost forgot about all of the animals!  There was a huge livestock area where you could pet and feed the animals. We watched them milk a cow and got to see the largest boar at the fair.  He was massive!  Also, let me know if you know how they got a giraffe in there.

So, yes we had a great time; I'm really glad we stopped.  The food was good (even though it made me sick), the animals were fun, and it was funny to people watch.  Again, Texans are a crazy bunch.

We made it to Montgomery safe and sound.  The weather is beautiful!  We don't have the most luxurious place (basically we live in a hotel) but it works.  And we're going to Atlanta, GA this weekend if ya'll have any suggestions of things to do! 

That's What I Call Talent

ASU Football

Paul and I went to an Angelo State University football game last weekend.  I mean, I had to go to at least one football game this fall!  I was excited and Paul pretended to be.

We found a close parking space quickly (great!) and walked up to the ticket counter.  As we waited in line to purchase our tickets an older man walked up to us, shoved a ticket at Paul, said, "Here, now you only have to buy one ticket!  Enjoy the game!" and walked off.  Stunned and grateful, we shrugged and continued to wait in line.  Not 30 seconds later another old man walked up to us, shoved another ticket at Paul, said "Here, have mine!" and walked off.  We were so surprised that people would just give up their tickets!  But, we gladly accepted and got in to the game for free.

Rather than sit in our designated seats (which weren't together) we walked to the general seating area just as the game was starting.  Since the stadium is so small, it is hard to find a bad seat.  Plus, it didn't look like a large crowd anyway, so there was plenty of space.

When the game actually started we were a little disappointed in the talent level of both ASU and West Texas A&M.  See, no one, it seemed, knew how to block or tackle.  One of the early tackles looked a lot like what Paul and I must have looked like when I picked him up from the airport: a long hug that might cause one person or the other to fall over.  We had a good laugh.  After a while though, I realized that watching division II college football has its advantages; a lot happens.

For example:
We saw a 75 yard touchdown on ASU's first offensive play. (Goooo RAMS!)
We saw a couple hard-core sacks.
We saw a poor ref get caught up in a tackle (we laughed).
We saw a fight on the field (we cheered).
We saw a fake field goal attempt that was successful.
We saw a few interceptions run in for touchdowns (and I mean "a few", as in 3-4).

We saw a blocked point-after ran back for 2 points.
(all of this happened in the first half)

We stayed for half-time and enjoyed WTA&M's awesome band.  ASU has a pretty small band, but I loved their song choice: "You Belong [to] Me" by Taylor Swift.  We also had fun watching the male color guard member that was better than all of the girls.  He was really good.

We left at half-time (and didn't feel bad because after all, we got in for free).  ASU ended up losing 27-37, but it was a good game anyways.

Like I Know What I'm Talking About ...

Date Night.  First, I think that Tina Fey and Steve Carell are brilliant comedians, and I don't think I've seen anything that they are in that I didn't like.  So, obviously I went into this movie with high expectations.  And those expectations were met for about half of the movie.  I thought a few scenes were useless and at the end nothing really happened.  But it was funny.

Eat Pray Love.  The whole time I felt like I was just watching Julia Roberts instead of her character.  It was interesting to see the book portrayed on the screen, but they didn't do a great job of it.  In fact I didn't really enjoy the movie at all.

Some Like it Hot.  My first encounter with Marilyn Monroe; she was pretty crazy.  It was actually pretty funny and goofy, and a little twisted at the same time.  Recommended.

Outsourced.  This was a small indie-comedy that was very predictable and silly; amusing but hardly great writing.  Not really worth 2 hours of your time.  Also, the new NBC sit-com with the same name is exactly like the movie: not worth 30 minutes of your time every week.

Eight Men Out.  I thought this movie was pretty good, and so did Paul.  He put it in while I was working on a puzzle, so I was confused at parts and didn't watch very intently, but I still managed to get the gist of it, and thought it was well done.  It is about the "Black Sox" World Series scandal back in 1919. 

Star Trek.  YAY!  I love Star Trek (the new one).  It was the first film we ordered from Netflix and the first one that we ordered a second time.  It is really great, and exciting!  Watch it!


As for TV:  SNL sketches, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Myth Busters, and Shark Week are all on Netflix instant queue and are fun to watch real fast while Paul comes home and we're eating lunch.  Also, we were very excited to begin new seasons of The Office, Community, 30 Rock, and Modern Family this week, and are hoping that our place in Montgomery has cable so we don't have to watch them all on the internet days after they air. 

The Piano and The Bench

This is the piano that Paul and I bought from a lady on craigslist (there are NO piano stores in San Angelo so craigslist was the only option).  She gave us a good price and even threw in the lamp.  Score.  As you can see I have brought out all of my music and I have been playing constantly.  It plays great, and it is so nice to have a real piano at our place!

Semi-related side-note: It is nice to have another place to sit down (even if the bench isn't that comfy).  Paul got a free computer chair from work also, though it's not that comfy either.  Still, I'm proud to say that these new seats have brought our total seating count up to 11 (5 chairs, 1 couch, and a bench) ... unless you count the seats from the van that are sitting in the other room, which would mean we actually have more like 16 seats.  :)

Hoorah for pianos!

Food for thought

Do you ever go through a phase where you really like to eat certain things?

For example.  When I was in high school, I went through a phase where I would come home from school and have an apple with peanut butter.  I would use the apple slicer, and stick the pieces in a bowl with a generous spoonful of peanut butter and munch away.

Another example.  When Paul was gone I started making myself smoothies everyday, usually when I got home from working out. I learned to love the magic bullet. Frozen fruit and yogurt and milk and juice. yum yum yum. One of my favorites is a frozen mixed berry, vanilla yogurt, and milk smoothie. Also up there: frozen mango, papaya, and strawberry with blackberry yogurt and orange juice. Again, yum. When I didn't make a smoothie I noticed, and missed it.  Still, it was just a phase, and now I don't really care if I get a smoothie or not.

Current food phases:

I eat Marshmallow Mateys every morning for breakfast.  They are an off-brand version of Lucky Charms.  This habit also started when Paul left, but so far I've been able to convince him to buy them every week, probably because of their all-sugar deliciousness.

We bought an ice cream maker a few weeks ago.  Best/worst decision ever.  Homemade ice cream is so good!!  But, homemade ice cream is so good ... It's hard to let it sit in the freezer.  We've made mango frozen yogurt, vanilla ice cream, mint chocolate chip, and peanut butter and we're going to experiment next with sherbet.  Yum Yum.

Yoplait's thick and creamy key lime pie yogurt (the blue top version).  It seriously tastes like pie.

What are some of your current food phases?