And touch wieners I did!  There were so many this time, big, small, wee, long, dappled, chubby, crooked, one-eyed… and I loved them all (dogs, people… I’m talking about dogs). But what really caught my eye was the Chihuahua Rescue booth.  I’ve never been a huge chihuahua fan, but I’ve realized that it’s the owners that make them so yippy and annoying, not necessarily the dog itself.  There were some of the sweetest little dogs in there and one, a pale blonde and white male currently named Bixby totally melted my heart.

He was leaping in the air in his little playpen really high, like “Look at me! Look at me!”.  When I approached, he stopped and sat calmly, sticking his wee nose through the gate to sniff me.  When a little girl picked him up (one of the foster family members), he squirmed and carried on, but as soon as she handed him to me, he nestled against my chest and closed his eyes — except for the moment he looked up at me and licked my nose.  *swoon*

The foster mom was into me; she said we seemed to mesh and I’d have to agree. Though, he could be a big pee-factory that never shuts up and she’s trying to unload him on me, so I’m wary. But, she seemed very genuine and I was happy she got a chance to see me with the dog to know I’m not some psychopath running an illegal chihuahua fighting ring in my parking space.

I never thought I’d want a male dog, first off… and secondly, I never thought I’d want a chihuahua. I’ve had my heart set on a doxie, or maybe a corgi, for a while now.  But he just melted me, that dog, and now I’m seriously considering adopting him if he’s not gone.  mikey says I should stop torturing myself and wait for the dog I *really* want, but now I don’t know what I really want.

*sigh* Damn that cuteness!

mikey, GFI and I got there before it opened and spent the majority of the time sifting through the assorted crap vendors in Bing Crosby Hall and the like. We stopped for cupcakes at a super cute booth that was decorated in pink and black and white with lime green accents and curly font. It looked like a website I did for a client once… only life-size.  A little surreal, but the cupcakes were good!  Three mini cupcakes in red velvet with cream cheese icing, chocolate on chocolate and vanilla cake with chocolate icing for $5.  It worked out perfectly; we each got a bite of every flavor. 

We got our handwriting analyzed because we had a sudden urge to piss away $3. The Fair does that. It’s like a state of fugue or something. One minute, you’re perfectly rational, bypassing the loud guy selling chamois, the mood-lipstick mistress, the uber-butch hocking cheese graters and then, without warning, “Let’s get our handwriting analyzed! It’s only $3!” And the next thing you know, you’ve corrupted your whole party.

Our priority stop was GFI’s temporary goal in life:  deep fried macaroni and cheese on a stick.  I was a little skeptical at first, but I definitely had to try it.  I kept saying, “It sounds good in theory…” but no, it was pretty good.  A little bland, as far as a mac n’ cheese goes, but overall pretty much like you’d suspect — a ball of breaded and fried mac n’ cheese.  I made a beeline for the grilled corn on the cob guy and then we all hit the beer garden for an adult beverage.  Sure, it was 10am, but who was keeping track really…?

My Fair highlight was the talent from Doggies of the Wild West.  We didn’t actually catch the show, but we ran into Gary Noel and his wagon o’ western cuteness at the entrance.  I was totally insane for his dogs, snapping photos like crazy.  All rescues, he had a bunch of chihuahuas, a couple mutts, a beagle mix, and an adorable Boston Terrier I got to hold and love on.  He also let me take photos while his dogs did tricks like one-pawed handstands!  Yes, I was impressed. 

We wrapped up the Fair with frozen confections, mikey with his chocolate dipped soft serve while GFI and I shared a frozen banana. I can’t go to the Fair and not have a frozen banana. It’s like sacrilege. But seriously, where do they grow these bananas? They’re enormous, giant, mammoth, Holmes-esque bananas!  Seriously, they must be imported, equatorial bananas.  Or like super genetically-altered bananas engineered by carnies.  Between the two of us, we could only finish half… and the nuts kept falling down my top.

Anyway, we did the crap vendors, the livestock, the gastrocities and we were in and out in about three and a half hours.  Now that’s efficient fun right there!  I’ll have more photos up over the next few days. I only took 484 (with an inordinate amount of chicken shots, I might add) so that shouldn’t take any time at all to sift through. 

In the evening, I took some shots of the fireworks off my front porch and upstairs on the terrace.  I didn’t use a tripod, so out of about 128 shots only a few were clear, but I like how they came out.  It’s my last hurrah with my Nikon D80, as the Picture This project has ended and I’ve decided not to purchase it.  It’s a great camera, but it’s more cumbersome and a bit more camera than I really need.  I’ll be looking at smaller Nikons or maybe a Canon.  I’m not sure, but it was really great to participate in the program. I learned a lot about my own eye for photography.

This month is super busy while I prepare for Kathy’s visit in August and some time off that has been postponed until September.  I may slack a bit, but I know you’ll forgive me because we’re cool like that.  I do have a redesign of the blog coming soon, though.  Finally. 

I hope everyone had a great holiday!