Moving on to some fun stuff...it's my favorite time of summer...time for the
California State Fair!!!
This year marks the 150th fair, and they're going all out...I'm excited about going! On Monday I plan to attend the
Newsboys concert, and then I'll be attending with my sister and her kids on Sunday the 24th.
My favorite things to do at the fair are look at all the exhibits, go see baby chicks hatching, check out the livestock (I didn't know cows were so big!
I also enjoy spending time at the Calvacade arena watching the horse stuff, including Diane Lane Rossi's
The Magical World of Dancing Horses I adore those
Freisans I also enjoy trying out all the different foods at the fair
This year I wanna try out the deep-fried Oreo cookies and Snicker bars. Last year I heard about the deep-fried Twinkies, and if they have those again this year, I'm gonna try those out, too
The other thing I usually have every year are the state fair cinnamon buns. One year I tried an ostrich burger, and that was good. I also buy lemonade and get the inexpensive refills.
Eating right goes out the door when I'm at the fair! I enjoy the junk food and try out new things if I can
Every year I want to ride in the paddle boats, but never get around to doing that...one of these years, though!!!
The California Recall ElectionThere's so much going on, and not being a political expert, I'm not going to comment too much other than to say that the more I hear about Arnold and the people he's bringing on, the less comfortable I feel about him. My vote is still going to go with
Tom McClintock, who I feel is the best choice for California Governor. Visit his site and see why I think Tom's the man California needs right now.
Other great resources about the recall include:
The California Insider - Daniel Weintraub's blog. Daniel is a columnist for the Sacramento Bee
Eric Hogue's Blog - Eric is the morning talk show host on
KTKZHugh Hewitt's Blog - Hugh is my favorite radio talk show host, as everyone who knows me at all knows
Forget trying to do a chronological account of the last two weeks!!!
I'm just gonna do the highlights and save myself some stress!
The big news is that the motor on the swamp (also known as an evaporative water cooler) cooler seized and burst into flame earlier this week
Yeah, flames!
I'd come home from work and decided to turn the swamp cooler on to cool things down. Well, I turned it on, but the turbine didn't begin turning, so I turned it off and turned it back on. Right after I did that I heard a 'poof' and saw flames shoot up from the pump! After my mouth dropped in shock
I turned the cooler off and unplugged it, then began racing through the house looking for my shoes
I found them, shoved my feet into them, and ran out the front door and down the steps to the side of the house and towards the swamp cooler and the backyard. I noticed some wispy black smoke was rising from the cooler as I raced by it and opened the gate to the backyard. I reached the faucet, grabbed the hose and unscrewed the sprinkler, turned the water on and raced back out the gate to the swamp cooler and began dousing it with water. I did that for a minute or so, then pried off one of the panels to look inside and make sure there wasn't any fire. Thankfully there wasn't!
My poor heart, though...
It was racing, and took a few minutes to settle down.
We've had some really good weather since then, thankfully, so I haven't really missed the cooler until tonight. It reached the high 90s today and I can tell! Right now it's about 9:45 pm and it's around 85° in my computer room
Riley is sleeping in a windowsill, and Blossom is sprawled out next to the door of the computer room.
Last weekend I rented some movies and had a movie marathon...I saw:
A Man Called Peter - one everyone should see! It's about the life of
Peter Marshall, the Senate chaplain in 1945 and 1947 and an awesome man of God.
Mission Impossible 2 - fun action movie, even though I'm not a Tom Cruise fan. I enjoyed seeing Dougray Scott in a
bad guy role after seeing him play the
prince in Ever After
The Bourne Identity - another good movie that kept me guessing until nearly the end, which is something I like
Hometown Legend - interesting, but not as good as some said it was...I never did get why people thought or did certain things, and felt the story was really choppy.
The Sum of All Fears - oh, my! I didn't realize that a nuclear bomb would go off in this movie! I was shocked and horrified by the idea, but did enjoy the movie.
I'm having a boring time at the video stores these days...nothing grabs my attention or seems to be worth watching, so I end up coming home empty-handed. Oh, well...
Ok, it's catch-up time
From the 8th:
Wow! Astounding (yet not completely unexpected) news out of California! Arnold (Total Recall) Schwartzenegger will be running for governor in the recall! The race has taken an entirely new turn now, and it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of months leading up to the October 7th recall election.
No matter what happens now, Gray Davis is gone. He's toast. Finito. Caput. Hasta la vista, dude! Don't worry about closing the door...we'll close it for you! And don't bother coming back, cause you ain't welcome here no more, no more, no more, no more!
I had a great birthday :) Work last Friday was fun...one of my coworkers gave me a gorgeous bouquet of deep red roses, the proofing staff gave me a cute bouquet of carnations, and other things I got included a small Seabiscuit movie poster and some candles and candle holders.
Jim did end up wearing the jester's hat all day
It was really entertaining!
The pizza was really good, and after work I stopped by a local drive-thru burger joint and decided to try out their teriyaki beef over fried rice...I can't believe I've lived here for over 10 years and never tried that before! It was really good, and served Hawaiian style
with coleslaw. I've had it about 4 more times since then
The cinnamon swirl cake was really good, too. Try it out sometime!
Now to remember what I did on my birthday weekend...sheesh, I can't neglect updating the blog, otherwise I forget everything!
Oh, yeah...on Saturday I went and got my new glasses at the mall...it was exciting to finally get them and to be able to see better than before!
Here's a photo of me wearing them that I took with my webcam
Wanna read a blog that I really enjoy? Try
this one Lileks.com has lots of neat stuff, and I always enjoy reading The Bleat
Back to Saturday...I killed some time shopping that afternoon, waiting for 3:45pm to arrive, when I was scheduled to meet my roommate outside the movie theater at Arden Fair Mall. We went to see Seabiscuit...me for the second time, her for the first. We had a great time, and I especially enjoyed her stress during the races...evil of me, I know!
Seabiscuit was still a fine movie the second time around! It was great fun with people in the audience cheering and clapping during the movie, and I plan to buy it on DVD as soon as it's released. As of this moment, it's the #5 movie in America.
I'd like to see S.W.A.T and Open Range...eventually I will.
When I got home after the movie, I made myself a special birthday dinner...teriyaki pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, and herbed buttered corn and peas.
Oh, my! I've fallen so far behind that I'm not sure I'll be able to catch up...I'm gonna try, though :) But not tonight...
