Weekend Happenings

Erin R. is back in town! Let the fun begin! She invited Flat Jason and me to a free concert in front of Memorial Union on Saturday night. We met up with her brother and his girlfriend, plus some random friends. The Hibernauts from St. Louis and Augustana of moderate fame were the performers, but at times I felt that more attention was directed at Flat Jason and me.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm used to people looking at FJ and whispering in a not-so-inconspicuous manner, but I'm not used to people accosting us. A young man in the crowd approached us and began yelling, "What's he doing here? He's supposed to be grounded. Why's he looking at me?" He yelled it very loudly, the same thing over and over, as he walked toward us. Fortunately another gentleman in the crowd moved between us and the violent man and got him to calm down and walk away. Now, we've seen all kinds. There were several more that night who asked about Flat Jason, including one boy who complimented me on my eyes.

Despite all the distraction, I enjoyed the bands and wished I actually knew their music.

On Sunday, we made it to church finally since missing twice for the fair. We sat on the right side like normal, even though after we sat down I saw Erin and AJ in the middle of the auditorium. After the service, we met Jody, one of the youth ministers. I had seen him before at some of the CCH flag football games, but he'd never met FJ. We continued on to the gym where we hoped to find a donut, but alas, there were none. Not even a trace of them! Weird. Oh well.

Flat Jason and I parted from our friends' company after church and headed to see Diana and Jason in their new apartment. We brought them a wedding present, which I wrapped in my National Geographic maps. Not only were they colorful, but I knew that Diana and Jason would appreciate my resourcefulness. We had a good visit; there was a lot to catch up on since I had seen them last. Then, we had lunch. Jason grilled some meat and corn for us, and we ate watermelon from Grandma Schad. It was a lovely afternoon. I even traded some of our extra watermelon for some of Diana and Jason's extra corn.

The weather was so nice on Monday that Flat Jason and I couldn't resist eating on the patio. I cooked some corn and cut a tomato. And I made sure to bring out our awesome citronella candles to keep the bugs away. They're in cute turtle containers. The candles worked pretty well, but I still had some bug bites!

Fair Finale and the Schads from Texas

On Military Appreciation Day at the Missouri State Fair, Flat Jason came downstairs to check out what was going on. As it turns out, the 2008 Missouri State Fair Queen Whitney Wallace had stopped by the 4-H Building to make camo coolies for the soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood using her stellar sewing skills she got from MU Extension 4-H. FJ got to meet her and hang out with the kids that were doing crafts sponsored by Operation Military Kids and MU Extension 4-H.

Uncle Dorsey and Aunt Lucille came up to visit during the fair, but luckily they stayed long enough that Flat Jason and I had a chance to come visit. We even went back to Columbia with some leftover goodies. Have a safe trip home!

An evening out at the fair

As Flat Jason and I got ready to go out for dinner, Smokey Bear wandered into the 4-H Building from the fire station to say hi. He came with Sparky, but since we had already posed with Sparky, Sparky stepped out of the photo.

We headed to the Gerken Dairy Building for a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and some soft serve ice cream. We checked out this year's butter sculpture. Then we watched the cows get milked in the small parlor on the side of the building.

We headed down the Midway to talk to Richard, who works at the carnival. He couldn't believe that I was actually carrying Flat Jason everywhere with me. Neither could anyone else in the carnival. Anyway, after that we went back to the room to work.

Another night, we went to the Leroy Van Dyke Country Gold Tour. I had told Leroy about FJ and he wanted to meet him, so FJ came along and posed with him. I should have brought him to the concert. There were so many classic artists playing my old favorites. I was in heaven.

Agriculture, firefighters and Otto

After work, Lauren, Flat Jason and I walked around the fair. We stopped by the Agriculture Building, where Jason saw a ginormous pumpkin. It was huge! We also saw that Alewell's Country Meats won Grand Champion Slab of Bacon. Flat Jason wants to congratulate Colonel Alewell for a job well done!

We also visited the Children's Barnyard. FJ liked watching the pigs sleep.






While we continued our tour of the fairgrounds, we ran into Sparky, the fire dog. He was spraying other people, but he was nice to us and posed for a photo with Flat Jason. We stopped by the fire station to talk to our friend, Sheriff Chuck from Johnson County. He took us on a tour of the station and invited us to eat dinner with the firefighters and state troopers. Everyone we met was super-nice!
















Our last stop of the evening was saying hi to Otto, the talking car. We helped a group of kids tuck him in for the night.

Concert at the Fair

Saturday night - concert time. Lauren came up to go to the Josh Turner concert with me. Flat Jason decided he didn't want to go, so we left him in our room to sleep.

Lauren and I ate dinner at the Missouri Cattlemen's Beef House before the show. Then we found our seats: four rows from the front, dead center.

The concert was amazing! Pat Green was on first. Lauren and I were the only ones standing in our area for a while. When I started taking photos, Pat saw me and pointed. His fiddle/guitar player threw a guitar pick at us, but it fell behind us and a little girl snatched it up. Pat closed with "Wave on Wave" and people were STILL sitting, so he started calling out audience members, including my roommate and her boyfriend who were sitting with their arms crossed. By the end everyone was standing and ready for Josh Turner.

Josh opened with "Firecracker" and put on a marvelous show! He played the guitar and the mandolin. I really liked his shirt. The "Blessed with Freedom" shirt is available from the Blessed Clothing Company, and the proceeds go to St. Jude's.

Afterward, we grabbed a funnel cake and went to visit Richard, who works at a ball toss for the carnival, on the midway. Lauren and I had planned to watch a movie when we got back to our room, but we had too much fun and had to call it a night.

Missouri State Fair - Day 1

Day 1 at the Missouri State Fair, and Flat Jason has started making the rounds. First, we stopped at the bear carving. They built a new children's playground near the bear and added more wooden sculptures.

Then we headed to the Missouri Department of Conservation to see Smokey the Bear. We stopped at the concession stand near the 4-H Building for our dollar-priced corn dog. Wa-hoo for Dollar Days!

Next, it was on to the farm implements, where I found what Jason would call a "quad cab, dualie, double pumper," which is what he says when he thinks things are huge and maybe a little overkill. He's only had to work on small farms, though.

Then we came back to type a few things in our snug little room. You can see that Jake the dog, who joined my family six years ago this fair. You may also notice that there are polar bears and penguins on my sheets to help me think postively about the fair weather, which has been great so far.

Hello, Wendy! or Meatatarians Unite!

Flat Jason and I had planned to go to the Muny to see Fiddler on the Roof, but we didn't make it. It was very hot and I had to pack to get ready for the Missouri State Fair. To make it up to him, we stopped by the new Wendy's near our place.

Wendy was standing outside waving to passersby, so we posed for a picture. And inside we talked to a nice manager about his family in the military.

We ordered a Baconator because I wanted to try it and we got a frosty because Jamie said we had to try one. The frosty was good, but I'm glad we got a little one because the Baconator was HUGE! And I found this:

I am a true MEATATARIAN because...
I feel bacon should be its own food group.
I eat, sleep, and breathe beef and bacon.
I have ketchup running through my veins.
I will only recognize cheese if it is on a hamburger.
I know the secret to true happiness is hickory smoked bacon.
I believe the Baconator is the true 8th Wonder of the World.

Near K-lamities

Flat Jason and I headed to Kansas City on Saturday to hand out Hero Packs to children of military members and see the Royals play. When we pulled into the parking lot at Kauffman Stadium, I searched for the sunscreen that I was sure I had packed. Negative. All I came up with was a can of bug spray, and while potentially useful, it was not going to guard my pale skin against the intense midday sun. Fortunately, there was a group of tailgaters parked a few spaces over who were more than happy to let a complete stranger use their sunscreen after, of course, enduring much teasing about white legs and unpreparedness. Oh well. Crisis averted.

Military Appreciation Day with the Royals - Before the game, we worked with Joan of Operation Military Kids to hand out free tickets to families of military service members and passed out around 15 Hero Packs to school-aged children who have had a service member deployed. Some of the guys from the 129th stopped by for some free tickets and posed with Flat Jason. I also wandered down front to take photos of the pre-game activities.

After the game started, one of the ushers told me to find my seat, so I packed up and headed up the stairs. When I got to the top, I felt kind of dizzy, so I dropped my stuff and sat down with Flat Jason under a concession stand counter. The smell of the food made me a little nauseated. I decided the best thing to do was to get some water, so I got up and asked for a water from the person at the drink cart that was near me. I grabbed the money out of my pocket to hand to the vendor, and I passed out on their cart. I wasn't out for very long, but when I was coming to, I felt dizzy and thought I was going to fall over, so I lowered myself to the ground. God bless the vendors because they were great. They applied ice packs to my neck and head and called first aid. An EMS guy named Christopher came to check on me. He called for a wheelchair and took me down to first aid. While we were waiting for an elevator, we saw Sluggerrr, the Royals mascot. Everyone also kept remarking that FJ looked like Jimmy Gobble, a Royals pitcher that I think is on the disabled list.

We checked into first aid, and I stayed there for a little bit, just resting, drinking water and chatting with others. I was totally embarrassed for having caused such a scene, having to be wheeled about and such, but other people were having the same problem (It was 158 degrees on the turf.) so I didn't feel quite as bad. Before Flat Jason and I left first aid to find our seats, we posed with my hero.

Luckily, Joan had given Flat Jason and I seats in the shade. When we found them, we discovered a group of servicemen from the area. I think their names were Mark, Ed and Wentworth TAC officer Robbins. (I don't remember his first name.) I arrived near the end of the second inning or the beginning of the third, and it was nice to have some people to discuss the game with.

FJ and I put on the free hats we received at the gate to finish watching the game. The final near-calamity of the day occurred in the eighth inning. The Sox picked up four runs, and I was afraid that the Royals were going to let victory slip from their fingers again. Kansas City brought out closer, and Mexicutioner, Joakim Soria to keep their lead, and the Royals won 9-7. Wa-hoo!

The Dark Knight!

Finally! I can now say that I have seen the new Batman movie.

After work on Friday, Flat Jason and I joined Jeremy at Hollywood Theatres for the 6:30 showing. Suprisingly, and happily, no one had a problem with Flat Jason seeing the movie. I loved it, and I think when Real Jason gets to see the movie, he will like it as well. Until then, he can play with the small Batman toy that I plan to send in his next care package. (I rescued from the bottom of my Cheerios cereal box.)

After the movie, we all went to eat a late dinner at Chili's, which was on the way home. At home, I was still too wired from the movie to go to bed; it was crazy-intense. Flat Jason and I decided to stay up until midnight to catch a replaying of the new Psych that we missed to go to the movie. We made it through House, but we never got to Psych. I guess we weren't as excited as we thought. When I woke up, Psych was half over, so I just shut the TV off and headed to bed.

More bowling!

Wa-hoo! Flat Jason and I hit the bowling alley with A.J. on Thursday. I sat FJ on a chair at our table, and he proceeded to freak out as many of the members of the party bowling a few lanes away as he could. Good times.

A.J. and I bowled a couple games, and he won both times. Sigh. Am I never going to be a good bowler? I'm trying not to get too down since I haven't been bowling too many times in recent history, and really...how many people are good at bowling? Don't answer that.

I alternated between the 10-pound ball and the 12-pound ball. Apparently, bowling with a heavier ball is supposed to be a good thing. I'm not sure that I could tell a difference, aside from throwing slower. Shrug. My high score of the night: 81.

Maybe my own shoes will do the trick...