Out & About – Page 291

The Fair: Things made.

Now let’s see what kinds of things people made for the fair.

Cake decorating is going through a phase of fondant-everything. Fondant is not my favorite thing, but it was fun to see what creative things people are doing with the fondant.

Maybe you need a high-heeled shoe cake?

Or perhaps a Fair-themed cake?

As usual, I enjoyed reading the judges comments in the table decorating contest.

Let’s go on a quilting spectacular. Because there were a lot of good quilts.

I like the colors, and the many patterns contained in one quilt.

T-shirt quilt! Maybe when I get my t-shirt quilt done (in approximately 10-15 years) I will enter it in the fair.

These people, (Matt included) were all taking a picture of a quilt, because you needed to look at the picture to see the person the quilt depicted.

It’s Nick Offerman, that guy from the TV show Parks & Recreation. I’m interested in why someone would go to all this trouble, but there must be a backstory. Also, the quilt in the background is also a winner! Great colors!

Another fun quilt. Amazing quilting and really good skulls.

A 9/11 quilt done in understated colors.

Nice use of black and white.

Impressively swirly.

Similar swirly.

We watched the Art of Cake Decorating on the creative living stage. Not for long though. She was sculpting with fondant. Impressive, but not good to eat. That bust of a woman sitting on the table is actually a cake she made.

I enjoyed looking at this collection of tiny felted objects.

This next item was the most memorable thing at the fair this year.

Nice embroidery quilt.

Here were ladies partaking in a variety of work.

Some really amazing crochet.

I loved this Steampunk outfit.

Those pleats! So much pressing!

I also was a fan of this dress that was made to wear to her daughter’s wedding. (Not enough to take a full-length picture of it, though. Sorry.)

Winning vegetables.

One thing I enjoy about the Oregon State Fair is that they have puzzles to solve. People of all ages were trying their hand.

The fair is a good place to show off your license plate collection.

There were a lot of Legos for people to build with. I love that woman in the purple shirt who seems to be tired of waiting around at the Lego table.

There were also many Legos on display.

As a counterpart to the handwork women, we have the wood turners.

Quite lovely dollhouse.

I was intrigued and repelled by this US flag made out of Army men by a youth. I guess that makes it art.

The Fair: performances to watch

We saw fun shows at the fair this year.

First up, Hypnotist Mark Yuzuik, who seemed to greatly enjoy hypnotizing people.

I enjoyed his jacket. Both the white color and the cross reminded me of mid-80s fashion in the best way.

He had some good bits. One of them was for the two women, who, when they put on their sunglasses, could see him naked. Something both of them found very funny.

Another one: he’s the mean substitute and the participants are his students. Every time he turns his back, they make their meanest face. This is my favorite photo, because it also captures Yolanda Martinez, his wife and assistant, laughing. Also, it was interesting to read about Mark & Yolanda on their website.

We overheard the Jest In Time Circus and had no plans to go, as what we could hear was in a very high register. But the two performers hung out after the show to sell clown noses and to take pictures with the kids. It was fun to watch them interact with the children.

In this picture they got the kids all set up and smiled for the picture. At that point, it became apparent that there was no parent present to take the picture. So I did, and the boys ran off happy. I’m not sure where there parents were.

And then came our favorite performers: Powerhouse Percussive Dance. They combined innovative tap, precision clogging and explosive stomp into one performance. They were very fun to watch and hard to get good pictures of because of all the movement.

There was an audience participation portion where someone came on stage and clogged. Due to the magic of something I have now forgotten, the child sounded amazing!

At the end, all the children who wanted to go to come on stage to try some clogging.

In retrospect, I wish I had taken more pictures of their shoes which were gloriously beat up in a way that four 30 minutes shows per day all summer will do.

One of the takeaways from the fair this year was seeing all the microcosms of society I know nothing about. You can make your living hypnotizing people, clowning, or clogging. Did you know that all of the Powerhouse group were national champions? No, because you didn’t know clogging had a national championship.

So thanks, Oregon State Fair, for bringing all of us together.

The Fair: Things to buy

Let’s look at some fun things to purchase at the fair.

An interesting insurance requirement, which I assume has to do with child trafficking or pornography, or something along those lines.

I also enjoy the sign added to bring our attention to the steampunk possibilities, as well as the display of the woman with very large breasts. (Note that my enjoyment for the second is in its obviousness.)

You are missing something for your wrist, aren’t you? This shop can help you.

These dogs walk forward and also perhaps bark.

No need to cover up your angel wings. Here they are in rhinestone hoodie, with or without pink corset laces.

The food at this fair was sub-par. There were no churches selling specialty things, no Jobs Daughters selling baked potatoes. We ended up with generic Yakisoba, made more fun by watching the X-Treme Air Dogs. In the background you can see the fairlift.

Later, we got stuff at the Dairywomen’s booth.

Matt poses with a certain presidential candidate. He didn’t want to get too close.

I know you needed a telescopic flagpole. This is your place.

I wouldn’t have though the OR DOJ would have a booth at the fair, but here they were.

The fair is very cannabis-friendly, including this booth and there was a category of home-grown strains.

For the serious quilter in your life.

Same booth, a version of the Cinderella dress.

Why spend your time embroidering, when this machine can do it for you?

It’s Mr. Statue! He’s usually in downtown Portland, but he made an appearance at the fair.

Post 3000

Clockwise from upper left: The current blog’s dashboard; the original blogspot Out & About; the current Out & About at stenaros.com; the now retired–but still readable–house blog.

I’ve written 3000 blog posts for this blog. Three thousand posts! This blog started as kind of a lark. I was writing the house blog, which I started because we bought the house and I thought it would be a good way to not only keep track of what we were up to, but also a good way to loop in Matt’s side of the family, who live far away. I soon found I wanted to make blog posts about unrelated things and so I made my own blog.

I didn’t do any sort of introductory post. I just launched. In fact, the first post, is fairly typical of many of the posts to come. I was grumpy. I wrote about it. The next post included song lyrics and my memories of the song. The third post was an installment of the (now abandoned) Bike Project. The fourth included ample quotes from a book I had just finished reading. (Which are still really good quotes and worth reading.) I wrote four posts in the first month.

And that’s kind of what I still do today, except there are many more posts per month. I write book reviews. (First listed 11/2/07 Things I read, started to read and didn’t finish in October). I write three sentence movie reviews. (First one 2/7/08 Charlie Wilson’s War). I report on various projects. I wander around my life and take pictures of particular things. (First one 7/22/07 Porch Conundrum). I write essays. (First tagged 1/5/12 My Secret Resolution).

From May 2007 to December 2014 I used blogspot as a platform. After that I bought my own domain name and tried using Squarespace. I found it didn’t work well for blogging and moved things over to WordPress. Sadly, in the move I now have a range of posts without pictures. Someday I will put those back.

Blogging is fun for me. I kept a journal for many years, until my life became undramatic and there wasn’t much to write about. But blogging fills the journal niche. I rarely look back, but when I do, I usually find something that’s fun to remember, or something I don’t remember at all. Like (randomly) The time I got to tour the Art House, after chronicling the building process. Or when I didn’t like the movie Lincoln (this is one of those posts that needs its pictures put back). Or that time I reported on book check-out receipts I found in my library book.

Blogging is also work. For many of my years blogging, I’ve often been behind, sometimes several months behind. In fact, I’m writing this post in November, not September. (Though I set it up in January, not wanting to miss the day I would hit post 3000). The only time I wasn’t behind was the year I had the volunteer gig where I hosted teens in the library computer lab for two hours per week. Very few teens showed up, so that gave me two solid hours per week of blogging. Once that went away, I slipped behind again, and it’s gotten worse with the return to the 40-hour work week. But even when I’m behind, blogging is something that I still want to make time for doing. So I do.

I love comments. I cannot lie. Comments are the most awesome thing. Mostly, I write these posts for myself. But I dream someday of having more than two people comment on a regular basis. And maybe having random somebodies comments. My blog hasn’t grown into that kind of blog, but that means that the comments I do get are that much more wonderful. So if you are a reader and have commented, thank you. I really appreciate it.

Onto selected favorites in each category:

Books (221 posts):
Boise Public Library!
From individual reviews in 2007, to monthly review posts beginning in 2008 (the year I discovered Goodreads) I write a lot about other people’s writing. But the post I’m featuring was from 2013, when I went to Boise for my 20th High School Reunion. I went back to the place that made me a reader and delighted in the details and the memories.

CT Film Festival (45 posts):
Plan Your Own Channing Tatum Film Festival
In 2007, I had no idea I would fall in love with Channing Tatum. (“It’s a pure and true love,” a friend said once about my obsession). I had no idea I was going to watch every movie he had ever been in. I had no idea I would be quoted on a podcast about the CT Film Festival post being “a bit disturbing,” a comment which cracked me up. The video store clerk saying, “Are you the lady who is watching all of Channing Tatum films?” was still in my future. No, I had no idea this was coming at all. I analyzed my obsession in this post, but mostly I have just bowed to the inevitable. When Channing Tatum appears in a movie, I must watch that movie. Usually in the theater. Often on opening weekend.

Mail (198 posts):
Postcard from Singapore
Postcrossing was something I discovered a few years ago. Participating has meant that I have sent and received postcards all over the world. In one case, a postcard sent has meant a blogging friendship with Kathleen. (I’ll start reading your blog again soon, Kathleen. But in the interim, I’ve loved keeping up with you on Instagram.) When it seems like the world is a terrible place, receiving a friendly postcard from the other side of the world is maybe one of the best things about my day. Which is why I need to find time to start Postcrossing again soon.

Music (45 posts):
Power Ballads, A Blog Post
Music is something that fell by the wayside as I entered adulthood and I’m still working my way back to it. The Song of the Month posts help. But most of my music posts are about music I listened to growing up. Like the above retrospective of a time when bands could really write a ballad. And wear some amazing clothes while performing it.

Structures (451 posts):
Comparison Contrast two houses on Belmont Street
I love looking at buildings and houses. Love it. Hence the incredible number of posts about buildings and houses. I enjoyed writing this post because it not only got into the nitty-gritty details of two houses, but it also let me use PortlandMaps.com for some research, which was fun.

Three sentence movie reviews (788 posts):
It’s Complicated
With this many posts to choose from I was a little stuck as to which to feature. I went with this movie, not so much because I think it’s a fabulous review, but mostly because of the long aside sanctioned by the asterisk. Knowing my propensity to use many words, I wisely put a sentence limit on my reviews. But I do enjoy going around that limitation.

To Occupy My Time (1223 posts):
Egg Puff
This is a catch-all category. 65 different tags feed into it. In the WordPress dashboard, there are 62 pages listing posts that chronicle things that occupied my time. I picked one randomly from page 42. Then I linked to the blogspot version of it because the current blog has no photos. If you are looking for a quick dinner, Egg Puff is your friend.

Writing (90 posts):
It turns out I have very strong feelings about the movie the Notebook
This essay still amuses me because I still feel very strongly about that movie. I hate to harsh on the Notebook-loving public’s mellow, but that is a terrible and creepy film.

So that’s it. 3000 posts. Good job me.

The Fair: The animals we saw

We started at the Horse Stadium where some showing was going on.

Then we wandered through and saw the cows getting gussied up. (Note embellished pockets on the cow handler.)

And also cows napping.

Two-week -old calves are hard to resist, apparently.

Mooi was sleeping, though, so we did not get to pet Mooi.

This goat was all for the petting, though.

Pigs were being shown. We also encountered them on their way back to their pens after being shown. Those pigs are pretty big up close.

Angora!

Pygmy goats!

I bet these guys don’t look quite so pretty when not at the fair.

Later in the day we stopped by the Extreme Creature Feature and saw all sorts of interesting creatures.

Like these turtles!

And this snake.

And my favorite: the Alligator Snapping turtle.

They sit with their mouths open until some fish mistakes their tongue for something interesting and then SNAP! Fish is dinner.

There were also birds. Like this parrot.

Some snakes had just hatched. You can see the now-empty eggshell.

This made me think of Leath.

I loved these albino frogs.

This alligator seemed quite large.

Our last picture from the Extreme Creature Feature is this snake.

Great detail outside the Historic Poultry Building.

The bunnies were in the poultry building, too. Here’s a pretty one.

Fluffy chickens.

And this fella. Who looks pretty chill.

The fair. Just getting started.

Here we are at the Oregon State Fair! Hooray! I love the fair.

One thing I noticed about the fair this year? A lot of embellished pockets of jeans. Like on this lady.

Matt takes a look at some fish.

The fair is a great place to come if you are thinking about Naturescaping.

A very good quote by Mr. Dickens.

Matt beats the kids to the mini-earth movers. (There are advantages to arriving as the fair opens.)

To begin, we took the Fairlift so we could get a good overview.

The Fairlift gives some insights into the backstage area of the fair. Look at all those prizes!

Were you looking for some sunglasses? If you buy them here you get a free string!

Self-portrait from the Fairlift.

The fair wouldn’t be my first choice for Body Piercing.

But Henna seems the right level of commitment.

At this booth you could check out the things that god cannot do. (We never walked by this booth, so I’m not sure what the three things were.)

Trust them. They have your flag.

A view of the other Fairlift seats. It was early, so they were mostly empty.

What’s happening behind the scenes of the Corndog tent.

Matt plots our day of events.

To be continued!

Volunteer tomatoes

Having had tomatoes sprout from compost, I can guess exactly how these tomatoes came to be. Someone dropped a tomato slice, or a whole tomato at some point in the winter or spring. Some seeds germinated when the weather finally warmed up enough for tomato seeds. And they grew.

To tomatoes are very small, which tells me that either someone dropped cherry tomatoes, or the seeds were hybridized, and didn’t grow true.

You will note from the many blossoms wanting to form tomatoes and the relatively few actual tomatoes, and the fact that it is early September, that this climate is not a natural one for the tomato. We have to start them indoors early and then transplant them out. Anything sprouted from seed in the ground won’t be ripe when the weather turns.

These particular tomatoes were gone (tomatoes, plant and all) the next week. I wonder if someone saved the ripe tomatoes, or just weeded the thing into the trash.

Books Read in August 2016

Why hello, Middle Grade Month of August. I’ve been prepping for the 6/7 grade Family Book Group I will be running in the autumn. Thus, a lot of middle-grade reading.

Picture books: none read this month.
Middle grade: A lot of good choices, but I’ll go with Save Me a Seat
Young Adult: I am Princess X
Young Nonfiction: none read this month
Adult Nonfiction: no recommendation
Smart Smut: no recommendation
Adult Fiction: none read this month

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle
Fox
Read for Librarian Book Group
Delightfully creepy in that safe, middle-grade way. It was good enough I didn’t even mind so much that it was yet another book that took place in Europe during WWII. Children are sent away to a castle in Scotland so they can remain safe for the duration. Unfortunately, Rookskill Castle seems to not be the safe place they were hoping for.

Ms. Bixby’s Last Day
John David Anderson
Read for Librarian Book Group
Follow three boys as they attempt to give their favorite teacher a party. This book is funny, with true emotion and deeply felt relationships between the boys themselves and the boys and the teacher.

There are a couple of iffy teacher moments here–things that I think really good teachers would not do. However, the various scenes are so vivid (it turns out you can pick your friend’s nose) I’m going to let them slide.

Save Me A Seat
Weeks/Varadarajan
Read for Librarian Book Group
The alternating perspectives of two fifth grade boys: Joe, suddenly solitary after his friends move; Ravi, newly arrived with his family from India. Ravi was quite popular in India, partially because of how smart he is. He assumes that he will be just as popular in his new school.

Ravi is wrong. Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan get so much right: the difficulties of not being able to learn like everyone else does; the difficulties of making new friends; the problems with pre-judging people; supportive families and how they both help and harm; parents not getting it.

This was a well-written book, but it left me with a bad taste in my mouth as to what we value in U.S. culture.

Maybe a Fox
Appelt/McGhee
Read for Librarian Book Group
This is the second book I’ve read this year from the perspective of a fox. Like Sara Pennypacker’s Pax, this was engrossing, heartfelt reading. I could have done with a little more development of fox culture (what is is this Kennan thing?) but overall, it’s a good meditation on grief and people’s roles in others lives.

Full Cicada Moon
Marilyn Hilton
Yet another story told through poems. I did not find the poems particularly powerful as poems, but they did a good job of telling Mimi’s story of moving to a small Vermont town in 1969. She’s half black and half Japanese. Also she wants to be an astronaut. You can see how there might be problems.

My Lady Jane
Hand/Ashton/Meadows
Let’s first discuss what I didn’t like about this book:

The cover. In the acknowledgments section the authors write of their delight at the cover and I’m glad they are happy. But it does nothing to depict what is on the inside of this book. In fact, the two people I asked, both said they thought it had something to with the 1960s. Something about the center part and freckles says flower children, not pseudo-pre-Elizabethan England.

Moving past our cover judgement, my other dislike is that this book doggedly follows the classic chaste romance plot arc, so much so that I knew what was going to happen before it did.

Now that we’ve gotten past those things, I must say that this book was weird in such a wonderful way. It begins on the acknowledgements page, where the three authors (again: weird) dedicate the book to everyone who knows there was room for Leonardo DiCaprio on that door. Inside Titanic reference! They also dedicate it to the people of England and apologize for ruining their history.

The authors create a historic fictional fantasy world in which Lady Jane Grey (she of the nine days rule and subsequent execution by Queen Mary) is hastily married off to the younger son of Lord Dudly (just like in real life) but Lord Dudly’s son in the book spends his nights in human form, reciting poetry and his days as a horse.

Yes, as a horse! In the world of this book, some of the people assume animal forms! Nothing on the cover or the plot synopsis indicates anything about this interesting wrinkle in made-up history.

I found this aspect delightful and enjoyed reading, despite the conventional chaste-romance plot. And so I recommend this book for you!

I am Princess X
Cherie Priest
Resistance was high, namely due to the title and the mix of graphic novel/traditional narrative. For some reason I can deal better with all graphic novel or all traditional narrative, but when combined there is some sort of anti-synergy that happens.

But all that resistance dissipated by the end of the first chapter. This book has a great setup: two girls create Princess X in fifth grade and spend all of middle school writing and illustrating adventures. Then one girl dies and all the Princess X stories are lost. Flash forward three years to when the surviving friend is walking around town and to her surprise, finds a Princess X sticker.

How did the sticker get there and who else knows about Princess X? Follow along to find out.

Tattoos on the Heart
Gregory Boyle
Father Boyle is executive director of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles and has spent his life working in the projects and with gang members. This is a collection of stories about his experiences. The stories are short, more like vignettes, and they are collected together in several themes.

I enjoyed this book, but I think Father Gregory is a probably a better in-person storyteller than an on-the-page writer.

The Fifteenth Minute
Sarina Bowen
We continue on in the Ivy series, this time with Lianne, an actress famous for being a sort of female Harry Potter, and DJ, whose on a weird kind of probation and isn’t sure how long he will last at Harkness College. This is a run-of-the-mill M/F love story. That also deals with rape accusation. While I think Bowen threads the needle somewhat well, it’s worth pointing out that rapes that go unreported are much more common than false accusations.

Top Movies of August 2016

(8 movies watched)

Don’t Think Twice
Funny and–(prepare yourself for 80s word)–touching.

Elvis & Nixon
Shannon and Spacey get their impressions on

PDX Green Loop

I took this picture because I hadn’t heard anything about the Portland Green Loop. It seems that it is a proposed 6-mile linear park that “invites residents, workers, and visitors to experience Portland’s Central City in an entirely new way. It will create active new spaces in the Central City that are comfortable to all Portlanders, and will offer everyone an opportunity to determine how their city, districts, and neighborhoods can retain and further grow their distinct qualities.”

Hmmm. There’s a map on the website.

Will this ever come to pass?