The Farm Show

Today my parents and I went to the farm show in Harrisburg, PA. There were animals and produce of all sorts, a butter sculpture, demonstrations, farm stuff (duh), food, and a rodeo. The weird chicken/rooster thing scared the living daylights out of me when I tried to take a picture of it. It just about pecked my camera. Doesn't it look like the death chicken that could kill you while you sleep?

The butter sculpture display is carved out of lots and lots of real butter and a farm show tradition. I couldn't get a good photo of it since it is basically in a glass refrigerator case that lights like to reflect off of. This year it seems to be a man lifting a milk vending machine off of a cart, I don't think they went all out this year with the design and risk taking. Oh well, I only see 800 lbs of butter lumped together once a year.

The rodeo was fun to watch, especially the bull riding. The blood thirsty crowd only got one cowboy casualty for the night, so I suppose that would be considered a success.
As much as I despise country music, I just want to know why they kept playing hip hop/rap music during the rodeo. Does that make any sense at all? The spirit of the rodeo was somehow tainted when The Candy Shop by 50 Cent blared out of the speakers. It's like chillin' in the hood with a Mozart symphony, it's like singing gospel hymns at Bill Clinton's birthday party, it's like going to a ballet and seeing the ballerinas piroueting to Metallica; something just does not add up.

A bad memory

I was just thinking about the time I went into a grocery store in Texas with my grandparents and sister on a mission to find fast actin' Tinactin foot spray to cure a case of stinky sneakers. It comes in an aerosol container so I go over to section near the front of the store where the aisles are shoulder height. I pick up a can, hold it into the air, and yell to my sister across the store, "THIS IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!" It wasn't until she came over to see what I had picked up until I realized I had just excitedly held up a can that read, not foot deodorant, but rather "Jock Itch Spray." Needless to say at that point, my face turned bright red and I wanted to disappear into the floor. Lesson? Always read the label before inadvertently announcing to the world that you've found jock itch spray.

Also I found the hilarious StinkyFeet Diaries: An 'interesting' quest for athlete's foot.

Memoirs of a Geisha

We went to see Memoirs of Geisha today in Hagerstown. That is the only theater near us that is showing it. I think it should be more widespread, because it was so good. They did a nice job keeping the essense of the book. The book was definitely better since it went into so much more detail, but for a movie I thought it was great.
The beautiful kimonos, Japanese landscapes, and culture of the orient is quite fascinating. I liked how the book/movie talked about how the geisha were considered artists and were highly respected in their society. Unlike prostitutes, they would sing, play music, and dance for which the men would pay them. Unfortunately this usually meant they would do whatever then to keep their customers happy. While I want to say being a geisha would have been respectable and noble, it conflicts with some core beliefs of mine. When women are defined purely as objects of sexuality, I can not endorse that thought.

Boyds Bears

Tony got this unsettling gift at a Christmas dinner. It is a santa stocking hanger. The body is ceramic, the legs plush, and the place where you hang the stockings is, well, the most disturbing part. Creepy is the word that comes to mind. This is one of those things that would be embarrassing even to re-gift. It needs to be taken outside and shot.


Today we went to Gettysburg to the Boyd's Bear Country where I got a cute little rocking horse. 4 floors of cuteness is almost too much to handle, literally.

smelly people in libraries

BBC news stories again:

A rule that will allow public libraries in the US city of Dallas to ban people who are considered to smell badly has drawn criticism by charity groups.
Under the guidelines, which come into force in February, sleeping, eating, loud talking, fighting, bare feet, sex and washing will also be banned.

Since when have these been OK in libraries?

I love this kid.

An American 16-year-old has secretly travelled to Iraq on his own as part of his school project.

Farris Hassan from Fort Lauderdale was studying a high school class in "immersion journalism".

This is what they call taking things to heart.

The Kite Runner

I just finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseneini. Actually I read the entire thing in one sitting and it isn't exactly a flimsy book. I read the first 1/3 but then I got this strange awakeness so I decided to read more, then I couldn't put it down because I was at a good part, and then my eyes started to burn with every turn of the page, but I was already 2/3 of the way done, so then I had to finish it. The Kite Runner is about a boy growing up in Afghanistan who deals with some heavy issues. I would definitely recommend it.

'Nun Bun'

I wish I would find a food item with the image of a religious person on it. From the BBC:

Christmas thief steals 'Nun Bun'

The famous bun has been preserved with shellac.
A cinnamon bun that bears a striking likeness to late Catholic nun Mother Teresa was stolen from a US coffeehouse on Christmas Day.
The owner arrived to find that the famous flaky pastry had vanished from the shop in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Bongo Java coffee shop sold T-shirts, prayer cards and mugs with the bun's image until Mother Teresa wrote a letter asking the sales be stopped, before her death in 1997.

A. Who would buy those things?
B. Poor Mother Teresa's last wish had to be to stop the commercialization of her image on a bun. Something is very sad about that.

Fabric and Sewage

Today we hit all the after Christmas sales! I got a sewing machine for Christmas so we stopped at Joanne's to get fabric and stuff to supplement it. I want to make a dress, pajama pants, and a jacket. I put up a picture of some of the stuff I got, plus a pic of my Christmas outfit (that matches my bedspread freakishly well).

Earlier we went to the mall, and at the BON TON I said "Look, Michelle, sewage is dropping from the ceiling. Don't stand under it. I turn around for a second to look at something and when I turn around she is standing right over the giant stain on the floor where ugly brown water has been dripping out all day. I say, "What are you doing? I told you not to stand under that," and what does Michelle do? She looks up, and a big drop of sewage drops on her face. That made my day.