It was another busy Saturday here in Indiana-land. The day started off bright and early with a very playful kitten and on of his favorite toys:
the paper bag.
Before we adopted cats, I had no idea that they could be entertained by such simple things. I mean, this paper bag is one of his favorite toys (in line only behind the cardboard box and the hedgehog puppet). Which is great, because it means he has cheap toys, and not so great because it means that I do not have an excuse to buy the cats those cute little sparkly mice and balls and other fun things at the pet store.
However, I digress. Once the kitten had been properly entertained, we rode our bikes down to the Farmer's Market.
This week's bounty included rhubarb, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, a red onion, peppers and bacon.
Then, while the N-boy went to do his own thing (which I'm pretty sure involved proof reading a colleagues dissertation-ugh), I slathered on the sunscreen, grabbed Harry Potter (books 4 and 5) and my knitting and headed down to the pool.
Where I spent three and a half glorious hours splashing in the pool and then lying in the sun, reading HP and eating cherries from my binge last week at Meijer.
A lot of cherries. 
Then, we were off to the 4-H County Fair. 
The N-boy recalls many county and state fairs from his childhood as he grew up in rural areas. I, however, do not recall any such adventures. When I confronted my parents about this childhood deprivation, they both insisted that I had attended both county and state fairs in Nebraska as a child. A very small child, but still, they counted that as a win for them.
At the fair there were many rides. We didn't go on any, but enjoyed watching them.
I thought this one (which I believe was called the Ring of Fire) looked nice with the flags. 
We did, however, at the N-boy's insistence, play several games of Skee Ball. It was super fun, and we both had a good time. I do remember playing skee ball as a child, so I clearly was not deprived of all things fun and festive.
Look at how intense the N-boy is!
We both managed to score a 150 on our second games, winning a small package of gummi candies. Yum!
And then there were the animals. Since we were at the fair on it's final day we missed seeing the barns full of animals. I think I was ok with that for this first Indiana fair experience.
We did however get to see the...
I will not bore all of you with the dozens of pictures of animals I took. I mean, do you really want to see ten (bad) pictures of the cute little cows? No cow is that cute, even if it is a champion.
However, I couldn't resist sharing this cute little goat. 
And this champion turkey. What makes a champion turkey anyway?
At 7:00 they had a motocross show. Again, something that I had been deprived of as a child.
The men on their motorcycles looked very focused. 
I was pleasantly surprised, albeit alarmed, at the daring displays of jumps and wheelies.
I mean, isn't this dangerous?
The N-boy wore an expression of "Well, I could do that, couldn't you?"
We wrapped up the night by walking around the midway. 
They'd turned all of the lights on when it started getting dark, and it really was quite beautiful. 
We ended the evening with one last dessert-tropical snow (also known as Italian ice). We used to eat these occasionally when we lived in Lawrence, KS, so it was a nice treat to have them again.
They were a nice refreshing way to end the night out. 
Once we got home it was pretty much straight into bed, as it was quite late. There, we found the other cat waiting for us. Or more accurately, we found Catcat stretched out to her full length on the bed,
wondering why these silly humans were interupting her nap time. 
We had a great and very full Saturday. Today has been a much quieter day, with sleeping in, some chores and cleaning, and several episodes of
The Wire on DVD. It was a wonderful weekend, althought I would have liked to get some more crafting done. It's just so hard to want to stay inside and work at my sewing machine when it's gorgeous outside.
Saturday afternoon and evening the N-boy and I went to the Taste of Chicago festival as trip leaders for some of our international students. 
I'd never been before, but BabyBrother had attended last year and gave us some great reccommendations for things to try. For those who don't know, Taste of Chicago is a giant food festival held in Chicago each summer. Admission is free, and then you buy tickets that are then used to get food at the booths. Different foods cost different amounts, and there are "taste of" options at all of the booths too. The "taste of" options are either smaller portions of some of the regular items, or special items that are cheaper. It was pretty crowded there, and hot too. We made sure to drink plenty of water and gatorade and rest in the shade, but we saw many people being taken for medical attention.
One of the items BabyBrother reccommended was corn roasted in the husk from Dominicks. Please note the presene of my new favorite pink hat and the nifty retro sunglasses they gave as the favors at the 50's themed all-staff picnic a few weeks ago. The hat came from the NAFSA conference in L.A. and it says "All we do is work." I love it!
The N-boy and I had a good time together at the festival. He lived and went to school in Chicago for a while (long, long ago), so he always enjoys going back to his old haunts. It was nice to spend time doing something fun, and to get out of town for a short trip. 
