Following Nancy's lead, we went to the Allen County Fair last night, which has got to be just about the sorriest excuse for a fair I've ever seen. I mean, I've been to county fairs, and Citrus Festivals, and Strawberry Festivals and even the Acton County Fair in Acton, Maine, and this was by far the paltriest. Barely a midway, some pathetic commercial exhibits, in the midst of which were some quite active Lutheran evangelizers, a little stage on which a woman was singing along to a Wynona Judd CD - and no, it wasn't even a karoake kind of background track. She was singing along to a recording of "Why Not Me?" - and a patch of dirt with some stands that hosted whatever the evening's entertainment would be.

But the essence of the fair was there - the livestock, which makes it all worth it for Joseph, and, I must admit, me. We saw lots o' bunnies, including the biggest rabbit I have ever seen - a Flemish Giant - which had a head as big as some of the other bunnies, and some fuzzy angoras. We saw a goat being milked, some really, really Big Cows, tons of pigs and a few sheep. Joseph took a real pony ride, which he thought was fantastic until it started moving.

And yeah, we watched some of the demolition derby. Really. We only watched a couple of heats, but perhaps (fat chance) there is some devotee of the sport who can answer the question for us: How in the world do the cars that survived the heats, smashed in, smoking, barely limping out of the arena - come back for a final race? One of the cars was driven by a fellow with quite an entourage. They all had matching green t-shirts with the name - Jaggerts, I think - and a car smoking on the front. On the back of each t-shirt was the identity of the wearer. Some were "Fans," there were a few "Son" and "Daughter" running around, mostly barefoot, and faithful to the end, "Woman" trained her camcorder on her man through every smash and dent of the event.

Went to the zoo this morning, where Joseph reversed the events of last evening and fed a goat a milk bottle. I think we're going to the local racetrack (no, not demolition derby. The one where they drive in circles. Sprint cars. The kinds with like canopies on top that always look like they're going to fly away and/or crash) tonight. And tomorrow we'll go to Mass (for the first time in our own parish for probably two months), and tomorrow I'll blog (finally) on our visit to the Orthodox monastery located in between horse and watermelon country in central-west Florida.