Entertainment

This year we realized my dream of going to the Mt. Olive Pickle Festival. I have been a lifelong fan of Mt. Olive products, and I was excited when we moved so close because my mom used to have to mail jars of their pickles to me when I lived in Texas. Anyway, I was totally excited that they have a Pickle Festival every year and this year we finally made it.

Mom came, and she was such a great help with Henry. We didn’t have our timing exacly figured out, but things went pretty smoothly considering how far we pushed off Henry’s lunch and naptime. It also turned out to be quite hot, in the 90s, so we’re lucky we didn’t melt.

I was a little disappointed about the lack of pickle-ness about the festival. It was your traditional kind of fair, with tons of fair food, a few different stages with bands, carnival rides, a petting zoo and innumberable vendor stands, mostly community stores and services. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, perhaps pickle derbies, or other pickle activities. They did give out free pickles (dill spears and bread-n-butter spears) and they had a booth of Mt. Olive merchandise, too, at which I scored a cool t-shirt and Mom got Henry a bib. I found out later that I had I missed the coolest thing, which was pickle-packing. I can’t believe I missed it – it probably would have made my day! That being said, we did have a really good time walking through the car show and hanging out at the petting zoo.

Here are my favorite shots from our day. (after the break)
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When not jamming out to some Bowie on my car radio, the dial is usually set to NPR. Lately, I’ve been getting really annoyed at the liberal slant with which NPR delivers all its news. So I recently switched the dial over to 680 AM figuring I’d get a good conservative harangiung. I was right. I appreciated hearing a diffferent opinion, but couldn’t take all the attitude and scoffing, not to mention the commercials. So, as one-sided a view as NPR is, I’ll continue to listen to it because at least they’re civilized.

Dave and I got a baby sitter for tonight and now we’re headed out to dinner! I am so excited!!

Dave wanted mellow mushroom for dinner but I hate fighting with the traffic, the parking, and having to wait for a table. Plus little Henry makes it harder to wait to get sat. So we headed to the Mushroom down in Durham’s historic tobacco district. Yay for no waiting! It was a million times better than hitting south Glenwood.

(Don’t forget to ask them to add cinnamon to your Hawaiian pizza!)

While up in Cleveland, we got to see the Cleveland Air Show. It was, in the true sense of the word, awesome. This included a display by the Blue Angels.

I was a bit overwhlemed with the patriotic, nationlistic pride I felt at this awesome display of force. I frequently get teary-eyed at, well, lots of things, to be truthful, and this one was right up there. Go Team America!

Here are some assorted pictures. Maybe one day I’ll have time to upload the videos I took.

I couldn’t agree with these protesters.