SKIP ALLUMS

I love summer in San Francisco. Its so off-kilter from the way summers are experienced throughout the rest of the country. Foggy nights and cool, breezy days. Crazy.

Made our annual trip up to Grass Valley for the Nevada County Fair. Some highlights:

Won some goldfish (that died within 48 hours… sucks). I was gonna name one of them Chester.

sheepies

horsies

piggies

… and other barnyard characters!

But our favorite part of the fair is always the art show!!!

That bear in the back is like I CAN HAZ HONEY???

seriously awesome

I wish Gary had wings

Does your fair have a recorder quartet? I THINK NOT.

So yeah, typical county fair stuff. Corn dogs, cloggin, and mullets. Couldn’t find the Bingo Tent unfortunately. We did go to town for a bit of shopping, and came back with lots of bird books and records (I scored some real finds like Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain, the Box Tops, Lou Reed’s Transformer, Leadbelly, Sly & The Family Stone, an Aislers Set 12 inch, Rufus, and a copy of Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book). It was nice to be somewhat out of phone range for awhile. I picked up a copy of the Watchmen last week, so we’ve both been reading that (we couldn’t find our original copy). We spent the rest of the weekend vegging out and watching the Olympics. The opening ceremony – oh my god! So amazing. I think I had my mouth agape half the time. It really was a wonderful display of China’s history, culture and future.

We’ve been really busy, per usual. Had dinner with my aunt & cousins at Angeline’s in Berkeley — really authentic Louisiana cuisine. I had crawfish etoufee, fried catfish, hush puppies, sweet tea, bread pudding etc. And yes, Abita Root Beer!

Also, I made the big switch to contacts. So far, so good! Its a little weird having to actually touch my eyeballs twice a day, but the lenses are super soft and comfortable.

Updated the Free Table last week. This stuff just keeps getting better and better!