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Current mood:	chipper

Fair's Fair
I like county fairs.  Over the past few years I've gotten more involved in the San Mateo county fair than I ever thought I would since my quilt guild is the driving force behind the Home Arts exhibits and they're always looking for people to draft into working.  It's largely a volunteer-run organization, with a handful of paid people who are supposed to be organizing the whole thing.   I already spent a day there before the fair opened for the quilt judging, and will be going back this afternoon to do some demoing.  At least they provide some compensation: lunch, free tickets, and the all-important and coveted parking passes.   And if I go to the set up or take down I get to fondle all the hand-spun wools.

Rich and I went on Monday to see the show.  There are still animal exhibits, including some very handsome chickens.  We didn't catch the poultry judging this year: last year we got to see the novices, whose birds were bigger than they were.  My second favorite exhibition is the potted plants, especially the ones that look like they've been imported from another galaxy.  The category I just don't get is the competitive table settings, nor why there need to be two separate ones - with vegetation and without, apparently.

In the past year I've learned more than I care to about politics and the fair.  The county's converted some of the buildings into horse-race betting facilities (why? money.) so we lost the nice hall we used to have all to ourselves and are now stuck in with the plants (OK, they don't do much), the Fine Arts (that's fair, they lost their building, too) and the vendors.  Not ok.  Not only do they sell "as seen on TV" and similar schlock (anyone need a Sham WOW!?) they're loud.  And they're in the middle so they can annoy the Fine Arts people and the Plants people as well as us.   On the plus side, nobody's buying anything.  And to think I used to gripe about having to listen to ABBA tribute band rehearsals for an afternoon.

Observation: deep fried Snickers bars sitting out in the sun look particularly unappetizing.