My family has been going to the Kinmount Fair for the past 30 years or so. Each year we seem to have a different focus, but we generally go for the shows, the animals, and the food. There’s often some surprises here and there. The rides have become less of a draw. We took a stroll through the midway part, but didn’t spend much time there. We’re all old coots now.

Anyhow, we were surprisingly entertained by the truck pull this year. I usually don’t go for that stuff, but the noise and seemingly imminent crashes/explosions were hard to ignore. I’d start getting bored of it all, and then one truck would spew exhaust or go a bit off the track, and I’d get drawn back in.  Take a look at these two videos and maybe you’ll see what I mean. You can hear our slightly confused dialogue occasionally too.

And the animals – my favourite, bittersweet part. Lots of chickens and horses and cows on display. The chickens (and other fowl) had already been judged. I took way too many pics of them and I don’t know why.

They had a petting zoo, with some weird animals I’d never seen before. (Cavies? What the hell? They’re cute, anyhow.) I’m always a little torn with petting zoos – I like seeing the animals, but I always feel bad for the little guys. Not that they are all mistreated, but you know. Anyhow, here’s some pics of the Cavies and other critters.

Some of the usual suspects in the petting zoo there, but there was also a baby cat…. of some type. It didn’t have a sign and we couldn’t tell what it was, since it was so little. Some kind of large wild cat. Of course, none of my pics of it turned out. It was in a playpen (see above photo) and seeing it made me feel a bit grumpy. It seemed like it should have been with its mom or something.

Another thing that made me feel a bit grumpy -

Gideons? At My Kinmount Fair? I guess pushing religion is about as cool as pushing the Canadian Forces, which also happens at fairs sometimes. These folks were giving out stuff if you talked to them, like walking sticks and crosses and the usual stuff. Their booth was in between a woman selling bulk candy and an old guy selling RV parts and accessories. Something for everyone!

Sadly, we left before the big demolition derby on Friday night. We were getting tired at that point. Also, it poured rain later that night, at least over in Minden, so it might not have been too great in Kinmount. As we were heading out, folks were unloading their demo cars. I never really heard how the derby turned out.

See those clouds? Yeah. The weekend’s weather likely put a dent in the crowd sizes, but at least we made it out this year!

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We had a good visit with my parents and the doggies. (Scarlet, above, looking old!) We helped them out around the house a bit, since my mom’s been laid up with a herniated disc in her back for the past few weeks. She has to get surgery, which will hopefully be happening in October. Ugh. Dad’s doing OK, or at least as well as can be expected when he’s taking care of the house while he’s ill himself. We mostly chilled at home, ate good food, relaxed, etc. We had more outdoorsy stuff planned, but the weather wasn’t too agreeable. Andrzej wasn’t feeling too great for a few days either. We made it to the Kinmount Fair on Friday and went on a few other little trips around Minden, some of which I’ll post about this week. It was a nice trip, and I wish we could do it more often. I miss my parents so much here in Ottawa. It sucks that I only get to see them every few months.

I found this mushroom in the yard and had to take a picture of it. It was bright yellow and only about 3″ tall. So cute.

That’s the house in Minden. My parents might be selling it in the near future, so if anybody’s looking for a nice home in cottage country on the Gull River, let me know.

Gina made several appearances over the weekend. She’s becoming more and more of a “house” cat. During the summer months she’s often AWOL, only coming in the house to eat every once in a while. Maybe it was the crummy weather or curiosity on her part, but she was around quite a bit. She’s a beautiful cat.

The dogs were happy to see us. As usual, they were a highlight of the trip. They’re the same goofy little dogs, but their age is becoming more and more apparent. Scarlet still likes to play fetch, but it’s just a bit slower now.

And shockingly, it seems that Pups has caught on to the iPhone camera. He’s been afraid of cameras since he was a puppy, so we were thrilled when he didn’t seem to notice that the iPhone had a camera too. This time, he seemed to figure it all out very quickly and freaked whenever I held the iPhone a certain way. Oh well. Never underestimate old Pups, I guess. I did, however, manage to take a few covert pics of the little bugger. I think I had to hide the phone behind a Kleenex box or something to get this one.

And in the time we were there, I almost knit a pair of socks. Here’s a pic I took almost half-way through the first sock. More on these later in the week. The trip came to an end yesterday. We got back to town in the afternoon, and I’ve been a bit moody ever since. I get bummed out coming back here. Still, it’s nice to see Kiki again. She was very cuddly and chatty when we got back to the apartment. She seemed to have a low-key weekend here, at least by the looks of the apartment. No kitty parties while her parents were away for the weekend.

Anyhow, I’ve got a couple more blogs planned about the trip, so stay tuned!

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Tonight, she (we) discovered that she loves Laughing Cow Light Cheese wedges. I was having one for a snack, and she wouldn’t leave me alone. I doubt it will become a regular treat though. She doesn’t eat much (if any) “people food” and I’d like to keep it that way.

Why do ducks wear dog masks? Here’s the terrifying truth. OMG.

What’s the problem? I’m appealing to you to help confirm this problem, but I’m pretty sure it’s the hard drive. I think it’s on its way out.

It started about a month ago. I went to use the desktop in the morning, and it appeared to have tried to restart itself and was stuck in start-up. Well, it was stuck in a DOS screen, and it looked like this:

So I freaked, cut the power to it, and sulked for a day or two. I could not find my Windows disk, so I couldn’t do anything on my own. Requests for XP disks went unanswered. I recall being very premenstrual and had existing things bugging me, so I tried to just ignore it. I had other priorities.

I turned it on a few days later, and it was fine. Maybe ran a bit slowly, but booted and everything was working. For a few hours at least. I wouldn’t be doing anything in particular, but it would randomly drop out of Windows and give me that black screen message again.

Other messages I’ve got (when I remember to write them down) have included the following:

NO BOOT FILENAME RECEIVED

PXE-MOF: EXISTING INTEL BOOT AGENT

NO BOOTABLE DEVICE — INSERT BOOT DISK AND PRESS ANY KEY

or

WINDOWS COULD NOT START BECAUSE THE FOLLOWING FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUPT:

<WINDOWS ROOT> \system32\ntoskrnl.exe

PLEASE REINSTALL A COPY OF THE ABOVE FILE

or

WINDOWS COULD NOT START BECAUSE THE FOLLOWING FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUPT:

<WINDOWS ROOT> \system32\drivers\pci.sys

PLEASE REINSTALL A COPY OF THE ABOVE FILE

Etc etc.

There is no rhyme or reason to the crashes that I can see. I’m never doing anything weird or particularly taxing to the computer when it dies. I have an antivirus program, and it’s up to date and nothing turns up on the scans. I don’t have any other external drives or stuff hooked up. I try to stay away from dodgy websites and programs. There’s nothing on my end that can explain the crashes. It appears random. Often, I just go to use the computer and I find it’s on a DOS screen, having crashed.

Right now, it’s been up for a few days and seems to be running slow, but it’s otherwise fine. I’ve taken the important things off the drives, so I’m not concerned about having to get it fixed, I just wish it would get on with it – Die or quit giving me the business. The computer was purchased in December 2006, so it’s not that old, right? Right?

Anyhow, I do most of my blogging from here, on the pc, so this bullshit has helped to throw off my blogging mojo. It’s one of the reasons I was on vacation.

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A – ACCENT: Canadian? I guess Ontarian… I do say “eh” once in a while.

B – BOOBS: Fine, thanks. Bigger now due to birth control pill side effects.

C – CHORE YOU HATE: Doing dishes. I have no idea why, but I really don’t like doing dishes.

D – DAD’S NAME: Stephen

E – ESSENTIAL MAKE-UP ITEMS: Sunscreen, Lip balm, mascara.

F – FAVORITE PERFUME: I’ve worn Ralph Lauren’s ‘Romance’ for a few years now.

G – GOLD OR SILVER: Silver, all the way. Or white gold.

H – HOMETOWN: Minden, ON

I – INSOMNIA: Occasionally, when I’ve got a lot on my mind. Usually not a problem.

J – JOB TITLE: Research Assistant (Extraordinaire)

K – KIDS: Not right now, thanks.

L – LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: Living with my partner (A) and my kitty Kiki, in an apartment.

M – MOM’S NAME: Elizabeth

N -  NUMBER OF COMPUTERS YOU’VE OWNED: 3 – PC Desktop (2001-2006), PC Desktop (2006 – ?), MacBook (2005 – ?).

O – OVERNIGHT HOSPITAL STAYS: At least two occasions. One lasted several weeks though, for a psychiatric assessment.

P – PHOBIA: None, really. I am afraid of giant things falling out of the sky (a la Donnie Darko), but it’s not of “phobia” proportions.

Q – QUEST: Happiness. And the “perfect” handbag.

R – RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: None anymore. Never found organized religion to be helpful.

S – SIBLINGS: Younger brother, Andrew.

T – TIME YOU WAKE UP: 5:55 AM. Every weekday.

U – UNNATURAL HAIR COLORS YOU’VE WORN: Blue-black. Red. Pretty boring.

V – VEGETABLE YOU REFUSE TO EAT: Olives & Green peppers. BLEH. They ruin everything.

W – WORST HABIT: Self-hatred. Comparing myself to others. Cracking knuckles at work.

X – X-RAYS YOU’VE HAD: Arm x 2, ankle, teeth, brain (CT scan).

Y – YUMMY FOODS YOU MAKE: Chickpea curry. Grill cheese. Need to work on cooking skills.

Z – ZANY QUIRK: My thumbs are hypermobile. I can tuck them behind behind my knuckles

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Very exciting news this evening – I’ve been nominated for two 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards! In the Crafting and Health & Wellness categories!

What’s even more exciting – I didn’t nominate myself, and I have no idea who did!

This blog has never been nominated for anything before. As cliche as it sounds, it IS an honour just to be nominated, so thank you, whoever did this. I’ve seen many of my peers get these nominations, but I never thought my blog was up there with them.

Take a look at all the other nominees here at their website – The 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

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