1 – afternoon and evening well spent with my son at the san diego county fair

2 – rides we went on together

-a lame ‘funhouse’
-a pretty fun little rollercoaster

2 – rides max went on by himself

-a pretty good ‘funhouse’
-a swing ride on a tower, where he ‘had’ to share a seat with a 18 year-oldish hottie. i teased him mercilessly for the rest of the day.

4 – odd fair food tried for the first time

-deep-fried cheeseburger (not like the deep-fried white castle cheeseburger i tried there last year, which was actually batter-dipped and fried whole, this was just a cheeseburger where the beef was cooked in a deep frier, not batter dipped)
-deep-fried butter (yes, i had to try it. i got the cinnamon version, rather than the garlic version. it was kind of like a churro filled with melted butter. first two bites were ok, but i got buttered out after that)
-chocolate-covered bacon (really, quite good. reminded me of the chocolate bacon cake at a local steak joint that i like)
-deep-fried avocados (not something i’d crave, for sure, but better than some of the deep-fried stuff)

3 – odd fair food new to the fair this year that i did not try (yes, call me mr. restraint)

-deep-fried klondike bar
-deep-fried pop-tart
-deep-fried s’mores

1 – odd youth ministry moment: realizing that i felt fairly clueless about the 4-h and ffa teens hanging around the livestock

1 – silly moment we felt was well-worth the 5 bucks each we tossed down for it: a ride on a monster truck. really, it was a monster fire engine, with seating for 20 in the back. no crazy jumps or anything, of course; but we laughed our heads off.

1 – ‘no way’ moment: max getting chosen as an official ‘cheerer’ for our section, during the swifty swine pig races. it probably helped that he was wearing a t-shirt that says, “swine flu – bacon’s revenge”

8 or 9 – times max said ‘i love you, dad’ to me

a ridiculous amount – money spent. man, that thing just drains your wallet dry at every turn!