so thursday i went with masha, marni and derek, and a couple others to the tulsa state fair. it was the first day, so naturally it was _insanely_ crowded; i probably spend the first 20 minutes driving around just looking for a parking spot. we got there jjjjust in time to see the hero factor, one of our favorite local bands. they were really good, and put on an awesome show… it’s been awhile since i’ve seen the whole band play together (ben and matt, the lead vocalist and guitarist, play a show every sunday night at the full moon on cherry street — ben never fails to entertain, and will pretty much do any song you request if he knows it.. he did a rousing a cappella cover of boyz II men’s “i’ll make love to you” the other night).

we ate a lot of fair food, like caramel apples, cheese fries, funnel cakes, smoothies, etc. — all of the healthy deliciousness your body can stand masha also got catfish-on-a-stick, and it definitely looks about as appetizing as it sounds of course i had to play several of the obviously-rigged midway games, including the ring toss. for some unknown reason i’m actually pretty good at the ol’ RT, and i consistently win at least a couple knives every year. this one was no exception — i won 4 (!!) granted, that was using two buckets of rings, but still… other than that we walked around and checked out hot tubs, saunas, crotch rockets, a large butter sculpture of a cowboy on a horse, and a myriad of other things, many unique to the fair. as usual it was good times had by all.