This past week, I had a major disagreement with a sinus infection or cold and spent most of my evenings sleeping on Nyquil. But after a horrendous headache on Thursday, I seem to have come out the other end relatively unscathed. Go me!

So today, the folks and I did more Festivalling. In fact, we hit 3 in one day, two of them new for me. We started out at the New Bremen Pumpkin Festival, a first for all of us. New Bremen is a small town not far from mom & dad’s lake cottage. (judiang and I went to New Bremen this summer to visit the Bicycle Museum of America and she took videos with her iPod and recently made YouTube videos of it.)

So anyhoo, the purpose of that festival, apparently, is for pumpkin growers to bring their MONSTER PUMPKINS out for competition. OMG, these things were bigger than kids! I took some pix with my phone and hope to post them later. We didn’t want to wait around for them to weigh the suckers, but they had quite a gizmo up to do the deed. (Before you see the pix, I’ll just quantify this a bit to say they had to use a fork lift to move these pumpkins!)

The only thing I ate at the pumpkin festival was a Belgian Waffle on a stick. Not one of the better festival foods – it was a bit too cakey. Still, we had plans for lunch at Fort Loramie, so that’s where we went next.

The German Heritage Festival is basically an excuse to eat German food and listen to polka. Only no one was there playing polka, so we ate German food and listened to the DJ play stuff like “Hang on Sloopy” (in honor of the OSU Buckeyes). I had jaeger schnitzel on a pretzel bun and Reuben bites with 1000 Island dipping sauce. The tenderloin was very tender and I really liked the Reuben bites. No crafts at this Festival, so mom decided we should go south to the Mum festival next.

We took a short break at the cabin, then another short stop at Sears (so I could get a filter for my air purifier), but eventually got to Tipp City for the Mum Festival. I used to teach at Tipp, but never did get to their Mum festival. So today I rectified that oversight.

Compared to the other two festivals we went to today, the Mum festival is HUGE. Loads of crafts and food. However, no mum-based foodstuffs… So completely unlike Troy’s Strawberry Festival… 😉

Since we’d had lunch in Fort Loramie, my main goal here was dessert. Mom and I were pleased to discover someone selling kettle corn, so we each bought a large bag for later (though we snacked on mine a bit while we walked around). After we were nearly all the way through, I decided to try a deep fried Snickers bar. Since I’d had deep fried Oreos and Twinkies, I felt it best to try candy bars. And OMG – very rich and very tasty. Definitely a surprise.

Dad took us home and then I headed off to my own home, with a stop at the grocery for fresh fruit & veg. My goal is to be productive tomorrow and get my house cleaned & some vegetable soup made. And, if I’m really productive, bake a loaf of bread. May try flaxseed bread. Anyhoo, wish me luck on being productive!

Still a couple of days until we’re really into Autumn, but with out recent cool & pleasant days along with the autumn festivals, it feels like we’re into my favorite season already. Yay!

Last weekend didn’t have much in the way of festivals, but the folks joined me on Sunday for BBQ chicken from the local fire house (their bi-annual fundraiser) and a Netflix stream of Tangled. We enjoyed the food and the movie.

Also last weekend was my first attempt at beer bread that wasn’t from a kit. Turns out beer bread is a pretty simple recipe. Since I had 3 cans of Guinness left from my Guinness brownies, I found a Guinness beer bread recipe and tried it. Pretty tasty, albeit a bit bitter. Really good lightly toasted with butter on.

Yesterday, after work, I joined the folks for an outing to the Lake Festival. At Lake Loramie (where my folks cottage is) they have an annual Antique Power Show and Lake Festival. There’s a group there that sells HUGE pots of mums for $5, so mum gets her mums from there. I decided to buy a pot this year too, so I’ll have some lovely white mums on my porch if I don’t kill the plant first!

We ate brats with kraut for supper there, shared a corn dog, had corn on the cob (still sweet!), and then I decided to try the deep fried Twinkie one group was offering. Wow, who knew that deep frying even makes Twinkies taste good?!

I spent the night with the folks, and this morning (late this morning) we did the Farmer’s Market runs as usual. I bought a red pepper at one (should have gotten my sweet onion from there too) and some Houtz cheese (a hard goat cheese) from the other. I put the cheese in the cooler we brought along just in case they had the cheese this time, and then we went to Taste of Troy.

Several restaurants and businesses had tents at Taste of Troy this year. Rather than being spread out throughout the square, they just had it at Proudy Plaza (where the concerts were held this summer) in order for traffic to still go through the square. I managed to spend $20 worth of tickets on lots of different food things. All pretty tasty. Even have a caramel apple and a piece of peach pie for later.

After we returned, I helped mom move her “new” chair to her bonus room above the garage. Then I headed off to my “shopping chores” before home. In an hour and a half or so, I’m off to Aunt Becky’s for a night of card playing. Don’t need supper, will likely just eat snacks at Becky’s. (I bought Munchies, cuz I’m evil.)

Tomorrow is Rest Up and Do Laundry Day. At work, I’d just like to know what it feels like to be “caught up” again. 🙂 But the weekends are great for having time to enjoy myself. Especially with our wonderful autumn weather!