We Were Swindled By A Carny

True story. Swindled, hustled, taken in, whatever you want to call it. But first...

DH and I went to the Stock Show on Saturday, despite my having some bronchitis. We went and walked and stopped and looked and walked and stopped while waiting for the inevitable double stroller that blocks the entire walkway and walked.

Weirdly enough, we only saw one horse. Apparently you have to pay to see the horses. But there were cows galore. And they were fuzzy. Why is that? Do cows have a winter coat like other animals? Did they all need flatirons? Do they sell Chi's that big?

There was a whole section of goats. Smart people that these owners and ranchers are, most of the goats had feed sacks on. We saw countless goats who were trying to eat the clothes of passing pedestrians but were foiled by their feed sack.

We saw a gigantic chicken. He was almost as big as the coop. Big. The picture probably doesn't do him justice.

And of course there were babies, lots of babies.

Oh, you want to know about the hustling? Well, see, there was also a carnival. The whole shebang - rides, games, food. DH had his first funnel cake with me and we shared fresh lemonade.

And then we played some games. We tried Break the Bottle, Get The Ball in the Milk Can (clearly not the real name) and Black Jack. 

Black Jack is where we ran into Trouble with a capital T. This guy talked so fast that I never did figure out the point of the game. All we know is that DH kept being handed darts which he threw and after 5 minutes the Carny said that'd be $20. WHAT? We walked away with my prize, looked at each other and I said "Babe, I think we just got swindled!" and we both started laughing. DH swears he's figured out the game, but I never did.

So what was my beautiful-valuable-can-be-fun-for-hours prize? Charlie the giraffe. We love him. Well, I really love him because his fur is made out of that silky stuff that they use for baby blankets these days. So when DH and I have a family someday I won't have to steal the baby's lovey....Charlie will be mine. Kind of like Joey and Hugsy.

It was a great afternoon! Now I have to go and pet Charlie. He's a relatively needy giraffe.