The Butter Cow & Michael Jackson

What can you possibly mean by this blog title, you ask? Well, blogosphere friends, it is approaching Iowa State Fair time here in the heartland, and a controversy is abrewin'. The Iowa State Fair is a huge deal here, and the life sized cow carved out of butter has been an important attraction for many a year. Along with the beloved cow, another butter sculpture is also made and displayed. Last year it was Des Moines golden girl Shawn Johnson. This year Michael Jackson was chosen as the "sculptee". That set off a firestorm of controversy. You can all imagine the arguments on both sides. The end result is now an online vote taking place to see if the majority of fair goers would accept a Michael Jackson butter sculpture or not.....and everyone thinks the Midwesterners are all hicks! :) I'm not voting, I'm simply not well enough informed. It wouldn't be fair to others. (Get it...fair....to others.) I know...lame.

Speaking of the fair....it is known for its vast selection of foods on a stick!! Gotta love that. Last year's new addition was a salad on a stick, since so many people complained about the high fat, high calorie, high everything content of most "stick foods". The salad proved hard to eat, but will be back this year. Hubby Dearest and I went to our first fair last year (it was our first summer in Iowa) and had the most wonderful pork chop on a stick. It was the best pork chop I'd ever eaten. I'd go back just for that chop. However, the fried Snickers on a stick was a huge disappointment. ICK on a stick, is what we all called it. Some of the new items on a stick for this year's fair include Carmellos, Chocolate Key lime rounds, Chocolate covered peanut rounds, Deep Fried Pyro Pickle Dog, and Frozen S'mores. Anyone hungry yet? Well, then let me tempt you further. We'll be enjoying fried turkey legs that are the size of your head (they are huge), fried Twinkies (an old standby), fried pineapple dipped in funnel cake batter (gotta have fruit), and of course for the health conscious, a Veggie dog. When I counted (yes, I did actually count the listed items) there were 49 foods on a stick that were going to be available. I wish I'd invested in the wooden skewer company!!! I'm going to freely admit right now, I'm going back to the fair to get a pork chop AND....I might try one "terrible for me" item as well. Just sayin'. I do promise to write it in my food diary and plan ahead for it. :)

Weigh In Wednesday was not the horrible experience I had anticipated. I was up, but only .4#. I was sure I would crack the +1# mark, but I squeaked out a small victory. I'll stop whining now. The Perfect Child pointed out to me that my last post was a bit "Oh poor me"-ish, so I'll try not to be such a whiny pants anymore. I will have to admit tho', that when I'm not logging my foods, I do tend to cheat quite a bit more often. I'm righting the ship today, and am back on track. My one disclaimer is, however, my knee is giving me great difficulties so my walking, cycling may be put on hold for a bit. I can still do both, but not in cardio benefit mode, more in slo-mo, stretch, but not too much mode. Oops.....that was a little "Oh Poor Me"-ish wasn't it? Sorry about that. So now, I guess I won't mention my shoulder problems....I'll save that for another day.