Is There Such a Thing As Too Thorough? and Summer Food...

My computer Guru is amazing, phenomenal, and extremely thorough. I sat next to him as he set up my files etc on Black Beastie and I admit to being fully bewildered. This is NOT a good thing. I saved a few things to my Dropbox over the weekend, but they didn't appear there. So last night I went on a hunt to try and discover why. I'm learning more and more about this operating system, but also realize that he created a start point with duplicates, etc as a restore point. That's good, at least in concept, but it also means I am confused about which file I should be accessing for storing my updated documents, etc. I'll get everything figured out, I think I finally got my dropbox reloaded last night and functioning properly now, but it's rather like walking into a desert where you know the end goal but the pathway is obscured by blowing sands.

Yes, that is a caravan at the bottom. Do you see it?

My BFF Sharon emailed her flight information to me last night. Once again we will see the end of summer out together, sharing a few days before Labor Day and the holiday together at the Minnesota State Fair and the Renaissance Festival. We're old broads now, but we've been doing this every year since the 1980's so there's history here. One of these years we won't be able to walk as well/far, etc., but those days haven't come yet. Last year I wrecked up my leg at the Fair on Saturday, but I just stayed more in one position and walked slower. By Sunday I was better and by Monday I was almost healed - well...almost - LOL.

I love the Minnesota State Fair. Yes - there are a LOT of people, but it's the
Great Minnesota Get-together, so there should be a lot of people. It looks
much worse than it is, most places over the huge Fairgrounds are not nearly
this crowded.

Anyway, the new foods have been announced and there are some good ones. (Food on a stick is a tradition so that people can walk and eat at the same time. Barbaric? Sure - we're from Viking stock - LOL)
     Bacon-wrapped shrimp on a stick
     Breakfast sausage corn dog
     Candied bacon cannoli
     Chipotle chicken salad fajitas
     Cocoa cheese bites
     Craft beer battered onion rings
     Deep fried bread pudding
     English toffee fudge puppy (Sharon adores the regular fudge puppy. I may have to try this)
     Lobster macaroni and cheese
     Mancini's signature steak sandwich (Mancini's has a well-established reputation for great steak)
     Mini donut batter crunch iced cream
     Pork belly sliders
     Portobello bites (which they actually had last year so it's really not a NEW food)
     Wine glazed deep fried meatloaf
For the complete list along with pictures of almost all of the new foods, here's the link.

Bacon-wrapped shrimp might have to be on my menu. These look
really good! ... and it's BACON!

Now, I know many of my friends will read through the list and think one of two things. One - "But these foods certainly won't be on your Weight Watcher's plan," or Two - "Deep fried what? Bacon where? Why would anyone want to eat any of these things?" But let me assure you - it's good! We go for three days so we don't eat everything in a single swoop, and most of my food choices will be sensible. But I also know that the State Fair is the next time that I will allow myself to totally break from plan and I'll be OK with it. It will take a week or two to get my over-indulgence pounds back off, but it will be considered a good trade off.

This puppy was too cute not to share. Will he be at this year's
Fest? I can only hope he is and that his chain mail has been redone
to fit his adult size.

Food choices at Renaissance Festival will be much easier. I usually eat quite sensibly there anyway so this won't be a stretch. It's pathetic of me, I know, but I'm already looking forward to the end of the summer so that I can see my friend again and experience something that is uniquely Minnesota.