Flea Market

I forgot to add the most important adventure from this past weekend. Nathan and I decided to venture over to the 7 Mile Fair ... aka a fairly large indoor/outdoor flea market. Since the olden days (ten years ago :-D ) I compared all flea markets to those in Florida (ie - Festival Flea Market and the Swap Shop). Over the years flea markets have seen a shift of the type of merchandise they sell. Originally flea markets were a place to sell your unwanted or homemade junk. A huge garage sale as you will. In the late 80's and 90's a flea market provided adequate choices of hair doohickeys, screened t-shirts, silver jewelry, and dried flowers. Nowadays the dusty aisles of your outdoor flea markets or the dark, cramped rows of your indoor flea markets are filled with audio equipment and car parts of questionable origin, mixed in with your $1 brown box shops.

On to the the 7 mile fair which turned out to be an interesting change of pace. As expected we there was your fair share of auto parts and audio equipment. Certain sections outside even went back to the archaic flea market times by selling any type of tool or appliance that was covered with at least 90% rust. A few neat finds included some old Oscilloscopes, a radio flyer, and any tool you could imagine. But as we were walking we wondered into 1st the "food" section. There were live chickens and pigeons (and I believe ducks) stuffed into small cages fro sale. And for those who preferred them dead, yes, you could find your evening meal from the cooler next to these cages. Oh let's not forget about the reptile guy who was selling turtles, snakes, and yes even a crocodile. So you wonder around some more and happen into the dog section were you could buy your very own "designer dog" (aka mutt) for a sale price of $375-625. Just when you thought you were done we happened upon the pet avian section where could buy your pick of several parrots or small birds or hedgehogs.

And yes, we did even see someone leaving with the kitchen sink :-D

October 1st

Ok, it has been a few weeks but in my defense things have been insanely busy. But now they are slowing down and we can sit down and chat about a few things.

This past week was my final Wilton Cake class. The assignment was to build and decorate a 2 tiered wedding cake. Well since it isn't really the wedding season and football is in full gear I decided to show my badger pride with a cake. Nathan played a significant role in its construction. I decided to start building this cake fairly late on a Sunday night not realizing that you can't buy a 6 x 6 pan in every grocery store. So using an 8 x 8 disposable tin pan, Nathan reformed it into a decent 6 x 6 pan. So on to the theme....WI Badgers. You can't have a badger cake without the "W" logo. Nathan took some cheap metal cookie cutters, unbent them, and rebent them into a W using the official specs of the logo as his guide. He did an amazing job not once but twice. While he was doing this, I had my own experience with marshmallow fondant. And I learned a few things.

- Don't leave marshmallows unattended while nuking in the microwave.

- When disposing of exploded marshmallow goo, don't use your bare hands. It is hot and very sticky.

- Lesson number three, remove lid to trashcan prior to disposing of marshmallow goo stuck to your hand, other wise your hand will be stuck in the trashcan.

- Rubber gloves are useful when making red or black fondant.

Here is the final product: (the rest of the photos can be seen at our website).

I also posted a few pictures of our new house to the photo website. The closing is Oct 12th, so we should be able to take our time and paint some of the rooms and do odds and ends while we slowly move in.

Next weekend is the North American Reptile Breeders Conference & Trade Show

. This show is being held in Chicago and most of the major reptile retailers from around the country are expected to be there. I am going to meet Grand and Sheryl there on Sunday and I will see about getting Harry a wife :-D

Well it is getting a bit late so I am calling it a night.