Now THAT was a laugh and a half

(or "Thrills, Chills and Those Little Donuts at the PNE")

On Monday night, I left a sick and sad Mister Man at home, and joined Wee Sarah, Donimo and Paul for the official "end of summer outing", because we had a date with:

a) a cage full of mutant rabbits
b) 2 big bulls
c) a bag or two of mini donuts
d) a near death experience on The Inverter
e) hot buttered scones
f) the military
g) the best doggone hot dogs in the world!

h) a verbose blog post
i) All of the above

If you picked i (all of the above) you are correct! It's PNE time. Here are Wee Sarah and Donimo now, having just stepped through the gates. Note the anticipation in the air and on their faces! (Paul is anticipating too. He just stepped out of the frame before I pressed the shutter release. So he is anticipating about 2 inches to the right of the frame.)

The first order of business is to have a snicky snack. Sarah and Donimo showed restraint. Paul and I did not. In fact, I would be outright LYING if I denied having spent the day thinking about this:

This:

And this:Paul had a burger and I had a dog. With fried onions. Delicious.

And then we went off to find dessert.

It was too early for mini donuts, because really, they are best consumed under the cover of darkness. Along the way, we noticed a pronounced military presence. There was the Canadian military, recruiting and letting people crawl on planes and trucks and such! It was a bit strange to say the least. (This is Sarah's "gee I'm not comfortable with this" look) (Sarah also noted that she was in fact "cuttin' a rug" when this was snapped. To add another layer of bizarre to this snapshot, you might want to consider that the song "Locomotion" was playing in the background!)

This is her "WTF" look.

And there were bulls. Big bulls. 3,000 pounds of big each. (There were also mutant rabbits, and miniature donkeys but the photos weren't great so you'll just have to make do with big bulls.)

Back to dessert. My fabulous boss had been raving about "that place that sells scones. You MUST go to that place that sells scones." Well, it WAS an order, right? From my boss? So how could I say no?

And am I EVER glad I said yes.
So is Donimo. These scones were hot and buttered and slathered in jam.
This next photo begs the question: What would an UNfair scone taste like?

From here, we went to the Superdogs. The photos weren't stellar, so I won't post them. Let me tell you though that the dogs were fantastic. And the guy who danced with his dog to "Thank You For Being a Friend" brought Wee Sarah and I to tears.

When we finished cheering on the Superdogs, darkness had fallen. And with darkness comes the underbelly of the beast. Check out the lighting here at Wack A Mole, in which we pound the CRAP out of the cute little plastic mole heads that pop out of the holes. You can see that I have stuck my tongue out. I thought this might give me an edge. In fact, at this point I was CERTAIN I was in the lead because I was smashing those moles like there was no tomorrow! But Paul won. (It's always the quiet ones, isn't it?) The ghoulish lighting is so flattering don't you think?

And then came the inevitable chat about what rides to ride. Donimo likes scary rides. I'm up for bumper cars, the carousel or the small ferris wheel. Sarah has been very brave in the past. And Paul just needed Donimo to look at him with big, puppy dog eyes before his "absolutely not" became a "sure, I'd be happy to go on that death-ride with you, Donimo."

Perhaps we should have checked in with Delores the Psychic before Donimo and Paul got on The Inverter. She would have looked into her crystal ball and said "It will frighten the poop out of you." But no. Donimo and Paul had made the decision to be hurtled through the air in a filmsy piece of metal.

This photo says it all. In the moments leading up to the ride, Wee Sarah was tense, Paul was a tad crazed (in denial I think) and Donimo? WHAT is that look on her face? THAT is joy. And peace. And love. (That is crazy is WHAT).

So then they actually get ON the thing. Check it out. Donimo (second from the right in the front row) is having FUN! Paul (on the far right in the front row) looks like someone is shoving burning matchsticks under his toenails...

It was at this point that I could hardly stand it. And I was on the freakin' GROUND! But you can see why they call it THE INVERTER...


This is more my speed. It is not actually a ride.

Or THIS. This is what the PNE is all about isn't it?

I would have happily gone on the little Ferris wheel. But they REMOVED IT! And in its place, they left a really high Ferris wheel. Due to the fear of heights and such, I decided to stay on the ground and document the adventure. Note Donimo waving!

When all was said and done, we did get our mini donuts at the end of the night. But someone forgot to take a picture of them! This is a nice picture of another stand in lieu of a mini donut photo.

We left the fair feeling a little like this..