*Update: Due to some undesirable changes Blogger has made to their format, you will have to click "Older Posts" at the bottom of this page to see the rest of my post. Sorry, but at this point I don't think there is anything I can do about it.

Hello Everyone,

In the past when I didn't know what to write as an introduction, I wrote a poem. However. I am not feeling extremely poetical at the moment. I very much like writing introductions. Usually. But that is because I usually have something that I want very badly to say that doesn't fit into the post's body. So, in lieu of an introduction, I will share one of my favorite quotes/mottoes with you:

"Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact." - George Eliot

Better make that a big wink. ;-)

We've all been fighting snow haven't we??

Some of us just go about it in unique ways.

(After last week's Mr. Bedelia post, I know you all thought Conrad was going a bit loony. Well, that Sat. afternoon when I found him out slaying a snowbank, I tended to agree.)

The Snowbank quakes back in retaliation.

This mighty snow warrior's message to all snowbanks is...

"Despair and melt!"

The Day We Ran Out of Vitamin C

No!! The Vitamin C can't be empty. This is bad.

Things go from bad to worse.

But help is on the way.

Must have Vitamin C. Must.

Eating it in the raw.

Dad comes along. "I think I may have gotten what you need."

Half-crazed Conrad: Say. It must come in a new format these days. I always did think of Vitamin C as candy... but... cotton candy?? Never thought I'd see the day.

Just so this comedy doesn't turn into a tragedy...

...let me assure you. They got their Vitamin C.

PA Farm Show

It not only looks good enough to eat; it is good enough to eat.

Her crowning achievement in the realm of baking.

Cramming on the catechism, Candace? Never let for Saturday what you can do earlier in the week.

We join the stream of humanity.

Some come for the shows.

Others come for the food.

Some come to sell the food.

And someone has to come to take care of all that trash.

So what did we come for??

What we did not come for.

The answer is... We came to enter that cake, and check out the competition.

Not that we were opposed to doing other things as well.

When I saw this, my eyes popped open and I popped my lens cap off. Just thought it was the appropriate thing to do.

Wonder what Grant Wood would say?

Methinks a man in the Bible sat in a window once. That time it didn't turn out too well.

Third in the nation for egg production? Well, it certainly isn't because of our chickens.

It sounded like an invitation to Emma. :-)

"There's my wife's uncle's tractor!"

Rodeo

It's all old hat to him.

That looks like a new hat if you ask me.

What do you think it took for that little guy to be able to cut the rod in his mom's mouth with his whip? (The answer is in the top left hand corner.)

Sorry, sir. I told you. That is not what we came for.

I think this guy was the stadium clown or something. At any rate, he announced to the whole stadium that Emma and I were taking pictures of him. Unexpected publicity for sure.

My first real chance to try some panning.

Police behind bars - that's a new one.

These folks had ended up somewhere they weren't supposed to be. We were at the same place.

The Farm Show is 93 years old after all. You would expect it to have a few gray hares.

At one point, we met up with some folks who looked as if they'd come straight out of the rodeo.

What We Came For

The 2010 Hershey Baking Contests

I trust none of you are feeling too hungry just now.

And I trust that you (talking to judges) are.

Yeah! I get to eat chocolate for a living.

Taking off her glasses? That's no good. A judge can't be blind to imperfection.

Everything's got to meet her specs...

...and she seems to think she's found the winner already.

Not everybody makes up his mind so easily.

Since Candace didn't win the cake contest, I had to find my big scoop somewhere else.

A hurried little family conference. "Mom called. We need to get started for home now."
And Phares was born that evening. :-)