Cornyval

This weekend, I went to Cornyval in Helotes with my brother and two of my cousins. Cornyval is a festival that benefits lots of different non-profits. Each food booth was for a different cause. It also has a PRCA rodeo and carnival rides. Basicly, it's an eat-and-drink-beer type of place. I had never been before even though I used to live a couple miles away. It wasn't too crowded and it was more family-oriented. And, in light of the swine flu invading San Antonio, there were plenty of hand-washing stations. Because it's only important to wash your hands when the flu's going around. I digress.

I usually don't buy a lot of knick knacks, but there was one vendor I couldn't pass on. It was a homemade pasta and jelly booth from a company called Shayne Sauce (they take orders online, people!). The food is made right here in San Antonio. Did I mention that I love pasta? And jelly?

I bought the Spinach and Lemon fettuccine:

photo courtesy of Shayne Sauce

I put some regular marinara sauce on this and it was great! The fettuccine cooks in about 3 minutes, so you don't have to wait long. I also bought the Cranberry Cinnamon Jalapeno jelly:



photo courtesy of Shayne Sauce

After I bought my goodies, I decided I was starving. Over the course of the night, I had some beer, a Sprite, sausage on a stick, a jumbo corn dog, a chocolate dipped ice cream bar and bites of anything else that someone bought that I didn't buy. It was awesome! My brother ate a ton. And I mean a TON. The question is not what he ate, it's what didn't he eat?

I got pretty bad pictures of the rodeo; they weren't worth posting here. But we did get some pictures by the end of the night. Here's my cousins, my brother and I showing our true colors:

L to R: Becca, Me, Houston, Kathy

See those grease stains on my shirt? Yeah, that happened when I ate the sausage on a stick, which was really early in the night. It took me awhile to figure out that it was grease and not water, so I ended up walking around looking like white trash the entire night.

My brother was feeling pretty good by the end of the night if you know what I mean (lots of Shiner was involved), so he actually let me jump on him!

I caught Jason looking like a deer in the headlights here:

My brother's giant thumb covered part of the flash, but this is how he & Kathy usually act:

And I also got a picture of Becca with her fiance, TJ:

We had so much fun that I want to go again next year! I don't get to see my brother a lot, so this was especially fun for me!

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Overdue Post - Renaissance Festival

About a month ago, Jason & I went to College Station to visit our friends, Sylvia & Jake:

We thought it would be fun to go to the Renaissance Festival in Plantersville, TX together. Because of my sheer laziness in typing Renaissance, we will call it Ren Fest from here on. This festival is full of English (as in British-English) speaking people dressed in crazy attire. You see many fine people such as this man:


And of course, we can't forget this enchanting, lovely couple:


We walked around, taking in the weirdness of it all, when suddenly Sylvia & I saw something that we just had to do. We saw elephant rides! Now, I have no idea how elephants impacted the Renaissance era, but I'm not complaining. We immediately got in line to hop on. Sadly, we couldn't convince the men to accompany us. Oh well. Someone had to take pictures. Just see for yourself how we wrassled and tamed this elephant:

We also feasted on turkey legs, pizza (definitely Renaissance-inspired food here), lemonade and the biggest funnel cake ever. We saw axe-throwing contests, a dunking booth, a tomato booth and even sword fights. Then, Sylvia & I saw yet another thing we just had to do: a slingshot ride.

On this ride, they just slip a harness on you, attach giant rubber bands to either side and lift you in the air. Then, a Ren Fest-dressed man pulls you up and down while bouncing on a trampoline. You just get higher and higher. It was a blast! Sylvia tried it out first. She even snuck in a flip!

Just when you've gotten in the air, another Ren Fest-dressed man will sneak up and get you double!


Then, you go doubly high in the air!

Afterwards, we decided that we should go see a show. We decided to watch a Mud Fight. We sat in a small outdoor theater towards the back. There were two men on the stage, complete with a mud pit and a narrator. They divided the audience into two groups: the Trojans & the Spartans. For the record, that could be wrong and I actually have no idea what group we were in. Either way, each man challenged the other in different stunts. Here you can see our guy on the right & the other guy on the left with the narrator in the center:


First, they challenged each other with mud. Our guy ripped off his shirt and spread mud all over his chest and the other spread mud all over his face. Then, our guy said he would insult the other half of the audience by finding the most beautiful woman and kiss her. Sure enough, he found a woman and with his nasty, muddy chest, he kissed her.

The other guy (the one with his face covered in mud) said he would find the ugliest man on our side of the audience and kiss him. He walked around making us wonder who he would pick. All this time, Jason is hunching down as low as his 6'8" frame would go, eating his turkey leg and thinking "Don't pick on the tall guy. Please don't pick on the tall guy." So what happens? He stopped by Jake. (By the way, Jake isn't ugly. He was just an easy target.)

The mud guy then covers Jake with a sheet and plants a big one on him!

Jake, being the good sport that he is, took it like a man. (See? Not ugly.)


After this bit of emasculation, we headed to yet another show. I have no pictures from this show because it was pretty darn lame. Jake was hoping that Jason would get picked on, but no such luck. I admit, I was hoping he would get picked on too.

After this, we decided to leave as it was starting to get chilly. But before we could go, we had to convince a lovely couple to take a group picture.

Up until now, I hadn't realized that we lined up kindergarten-style: tallest to shortest. Our overall take of Ren Fest was that it was fun, unique and spread out enough that it wasn't too crowded. Would we make a day trip from San Antonio? Probably not. But the 30 minute drive from College Station was worth it.

The next morning, before we headed for home, Jason & I went to the Texas A&M campus so that he could reminisce about his college days. It has been several years since Jason had seen the campus, so I obliged his request. We toured campus for almost two hours in misty weather and had a good time. We walked through several of the buildings and he told me about many of the traditions. We even took a self-portrait under the century tree:

It was a busy weekend, but we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Thank you Sylvia & Jake for allowing us to crash at your house! We love you guys!

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Wurstfest: A Salute to Sausage!

On Friday, Jason & I made our way to New Braunfels to partake in their annual salute to beer, sausage and everything fried or on a stick: Wurstfest. For those who aren't familiar with the tradition, this is New Braunfel's 10-day version of Oktoberfest.

At this festival, a lot of drunk Germans can be found. People are eating giant turkey legs and holding stacks of empty pitchers. I even saw an older man wearing liederhosen giving high fives to anyone who would humor him!

I made sure to get one of my favorite things while I was there: Fried pickles! They are so yummy and just the right amount of salty. We met up with my friend Shana and her boyfriend, Ian and proceeded to pig out! Here they are with another friend, Bekah. The three of them decided to buy Wurstfest hats.


Shana & Bekah got traditional German hats while Ian opted for a non-traditional chicken hat. Unfortunately, his hat suffered from "limp hat syndrome" in most of the pictures. Somehow, they talked Jason & I into trying on the hats ourselves:


While walking through the Wursthall looking for more food, we were able to talk this nice gentleman into taking a group picture. He was serving up some type of pastry in his overheated booth. You see, Wurstfest is also a time of comraderie.


So here we are, enjoying the last weekend of Wurstfest together. Yes, that is me being lame with a water bottle in hand. To be honest, it's being used to cover the fried pickle oil that dripped on my shirt.

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