Steven Helmer Publications

When we attended the county fair this week, the last thing my wife and I were expecting to do was let her get a tattoo.  In fact, when we saw there was someone there offering that service (real ones, not the temporary ones) we actually ended up joking about it more than considering it. However, we did our research on the person who was offering them, found out he was legitimate (licensed and everything) and even talked to some of his customers who were local. Then, after learning he could do the rose and violet tattoo my wife has wanted for years (for our daughters' middle names) for about half of what other tattoo artists have wanted, we decided to pull the trigger. After all, it seemed like a better deal than spending money on games that offered crappy prizes and food that wasn't nearly as good as it was at past fairs. He did good work too. It's exactly what she wanted and he was done in about an hour, giving us time to still see the concert .

My wife and I ended up going with the kids and my parents and spent probably about 7 hours there in total (the kids and my parents left a couple hours earlier than that). Overall, I have to say I was a little disappointed by the experience. Don't get me wrong, the county fair is still a decent deal. It was just $7 per person to get in and that includes being able to see the band (last night was The Oak Ridge Boys) when they perform at 8 p.m. It's just we weren't really feeling it this year. Part of the reason for it was definitely the weather. It rained yesterday morning and we had a few heavy showers pass through, sending us into shelters and making us reluctant to let the kids ride the rides in the midway. Another big part of it is there just didn't seem to be as much to do this year. There was no petting zoo for the girls and a smaller variety of vendors to visit (not to mention less free stuff at those vendors). Heck, as my wife pointed out, there were fo...