Oktoberfest and Erin's Nuts

Shew. What a busy holiday weekend. Lots of stuff going on this weekend, so I'll try not to make this too too long. Saturday night found Erin's parents, my parents, and Erin and I all headed to the southside for Oktoberfest at the German American Klub (I guess all it takes to convert a word from English to German is to replace all the C's with K's...and spit a lot while speaking them.) We were really excited about this festival, but we found ourselves a little bit dismayed pretty early in the festivities. First of all, it was $6 each just to get into the park, which is basically a few picnic tables and a shelterhouse. Based on the price of food and booze once inside the park, apparently the German American Klub is saving up to build themselves a new, more spektakular park komplete with the finest amenities. I hiked immediately upon arrival up to an 18 wheeler with about 10 taps on the side of the trailer. The price listing showed 12 ounces of German bier for $5, or a 24 ounce mug for around $7. I ordered the mug and was told that they didn't have those. I politely pointed to the sign, and the old German guy manning the keg politely ignored me and started pouring me a 12 oz plastic cup. I kould tell he wasn't to be pushed. Oh well. After this, we headed for the food tents and ordered a variety of knockwurst's and brat's, along with German potato salad and some fried apples. I know I had at least $60 in my wallet before we got there, and I left with about $10, so between the admission price, a couple of beers, a couple of sausages, and a cream puff for dessert, I ended up down about $50. My dad got hustled into buying a raffle ticket from a very polite little old German lady. I'm sure he could have told her to scram, but she had a look in her eye which suggested that she knew which car you had driven into the Klub, so he caved and bought a ticket. In the end, we all agreed that had the food been a little bit cheaper and the beer steins a little bit larger, people could have a much more enjoyable time at the Oktoberfest. Perhaps next year Erin and I will try to host our own little Oktoberfest in our backyard. If we can combine it with a NASCAR event, the whole neighborhood will show up.

Yesterday we went to Bedford to see my grandparents, which was nice. Erin took my grandmother a box containing 10 puzzles based on the work's of Thomas Kinkade (a German, perhaps?) which has sort of become a tradition. On one visit, we took a 5000 piece puzzle to her which took her several months and coworkers to complete. Upon our next visit, she threatened Erin with thumbscrews if we brought anything that complex again, so we take great care in making our puzzle selections.

Today we did a little shopping at the Edinburgh outlets in preparation for the holiday season. While perusing the various shops, I discovered that my only goal when we shop at this place is to chain together visits to each of the cooking and/or food stores that offer free samples. Erin went to the OshKosh store, where she not only bought little Grace some more clothes, but she also scared a poor Japanese couple into giving their lovely 2 year old daughter a lecture on not talking to crazy American ladies who scream "Asian baby!" at the drop of a hat. Grace, at this point, has a larger wardrobe than I do. The child will not want for clothes (or attention, or food, or anything else, I suspect, for that matter.) While Erin scared toddlers, I started making my way toward the various sampling stations at the cookware stores. I tried about 10 different types of pretzel dip at one store and got an orange truffle and some kind of cream cheese and salsa concoction at Harry and David. After exhausting the food possibilities in the outlet mall, we headed for Nashville, Indiana.

Now Nashville, for those not in the know, is sort of a Gatlinburg in miniature. The only differences are that it sits in southern Indiana and has more Harley riders than teeth within the city limits. Luckily for us, it wasn't terribly crowded, so we were able to get in and out of the stores without having to whisper "Man do I have to pee" while gridlocked behind people. Since we'd only eaten 2000 calories worth of samples at the outlet mall, we immediately headed for lunch at the Hob Knob Restaurant. Our dining experiences in Nashville during past visits have been less than overwhelming, but this place turned out to be very good. Erin had a lovely turkey melt, while I had an equally wonderful tuna melt, all served by a delightful stoned Nashville artisan. We ate these well portioned meals in under 10 minutes and headed back out to do more shopping.

The most delightful store we found on this visit to Nashville was called, simply, The House of Jerky. The House of Jerky featured a bevy of different foods which had been dried out and turned into jerky. They had everything from beef to buffalo to venison to salmon...all jerkied. Apparently they're in cahoots with the German American Klub, as a package with 4 pieces of salmon jerky ran around $12. I'll tell you what's jerky about that. In any case, I found it fascinating that such a store existed and even more fascinating that anyone would pay $3 for a single piece of jerky.

After sniffing the jerky, I got a Pumpkin Sundae from Fearrin's Ice Cream. It was a great combination of pumpkin ice cream and caramel. Erin held out and got a package of almonds covered with cinammon and sugar at a different store, the name of which escapes me. After I finished my ice cream, we strolled up the street to one of what I refer to as "the crap shops" in Nashville. There are some very nice stores in Nashville which cater to very specific tastes, the House of Jerky being a prime example. There are stores featuring thousands of varieties of salsa, or perhaps a variety of leather goods. Virtually all of the other stores feature piles of stuff which falls into the "home decor" category. There are piles of candles, bird feeders, coasters, plates, new stuff made to look old, shirts with funny religious sayings, music played on the pan flute, etc in each of these stores. All of them look alike to me (and smell like a mixture of vanilla, cinammon, apples, cookies, and whatever other scent you can stuff in a candle), and every part of me wants to run through each of them with my arms extended, knocking every "bless this house" knick knack onto the ground as I go. Well upon entering one of these stores, Erin was eyeing several items and commenting aloud on how interested she was to spend our hard earned cash on some of their wares. About this time a friendly, 50-something employee approached her and said, "We'd appreciate it if you'd put your nuts away while you're in the store." At this point, after puzzling for a moment and trying to recall if I'd been to the restroom recently, I realized that Erin was still working through the bag of almonds she'd purchased earlier. Erin quickly complied with the warden's request, but for whatever reason, quickly lost interest in purchasing anything from the store. I can understand wanting to shew out kids with ice cream cones, but an adult with a bag of almonds? It seemed a little strange to me, but rather than make a scene, we complied and immediately left the store...nuts in tow.

All in all we had a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and the best part is that I don't have to fly out to China in the morning. Rather than packing, I can spend this evening adding a room onto the Chateau du Siding for Grace's wardrobe.