Fried Beer....You know you wanna read about it....

I'm going to start this post with a warning...what you are about to witness is one extremly rare day for Mike and I to have. If weird combinations of food, dipped in batter, and fried to a golden crisp gross you out, you might not want to continue reading. However, if you are intrigued by what the Famous Texas State Fair had to offer this year...you are in the right place!

Mike and I decided to go to the fair on a perfect Thursday afternoon. It was a little overcast, 82 degrees, and kids were in school; all make for perfect Fair conditions. We woke up early and got in a 6.5 mile run to prepare for the overhaul of calories soon to come. Once we got home, cleaned up, and took some TUMS (smart choice) we were off!

This post is mainly pictures so be prepared...

Entrance to the fair, with an odd looking homeless man on my left. The Texas State Fair is a long standing tradition in every Texans heart that began October 25, 1886.

**This was where they also gave out free "5-hour energy" shots. Guess they were trying to clue us into something.

Mike playing in one of the football simulation stations. He's so cute.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, that says fried butter....I couldn't do it though. I am willing to try a lot of things, but Fat covered in Fat fried in more Fat...just too much.

Every single one of these things sounded bomb-tastic to me, however, by the time we made it back around to this kiosk my body was begging me to stop.

Wait for it...

Ahhhh that's good beer. This is without a doubt the weirdest thing. It was puff pastry with a pocket of liquid beer inside. It was good, my only reservation is I like COLD beer, and in order to fry it, the beer became room temp...moving on

OHHHH LAWDY..hehe Fried Biscuits and Gravy. Imagine how a jelly doughnut gets filled and fried and then oozes sweet goodness into you mouth. Now imagine a biscuit, filled with gravy, dipped in batter and fried. Some of you might be gagging, but it was damn good. I was surprised by this little devil.

Setting up for College Game Day 

I would love to see Erin Andrews down some fried butter...

Well hello there Big Tex!

This will be my new truck when the fair is over and they discover that I have guessed the right amount of mini footballs stuffed inside. I entered a guess on a Blue Truck as well...guess I'll have a 'weekend ride' too :)

Of course there's a Cowboys Attraction! Duh

My favorite! Witten the Kitten!

I wanted to win this for Kimmi, but I ran out of tickets and it was a dumb game anyways.

First ride Mike and I went on. Oh My Gato was it fun! I was laughing so hard, I think Mike was laughing at me.

All made out of Beer bottle caps! So nifty!

Alright Alright...back to the fried goodness...Fried Cookie Dough. Yes, there is such a thing and it should be mass produced to give to anyone who is ever sad again. This was my FAVORITE thing by far. I will dream about you till next year...

Trying not to laugh and get powdered sugar up my nose.

Of course the Cotton Bowl. Oh yeah, the Texas Fair is sooooo big, it has a football stadium inside it. Can't wait for Red River Rivalry on Saturday. Hook em Horns! OU smells :)

Ahhhhhh Football Glory

Okay so let me explain...

This was the 2011 Fair Grand Prize Winner for best tasting dish. It is a buffalo chicken breast, wrapped in a pancake, dipped in batter, rolled in breadcrumbs and jalepeno crumbs and fried. If that's not enough to stop your heart, they give you a side of maple syrup to dip it in. I hate to admit this was good but it was. It was pretty damn awesome. I'm a little ashamed. Oh and we ate this with frozen Arnold Palmers. They were good, but uber sweet.

Lastly, and probably least was Fried Coke. Didn't do it for me....it was essentially cake donuts, with fizzy coke poured over it and whipped cream and a straw. It got too soggy, too fast. The fresh ones were best.

****Mind everyone, Mike and I shared every dish. Doesn't make this any better, but at least it doesn't make it worse :)

And yes sir, that is all she wrote...Mike and I literally got home and I was sick for about two hours. But you know what? I enjoyed every second of my day with Mike at the Fair. It was so much fun and made for such great memories. I'm so lucky to have someone to eat weird fried food with all day long, get sick, and then dive into a food coma with. 

Oh, hello dry chicken, brown rice, and asparagus. What's that you say? I'll be eating you for the next month? DEAL! I don't want to eat another deep fried piece of food until next year's fair. I think I have a hangover from food.  

Learning Turbo; Warmup and Punches

So as most of you know, I just recently took my TurboKick Certification class and had an absolute blast! I really want to start teaching it, but there are a lot of things I need to learn first. When I told my mom that I was finished with the class she asked,"So are you going to start teaching now?" and it kind of threw me for a loop. Believe me, if I had a photographic memory, and a musical/dance background I would waltz right into my audition and bust out some Turbo moves now, however, I can't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday, and you could describe my musical/dance background as being a fan of GLEE.

With all that being said, I have set out on my path to start learning this stuff so I can actually start teaching it without looking unprepared. TurboKick gets released in rounds, kind of like a BodyPump series. They are on round 49 now, I think, but I was taught on round 44, so why not stick with it? Each round has 11 components all synched to specific music. I have to learn counts a little better than I do now because it is all off a 32 count beat. Honestly, I didn't even know what that meant until taking this class, I always just counted how many reps we did of everything, but I am finding out that doesn't always work.

The first, and probably most important thing to do was learn the Warm-up. It's the same for all rounds, and is a nice stable constant for those who are avid TurboKick aficionados. I learned it pretty quickly but the problem I was facing was the music was lasting about a minute longer than all the moves. I'm not sure if that's normal or not, but I just figured that's water break time before the real stuff begins!

Next on the list is the punch sequence. TurboKick is based on layers. You start off with something basic and another something basic and add them together. Those are layers 1 and 2. Once it seems like more than half of the room has got it, show them another layer, do it for a 32 count, and add it to layers 1 and 2...Sounds super simple, however, I hate to admit this, but I am a very rigid learner. I like things to be one certain way and by the books. I like cues and things to know if I am doing something right or wrong. This may be super anal of me, but I am who I am...At least I will do something over and over till it is right.

 And I did, for about 3 hours...I didn't even realize how much time had passed! I did a couple more run throughs and called it a day. Tomorrow I will move onto some kicking sequences and let y'all know how they go. One thing I can definitely say, it is a lot harder to learn to teach it to people, than just go to a class and workout. I have to get better at talking and cuing before the move comes up, rather than as I am doing it, because that will be a lot more helpful. O well, all a learning process that I am enjoying.

I have some pretty exciting stuff coming up the next few months, but I don't want to say them because it might jinx it. But just pray things go right for me :)