Day 746 - Street Fair Follies

Today was the annual Sherman Oaks Street Fair. It is marketed as the largest street fair in the Valley. For the past two years, we've gone because it is just a block away from where we live. Also for the past two years, we've always been bored and disappointed. We're not knocking the community spirit, but there's something just not so interesting about aluminum siding and Sparklette water fair booths. I guess the street fair is like going to Costco except without the free samples.

This year Crazy Grandma and Lazy Grandpa joined us with the walk up and down Ventura Blvd as we ooh'd and aah'd at the flu shot booth and the DirecTV demonstration. When we met Crazy and Lazy, they had a treat for the kids: balloons. Crazy Grandma bought two helium balloons and two balloon animals for the kids. The kids got very excited and couldn't wait for the balloons.

Crazy Grandma ordered Lazy Grandpa to tie a balloon around Andrew's wrist. It took a little bit of time to get it done because Crazy Grandma was critiquing Lazy Grandpa's twine skills.

"Too tiiiiight! No! No! Tie dere...DERE!" shouted Crazy Grandma.


Next up was Emma. Lazy Grandpa turned to Crazy Grandma for the balloon.

Crazy Grandma yelled, "Where bah-loon?"

Lazy Grandpa said, "I dunno. I gave it to you."

Crazy Grandma replied, "I no have no bah-loon. Scotty, you have balloon?"

"I don't have the balloon. You never gave ME a balloon," I said emphasizing my child-like disappointment of not receiving a balloon from my own parents.

Then Lisa chimed in. "There's the balloon."

And Lisa pointed to this...


Oh wait...you probably can't see anything. How about this?


Yup. That's Emma's balloon.

"Wha-wha-wha? Eddiiieeee! What you do???" screamed Crazy Grandma.

"Lindaaaaaaaaa." You can always tell when my dad is exasperated by my mom by the number of a's he adds to my mom's name. "I gave Emma's balloon to you when you told me to tie Andrew's balloon."

And here's how you can tell when Crazy Grandma knows she screwed up. When she says the following: Aaaaaah!

"Aaaaah!" said Crazy Grandma.

But not to worry about little Emma. A colonic fair booth was giving out free balloons, so Emma eventually got one. Thankfully, Emma can't read yet or else she might've been embarrassed carrying a balloon that said, "Uranus Ain't Only a Planet to Check Out!"