Ho hum..... Saturday was a bit of a work day. As part of our outreach we worked the Tet Festival in downtown Big City. The event was held at the fairgrounds under grey skies and ocassional squalls of rain. Fortunately our booth was inside a building and the rain drove people into it. The festival included dragons, fireworks, folks in ARVN uniforms, and politicians in numbers that would require a man use a second clip. Stupidly (to my mind) the parade for this event was the first thing on the schedule, so by the time a decent number of festival-goers were arriving the dragon dancers were already out of costume, the bands had already played, and the parade disbanded.

The picture over there to the right is the only decent one I could snap and it isn't all that decent. ;-)The local Vietnamese population includes a substantial older population who have still not really left Vietnam in their minds. These guys come out in their ARVN uniforms and boots and stand around looking small, spiffy, and martial. I had never seen a "lady" ARVN before, so I snapped a picture of this lovely lady as she was snapping pictures of the even more lovely festival queens.

A word about that.. I didn't take pictures this year, because the actual beauty contest was later that day.. but the Vietnamese Queen contestants are stunning. The traditional dresses are wildly flattering and these women really have a handle on how to use makeup for maximum effect. I'm not normally a fan of makeup, but the makeup artists here have managed to create something that looks impressive from far away without looking anything like clown makeup when you get close-up. A rare talent...

There were also some ... er.. interesting faces in the crowd, and babymama over there is one of them..

I ate a sandwich, relatively cheap for a fair at $4.50 which, I think, reflects knowledge that the Vietnamese community isn't paying any more than they have to for food. A nice change from say, Art and Wine festivals around here where the vendors know they have the wealthy, stupid, and hungry passing by....

After some talk with friends it was back off to home and nothing productive.

Today is all about cleaning and laundry... a silly way to waste a Sunday, but it's what I've got..