lions and cubs oh my

Back to my Vegas adventures (yes, I've been busy and it's takes a few posts to share about my Vegas fun)...

One of my favorite sightings was a visit to the Lion Habitat at the MGM Grand. There are lions lounging around in this habitat and they don't get agitated with people poking their noses through the class because the entire habitat is completely soundproof. Isn't that cool?

It was amazing to see how big the lions really were, especially up close...and especially when you're walking right under them like in these next few shots.
Above is the male lion, and below is the female lioness.
And then there were the cute lion cubs!!! So adorable. And what do you know, you can take a picture with a lion cub.
And that is exactly what I did - forked over the $25 to be able to spend a couple of minutes petting the rear end of a lion cub while the trainers were trying to keeps its attention away from my yummy muscles.
I did inquire as to why I couldn't cradle the lion cub in my arm. The trainer said that if I was there two months ago, when the lion cubs were about half their current size, I could have cradled a lion cub in my arms because there would be no threat of danger to me. But at this moment in time, the cubs were older and were beginning to know how to swipe at you if you pissed it off.

I have to say that a lion cub's fur is not soft as a cat, it's actually more coarse and similar to that of a dog. Isn't the kitty so pretty?

PBR Finals - Las Vegas

Back to Vegas adventures -- the main reason I went to Vegas was for a mini-reunion with the girls from law school. Also, we chose this particular weekend to go (Nov. 5-8) specifically for the Professional Bull Riding Finals in Las Vegas. Let me just tell you that only the true champions can take part in the finals and that nearly everyone we saw stayed on the bull for eight seconds or longer. It was a really exciting event (even if we did miss half of it).



And here are some videos from the PBR Finals, Round 6.





This is a clip of the Rodeo Clown singing a solo...I think it's some sort of PBR tribute, but I just don't know the name of the tune he was singing to.

Maroon 5 @ GWU 11.13.2009

Videos from their concert on their latest leg of their Back to School Tour.

Enjoy!

Vegas eats

So, back to my Vegas trip, this is a photo collection of the food I consumed from the start of my trip (waiting at the Dulles airport) to the end of my trip (waiting at the Dallas airport).

Upon arriving at Dulles, I had to get some lunch, which I decided to finally try out Potbelly because everyone in DC claims they have the best sandwiches ever.
The airport Potbelly's menu was rather short, but I decided quickly on an Italian sandwich with the works (minus the onions).
It's a blurry image because it's from my camera phone, but my gosh, this Italian sandwich was soooooooo goood! I was kinda sad when I finished the sandwich because I wanted the taste to linger a little longer.

During my first day in Vegas, I walked along the strip. The Boy had sent me this joke about how all you can eat buffets are not meant to be "all you can eat all day" buffets. I thought it was funny that I found this advertisement for an all you can eat all day long buffet and had to share it with him. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to sit at an all you can eat all day long buffet.


While walking through the Forum Shops at Ceasar's Palace, I came across this gelato stand.
YUMMY! All sorts of deliciousness! I really want to get a cup, but decided against it because I was (at that moment) anticipating a 6lb burrito dinner with the girls. The guy did let me taste as many samples as I wanted so I tried out a few before I felt guilty for taking advantage of the samples. I sampled the mango and pina colada -- both were delicious.

The next day, the girls and I planned to go to Paris for a breakfast buffet, but the lines were really long and we were really hungry, so we opted for quick lunch at another cafe inside Paris.
A couple of us ordered the Ham & Cheese Croissant. The croissant itself was ginormous, so the sandwich was really filling. The croissant was also nice and buttery. YUM!
We had a beverage/ice-cream break about half way through our walk along the Strip, and I ordered myself the Haagen-Dazs Banana Split Dazzler. And I ate the whole thing all by myself! It was a nice treat after all that walking (and with more walking ahead of us!).
Before our PBR Finals event, we had dinner at In-N-Out - the best burger place ever! It was actually my second In-N-Out meal in the two days that I was in Vegas. I can never say no to In-N-Out.

And then it was time to say good-bye to Vegas. I had a 6am flight with a connection in Dallas, so I slept the entire leg from Vegas to Dallas. Upon arriving in Dallas, I was starving, so I opted for Wendys for some lunch.
I ordered the Spicy Chicken Sandwich value meal. I really don't remember the last time I had Wendy's but it was a really good meal, perhaps because I was starving and any food would have been good.

And that concludes my Vegas eating adventures. I still want to see the 6lb burrito in person.

goodies I will never eat

If you have brownie mix, and all ingredients to make cookie dough, you can you Cookie Dough Brownies!

I made these for L's birthday since she is a lover of cookie dough. I, however, abhor the idea of raw food so I made an entire batch of these goodies and didn't have a single bite of it - and that was perfectly fine with me.

The recipe is really simple. Just make the brownie according to the mix and then let cool for a couple of hours.
Make the cookie dough and spread that over the brownie. Chill the whole tray for a couple of hours and...
...voila! Cookie dough brownies.

Like I said above, I don't eat raw cookie dough, so I couldn't tell you how these tasted. L did say they were delicious, and she is a person with very fine food tastes.

Full recipe for Cookie Dough Brownies here.

kitty with a cone

This is Ilsa. She is the pretty kitty baby belonging to L. She also needed her lady parts removed because she was in heat and wanted some boy toy kitties. I helped out L by taking Ilsa to the vet for her surgery, and this the kitty I returned to L -- she had to wear the cone to prevent her from tearing at her incision.

I don't think she was very happy to see me again when I stopped by for a visit later in the month.
But she was still willing to play with her toys!

I hear Ilsa is doing all better now, but just wants more attention from her mommy.

halloween drag queen high heel race

Let me take you back in time to Halloween 2009. DC's version of now nonexistent Halloween in the Castro was a short Drag Queen High Heel Race* event in Dupont Circle. And though the night was slightly full of rain, spectators and participators both come out in crowds to witness this year's high heel race. And let me tell you, some of these guys can run really fast in four inch heels!

This lady with the red umbrella was a really good Julia Childs, personality and all.

Cruella de Ville

Two daisies in a pot.

Sumo Wrestlers

The back of Marilyn Monroe, who was initially walking around with JFK but I guess he couldn't be in the race because he had no heels on.

***

Video of the "walking, skipping, strutting" part of the race.


*The link to the Drag Queen High Heel Race 2009 page also has better quality pictures than posted here.

giant burrito bust

I just came back from a weekend in Vegas, and one of the things on my list to do in Vegas was to go to the same place that Adam from Man v. Food went to attempt the giant burrito challenge. The home of the 6lb 2ft burrito is the Nascar Cafe at the Sahara Hotel & Casino.

I was SOOOOO EXCITED to finally be able to see this giant burrito in person and I was able to convince my travelling companions (six girls with healthy appetites) to order this giant burrito so that we could all consume it together.

Adam was a guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and they had an actual 6lb burrito on the show. Below is a picture of Adam wearing the Weenie t-shirt because he failed to complete the challenge.


I built up so much excitement about being in the same restaurant that Adam was in, and also seeing the giant burrito in person, that I was extremely disappointed when the waitress informed us that we were not allowed to order the giant burrito because: 1) it was for competition purposes only; 2) it could only be ordered in the competition area; and 3) it's not made for sharing.

So we had to settle for the 1lb "mini" version of the giant burrito.
Since there was six of us dining, we ordered three 1lb burritos, two girls per 1lb burrito.
And it was a damn good delicious burrito! There was chicken and beef in it, as well as it being covered in cheese and the works. There were sides of salsa, guacamole and sour cream. I was also quite full after the 3/4 of the burrito I ate (D and I was supposed to each have 1/2 but she said she wasn't hungry and only ate 1/4 of the burrito, so I had to man it up and eat the 3/4).
See how ginormous that thing is??
Since the giant burrito came into being, there has only been seven people who conquered the challenge. They got the burrito free of charge and free roller coaster rides for a year at the Sahara.

The giant burrito was priced at $19.95, not a bad price for six pounds worth of food. I think the owners of the store should make a policy change and be able to offer the giant burrito to the general public, even if it wanted to increase the price to $29.95, or even $39.95, because I would still order it to share with the table. I just want to see it in person, and I will pay for it.

Maybe next time I'm in Vegas, I'll just take on the giant burrito challenge myself.

punished for a good deed

I give blood about twice a year, because I'm O+ and apparently there's always a shortage of O+ blood supply. I give blood because I can and I have plenty to give. Also, I would like to think that if I was in a situation where I needed a blood transfusion, I would be able to get the blood transfusion because other kind souls are donating blood for the same reason - to help others who need it.

Anyway, I've been donating blood for about five years now and I usually do it in San Francisco at the Blood Centers of the Pacific. I've never given blood in KC because I don't know where the donation centers are, and so I just wait to donate blood when I travel back to SF.

Well, since I've been in DC, I donated blood once to the American Red Cross because they were having a blood drive at school and I had enough of a break to sit through the whole donation process. First of all, I'm donating MY BLOOD here, and would appreciate some gratitude and niceness from the workers taking my blood. Anyway, the first time I donated to the American Red Cross, the people were rude and harsh, but they were able to get the needle in correctly.

So a couple of months later, the American Red Cross called me to ask for another donation because there was a shortage of O+ blood. I happily agreed, especially since there was a donation center on campus. So I went to the center, filled out the paperwork and all that, and prepared for the needle prick. Oh, and the whole time she was completely rude to me. The lady pricked me and it just felt weird and wrong, but I didn't look because I don't want to look at needles being poked into me. My blood wouldn't come out for some reason and the lady started moving the needle around while it was still attached to me, which hurt like a mofo. She still couldn't get blood out so she finally said that I was too dehydrated and couldn't give blood that day. Bull -- I had two bottles of water and a glass of milk that morning, and I really think she didn't know what she was doing. She bandaged me up and I went off to class.

I later took off the bandage to find this:
I was shocked! I told The Boy my arm looked like that of a heroin addict's. It gets worse the next day:
And even worse on day 3:
I was pretty upset because I was going to Vegas for the weekend and was going to wear t-shirts, so I had to hide my hideous bruises somehow. I opted for Hello Kitty bandages, which still got attention in the form of "Oh, your bandages are so cute!!" or "Are you a Hello Kitty fan? So cute!" I guess this is better than someone staring at my arm and wondering how much herion I just injected or if I had an abusive spouse.

Anyway, I have decided to keep my blood donations for California since they are nicer and they know how to properly get blood out of me.

food fun at the farm

Here are some more pics from our outing at Cox Farms.

We had to eat, so I chose to eat a chili dog with a side of tortilla chips. Friend A thought it was kind sick of us to go munch on beef after seeing baby calves and piglets running around. I just wanted my protein.
I dared not tried the water.
They certainly do!
Everyone who paid an admission to the farm got a free pumpkin on the way out. They were cute. I drew a face on my little pumpkin, and now am deciding how to cook it.
And of course we had some pumpkin pie. Yeah, it needed a whole lot more whip cream.