Day 99: Make Jello Shots

     If your all caught up with your Kyle's-super-amazing-happy-fun-time-blog, you know that on day 98, I was in Kansas visiting my sister. And if your all caught up with your Kansas-land knowledge, you know that there isn't much to do there. Its a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere. There is a subway, a pizza hut, and liquor store to help reference you through town. But other than that, its just you and the dala horses. Don't get me wrong, I was totally happy to be there, any excuse to miss work and forget about school is worth any 6 hour drive (oh yeah, and that whole seeing the sister thing was pretty cool too. I wub you Sawah). So anyways, It was decided that I would help my sister set up for her recital. I would be a roadie, hauling around loud/expensive equipment. I jumped at the position and so we went down to the building where the stage was and got the low-down about what was going down. She was tell my dad and me about the various instruments that she would be playing that night. The snare drum, timpany, drum set, a multi-set thing, and something that looked a lot like a xylophone but wasn't. I helped load the drums onto the stage and place them in the general area in which they would be played. It was cool to be on that giant stage, with its creaky wooden floor and rustic looking organ.

Look at this crazy thang

We eventually got everything in its place and Sarah gave us a taste of what she would be playing. It was some pretty amazing stuff (no sugar-coating here). I always knew that she was good, but I never thought that she was that good. I was blown away as soon as she began playing, and it was ten times as impressive later that night during her recital. She recited a 6 page piece on the xylophone thing from memory...in front of an audience... and it sounded good...real good. If thats not impressive then I don't know what is. The recital was a great success (other than my brother dropping his camera from the 30 foot balcony during the performance). Food, music, family: it was a good time. I fulfilled my duties as the roadie by unloading the stage and placing everything back where it came from.

From there we had some dinner at the Stuga (the famous little bar in town where I got my ass handed to me by my brother in a game of pool) and then went back to Sarah's house. Some of her friends showed up and brought a box of Jello shots. They were passing them around and my dad ended up offering me one. It was a little weird, but I'm not about to say no to Jello, so I took it. I learned that its important to lick your finger and swirl it around the sides of the cup before slurping the shot or else it will get stuck. For the most part, it just tasted like Jello, so it didn't make for the most interesting material, but its something. I ate/drank the shot and relaxed/talked to this dude about skateboarding. It was a fun time. So, in recap, I was a roadie for the day, and I tried a Jello shot, not too shabby.

Heres a link to a clip of her: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1900317197155&comments

Day 98: Visit The Dala Horses

Ice cream at the oasis 

     Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. I've been too busy to get the blog up to date for that past couple days. I was super busy cause on Friday (Day 98), I drove out to Kansas with my dad and dog (Kota) to see my sister. She is a percussion major and we were out to see her junior recital. She goes to a tiny school in Lindsborg, which is known for its one stop light and Swedish dala horses littered throughout the town. My dad and I spent most of the day driving through the dusty plains of Kansas, so there wasn't much for me to do for my challenge. We drove and drove and drove and drove and then got some gas and ice cream, then we drove and drove and drove and drove, and then we saw some Jesus preaching propaganda billboards, then we drove and drove and drove and then I saw some windmill turbines, then we drove a little bit more. The three of us eventually reached the limits of Lindsborg at around 4:30 P.M.



From there, we did the normal routine; said hi to my sister (Sarah), ate some Pizza Hut, and watched some comedy central. It was a good ol' time with the family.

We got to taking Kota for a walk through town and Sarah showed us the sights (well, she showed us the stop light and some of the dala horses). They are really cool mini wooden horses that are all hand painted. I assume that they are painted by various artists from around the area. You can find them scattered about the area with little plaques that describe what the piece represents. I was told that sitting on these horses is strictly forbidden and I would be locked up and the key would be thrown away if I did so. Although I doubt the Lindsborg police would really take such harsh action, I heeded my moms warning and kept clear from the horses. That was until, Sarah took us to the big dala. It was another colorfully painted horse, but it was 4 times as big. Apparently sitting is permitted on the big dala but none of the small ones. It was clear what I had to do. I straddled the dala and snapped a quick shot. Thats about all that happened. Drove for 6.5 hours, ate some pizza, saw the sights of Lindsborg, and sat on a giant flamboyant horse. If thats not vacation, I don't know what is.

awww

Day 97: Learn How To Make Nachos

     Fun day today. I was out and about all day long. I started my festivities off by picking up my brother after a bomb threat closed his school down. We spent an hour or so savagely demolishing an abandoned bicycle (it was a crappy little kid bike, what else were we supposed to do). Then we went biking and skating around. Mouse and Kevin came over and we worked on the moped and then biked to subway for some nom noms. Well, Mouse was working on the moped, I was trying to show off my new found ability to wheelie (Day 79: http://aimforeclouds.blogspot.com/2011/03/day-79-wheelie.html).


When we were leaving the sandwich shop, I saw a dog starring at me from the far side of the parking lot. He looked a bit freaked out and then he turned and ran into the middle of the street. He was seriously within feet of getting struck by several huge cars, and every time a vehicle barely skimmed past him, I would spit my breath out. He somehow managed to safely reach the other side of the street and began to wonder around. Without thinking, I biked as fast as I could across the street (with about as much caution as the dog) after him. Mouse and Kevin stayed behind as I chased after the lucky pup. I steered him into the corner in the back of a Kohl's department store and realized that I had know idea what I was doing. The dog was big, not huge, just big enough for me to rule out the possibility that he was totally harmless. He looked dirty, and he didn't have any tags on his mangled collar. He was drooling at the mouth and barking profusely towards me. I remember trying to look as big and tall as possible by perching on my bike. He just kept barking and waging his tale. He didn't sound aggressive when he barked, he kind of just seemed excited. It was like he assumed that he was supposed to be threatened by me, but he wasn't. A Kohl's employee walked out of the back entrance and saw me and the dog. I explained the situation and he called the animal control. Whenever he got close to the dog, he would violently bark at the man, which I thought was weird. Kevin met me there and we stood guard and made sure no dogs got in or out of the area. Eventually a woman walked out accompanied by the unlikeable man. The dog seemed to love her, and then they took the puppy away. That wasn't my new thing for the day, I just felt good about it and felt the need to tell everyone that I may or may not have saved that dog's life. He would either have been struck by a car or euthanized by a veterinarian (I really hope not).

We finished off the night with some nacho making at Mac's house. I've never made nachos. Well, one time I microwaved cheese and then laid it on top of some chips, but that doesn't count. These nachos wern't messing around. I had green peppers, green chili, salsa (Day 90 http://aimforeclouds.blogspot.com/2011/04/day-90-salsa.html), guacamole (Day 59 http://aimforeclouds.blogspot.com/2011/03/day-59-guacamole.html), onions, cheese, beans and tortilla chips. I cooked the whole thang in an oven for authenticity and texture, then layered some guac and salsa on top for looks. It wasn't very hard at all. All I had to do was chop up all the ingredients and throw them on top of the chips, then cook till the cheese melted and began to act like the glue, holding all of the tasty globs together. It was delicious and cheap. I think that I'll totally be making more of this dish in the future.

Day 96: Yoga

     It was my yoga day for the P90X exercise thang today. I woke up at 6 A.M. and headed to the basement to get all lose and limber for the day. I was really sore already from the past couple workouts and all that biking I've been doing ever since I stopped driving. I mimicked the little man on the T.V. screen as he stretched and exhaled rhythmically. It was really boring and I had trouble staying in some of the posses. Basically, the guy would alternate from the "downward dog", "warrior 1" and "warrior 2". It was just a cycle of repetition. He just kept doing those same couple of positions for so long. I kept with it for as long as I could, but eventually, I had to give up. I ended up completing about 40 minutes of the program, which was about half of the total time. I tried to stay focused and calm, but is was just not interesting enough. I felt good knowing I had taken care of my challenge so early in the day. The rest of the day sucked, a whole mess of homework and tests and work at the ice cream shack. But at least I had that yoga session inn to keep my mind, body and soul in balance. So much for this new age meditating malarkey.

Day 95: Mexican Coka Cola

     Cool things were supposed to happen today, really, I had it all planned out. Mac and I were going to take on the bike to Boulder challenge. I had everything packed and was totally ready to get some serious bike on. We set off on our journey but it soon became apparent that the wind was way too gnarly to bike in. We were fighting with the wind head on and losing. We struggled through the first mile and decided to call it quits. The wind was just too much to take. Thats when we chose the obvious option and acquire a couple of kites to fly. I wasn't about to count kite flying, we were just bored and wanted to take advantage of the wind. That whole kite flying thing didn't last long and was about as much fun as I remembered it (not very). We biked around and goofed off for the rest of the day. I biked home, disappointed that I hadn't completed my challenge. My dad was talking on the phone and pointed towards the kitchen where a plate of some delicious dinner was waiting for me. He signaled towards a glass bottle of Coke and said it was a Mexican Coke Bottle. There it was, my challenge, its not that cool, but its something. I had always heard that the Cokes from anywhere else in the world have a different formula than the ones in the U.S. I opened it and sipped at it casually as I ate my dinner. It was good, about as good as a normal Coke. I remember that the taste was a little funky and the aftertaste didn't seem as sweet, but I don't drink very much soda to begin with so I probably don't know what I'm talking about. I admit, this challenge is totally lame, but my plans for an awesome new thing caved in so this had to do. Pfft whatever.

Day 94: P90X Workout Program

       Yes, thats right, I'm on the program. You might say, hey, that kind of sounds like Day 65: Plymotrics (http://aimforeclouds.blogspot.com/2011/03/day-65-p90x-plyometrics.html). And I'd say, yeah it kind of does, doesn't it. See, that challenge from early March has inspired me to take on the entire program. That challenge was to complete "The mother of all workouts" -that guy in the video. This Challenge to complete the entire program. 12 exercises, 90 days. Today was upper body and back, one of my weaknesses (I don't think I have very many strengths). It was a whole bunch of push ups and pull ups. I definitely have some ground to cover if I want to complete this challenge. The same rules apply as the be a vegetarian for a week challenge (day 32 http://aimforeclouds.blogspot.com/2011/02/day-32-vegetarian.html), which means, this challenge may take more than one day to complete, but it only counts as one day. Hopefully I'll stick with the challenge so I can post updates about how much I suck at working out, but I wont count my workouts as challenges. Well, thats not entirely true. I was thumbing through the workout DVDs and saw that yoga was one of the workouts. I'll probably count yoga as a challenge cause I've never done that. So thats it. 90 days of me sweating and doing butt-in-the-air push ups. Radical.

The workout station

Day 93: Atomic Hot Wing Challenge

     Its the return of the food challenges. Hot wings are a favorite among competitive eaters and I thought that it was as good a time as any for me to test the waters of uber-spicy finger food. I figured that spicy food was the way to go on such a cold, snowy day. Today was bitter and cold, a dark contrast from yesterday's picture perfect, 80 degree-skating-in-just-shorts-cause-its-sooooooo-summer-like-outside weather. I got sunburned yesterday, and I wore a thermal, two hoodies and a jacket today. I'm not exaggerating, there is no stretching of the truth of hyperbole usage here. This is Colorado, and the weather is consistently this inconsistent. So anyways, I was at work and it was real slow cause nobody wants to buy ice cream when nature is generously throwing water flavored ice cream down from the heavens for free. Kevin and I bought the 10 piece combo deal from this place called Wingstop. I got 10 wings (5 Hawaiian, 5 atomic), some fries, a drink, and some free veggie sticks cause they screwed up my order twice. The Hawaiian ones were good, very tangy, the atomic ones... weren't so good. See that was the challenge, eat the hottest wings I could find. We called Wingstop and they told us that the atomics were what I was looking for. I'm not that into spicy food, I like a little heat, but I'm not yearnin' for a burnin'. It wasn't till after my 2nd atomic that I realized how much I wasn't into spicy food. I was sweating profusely and the top of my skull was super itchy. I alternated between wing flavors to rest my scorched tongue. I relied on the reservoir of iced tea and complementary veggie sticks to keep me from throwing in the towel. Things weren't looking good, my face was red and sweaty, my nose was running, and my hands were covered in hot sauce. I was a mess. Even though I wasn't looking too good, I did it. I finished the atomic wing challenge, and I had two celery sticks to spare (the iced tea wasn't so lucky). I stood in the walk-in freezer for a hot second to cool down and chugged a glass of water. I thought that the worst was behind me, I thought that I had came out on top, I was wrong. I cleaned up and prepared to get back to work. I threw my trash away and wiped my hands off. I went to the bathroom to take a leak, washed my hands and returned to work. It was when I was in the middle of making a guest's banana split that I realized a burning sensation coming from my... ummm,... penis. Yeah, sigh...yup. You may laugh now but trust me, it sucks tending to a crowd of hungry fat people with a fiery crotch. The burning feeling intensified as I served more customers. It kept sucking more and more. It wasn't a huge wave of customers, just a rush of indecisive ones. So I stood there, handing out samples and scooping flavors as a fire seemed to rage in my pants. Soon, but not soon enough, the crowd ordered and payed and was gone. I was free to... you know, remedy the situation. Lets just say that I put out the fire and things got better. I texted Mouse about the situation (cause of coarse its relevant to his life) and he said that its called a "hot rod" (which I find both hilarious and very fitting. He said that it happened to him after eating jalapeños and he said that he felt my pain. I had no idea that hot rods were even a thing. I knew that they were hot, but not in the sense that they burn you. So, besides the below-the-belt-inferno, I think that I came out of that challenge a victor. Aw yea!