Vegas: Drunkachu and so long to Stan The Man

We live in strange, unpredictable times where anything is possible, no matter how incredible or how awful it may seem. Some of our greatest heroes have left us behind as they venture off to traverse the Rainbow Bridge, leaving a gap that many fans of superheroes and comic books will sorely and deeply feel. So long, Stan the Man. It's been an incredible ride, and your empire of creative work will undoubtedly continue to inspire and strike awe into the hearts of young and old for decades to come. Sigh. Not only did we lose Stan the Man, but then we got the trailer for Detective Pikachu. A live action Pokemon film in and of itself doesn't necessarily bode of impending cinematic craptitude, though previous anime adaptations to the third dimension have generally struggled to bring their subjects to satisfying reality, but we get a wise-cracking Ryan Reynolds as the voice of the typically linguistically limited character of Pikachu. To be fair, anthropomorphizing the little squeak isn't exactly new terrain as speaking animals have always been a favorite in films for Disney, but when it comes to Pikachu the last time he(she?) spoke people lost their minds.  

I guess, if I were a real-life Pikachu, I might want to run away to Vegas for a weekend of debauchery in a futile effort to escape my situation or the reality of losing another architect of my childhood. The world can be a dark and disturbing place, and we need people like Stan Lee to help us reimagine things, to look for the good, the heroic in people. While sometimes the stories of Good Versus Evil can feel trite, it's because they've been built upon an archetype established by the imaginations of men like Stan early in the advent of widely accessible comics. The premise of this escape from the difficulties of life was a huge part of what inspired the founder of Critical Care Comics to establish his non-profit organization! It may be only 28 pages of fantasy, but when you're stuck in the hospital it can be an absolute lifesaver to have a distraction from the endless beeping of machines or unsettling nature of hospitals themselves. Due to my location, I'm no longer able to volunteer my services to the group, but it makes me so happy to see them out there still doing their good work for the community of Las Vegas and any nearby hospitals they get called to. They're a seriously wonderful group of human beings, and I know that they'll be mourning the loss of Stan over the last week and into the future. I guess we all kind of need an escape these days, huh?

Photos in this post were taken by Antho!

10 things to do in Vegas this summer (part two)

There's no shortage of ways to stay entertained in fabulous Las Vegas, but if you need some inspiration for things to do this summer this list offers the second half of five out of ten (previous five can be viewed here) of my picks for things to do in Las Vegas during the summer season of 2018! 

6. Take in the view from the High Roller at the Linq promenade

If you're one for spectacular views from above, then this is one opportunity you won't want to miss out on! You can go during the day or night, or try to plan it out to catch the spectacular sunset views. The Linq promenade is easily accessible from most of the Strip as it's right in the heart of it all. The Linq promenade itself has plenty of restaurants, bars, shops and other entertainments to keep you busy for hours, if not days, if you stay nearby.  It's attached to both Harrah's and the Flamingo/ 

7. Jump off of the tallest tower in the city 

If simply gazing out at the lights and admiring their beauty isn't thrilling enough for you, you can try jumping off of the Stratosphere tower after taking in the view from the 108th floor. It's not hard to spot the Stratosphere and it's used as a landmark for orienting oneself by locals for a reason, and it's a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from Downtown and Fremont districts, so if you're still riding that adrenaline high you can also...

8. Zipline over the crowds under the Fremont Street Experience

Keep that adrenaline rush roaring by hopping a quick ride (bus, Lyft, Uber or even a rental bike) down to Fremont Street, at the North end of the Las Vegas boulevard strip. Here you'll find some insane people watching coupled with ample booze and mayhem to keep you entertained for hours. Within a short amount of time walking under the television screen-topped street, you'll likely encounter screaming butts flying overhead. Those would be the zipliners, who grabbed tickets to Slotzilla before you. You can join their ranks and zip over the street in a seated or superman style pose. 

9. Dance to some Reggae in the Desert 

Get funky with Las Vegas's largest reggae festival! General admission is $24.99 per person, making it one of the more affordable all-day music festivals. 

10. Dive-in movies at Wet'n'Wild! 

Same idea as the Dive-in movies at the Cosmo, except this time it's at Wet'n'Wild! Wet'n'Wild is a chain with several locations, so it's a little less limited to -just- Vegas, but there's definitely a lot of fun to be had between swim and screen time with the family! This will be especially appealing to those of you who don't want to be in a casino environment and the movies are much more family-friendly overall, with fun features like Moana, Despicable Me and even the Lion King (because who doesn't want to sob hysterically at the water park?)... 

Hope this provides you with some entertainment this summer!

Thanks for stopping by!

💕

XOXO,

NAU

10 Things to do in Vegas this summer (part one)

If you're in Vegas this summer (you lucky thing) you'll surely be in need of some forms of recreational fun between benders at the buffets and endless rounds at the tables. Our summer months here are especially toasty and the sun shines bright with little obstruction throughout most of the season. Given our sunny disposition, you might want to get outside and soak up some of that free-flowing vitamin D that proliferates here! 

1. Dive-in movies at the Cosmopolitan 

Like movies? Like swimming? How about floating in the cool, crisp water while classic films play at the Cosmopolitan hotel? Win-win, guys! There's a range of movies playing throughout the summer months, from a Star Wars triple feature (heck yes) to Ferris Bueller, Forrest Gump and other sentimental or cult classics. There will invariably be movie-themed beverages at the ready for your boozing up, along with lots of cool water to dip in should you find yourself growing warm. Isn't this what summer nights were made for?

2. Intergalactic Art Car festival

If you're into fancy vehicles and fantastic creations, but don't want to deal with the crowds, travel or cost of Burning man to see their freaky art cars, you're in luck! The giant flame-throwing Preying Mantis (doesn't every city have one?) at Downtown Container Park is teaming up with Lyft for this psychedelic festival. They'll do a parade down Las Vegas boulevard (aka the Strip) to show off for everyone, before returning to downtown for the festivities at 8pm. 

3. Stop in at the Springs Preserve

Get away from all the hedonism and debauchery of the strip and breathe in some fresh air and floral scents at this lovely oasis of natural beauty in the city. Only a short drive from Las Vegas boulevard, all the major casinos AND downtown, there's no reason to miss out! Much more open and less crowded than the Bellagio's conservatory gardens, you can check out their butterfly habitat (for a limited time) or check out the rotating exhibits in their museum! 

4. Catch a 51's game during their last season at Cashman field

After this season wraps up, Las Vegas's own minor-league baseball team will be moving to new grounds for their games, retiring the historic Cashman field. While all good things do have to come to an end, you'd definitely be missing out if you didn't try to catch one last game at this classic field before they move on to newer grounds. You can find their schedule here. Get you a helmet full of nachos while you're there, because you deserve it.

5. Ditch the city for the mountains, like Mount Charleston

If you enjoyed getting away from the tourist centers of the Strip by going to the Springs Preserve and are willing to go a little further out of the way, hop into your car (or rental, Uber, Lyft, or even a bus) and head out for the mountains. There's a lot of them to choose from, and while snow may be a rare sight during the summer months it'll still be many degrees cooler than the city itself. There are log cabins you can rent for an extra-special get away. They're only about a 40 minute drive from the heart of the city, and well worth the journey if you enjoy the outdoors!

Stay tuned for the second half of the list, dolls.

Thanks for stopping by!

💕

XOXO,

NAU

Vegas: Cici's pizza buffet

On a random weekday, several weeks ago, we happened to be out and about running errands in an area a bit away from where we normally go out to play. By the time our grumbling tummies grew loud enough to bring our attention to our appetites, we'd been out for hours without having eaten and had started to grow a bit hangry. This is never a good situation to be in, as people are never their best selves when ravenous with the need to feed. Upon reaching the destination of our last most critical of missions for the day (which was running on extremely limited time), we spotted a pizza buffet across the street and made it our destination post-errand. Not the most glamorous of food stations, perhaps- and the interior was certainly suffering from an overabundance of messy customers to staff, but it was certainly an amusing meal. We love pizza, like most reasonable human beings alive, and while this place is far from gourmet it's definitely a cheesy, carb-loaded feast that can fill your gullet for not a lot of cash. This is a big part of why it's got such a disproportionate ratio of customers to staff during the busy hours, I suppose. Who doesn't love a good deal? 

The food itself is alright. Like mentioned above, certainly not gourmet food here, but there's enough of the classics (pepperoni and cheese pizzas), salad, and dessert, plus you can get hot wings (for additional cost) to satisfy the whole family. There were birthday parties and kids a'plenty, confirming the family-friendly aspect of the place. There's even a macaroni and cheese pizza (yes, I got a slice) if you're in the mood for carbs and cheese on your carbs and cheese. Why not be extra? 

I didn't take a photo of it, but the table we ended up sitting at had a massive pile of detritus underneath. We weren't eating under the table (thankfully), so we just tried to avoid it with our feet and ignore its existence. There was already a lady shouting at some poor teenaged employee because her kid slipped in a puddle someone else's kid left by the arcade. Most of the tables were in varying stages of bussing so it was hard to find any that didn't have something going on, be it a pile of pizza crusts shoved in a corner or a pile of soggy napkins, but these things. We found one that was clearly unoccupied and focused ourselves on eating instead of judging the decor. I've worked in restaurants before and know how stressful and perpetually understaffed a lot of fast-casual joints can be, so I felt especially sympathetic to the poor employees who were trying to make it through. We knew going into this adventure that we weren't entering a fine-dining establishment, all we wanted out of this was to stuff ourselves with a satisfying pile of pizza and pickled beets (Schrute approved) on our salads. Mission accomplished.

So, I mean... We're obviously not going here every day, let alone week, especially since it's out of the way for us a bit, but I'm not hating on it. Maybe it'll be cleaner, albeit maybe less entertaining as a result, next time we visit, if we find ourselves out that way and hangry again.

💙💚💛

Solid 3 out of 5. 

Does what it needs to do, cheaply, but for the love of pizza please hire some more f**king staff. 

💖

XOXO,

NAU

Vegas: Harry Potter Party at Mae's

Have you ever dreamt of being a wizard, and sat eagerly by the door or the mailbox awaiting your Hogwarts letter only to be disappointed by cruel muggle reality? Never fear, my dears, because you, too, can live out your dreams of being a wizard, Harry! While you might not be doing it with our close friend Mae at her amazing party, you can recreate the experience in your own home with enough time and dedication.  😉 For weeks leading up to this party Mae dedicated hours to creating hand-made wands for each party goer to select upon their arrival and sorting into their appropriate house with the help of any friends willing to lend their time and efforts to the project. Both Antho and I put in some time making wands! It was a lot of fun and definitely something we'd like to do again. We were also both sorted into Ravenclaw on Pottermore, the official hub of all things Harry Potter on the internet. Ravenclaw is a house associated with cleverness, wit, creativity, talent and originality. Ravenclaws are smart and capable individuals who go about life to the beat of their own quirky drum, characterised by Luna Lovegood, Rowena Ravenclaw, Cho Chang, Sybill Trelawney, and unfortunately Gilderoy Lockhart (who used his wits and talent to rise to  his ill-begotten success).  While Gryffindor tends to get all the glory, Slytherin are known sassy sneaky snakes, Ravenclaws are working diligently behind the scenes pursuing our own, often times odd, passions. We don't need all the aplomb and praise so long as we can go after the things we're fervent about. 

I'm definitely a Ravenclaw. How about you? Have you ever been sorted? We happened to find an official Harry Potter Sorting hat while out at the Linq promenade and snagged it up for Mae's party as we wanted our beloved friend to have the best of the best available for her special birthday shindig, ya dig? When fate smiles upon you and bestows the appropriate gift at the appropriate time, you really should listen to your intuition and just roll with it. Is that a rather Sybill Trelawney sort of thing to say? Perhaps. Maybe I would have done well in fortune telling...

Now, gaze into the flames and tell me what you see, students.

What does your future portend? 

Vegas: Feast of Thrones at Mae's

We find ourselves extremely fortunate in that over the years we somehow became counted among the inner circle of our good friend Mae's close inner circle of personal friends. This includes a bounty of benefits, such as having the wonderful and thoughtful Mae as our friend, along with invites to the various festivities and events she hosts throughout the year. Not only is she an incredible human being in and of herself, but the amount of energy and attention to detail that she puts into every gathering hosted at her home is incredible! She really goes above and beyond to try to create the perfect evening and entertainment experience for all involved and it really shows! We've been going to her parties for years, first as friends of a friend, but she's such a chill and kind-hearted person that it's hard not to be her friend. Every time we make our way to her fabulous nerd-cave we find a new and exciting event in the works, too, which boggles my mind given the amount of energy and preparation involved for each one. It's always a good time, and the food has been outstanding, especially on the more intimate gatherings where more care and expense can go into the preparation. On this evening we were celebrating the season finale of Game of Thrones, which dates this post a bit, but at least it's finally here! 

Antho and I are a bit behind with the show as it took me ages to convince him to start watching it- and somewhere around season 5 or 6 we got distracted and left off.  Maybe it was all the death... or the CW's Flash probably came back on air and we got so caught up in our beloved Speedster, his melodrama and Team Flash's antics that we couldn't bring ourselves back to the death and tragedies of Westeros. Still, the season finale was certainly a spectacle to behold and we had a lot of fun! The food was absolutely fantastic and I ate an enormous amount. There were cheeses galore with sweet bursts of fruit to pop through the creamy richness, bacon wrapped dates stuffed with cheese, tender fluffy little roastie potatoes with crackly skins, sweet honey baked ham, umami stuffed mushrooms and so much more, all of it absolutely delectable. I was talking about this meal and event for weeks! This is typically the case for any of the events we attend at Mae's, to be fair. 😉

Photos continue below!

Vegas: Valley of Fire part 2

Valley of Fire is massive; the kind of expansive that would make an agoraphobic clutch up their hands and shriek in abject recoiling panic. 40,000 acres is a lot of land, and there's a lot of sand, stone and sky occupying that grand space. We spent the majority of our day here and still didn't see a fraction of everything there is to find or photograph. Every step we took was temporarily recorded in the sand, only to be blown away with the next strong gusts as we dipped our toes in the ocean of desert. The same was true for all sorts of life- we found a complicated tapestry of prints scattered among the bushes, a rich story of the creatures making this harsh environment their home. Even with all the tourist traffic and human footfall entering the area the local inhabitants seem to be doing quite well if the scattered piles of scat and abundant variety of tracks were any indication. Given the ephemeral nature of prints in sand and the frequent gusts we can get out here, we can only presuppose that the prints we witnessed during our trek were fairly fresh, maybe not within the hour but likely sometime in the same day or the night prior.  This is in contrast to the petroglyphs and ancient artefacts of prehistoric civilisations and species that also abound throughout the valley. History lingers while life invariably goes on, legends of the past looming on stone faces above a web of interspecies interaction. I doubt the rabbits care much for our stories, but who knows? Maybe they see human prints in their sandy home and contemplate their origins, coming up with their own tales of mysterious bipedal giants who occasionally stumble through.

More photos after the cut...

Vegas: Lone Mountain Park Sunrise

One beautiful day, Antho and I were lounging around trying to decide what to do with ourselves and I came to realize that we had an All You Can Eat Korean BBQ AND Sushi place not too far from our humble abode... this realization rapidly resulted in both of us eating ourselves into a happy slumber colloquially referred to as "the -itis" or a "food coma"... and we slept. We slept hard. Really hard. We were both beyond consciousness by 8 or 9 pm, easily, if not earlier, and when we later awoke semi-digested and bleary eyed, it was well into the early hours of the morning. We ended up marathoning movies and having a pretty good time, but as it neared sunrise Antho was growing anxious. He's been working mornings the last six months or so, rising at 4AM to leave for work by 5-5:15 in the morning, whereas my work schedule typically starts at a much more normative 9am. What this all translates to, is that Antho is usually up for sunrise and almost always alone for it. Since I was already risen, albeit more half-snoozing than shining, he felt the strong need to share at least this sunrise together. So we did. I was already awake and since Vanticore is a spacious vehicle (especially compared to my much loved, but much smaller, Volvo sedan) there was plenty of room for me to sprawl out and nap while we made our way to Lone Mountain Park. While I hadn't personally gone to the park before, at least in recent memory, Antho used to visit quite regularly as he lived nearby. One of the perks of living in a valley...mountains everywhere! 

And so, we were off, racing the sun. 

More photos after the cut!

Birthday Shenanigans & Smok Alien mod

To round out the birthday celebrations, Antho took me to see the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur Hotel & Casino. I've spent a lot of time inside the Excalibur over the years, though most of it was a long long time ago (but not in a galaxy far away) when I was still just barely learning how to do caricatures. It's changed a lot since then, as all things in Vegas have a tendency to do, but the Tournament of Kings has remained their signature show throughout. It's an exciting live show with brave Knights, sword fights, jousting, an entire bird for you to eat with your bare hands and plenty of crowd involvement. It was a lot of fun and I've always wanted to go, though I'd never gotten the chance, so I was pretty stoked for this to be happening. Unfortunately (or not?) there's no photography permitted inside the venue, at least not of the actors or the show itself. I did snag a quick photo of my meal:

But beyond that I put my camera away and focused on enjoying the show. It was a lot of fun and I'd definitely recommend it, especially for families with small children as it will definitely excite their imaginations! There's even real horses, guys. Inside a casino! 

Lips are Jeffree Star cosmetics in "I'm Shook", which I bought as a birthday present for myself. 

And speaking of presents, Antho got me the Alien mod by Smok. We both took to vaping as an alternative to smoking...while I never particularly took to the habit of smoking cigarettes too seriously I've enjoyed hookah on special occasions and enjoy the experience, while Antho was a long term heavy smoker. We'd reached a point where I'd been vaping for over a year and Antho got sick of having to step outside for a smoke break and finally decided to take the leap himself. He's been cigarette free for months now! Personally, I find vaping to be a lot of fun and love that it comes in such a wide array of flavors with so much different hardware and techniques, from squonking to sub-oHm, rebuildable mods to disposable, there's a lot of different options to choose from for any level of vape enthusiast. I started simple with a single battery mod that my friend gave me when she graduated to a nicer model. I used that for almost the entire duration of my time in Korea, though I was unpleasantly surprised to find that the juices were far more expensive in Seoul... would have been far cheaper to smoke cigarettes, but man, they just taste so vulgar! I have zero interest in them when I could instead be filling my mouth with sweet fruity custard flavors. When my first mod broke down, I picked up the Aspire Pegasus box mod at a shop  I know there's a lot of warnings and fear mongering out there (and many of my coworkers gave me their own horror stories about exploding mods), so of course vape at your own discretion. It's a hobby we both enjoy, so for my birthday Antho got me this big boy. It originally had a cherry red exterior to match the tank, but I found this skin online and knew I wanted it in my hands. 

As with any shiny new toy, we needed the right accessories! We went with Crepe brand's Banana Toast Crunch, a sweet and smooth banana cereal flavor that we've gotten again since. It's actually one of Antho's favorites even though he normally hates anything with artificial banana flavor. Hits smooth with decent clouds. The Strawberry is good, too, and one I'd like to pick up again. Dinner Lady was a lemon meringue pie that Antho really enjoyed, though I didn't use it as much because it's harder to fill my tank with drop tip applicator it came with. The Circus Cookie was good, and often got added to the tanks with the fruity cereal flavors to add more of that baked goods flavor. 

The Smok Alien mod takes two batteries, so it delivers a strong hit with dense clouds. The menu is clear and easy to read and there's so many options for customisation on wattage, oHm, pufffs, display settings, etc. You can easily pop out the batteries to charge separately or use the micro USB input. Antho's currently using this mod for his RDA set up with a Druga tank by Augvape. I liked the Alien a lot but it's a big mod, whereas I've typically been using slimmer single battery styles so it definitely feels bigger in my hand, too. I've since switched to a Smok Priv V8 which does a pretty good job of bringing the dense milky clouds of more powerful mods to the smaller size of a single battery mod. The Priv V8 is unregulated, which means that it hits strong with a fully charged battery then gradually tapers off until it runs out of power, and the battery pops out easily so you can swap a dead one for a freshly charged one in seconds- though it also has a micro USB port for charging, too, but I'm getting sidetracked here...There was a glitch that would pop up every so often when switching tanks  on the Alien and I'd find it jumping to high oHms on me and frying coils if i wasn't paying attention. Overall, though, I enjoyed the Alien while I was using it (and it was working appropriately) and Antho's especially happy with it for his RDA (which he's dubbed Rita). He's better with handling the menus and technical side, too, which is why i've switched to a simpler mod style.

Overall I had a great birthday and I'm so grateful I was able to spend it with my love, taking in beautiful sights and cute animals at the Springs Preserve along with an epic show at the Excalibur and big tasty clouds with our Smok Alien. 

Thanks for being here, along for the ride. 💗

More photos after the cut!

Vegas: Jerry's Nugget Prime Rib Lunch

Vegas is a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

For some of us it's home, whatever that means.

For others it's a mecca of all things hedonistic, a glittering oasis of gluttonous treasures awaiting enjoyment. It can be a beacon of hope or a merciless desert. 

My take on the city varies depending on my mood, but it's pretty safe to say that despite everything this town remains my home, whatever exactly that means. 

One of the lingering vestiges of Vegas's past remains in the restaurants, many still offering bevies of beef for bargain prices. Jerry's Nugget upholds this tradition, with their prime rib special proudly touted.

Vegas: Freak Hail storm 2015-11-04

Throughout the day it had been overcast with off and on drizzles, but parts of the sky remained bright and sunny regardless.  I believe they call that "Fox Rain" (여우 비, yeo-u bi, sun shower) in Korea? 

The word is used to mean "sun shower", but it's literally fox + rain. Fun!

One of the only K-drama that I ever really got into was called "My Girlfriend is a Gumiho". 

Gumiho means "9 tailed fox" in Korean! Fascinated by mythology, I was curious to see how the Korean lore would work within the context of modern society, especially a K-drama!

It was a charming show, and a guilty pleasure of mine even now~

Anyway, while I was downstairs tidying up after lunch it started to rain quite heavily. 

Rain, being a rare phenomena in Southern Nevada, is something I always welcome so I left our patio door open to enjoy the symphony of splatters. 

When the pitch changed, I grew curious and upon peaking outside saw the yard being pelted by hail!

Oh hail yes!

I called Antho down and we reveled in the unexpected weather together.

Pinging and panging every which way, a glittering staccato.

Before long it was all over, gone as quickly as it had come.

How has the weather been in your area lately?

Does it feel like fall yet?