2010 Feb 28 | rodeo BBQs, GUR, Body Art Ball



Had to take a little longer route to the Jeep this morning because they were fixing the sidewalk.



Getting a feel for what it's like to lead a blind person.



Why don't they just say "Your funds will be available within five days"? And why not day three?



I like to be over-prepared when I do things by buying lots of items. Then I just return whatever I don't use. In this case, $75 worth of camping gear from Target for the caving trip.



Buying kolaches for the family practice front desk staff. I like this place; there's a wide variety of customers. About the only race I haven't seen in here lately are Asians. Although it's really busy. I asked for some fruit ones, she said it would be 20 minutes, and I said I'd wait. Then she told anyone after that who asked for fruit kolaches that there weren't any.



Jenny had wristbands to a private tent to the rodeo BBQ cook-off through her work, so we went on Thursday night.



The nice thing about the private tents is there is unlimited food and alcohol.



Most of the tents were more country oriented, but this one was more like a nightclub and even had stripper poles set up.



A neat looking booth with corrugated metal for the sides.



Another neat one with mountains and animals.



This booth gave out sacks of free bread. However, neither of us liked what they gave us (donuts and bagels), so we just left it for someone else.



The main stage had free concerts.



We parked in a big parking lot with Fiesta and some other stores. You're not supposed to, but we didn't want to pay whatever the parking fee was to park in the actual lots. It's a bit risky because they say they'll tow you, but we were fine, even though we saw a tow truck driving around.



Returning stuff to Wal-Mart. The line was huge, so I just set my returns off to the side, went shopping, and came back afterwards, when there was no line. I was a little worried my stuff would get taken or moved, but it was only worth $5, and that wasn't enough to wait in this line.



I was looking for some boots for the rodeo. These are neat, but they aren't exactly what I had in mind.



I ended up getting some at Cavender's. However, they were pretty uncomfortable, and my dress shoes basically look like boots, so I just wore those and returned the boots unused.



I wonder who decided that out of all the possible channels, the bank should have the Cooking Channel on the TV.



Saturday Lucy and I did the Great Urban Race, a big scavenger hunt around the city. Tammy, a classmate, and her boyfriend joined us.



Some cool costumes.



Another neat couple: monkey and a banana.



Everyone crowding around to get the clues.



These people cheated. Once they handed out the clues, they told everyone to wait to start looking at them, but these groups kept going.



Tammy and Jimmy worked on half of the clues...



... and Lucy and I worked on the other half.



I had initially planned on taking pictures of the clues and emailing them to Monica to help us figure them out...



... but it wasn't really necessary because just calling her worked.



She looked some up on her computer and mapped out the locations for us, which was a huge help. This was my initial sketch of where we had to go.



Tammy had found some good maps of the area, though, so we put the locations on there so we had a better idea of how far it was to each spot.



Some other racers trying to figure out the clues.



Our first one: shake a dog's paw.



Our second one: take a picture with a stranger who has a cowboy hat. Lucy and I hadn't initially planned on dressing up, but since we were going to the rodeo BBQ that evening, we decided to just wear those outfits. Which serendipidously came in really handy for this clue.



The clues were bunched into three different areas of the city. Most of the racers took buses between the areas. However, since they were only about 15-20 blocks apart, it actually would have been faster to run. Since we were just out to have fun rather than try to win, though, we decided to use the buses so we could rest a bit.



Move three blocks to the top in Jenga. I was just playing around, not trying to complete the clue, and my tower fell over. Even though I was only having fun, the judge said I had to put it back up before we could leave. Then some little kid come along and started building a structure with some of the blocks I had knocked over. I was a bit annoyed she was making me rebuild it when I was just playing around, so I snidely asked her if I had to destroy his nice little tower to build mine back up, and she said no.



This was the only clue we actually ran to. We had to take a picture in front of a clock, but it had to be on 20, 40, or 60 minutes. It was a few blocks away and we only had five minutes until the next time...



... but thankfully we made it.



Another clue involved having one partner feed the other a cookie.



A bum happened to be in the area and lots of people just took the picture without actually eating the cookie and gave it to him. By the time we got there, he already had a huge stack of cookies.



Another clue was to make two origami pieces at the public library. There were three Asians and me, but I still made both pieces faster than they made theirs, haha.



Lucy got all freaked out because she couldn't find her sunglasses. Until I told her they were on her face.



This clue involved getting a ping pong ball in a cup for beer pong. However, they weren't actually checking to see if you did it. So Lucy was over there trying to make a shot while I just ran by and grabbed the ticket. We noticed that the ticket gave us a free drink, and the bus was taking a while to get there, so we went back in and got another ticket for another free drink.



If you weren't quite sure where to go, you just had to follow the big stream of people in costumes.



Lucy had brought some toy ponies for our outfits. Rather than carry them, though, I just tied them onto a belt buckle.



One of my favorite sets of costumes: Ninja Turtles.



Another fun costume: A German guy and a guy painted as a German flag.



The four of us waiting for the bus.



Another group using our cowboy hats to do that question. It was funny because the person with the hat on had to be a stranger, and these girls ran up to this guy with the hat, and as soon as he saw them, he knew what they wanted. Because obviously the only reason you'd run up to someone with a cowboy hat is because you want them to wear it.



This part had some little games we had to do, like a wheelbarrow run...



... and walking with a ball between our heads.



This wasn't a clue at all, but since Tammy was a turtle (their costumes were a turtle and a hare), she thought it would be fun to get a picture with one of her "relatives," a dinosaur.



We could skip one clue, but since we were doing the race for fun and not for time, we decided to do all of them. This one was the farthest out of the way, but on the way there, we saw some really neat houses.



Like these.



And even a neat minivan.



Watching a short movie for the clue.



Waiting for the bus.



Another problem with taking the bus is they got full, so not everybody could make it on and they had to wait for the next one. I wonder what the people who were just normally taking the bus that day thought when a ton of people in costumes jumped on.



The guy on the right is a protestor protesting the protestors.



The bus full of racers.



I liked these guys' costumes, too.



The four of us at the end.



A woman checking our camera to make sure we had done all of the clues.



That night Lucy and I went to the rodeo BBQ cookoff. It was fun because since we were dressing up as cowboys, I needed a big belt buckle, and I actually had a real one from the Selby rodeo.



Haha, that's cute.



First we ate at the general admission tent, and then we snuck into a private tent for some more food.



After eating we went to the carnival. Most of the rides took tickets, but this one only took cash. $50 for 10 seconds was way too high for us, though.



Bumper cars.



The seats for this ride were really high off the ground, so this woman kept trying to jump into her seat while everyone else cheered her on.



Flying around.



Us on the ride. Good thing our hats had strings to hold them on.



We were walking past another ride and this glove came flying at us. Someone on the ride must have lost it, so we left it at the exit.



A view of the carnival from the ski lift ride.



And in the other direction.



A huge line for food.



I don't know if these washers are broken, but it's annoying that there's all this detergent sitting at the bottom of them.



I like the Downy lavender sheets, but these aren't quite the same. I hope they didn't stop making the plan lavender ones because I don't like these as much.



Aw, the light-up glasses we got at the BBQ cookoff got ruined when I washed them.



Sunday night Jenny and I went to the Tuaca Body Art Ball. It was free and we even got two free drink tickets each.



The show had 15 performers who were body painted doing various routines. This guy was a cyborg.



Prince.



A cowgirl.



A woman with a big cape.



A woman dancing on a chair.



You could text your favorite performer to the show to vote, and this guy won; he did robot movements.



This was our favorite performer; a woman with hula hoops.



I really liked his costume because the suspenders and belt were glitter.



A couple who did acrobatics.



All of the performers at the end.



Most of the people who came to watch dressed up kind of in clubbing attire, and I thought this was a neat oufit: a really deep V-top with mesh. The people at the entrance said I couldn't use my actual camera, so when I was out in the lobby, I used the camera on my cell phone instead, which isn't nearly as good.



Jenny beside a 4-armed mannequin.



An ice sculpture of a torso.



Jenny by the dragon ice sculpture.



This was sad. Jenny's neighbor was killed by her boyfriend a few weeks ago, and her family keeps leaving all of these flowers outside her apartment.



A storm cloud over downtown.



Bryan doing an LPI on a bunny in lasers lab.