Leap Night!

When was the last time you celebrated Leap Night, which falls every four years on February 29th? If you said, four years ago, then good for you, but for many people including myself, I have never seen this as an opportunity to go out and celebrate. Until now! This is where Pop-Up City comes in handy. Pop-Up City creates events around Cleveland in vacant areas of the city, to showcase not only the city, but the people who like to spend time and money in this city (we are an under-appreciated people).

This Friday, Pop-Up City is creating Leap Night 2008. According to the webiste, Leap Night will turn a vacant lot in The Flats into a Winter Wonderland while featuring a snow and ice installation, a winter forest complete with costume bears, music, bonfires, performances by SAFMOD, Cleveland’s multi-media performance ensemble, an ice skating rink, a snowboard ramp and rail jam competition, an outdoor Rock BandTM video game competition, a snowsuit fashion show, and food and drink vendors. I personally never miss an opportunity for a good snowsuit fashion show and either should you. Come out and support Pop-Up City and Leap Night 2008.

I Knew It!

My long-time suspicion that Mother Nature is a Republican turned out to be true today. While she has always been conservative with the sunshine in this part of the country, it wasn't until today's horrible snowstorm that I realized she wasn't the liberal everyone thought she had been all these years. If you don't live in Cleveland, let me clue you in to the weather situation here: snow, snow and more snow. I put a picture up of the current weather conditions in Cleveland. You see that blue stuff? That's snow. Underneath that blue stuff? That's Cleveland.
One of the biggest political moments in Cleveland is about to happen tonight when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton face off in a debate downtown at Cleveland State University. Seems a little suspicious that the worst storm of the winter would hit while the democratic candidates are in town, especially considering the weather John McCain had yesterday when he visted Cleveland. While he was here, it was a balmy 45 degrees out-I was practically wearing shorts. With the debate tonight, the streets are going to be closed downtown due to the media and secret service, making the afternoon commute even worse when you combine it with the weather. Upset drivers are going to be cursing the name of one woman for all of this and I am sure it won't be Mother Nature, but Hillary. The Republicans are using every trick in the book this election season and it is only February.

February 27, 2008
I would like to retract the above blog statement due to the fact that we all know Mother Nature is a tree-hugging liberal. She also made Cleveland look beautiful with all the snow yesterday, as cameras caught glimpses of our quasi-Winter Wonderland to show around the country.

Dem On Dem Violence

"Dem on Dem Violence" is the term I coined yesterday after watching a staunch Obama supporter harass a staunch Clinton supporter. The Clinton supporter was simply holding a Hillary sign at an Obama rally. Can't we all just get along, and save all this harassment until we have to fight the real enemy in November?

The Las Vegas Blog Post

Introducing the first-ever Sportygrrl Las Vegas awards. A ceremony that chronicles our wonderful stay in the real city that never sleeps.

Best place in Las Vegas to get anything you could ever want on your burger from lobster meat to black truffles to fried egg: The Burger Bar (earlier during the awards ceremony, The Burger Bar also won for best selection of imported beers). This restaurant was located in Mandalay Place, not Mandalay Bay which is a little confusing at first, but it is worth the search.

Best place in Las Vegas to see a re-creation of King Tut's Tomb: The King Tut Museum located inside the Luxor Casino. This award could also be re-named: Best place to visit once you have realized you are lost inside the Luxor and can't find your way out of the casino area.

Best place in Las Vegas to watch Beer Pong after midnight: O'Sheas Casino. They actually advertise the authentic beer pong tables they have in the back of the casino. This place resembles a bar from 1982 more than a casino, which is part of it's charm.

Best place in Las Vegas to use a public bathroom: The Venetian. On our long trek down the strip at 3 a.m., it was nice to know you could stop inside a public bathroom with gold trim and private rooms to take a pee break.

Best place in Las Vegas to sit in front of a firepit and eat chicken wings: The Peppermill Fireside Lounge (earlier in the awards ceremony, The Peppermill also won for best $18 drink, which was named The Scorpion). This whole experience was amazing. It was definitely our favorite spot on the strip as we spent a couple hours at the bar and then moved down to the firepit to eat dinner. This is vintage old school Vegas! The wings here were also really good. I gave them a 4.0 out of 5.0 on my wing rating scale.

Best place in Las Vegas to play slots at 5 a.m.: Slots A Fun. Sure...it's dingy and a little scary, but you won't get the real feel of this place during daylight hours. We were quickly sold on the yard-long daiquiri and tacky slot machine themes.

Best place in Las Vegas to eat lunch when you are hungover: The Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood. They have everything here combining every nationality you can think of including a middle eastern selection. The food was extremely good for a lunch buffet and perfect for a "morning after meal".

Best place in Las Vegas to experience an atomic bomb being detonated: The Atomic Testing Museum. This hands-on museum is located right off the strip and was a great late afternoon activitiy. The museum includes movies, war propaganda galore and many pictures of Miss Atomic Bomb 1957. The best part about this museum is that it shows a very accurate reflection of how crazy people were during the Cold War.

Best view in Las Vegas: The Foundation Room at the top of Mandalay Bay. The Foundation Room is a private club affiliated with the House of Blues and located on the top floor of Mandalay Bay. We were able to get in because my cousin was kind enough to pull a few strings and get our name on the guest list. This place really did make us feel like royalty with the velvet ropes, elevator greeters and an unbelievable view of the strip. They do open this place up to the public on Monday evenings and I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Las Vegas.

Best view of Las Vegas from the middle of the strip: The Eiffel Tower at the Paris Resort and Casino (earlier in the awards ceremony this also won as the most french thing you can do in Las Vegas). Sure, it's a little cheesy to go up a fake Eiffel Tower, but we had a coupon from our Players Club Book, which makes it so much more legitimate. What really made this vertical venture worthwhile was viewing the watershow at The Bellagio from above.

Best place to spend two hours in the desert viewing three acres of old Las Vegas signs: The Neon Boneyard. Like Las Vegas? Like history? Like neon? Like getting sunburnt as you walk around looking at old Las Vegas signs? Then this is the place for you! It all came together for me when the tour guide said: "In 1929 neon was patented, and in 1931 gambling was legalized in Nevada." These two events led us through decades of tacky neon signs that eventually ended up at this somewhat secretive Las Vegas escape. If you are going to take this tour, you have to book it in advance.

Best Place in Vegas to get a 99 cent margarita: Our Hotel, Bill's Gambling Hall and Casino. This was way too convenient. The margarita bar was located right by the door, so you ALWAYS passed by it.

Best place to get a cheap microbrew: Ellis Island Casino and Brewery. This place was a pleasant surprise, and a favorite spot for locals. It's an older casino, located two blocks behind the strip with a microbrewery right inside the casino. The best part was that all their brews were only $1 no matter which one you ordered.

Best place to drink a beer under the World's Largest Pint Glass: Hennessey's Tavern. Before entering the Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Las Vegas we stopped inside this little Irish pub to grab some dinner. Luckily for us, Tuesday was Burger night, so we got a free meal. Located above Hennessey's is the largest pint glass in the world, which also happens to be a club called Brass The Lounge. Its a good pit stop as you walk around Downtown.

Best place in Las Vegas to drink out of a plastic football while watching a crazy light show: The Fremont Street Experience. If you haven't seen this light show or been involved with this experience, it is hard to describe. Every hour, the biggest light show in the world goes off for five minutes and completely captivates everyone who watches it. We debated going downtown, but I am so glad we did it.

Best place to gain five pounds and lose a lot of money: Las Vegas!

People try to describe Las Vegas to you before you go, but there is only so much you can do to prepare for this experience. If you have been there, then you know what I am talking about. If you haven't made the trip, then I highly advise you do it at least once.

A Small Taste Of Vegas And A Foreign Dose Of Wings

While the "Las Vegas Blog Post" has yet to be finished, I did want to direct you to a very small sample of pictures, that I uploaded last night. If you click this link, you can catch a glimpse of our four-day trip keeping in mind there are still hundreds of pictures yet to be loaded. You should be able to click on the individual pictures to enlarge them and see the caption.

In the meantime, I read this story yesterday about a hockey player from Czechoslovakia who was hospitalized in Buffalo after a traumatic incident during a game. The player was critically injured, but as he recovered in Buffalo, his one request was to eat authentic Buffalo Wings. Stories like this just warm my heart! My favorite quote from the story was from the doctor: "He asked if he could eat Buffalo chicken wings," Noor (the doctor) said. "So we let him." This quote reminded me of the famous words uttered by Marie Antoinette, instead of letting them eat cake, she should have said: "Let them eat wings!"

The Morning I Got Trumped By Chelsea Clinton

I arrived back at work today after four days in Las Vegas. As I walked into my building I saw a band and balloons hung all over the inside of my building. I assumed this was my "Welcome Back Michele" reception until I saw all the cops. Thinking back on what I had done the last four days, this made me a little nervous. Actually none of this has anything to do with me. When I walked into my office, my boss informed me that Chelsea Clinton is speaking inside our office building today about thirty feet away from me. I wanted to tell everyone about my trip, but I guess this is a much cooler story than my adventures in Sin City. First Vegas and now the former first daughter: this has been quite a week! If I wasn't such an unlucky gambler (as I found out firsthand over the past couple days), I might actually consider playing the lottery.

Reason #138 That I Am Excited To Go To Vegas...

...Big Elvis performs at our hotel everyday from 3 pm to 6 pm for free.

In about 48 hours, my plane will be touching down in seventy degree-weather to spend a care-free vacation in Sin City. I am looking forward to reporting back to the Blog at the end of next week to catch you up on all the fun.

Closer Than You Might Think

After a successful year for the Cleveland Browns, it looks like they may still be a couple years away from contending for the AFC championship and the Super Bowl...or are they? After the New York Giants won yesterday, I went back and found a statistic I remembered reading a couple weeks ago from Peter King, journalist for Sports Illustrated that showed the Browns might not be that far off from becoming a serious contender. Here is the difference between the Cleveland Browns and World Champion New York Giants: The Browns were 7-1 at home and 3-5 on the road in the regular season. The Giants were 7-1 on the road and 3-5 at home.

Both teams finished the regular season with an identical record of 10-6, but because the AFC is an overall tougher division (and a serious choke job at Cincinnati), the Browns lost out on making the playoffs. This statistic might mean very little to you, but when you are a Cleveland sports fan, anything positive that you can read into (and I am really reading into this) means a lot.

A Nice Leather Vase

Last week my co-worker asked me why my blog was titled: "So Now What". For those of you who never read my first post, I will tell you what I told her: These are the words I said after the Super Bowl ended in 2005. The day after the Super Bowl is a hard one for me. It means I will have to wait seven more months until I see another snap again. Hello my name is Michele and I am addicted to football. However today is also the three year anniversary of my blog. This anniversary is more like Thanksgiving than the Fourth of July. It doesn't always fall on the same date, but it is always the Monday after the Super Bowl. I was looking on-line to see what gift to give my blog for this three year anniversary. The traditional gift for three years is leather and the modern gift is crystal, so I am torn.

In other news, the Super Bowl last night was incredible, and I made the most of the event, which happens to be one of my favorite days of the year. We had my brother Mark over and the three of us all agreed the party was the perfect size. I found out last night that Mark and I have the same theories on Super Bowl party size, and creating the perfect environment in which to watch the game. Hello my name is Michele and I am addicted to football. If you saw the food we put out, you probably would have thought there were ten people there, not to mention the amount of beer that was consumed. We put out homemade spinach dip, a jalapeno cheese ball, shrimp cocktail, salsa and chips and this recipe for chicken legs, which turned out to be the perfect Super Bowl snack. The only problem with cooking these chicken legs is that they make the house really smokey, which obviously takes away from the perfect Super Bowl environment.