Man vs. Food

A couple weeks ago James was watching Man vs. Food and they were doing a challenge at Kobe Sushi in Salt Lake City.  He immediately called Pete and they were giggling like little school girls on the phone.  I had asked my step sister Brooke if she had ever heard of the restaurant but she said no.  I informed her of what we were doing and she and her boyfriend Mike were very interested in watching those two clowns light their insides on fire.  Word spread to my dad and step mom so it soon became a family affair. 

In the Man vs. Food challenge, Adam has to eat 4 levels of the sushi, each one getting progressively hotter.  The last level is an entire roll (6 pieces) that is 80 times hotter than a jalapeno.  There is no time limit and you can have whatever beverages you want.  Here is a link to the episode.

We finally made it to Kobe on the Friday we were in Utah.  When we got there Pete and James immediately informed the waiter that they were there to do the Hellfire challenge.  His eyes got big and he kind of chuckled and I took that as a bad sign.  When you do the Hellfire at Kobe, it's only 3 levels instead of 4.  Pete and James got to share the first roll and both said it wasn't that bad.  It got worse from there.

The next roll they had to have on their own and it was two pieces, but they were larger than normal and they were made of only the seaweed, rice and the "devil's powder" as James described it.  Boy, he didn't know what was coming to him next.   After eating these two pieces, Pete decided he was done.  By now they had both drank at least 4 glasses of milk each.  (Warning: If you do this challenge, they will charge you $3 for EVERY milk you drink). 

James had decided he was ready to move to the final level.  The sushi chef came over to check on the boys and they informed him that Pete was done and James was moving on.  Pete got a complimentary ice cream dessert from the chef and James got a waiver to sign.  At that point I informed James that if his insides were burning later, I would not be driving him to the hospital.  Of course that didn't mean anything to him and he signed the waiver.  When the waiter brought over the first two pieces, it had a sparkler in the middle.  It probably would have been a better idea to eat the sparkler than those two pieces of sushi.  But down the first one went....

After chewing and swallowing, James's face instantly became red, he started to sweat and tears were rolling down his eyes.  He could not drink his milk fast enough.  Meanwhile, the rest of us at the table (minus Pete, cause he knew what he was going through) were laughing hysterically.  After a few minutes I could tell that James was going to be sick.  I told him to go to the bathroom and Jaime went to Dan's to get some bread and chocolate milk.  James got up to use the men's room and I had Pete follow him.  By this time, I was feeling a little sick myself after watching these two boneheads.  So I head to the ladies room.  When I venture out to the table, James is not there.  I'm informed that he has "stepped outside for some air".  As I walk out the door and turn to follow him, I get a view I never want to see...  Him barfing.  I couldn't help but stop and laugh.  (Does that make me a horrible person?)  It went all over the steps right outside a jewelry store.  I stopped him in the alleyway and told him I would go get some water.  I went back to the table, informed everyone what happened, grabbed some water and me and Pete went to wash him down.

James said he immediately felt better after puking up, what I can only describe is, milk and red hell powder.  Pete did not feel so good, since he still had that fire all jumbled in his stomach.  He attempted to barf but no success.  When we got back to grandma's, James spent 30 minutes in the bathroom and then passed out on the bed.  The next morning he used the facilities and "scared off a dragon with the fire coming out of his ass". (Direct quote).

James said he learned a valuable lesson that day... Never do anything that requires you to sign a waiver.  That is some wisdom right there.   

He's all smiles right now....

The infamous waiver

Pete is struggling

Just eat the sparkler!

He doesn't even eat this!

You can tell he's already sweating..  This is post 3rd level.

The remnants.  Sorry it's gross!

That pile of wood in our backyard...

I believe our deck is older than I am.  Our house was built in 1982 and I was born in 1983.  So that confirms it, it's old.  When you get older, you start to rot, develop wrinkles and fade away.  That's exactly what our deck has become.  I'm sure everyone has already figured out that James is the opposite of handy so our deck has just sat and rotted away ever since we moved in.  That was until his brother came to town to visit for a weekend and decided to force James to fix the deck by taking a hammer to the rotting wood.  What a fantastic idea!  Why didn't I think of this? Any time I need something fixed I'll just take a hammer to it...  But that probably won't work for me.  James was not happy about doing manual labor because he doesn't like to get his pretty hands dirty.  So needless to say, he was a big fat whiner the whole time they were working.  And I thought it was hysterical. Now when it gets a bit cooler and a lot less humid, we will be sanding down the old pieces and finishing the whole thing. 

Eron starting to rip up the deck

He's especially not happy that I'm taking pictures...

Our supervisor

Broken hammer

So happy after I went and got some gloves

Working hard

Poor baby got a blister

Our neighbor was painting her deck and Tank decided to run up on it to see if his BFF Griffin could come out to play... Notice the white paws.

Crazy July

July was fun month but it was packed to the brim with activities.We already had softball Monday and Friday's and since this was probably the nicest summer we've had in 3 years we made sure the other days were not wasted away at home.
For the fourth of July weekend we drove to Ann Arbor to visit James's Air Force roommate Stan (who's real name is Tristan) and his fiance Brooke.  It was confusing and the boys ended up just saying either "yours" or "mine" to identify which one of us they were talking to.  We also brought along Tank Monster to play with their dog Finley.  I thought he was going to be an absolute ass in the car but he turned out to be very pleasant, especially on the way home since he was exhausted from playing/fighting with Finley.  Also, Stan and Brooke were nice enough to get us tickets to the Tigers game.  James and Stan spent most of the weekend trying to be men and beat each other in bocce ball.

The next Friday we drove down to Pittsburgh to meet up with James's parents, brother, sister-in-law and nephew.  They all met down there for a weekend since they figured it was in the middle of Buffalo and Charlotte.  We only stayed Friday night and left Saturday night and got home about 1am since I volunteered at the Taste of Buffalo the next day.  It is the 2nd largest food festival in the country and boy was it delicious.  I had my two wine slushies, some mac & cheese, a pulled pork sandwich, some sushi, some shrimp, chinese noodles, a caramel explosion and some fondue.  Needless to say, I did not have to eat dinner that night.

The whole fam

Paul & Linda

EJ, Rachel & Eron

"Get me out mom!"

"Come here deer!"

Beaver, hehe

The next Thursday was the start of the Italian Festival, another amazing eating fest, as well as a fantastic place to people watch.  I had a stuffed banana pepper in a sausage roll topped with a mozz stick, meatballs, clams casino, fried lasagna and took home a cannoli.  I also took home some horrific memories of the people at the festival that will forever be singed in my head. That Friday the girls celebrated Corinne's birthday, Saturday we had an awesome time at Cougar's (Jeremy's) graduation party, and Sunday we hung out with the Weiner Dog Club of Buffalo at the Bisons game.  Tank was in a race on the field but went for someone elses treats and ended up coming in last.  We look at it as a win since he did not run off into the dug out.

Kristin and I celebrated like it was our own birthday...

Thursday we ventured down to the Square to hear the sweet sound of G Love and The Special Sauce.  Friday was Stevie and Peter's rehearsal dinner and Saturday was a debacle of a wedding.  There was a monsoon, we partied with Paul Gaustad of the Buffalo Sabres, ate delicious food, danced the night away, tried to start a few fights with the Boston kids on the shuttle back to the hotel, went out on the town afterwards, and ended the night with some street meat (James did, I did not).

Some were enjoying the music more than others...

Sniffing pixie sticks from the candy bar...

It doesn't turn out well.  Don't do this at home kids!

Sunday we headed up the Blvd to Ellicott Creek Park and played Kan Jam, catch and had a homerun derby.  We were joined by Tim, Kelly, Carter, Rick and his friend (I forget her name.. woops)

Soooo tired.  He's just hanging out in the back seat in Rick's suit coat.

This last Wednesday was Wines in the Wild at the zoo.  All of the ticket sales went to the zoo and we got to enjoy some wine from the local wineries and food from local restaurants.  It was delightful.