Chicken Wing Eating Contest

Two weeks ago our friend Paul entered a chicken wing eating contest and won.  Last night was the so-called "championship", but there were not enough participants to make a real contest.  The two contestants that were going to participate were asked to bring their friends to make it into a legitimate contest.  So Paul called James to see if he would participate.  Apparently James has not taken his own advice about eating contests (the sushi debacle) and agreed to participate.  The restaurant is a bit of a hike for us so on the way over there we pumped up the jams so James could get himself psyched up.  We listened to a little bit of Eminem, Juvenille and of course DMX. 
Also, on the drive over we discussed James's eating habits and how I told him that I hope he does well, but I don't think he will because he is such a slow eater.  Sometimes it drives me nuts how slow he really is.  He contributes it to the fact that he is savoring the flavor of whatever he is eating. 
The contest was three minutes long and you had to eat 90% of the wing meat.  They brought out three huge bowls of saucy, hot wings.  After three minutes of eating hot wings, the boys were definitely on the messy side.  Unfortunately, he did not win.  There were eight contestants and he tied for last with two other guys, one of which being our friend Jeremy aka Cougar.  They ate 11, another guy ate 12, three guys including Paul ate 14 and the champion ate 18. 
I guess word of the contest got out and the reporter from the Buffalo News was there.  There are pictures all over the Buffalo.com website.  Here is a link to check it out!  I copied a few photos from the site and I also video taped the contest for your enjoyment.

Happiness before the contest.   Cougar and James.

Still thinking this is a good idea...

Sorry for the small video :(

Paul: mid chicken wing

The winner with 18 wings.

Post contest.  James is still trying to finish his last wing...

I thought Cougar was going to barf.

Cougar not looking so hot.

Counting the wings.  Notice the gloves.  The wings are so spicy they didn't want their hands to touch the sauce.

The disappointment face

The contestants

Cougar, Kristin and her BF Jeff

Kelly, Brooke and James

Erie County Fair

Apparently the Erie County Fair is the largest fair in the United States.  I had no idea.  It is pretty big but I would have never guessed.  Maybe this is why they call it "America's Fair". 
This year we headed off to the fair with Carter, Danielle and Jeff.  Jeff was our navigator so he led us off to see the hypnotist (which no one would go on stage for), the stunt dog show (which was awesome!) and then to the row of carny games.  In the words of Austin Powers, only two things scare me, the other is carnies.  They have small hands and smell like cabbage.  Well, I don't know if they smell like cabbage, but they scare me. 
James and Jeff decided to have a man-off and compete in some carny games.  James won a huge monkey for breaking 3 beer bottles in a row with a baseball.  Then I kicked every one's butt at the bowling ball rolling contest and won a small gingerbread man doll.  We took the monkey home to see if Tank would want to play with it, but he was really scared of it.  He actually ended up getting hives the next day.  We think it's either from him being super scared or that some bugs were on the monkey itself and they bit him.  Needless to say, I sprayed lysol all over my house that day. 

For some reason they had "Santa's Village" at the fair

The stunt dog show

Pre man-off

During the man-off

The sick carny monkey

My gingerbread man

Another man-off

I took a picture of these pigs because they reminded me of Tank...

Engagements

Here's a peek at our engagement photos and the annoucement that is going to be in the Salt Lake Tribune on Sept 4th!

(The pictures were taken by Stacey Smith.  She is an awesome photographer!)

I grew this...

No joke!  I grew this flower from a bulb!  Look at me go! 
I'm normally the opposite of a green thumb, I kill every plant that comes into contact with me.  But not this time.  With some help from my neighbor Nancy (who waters them when I forget), I was able to grow this all on my own!

Buffalo Scavenger Hunt

Last year we heard about this amazing event called the Buffalo Scavenger Hunt.  It's just what it sounds like, a scavenger hunt, but for adults.  Our friends Gavin and Joe have won the hunt the past two years in a row.  They made it look like so much fun so we decided to give it a go.  The teams are made up of four people, so besides me and James, we had Danielle and her boyfriend Jeff on our team.  It was on a Saturday from 12-5pm.  You think that 5 hours would be plenty of time, but when 4:30 was rolling around we were scrambling.  It was definitely not enough time.  At noon we were handed a list with about 200 items on there.  The items were listed in different groups:  Entire team pictures, one team member pictures, stranger pictures, items, trivia questions.  The pictures were pretty straight forward but the items and trivia questions were a bit more difficult.  Some of our "items" included a receipt for $.23, an ATM receipt with a bank balance of $20.10, a butter buffalo, a potato with BSH carved into it, a necklace made of "stuff" along the way, a turnip, a bouquet of weeds, etc...  I wish I would have kept the list, these items were hysterical. 

A orange cone hat

Doing a shot of Tabasco

Holding a bottle of Blue Light Lime

Fist pounding a mailman

A picture with 10 plus strangers

Selling a team member at a yard sale

A human sundae

Decorating a cake

A stranger praying at Gabriel's Gate

Doing the dishes at a restaurant

Smelling each others armpits in front of a dumpster

Giving each other piggy faces at Fat Bob's

It's 5 o'clock somewhere!

Eating a twinkie in one bite

Pantyhose bandit

Tissue box shoes (inspired by Kevin from The Office)

Giving a team member a swirlie

Switching clothes with another team...  Before

After

Drinking with our feet (with the help of straws)

Giving blowfish faces from inside Cafe 59

Impersonating people in a painting

Skipping on a red brick road (or sidewalk)

Sitting on a curbside couch

Picture with a limo driver

Picture with an entire wedding party

A team member under the waterfall at Rotary Rink

A stranger saying "That's hot!"

Eating the pickle at Coffee Culture

A team member stuck in the Auspberger Ramp

A papaya in front of Papaya

A stranger eating chocolate in front of Chocolate Bar

Kung Fu in front of Venue

Eating garlic

Wutang symbols in front of Club W

Flapping our arms in the Atrium Bar

A picture with Andy the Armadillo

Eating a gummy worm with chopsticks

Beatin' up the Beat Jersey Shore style!

Eating a meat ball in front of Prima Pizza