Michael Jackson VIP night

I believe the evite said that if you're the type of person who likes to go to trendy night clubs then this trip isn't for you. Well that was a wrong, because as trashy as the Hawaiian Tropic Zone was, it is a trendy night club. Albeit in Planet Hollywood - the slut of the Las Vegas Strip (and that's saying something).

*note from Ginger: VIP tables and bottle service may not be in the spirit of STBE, but the way we ended up there definitely was! I demanded satisfaction, and we got it!


As mentioned previously we got not-deucedfaced by the weak drinks at the penny slots waiting for the UFC bout to end. Yawn. It ends and we waltz in at a quarter to 10pm - fifteen minutes before the MJ show, perfect. 10pm comes and goes and we're still watching a highlight DVD of homoerotic takedowns. The whole time Mike kept yelling, "Just make out already!"
Mike's brother-in-law (Steve? I'm bad at names.) was denied entry into the exclusive Hawaiian Tropic Zone (hereinafter HTZ) because his identification had expired last week and the state issued piece of paper stating it was in fact current was not enough for the bouncer. Sorry, you must be <21.


Well, extortion is an STBE tradition, but normally we're the ones threatening. So Mike wisely decides its time to speak to a manager. This is a problem, however, because Mike is dressed like a female circus ringmaster. Fear not, it is Las Vegas, and only the tourists are surprized by our silliness - the employees have seen much crazier/sadder lots than us.


Anyway Mike and sis go to the manager and explain the situation. Mike is trying to get some sympathy to get maybe-Steve in the (crappy) club. But his sister blurts out, "And then he asked for a bribe! Can you believe it!" At which point the manager switches from customer service mode to supervisor mode and shuts down. He no longer hears a complaint about a policy but a complaint about his employee. So he leaves to repremand the bouncer, and maybe-Steve never gets in. However, this may have contributed to the Demand for Satisfaction situation that came later (<-Foreshadowing!). I'll let Ginger elaborate.


Meanwhile, this was our Michael:

So those who called "she" win. Congrats. Here's what she looked like in costume (with a free glove we didn't receive):

Ginger in Vegas

She's already begun the Sugar magic. Surely she'll be updating soon.

theme night thrift shopping

Mike came over today and we did some shopping for STBE.

Our first stop was Thrift Town. We initially thought that giant pants would be hard to come by, but we found some suitably large pants right away. We then tried to find "patriotic"-wear, but weren't having a whole lot of luck, so we decided to look for some magic stuff. I found a velvet rose, and Mike found a rabbit beanie baby. After that, we headed over to the children's costume section where we hit the jackpot!


Here, Mike is modeling a child's tuxedo jacket with blue sequin lapels. Very fetching. But it didn't end there!


We also found a vest that has a faux-tuxedo front, complete with red bowtie and matching cummerbund. My mom's going to make some alterations to the clips at the back of the neck so Mike will be able to breathe. Mike found a twofer! A "patriotic" magician outfit! All for only $4.99!

We continued to wander the store and found an interesting homemade costume. I thought it was a clock, but Mike didn't believe me. I showed my mom the picture, and she agreed, it's Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast.


Clock twins!


After we left Thrift Town, we decided to hit up Toys R Us in search of some magician stuff, but left empty-handed. We asked some dude where the magic stuff was, and he pointed us to the "imagination section," which prompted us to start singing the Imagination Song from South Park. He also directed us to about 5 different stores where we could also find magic stuff and then offered to do magic tricks for us. Mike got us out of that situation by saying, "Thanks!" and turning around. It reminded me of that scene from Wayne's World where the security guard (played by Chris Farley if I'm remembering correctly) "had an awful lot of information for a security guard."

Anyhoo, needing more "patriotic" gear, we headed to ground zero, aka, Walmart. We were pretty disappointed in the "patriotic" gear they had in stock. Though, they did have a particularly xenophobic shirt that said, "America: This is our land." Mike and I thought the only way it could be worse was if it said, "now get the fuck out!" I thought that could be easily remedied with some puff paint. I ended up deciding on a less offensive shirt, but do plan to add, "now get the fuck out!" to it, anyway. Because nothing's more patriotic than telling people from strange lands to get the fuck out.

We also saw this lovely number:



And this 49ers hat that made me look like I had a mullet:



Also, Bubba Paris was there, signing books or something. Hardly anyone was going up and getting anything signed. I yelled, "Bubba!" when we walked in and he pointed and waved. Woo. Thrilling.

Mike didn't end up getting anything there, and I left with a patriotic (soon to be "get the fuck out of here") shirt and some Dale, Jr. Budweiser boxer shorts that I got for a buck fifty. Some lazy employee marked them as a clearance item even though they weren't. Stickin' it to the man!

I'll try to take pictures of the rest of the stuff I got later on. Until then, enjoy Mike's fabulous outfit!