Reasons to go to STBE 2012

• We have Kat! 
• We may not have Binh this year, but we do have Kat. Kat is our resident giant, and she does anything we ask her to do. Last year, she swam up to a leathery older man in the pool and sidled up next to him to ask about his shoulder shirt, and later, she pretended to be a Disney employee and confronted a guy on the street wearing a bootleg Mickey Mouse costume. Hilarity ensued. She's also a student of STBE, studying our website and proving her worth this year by alerting us to a price drop in the hotel resulting in a $30 refund.
• We're cheap! 
• We stay downtown because hotel rates are cheaper than on the strip, and it's much easier to find bargains on food, drinks, and gambling. And we don't go to nightclubs unless some rich Australian lady declares that she "likes the looks of [us]" and pays the cover charge for us, all so she can futilely flirt with Mike.
• We become the tourist attraction!!! 
• It's the most fun you'll ever have on a trip that doesn't involve expensive nightclubs and weird, nude circus shows. As Stephen says, "We just go wherever the costumes take us."
• We're VIPs! 
• All you have to do to be a VIP in Vegas is declare yourself one. We put fliers signifying our VIP status on our hotel room doors and announce that we're VIPs when we show up to the pool with a cooler full of beer, and apparently, that's all we need to do to not get kicked out. No one has questioned our VIP status yet!

Theme Night Spotlight: Mormon Missionaries

For the first time ever, we formed an STBE planning committee and had a planning meeting, which was really just an excuse to get together and have a few drinks.

Anyhoo, the goal was to choose the third theme night. Red Hat Ladies is a staple night, and White Trash legitimately won both polls, so we had to decide between what was left on the list. Except nothing really jumped out at us, so we decided to go all wild card.



We toyed with the notion of Stevie Nicks' Fajita Roundup night, but thought people would be confused and think we were witches. And also, that we'd be really hot.


lucy lawless by dummy-account

Then we thought Polygamist Mormons might be fun, but Ryan thought we didn't have enough people to make the whole sister-wife thing obvious.

So we ended up going with the next best thing: Mormon Missionaries!!! I want to first state that I have no problem with Mormon people; with the exception of one a-hole in high school, every Mormon I have met has been extremely nice. What many of us take issue with is the church's involvement in political issues, especially gay marriage. So this is all intended in good fun, we're not bashing Mormons here, OK?

We decided that we should all match, so here is your official checklist of items needed for Mormon Missionary night.

Short-sleeved white dress shirt.

These can be found at Walmart for about $9.

Black knee-length shorts. Actually, these are too long - they should hit just above the knee.

A cheap alternative can be found (once again) at Walmart for about $12.

Knee-high socks.

A black necktie.

What kind of Mormons would we be if we didn't have one of these?

Optional accessories:

Bike helmet.

Backpack.

Easy enough, right?

You can get a copy of the Book of Mormon for free by asking them to send you one, but you'll be on the  mailing list. Alternately, you can have it sent to someone you hate or to a vacant house nearby. Jessie suggested visiting the local temple and asking for a copy, Will found one in a hotel nightstand, or you can buy one for a few bucks on Amazon.

Theme Night Spotlight: Red Hat Ladies

Where to start...like Loverboy said, you better start from the start. Here's the official story from the official website of the Red Hat Society. Have fun!!!

See the scarf on the lady right in front? I have that.

Long story short, old ladies get together and to celebrate how fun and sassy they still are (after 50!) they wear bright purple dresses with bright red hats, all of which is accented by ridiculous red accessories. There are queen mothers and all kinds of other weird things about this group. I happened upon a Red Hat Society store when I was going to grad school in Fullerton and found out later that the lady responsible for all of this lives in Fullerton.

These people really are just begging for people like us to dress up like them in Vegas.

When my mom turned 50, her friend bought her a Red Hat Society book and told her to join. My mom was humiliated, even more so when my sister and I bought a Red Hat Society antenna ball and put it on her car. Just in case it isn't obvious, my mom wants nothing to do with the Red Hat Society, at least not until she's an actual old lady.

This is not my mom.

Binh, who has forsaken us once again in her quest to make the world better, did some research and found that women under 50 can join as honorary members, but they have to wear lavender and pink and are called pink hatters. Binh dressed up as a pink hatter the first time we did this theme, and because no one really knows about the pink hatters, people thought we had kidnapped a young Vietnamese child. True story.

Now can we put to rest those rumors that Binh doesn't exist?

The key to being an awesome red hat lady is to look sassy. And old.

I love Mike's old lady face.

 So you can see why this night is such a hit. We did this first in 2008 and brought it back for STBEX and decided then that it would be a staple theme night because people love it so much.

Red hat ladies have the most fun.

Theme Night Spotlight: White Trash

In order to help you come up with the perfect white trash outfit, here's a handy checklist of things that are white trash:

• Mullets

You got a perty mouth...

• Camaros - there's hillbilly WT and 80's burnout Camaro-driving WT

Sure, this is technically a Trans-Am, but it's made by the same company.

• Patriotism (we actually had a patriotism night a few years ago that was really white trash) - being patriotic doesn't make you white trash, but everyone knows that anything patriotic is white trash. Seriously, go to Walmart if you don't believe me.

• Wifebeaters (the shirt, but I suppose people who beat wives would fall into the WT category)

• Pregnant and drinkin' - a WT woman knows that a baby growin' inside her can't get in the way of her partying!

 

• Bathrobes in public

•  Overalls

 

•  Cheap beer

• People who once drove lowered mini trucks

• This guy

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, hopefully it inspires some great outfits!

STBE theme nights and hotel are set!!!

We'll be staying at Biff's (The Plaza, for you non-Back to the Future fans).

And the theme nights are set.

Friday: White Trash

Saturday: Red Hat Ladies

Sunday: Mormon Missionaries

There are more announcements to come!!!

Round Two of theme night voting is over!!!

Here are the results:

Theme Night    Votes (Round Two)
White Trash    39
Bingo Maniacs    30
Hobos    29
Toga! Toga! Toga!    27
Butt Rock    22
Nuns    22
Car Accident "Victims"    21
Old Timey Gangsters    20
Douchebags/Preppies    18
Trekkies    17




The bolded themes will move onto either a third round of voting or the Bay Area STBE contingent will choose two themes. I haven't decided yet. Feel free to make your arguments for or against any of these themes via blog comments or messageboard.

please vote for FIVE themes

I know you may have less than five favorites, but I want to keep a fair count. Hahaha, I say that while encouraging voter fraud. While committing voter fraud, make sure to vote for 5 themes!!!

Round Two of theme night voting

I narrowed it down to the top ten. The new poll is to the right. Vote early and vote often (restricted to one vote per day per IP address, which is plenty easy to get around). Pick FIVE.

Theme nights

I've updated the theme night page with some new ideas (I also removed some). There's a poll to your right, and the same poll can also be found at the bottom of the theme night page. Have fun! Vote early and vote often! One vote per day is allowed, but if you get bored, there are totally ways around it.

theme night shopping tips

We're getting closer to STBE 2011, so hopefully you've all had time to shop around for your theme night outfits. Kim and I went out today and got some sweet outfits. I got a new Red Hat Lady outfit, a totally rad Oates getup, and lots and lots of sweatbands for Sweatband Overload night.

The previous post is a good reference point if you're not familiar with what Oates wears. Red Hat Ladies can get away with just about anything as long as it involves purple as the main color and red accents. Sweatband Overload is just that: lots of sweatbands. Mike and I also think knee high striped tube socks are a must to complete that look.

We were able to find parts for all of our outfits at thrift stores, KMart, and Joanne Fabrics. We also hit up Party City, but the mustaches hadn't been put out yet (they moved everything to set up for Halloween). EBAY is also a good option if you don't have time to go out.

Happy shopping!!!

third theme - official solicitation for ideas

Hey all!

We have two kick a themes chosen already, and they will be on Sat/Sun night. We need a third theme, but since we're usually tired by night three, we want something easy and comfortable.

Now, last year at a drunken champagne brunch, Ryan came up with an awesome idea (that would also double for our commemorative STBE shirts): Black Family Reunion. All it requires is a t-shirt. Some people say we will get killed. I say, "our last name is Black...duh...and shame on you for suggesting otherwise!" Do we want this to be our theme? Just throw these shirts on? Or do we have other ideas?

Some ideas I have:
Extreme Couponers (make it rain...coupons)
Bad Celebrity Impersonators (I'm reasonably famous actress Kathleen Turner)
90s R&B Singing Group (think the Dick in a Box guys...or TLC)
Tacky Tourists
Retired Strippers

STBE Hotel!!!

Mike and I have decided to once again stay at the Golden Nugget. We're grown-ups now, so a grown-up hotel is where we're staying!

Check out the sweet pool, complete with shark tank in the middle:



In other news: we're still trying to come up with a third theme night. No real ideas yet, but I'll keep you posted.

theme night change

Sorry Gabe!

Jose pointed out some obvious flaws with our Old Timey Gangster theme a while ago. He doubts hotel security want a bunch of people walking around dressed like gangsters, especially since we'd want to carry fake Tommy Guns with us. Mike and I thought we could find a way around it, but his friend suggested we dress up as Snowbirds, and we liked the idea enough to switcheroo.

Snowbirds, in case you're wondering (I know I was), are old people who live in cold climates during the winter and warm climates during the summer. Or reverse. Something like that. Here, just read the wikipedia entry. As I described on the theme night page, you can find these people in RVs, winning shuffleboard tournaments, or shopping in the Chaps section at Kohl's.

Anyhoo, don't be too mad at us. I just told you where to shop. Alternately, I'm sure anything you ladies find at Chico's would be acceptable.

STBE '10

Mike and I have already started planing STBE '10. As many of you know, this will be the 10th Anniversary of STBE! Currently, the server is down, so I think I'm going to switch to another host, because it's been down for a few days now with no sign of repair happening soon.

Anyhoo, I'll alert you all when it's back up and running...the theme nights have been chosen and will be posted.

Theme Night Schedule

Friday: "Patriotic"
Saturday: Magicians (we'd like everyone to wear a sparkly glove or some other nod to MJ since it would have been his birthday)
Sunday: Former Fatties

I'm listing the schedule because some people mentioned they couldn't make all three nights.

The Final Countdown!!!

The final round of theme night voting started last night and it seems to be off to a blistering start. I voted, went downstairs to watch a movie, then came back and found over 30 more voters. Way to go, guys!

Remember to vote every day for your top three themes, this one's for all the marbles! The top vote-getter will be a theme at STBE '09!!!

secret poll

I think I'm gonna take the secret poll down, I don't want to influence people on how to vote in the final poll.

Round Three of voting has begun!

Sorry, I forgot to come back here and let you all know that stbe.org is back up and running.

Anyhoo, Round Three of theme night voting started on Friday, and if you look carefully, you'll find a secret poll.

Choose carefully (and often), the top three will be moving on to the final round to compete with the safe themes!

3 month warning!!!

STBE '09 is only 3 months away!!!

Head over to stbe.org to vote for your favorite theme nights. We're in the second round of voting and are getting closer to the final list of theme nights. Binh wants you all to vote and get it over with so she can plan her outfits for the trip. The bad news for her is that there are two more rounds. Once we whittle this group down to 6, it'll go down to 3, which will then compete in the final round of polling with the 6 themes that Ginger and Mike declared safe.

So go fill out your time off request forms for the last week of August already!

so when you vote

vote for FOUR themes in each poll. I've noticed that when I check the numbers, people are only voting for one or two themes.