Las Vegas is a magical place. I am lucky that I live so close to it. I am able to go there a lot. On Saturday afternoon I went there with the Nielsen clan for dinner and to buy some shaving cream at The Art of Shaving. It is always an impossible debate and game of give and take when debating where to eat dinner with the Nielsen clan, but we were finally able to settle on a Chinese place called Red 8 at The Wynn. The red 8 on the outside of the menu is pictured above.

Some might say I have strange taste in food. Occasionally I enjoy the exotic and forbidden. Las Vegas Chinese restaurants are often able to provide the exotic and forbidden with creative dishes that can cost up to $200. I don't splurge and drop hundreds on Shark Fin Soup, but when I see a $20 dish of Oxtail Stew (pictured above), I just can't resist!

My first exposure to oxtail was in Zimbabwe. It wasn't a very exotic thing really, we had little soup packets we would mix into sauces to give them flavor. The best tasting packet was oxtail flavored. Later on mission I had a chance to try oxtail soup at a members house. This oxtail soup had real chunks of bone and meat in it. It was savory and delicious.

The flavor of oxtail soup is a little tangy at first. The afternote is savory and long lasting. This differs greatly from normal beef stew which is savory upfront and then fades away quickly. Oxtail soup is a dish that many people my age would never try. They are missing out on real great food when all they will order is a dish of stir-fried noodles.

Bay Rum Cologne

I follow a website called The Art of Manliness (artofmanliness.com). The website is dedicated to helping men be more manly and "Reviving the Lost Art of Manliness". They had a post about manly smells not long ago. The list included leather, barbicide, Old Spice Classic, and Bay Rum.

Bay Rum goes back to the early days of the European settlers in the Caribbean. The sailors smelled like sailors, having been at sea for months with no proper bath, so when they docked in the Caribbean they would rub bay leaves on their bodies to mask their stench. Rum was invented in the Caribbean at about the same time. The sailors started to steep the Indian Bay Leaves in the rum because the alcohol in the rum would extract the oils in the bay leaves and make application of the scent more convenient. This is how Bay Rum started. Over time different spices including cloves and cinnamon were added. Bay Rum has been worn by men for hundreds of years, and now it will be worn by me!

I ordered some Bay Rum cologne from Ogallala Bay Rum (http://www.ogallalabayrum.com). It is made in small batches in Ogallala, Nebraska. Made of all natural oils and extracts, it smells strongly of cloves and witch hazle and tingles for a couple of hours after being applied to the skin. The bottle is real blue glass, not some cheap plastic container. I love the label. It says: "Shake Well and Apply Generously". It is a manly scent with a manly tradition.

Boots

These boots are GREAT! When I was on my mission in Zimbabwe, I had a companion who had a pair of brown Dr Martens brown boots. I lusted after those boots. That was when my love of boots began. One of the first things I bought when I came home from mission was a pair of those boots (pictured above after almost three years of use).

I wear these boots almost every day to school, work, and out to eat. I am actually wearing them right now and they feel great! They have gone through two pairs of laces but the boots are still going strong.

I have traveled with these boots all over the world. I have worn them in Alaska zip-lining in the canopy just outside of Juneau, in San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas and other American cities, in Victoria, B.C. Canada, in Mexico, Hawaii, Rome, Naples, Athens, Mykonos, Ephesus, and in the desert just outside of Alexandria, Egypt. I hope to be able to travel with them back to Zimbabwe some day soon.

After all of these travels, they show little signs of wearing. However, the leather had become dry and light in color and there was a buildup of dust and years of Kiwi Dark Brown Shoe Polish. The leather actually looked pretty bad. I did some research on leather care and went to Hurst's Ace Hardware to buy some Saddle Soap and Mink Oil. I used the Saddle Soap to clean the leather and strip the old polish away. The Mink Oil moisturizes and waterproofs leather. I massaged the Mink Oil into the leather with my hands. The directions say to use a cloth but it felt more effective to use my hands on it. The Mink Oil is natural and won't hurt your skin. After sitting overnight, the leather had absorbed all of the excess Mink Oil and the leather looked, felt, and smelled brand new!

The picture above is a shot of the boots last night after I had let the Mink Oil sit for a few hours. I failed to take a picture of the boots before I started.