Cooking Mama: Cook Off

Making special use of the Wii Remote Cooking Mama: Cook Off is an entertaining blend of mashing slicing chopping and stirring as players create more than 300 real-world recipes from 10 different nations. New realistic graphics and real-time cooking effects lend authenticity to player creations and help budding chefs determine when food is overcooked. Best of all Cooking Mama: Cook Off offers 2-player kitchen competitions to determine who can cook the best meal the fastest.Format: WII Genre: SPORTS/GAMES/ARCADE Rating: RP UPC: 096427014874 Manufacturer No: 01487

After her initial DS debut, Mama is whipping up some kitchen competition by pitting chef against chef in Cooking Mama Cook Off ? a unique 2 player family game designed specifically for the Wii home video console. Step-by-step, recipe-by-recipe, help Mama cook international dishes from 10 different nations and watch as the realistic foods actually change in appearance based on your actions!
FEATURES
The Wii Remote is your ultimate cooking utensil, putting you in total control of the cooking action as you chop, grate, slice, stir, roll and much more! Hold and point it in many different ways depending on the task (i.e. upright to mash potatoes, lengthwise to fry in a pan, etc.) to get the real sensation of cooking in a kitchen!
All-new Cooking Challenge Mode lets you and a friend go head-to-head in the ultimate multiplayer cook off to determine who can cook the fastest with the fewest mistakes.
Create 55 real world dishes from 10 different nations: Japan, America, France, India, Mexico, England, China, Spain, Germany and Italy. You can even make desserts like cream puffs and pudding too! From hot dogs to pan fried crab to bouillabaisse, Cook Off challenges you to make it all!
Realistic graphics with real-time effects make you feel like you?re actually cooking. Adjust your timing and make decisions about your next course of action based on what you see on screen (i.e. if food is starting to look burned, quickly remove it from the burner, etc.).
Keep your kitchen fancy and fresh by earning items that bring your kitchen to life (i.e. seasonings, small utensils, etc.).
Earn bronze, silver, and gold medals from Mama based on the quality of your cooking.
Practice mode allows you to fine tune your cooking skills without being judged. Recipes progress from simple to complex, from small to large dishes, so do your best to meet Mama?s expectations as you unlock new dishes.

Thank you Flickr Friends for all of your love the light, the inspiration, the lessons you bring of yourselves to the world daily!!! You are a sizeable part of what keeps me sane half the time! I wish you all the best in the New Year, and only request that you go out there and share a little love with someone!! The world needs it everyday, but an extra dose right now!! Love you all!! xoxo Finally, here I go. This, by the way is not the photo I wanted. I was thinking blue jeans, half-nekkid... way better... oh well. This photo, like me, is imperfect in many ways... which makes it the perfect photo for this after all. 1. *Already done a couple posts back, basically I'm a perfectionist. 2. I loooove Valentine's Day, as far as holidays go. I love to make Valentines, I love hearts, I love LOVE, and February is the month of my birthday, so more excuses to indulge in lovey things. 3. I love animals and fresh air. They help me breath and appreciate lifes ups and downs for the lessons and the cycles that are inevitable. 4. I met my husband on a week-long backpacking trip in the Sierras when I was 14. I hoped to someday find a man like him in my future because I knew I was young and cool guys never liked me. I wished for "him". We started dating when I was 17, completely out of the blue, and we have been happily together ever since. 5. When I was 18 I graduated highschool early so I could go on an exchange program to Australia for one year. 6. As much as I love the country, there is a part of my heart that lives in the city too. I lived in Los Angeles for two years after I got married. 7. When I lived in L.A. I tried out acting and modeling. The modeling was atrocious! The acting was fabulous. I had some lucky encounters and a lot of fun! 8. I am a fantastic cook and baker! I sometimes think I would have been better served going to a culinary academy then cosmetology school.... 9. Which led me to being a successful esthetician. I have worked for others, had my own business, and quit when I had my daughter. It is a business I won't return to, but I learned a lot of ground work that has helped me heal and grow since my daughter was born almost 5 years ago. And having a good understanding of skin care serves me well in so many different situations. 10. Except that I have battled with an over-abundance of facial hair for as long as I can remember. I wax everything! It is painful, not fun, not pretty, and not how I like to spend my time... but I can't get lazer treatment yet, and don't know if I would if I could. 11. When I was 4 years old my parents got a piano. I sat down and played Chariots of Fire. I am musically inclined in just about every way, but when I have quiet time, the piano is where I soar. Nowadays I just like to sit and improvise whatever's in my soul. 12. I want to be a great photographer someday as much as I want to be a fabulous dancer!! I think that I am a poet deep down, and while finding the words is sometimes difficult, taking pictures, dancing my heart out, and tickling the ivorys are just a few ways I can express myself creatively and try to express the beauty in everything... that's the poetry, I believe. 13. I am somewhat of a hermit. I live 20 minutes from anyone I want to really spend time with and with my husband gone a lot for work, my daughter and I are a couple of well-bonded home-bodies. We enjoy our time at home, our time with each other and all of our explorations and animal friends. 14. My husband is my rock and my best friend. I believe that he has been my soul mate in more lives than this one. 15. I am the eternal optimist and I like to try and see the beauty and love in everything... there's enough hate and darkness in the world for me to spend too much time feeding it. 16. Inspite of my ultra-sensitive nature, the realist in me can usually handle whatever's thrown my way. But don't you dare lie to me!!! Nothing pisses me off more! I can't tell a lie to save my life, and wouldn't want to... let's all be honest, things are so much less complicated when everyone is truthful with one another!! Phew.... if you read all that, you must be an avid reader... that was a lot about...me...wierd. Okay, let's move on now. I've been tagged by three friends: 2 nutty girls, and one Yives. The tagging is going around quite well and as I've been sitting on this one for awhile, please if you haven't been tagged yet, I've got 16 to use up, so feel free!! You're IT!

C Street, Virginia City, Nevada VCNEV2_20101228_HDR_3962-c_b_a_d_e_tonemapped History: The original Old Washoe Club, built in 1862 was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1875 which damaged a great portion of Virginia City. At that time they relocated in the present structure which escaped the flames of devastation. By this period of time a number of prospectors had attained a great deal of wealth, creating the motivation for providing a member's only club, prompting the Washoe Club to change their name to "The Millionaires Club". Although specifically a member's only establishment designed for the wealthy, there were other notable members and visitors from the community, including such personages as Mark Twain and reputedly even Ulysses S. Grant took the liberty of visiting the "upper crust" atmosphere of what was then a prestigious and opulent atmosphere. The building is three stories high, with the upper two floors used for the private patrons, complete with gaming tables, plush suites, pool room and lush furnishings in all for the comfort and relaxation of the town's prominent personages. The lower part of the establishment was used for the access of prostitutes and was a private entry for those who wished to use it. As time passed, and the wealth petered out, the club opened to the public out of economic necessity. Over the generations, as the town diminished, it reached almost ghost town proportions. The structures still retained their original boom town facade and some enterprising entrepreneurs attempted to revitalize Virginia City, using this 1870's appearance in order to introduce tourism into their economy. The Old Washoe Club was one of the more well known survivors of that by-gone era of Wild West, boom town and wealth. The Club is especially known for its supernatural, paranormal phenomena. In a town full of ghosts, the Old Washoe Club seems to have a plethora of stories and visions. They have been the subject of more than one team of paranormal groups to research and document the evidence of ghostly apparitions, documentary research and television coverage. Most of the evidence accumulated is ambiguous, however, there are dozens of visitors and residents over the decades who will attest to sightings of at least three main ghostly appearances, a woman purported to be a former prostitute who entertained the gentlemen, a man who killed himself and the vision of a young girl.