Today I was pulling into a parking spot and I didn't think I had enough clearance so I turned the wheel all the way to the left and a few odd things happened. First, the highlights dimmed quite a bit, second, I started to hear what sounded like liquid dripping on a very hot surface and vaporizing. Sorta what you would hear if you dripped some water on a hot plate. Not sure if this is something I should be concerned about. Any ideas would be appreciated.

well i can say that the bogging down of the motor (and the lights dimming) is a normal thing when the wheels are turned at full lock

While cranking hard your putting extra preasure on your pump which could bog the motor a bit. The hissing vapor thing could be bad though, have a look under the hood and check your power steering fluid level. The extra preasure could have caused a power steering leak?

Thats kinda what I was thinking, I mean, I know turning the wheel all the does put more pressure on the PS system, but the vaporization sound was very odd. I did look under the hood when it happend, but didn't see anything unusual.

As I recall a hissing sound is quite normal on a GM when reaching the steering stop point, either left or right. I think every GM auto I've owned has done that, including my current '01 SSEi. The noise is coming from the rack. Quite normal.

My thoughts almost exactly, although I thought the hissing was usually coming from the pump.

Thanks everyone, I'll just file the event under "Odd, but explainable." ...but that file is starting to get pretty thick.