Last Chance Harvey

Last Friday night, SuperPizzaBoy spent the night at a friend's house so Sweetie and I were temporarily childless. So we went to the movies. Sweetie picked something I had not heard of, "Last Chance Harvey" a romantic comedy starring Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson.

I like Mr. Hoffman OK but I'm always up for anything Ms. Thompson does. She and Hoffman do not disappoint in this movie. It is a story about two older folks, (one of them a lot older) who have a lot of regrets and missed chances. Plus both of them have that irritating habit that many people have of taking all cell phone calls no matter what else is going on.

Hoffman plays an American "jingle composer" who always wanted to be a jazz pianist who travels to London for his estranged daughter's wedding. Thompson plays an English lady of certain age who lives in London with her mother and works as an interviewer at an airport.

They meet and fall in love after overcoming some Anglo-American cultural differences. They suffer some setbacks but since they are both tired of missed chances they end up together.

I rate this movie 3.5 stars out of 4. I highly recommend seeing it if you like romantic comedies.

Skywatch Friday - Ice Storm Coming

On Monday, those of us fortunate to live in northeast Oklahoma were told that an ice storm was coming Tuesday. We also had strange sky to the south that same day. I told Sweetie that it looked an "Angry God Sky." The ice storm came and we lived through it (and I don't really believe that God is mad at us Okies.)

For interesting views of the skys from all over the world, or to contribute your own images, check out Skywatch Friday.

Impressions Restaurant - Tulsa

Downtown Tulsa has two great lunch spots on Bartlett Square (you know, where the circle is). This past Monday with the ice storm coming I went to Impressions for some comfort food.

Impressions is the best lunch spot downtown. Its not the fastest, Tom and the folks that work with him, make everybody's order one at a time. Nothing is prepackaged. If you want a sandwich, they make it in front of you. They are very efficient but its not like Arby's a block north on Main. At Impressions, they take the food very seriously. Sometimes there is a line, its worth it.

I splurged. I had a bowl of the stew (the stew is the best in Tulsa outside of the Yogi household, where Sweetie is the chef) with French Bread, "buttered and toasted?" asks Tom. "Absolutely" I always answer, today a treat for me, the best Carrot Cake to be had anywhere.

Next time you are downtown and are hungry, and are not in too much of a hurry. Let me know, we'll go have lunch at Impressions.

Let me tell you about Tom. Each and every customer that comes into his restaurant is treated courteously, their food is prepared carefully, and each customer is thanked personally for their business by Tom and wished a good day.

You can spend a lot more money for a lot less than what Impressions gives you.

My World - Frisco 4500

I was chasing a geocache with a couple of friends just north of downtown Tulsa when we stumbled upon this old steam locomotive sitting unattended in the middle of nowhere. Talk about serendipity! What a find.

A little research showed that it is the Frisco 4500 being restored by the Townwest Sertoma Club. The locomotive was built in 1942 by Baldwin Locomotive Works. It worked first pulling Passenger Trains and then Freight until 1950.

In 1954 it was put on display at Tulsa Mohawk Park and stayed there until 2000. Since then it has been undergoing a slow restoration. Hopefully, it will be moved to another park for public viewing again.

Read all the details on the Sertoma Club Website.

See finds from all over the World on My World Tuesday.

I Figured it Out - All by Myself

I have been so jealous of Georgie of Decisionally Challenged. Not only does her blog rock, she has those cool heart symbols framing her name.

I had been pondering that. Not because I want hearts but because I wanted to know how to do it.

I finally figured it out, all by myself.

So I am experimenting with it. I will never come up with anything as cool as Georgie's symbols and I probably will probably drop the symbol I'm using as soon as everybody gets through laughing and lampooning about it.

Georgie, I hope you don't mind. This is just a phase I'm going through.

Its Too Early in the Morning

About two or three mornings a week I venture from the house at about 5:45 am to go to my gym to workout. I just kind of get in automatic and somehow, even without coffee, I get there. I've been doing this for about 8 years so I'm pretty much in the groove.

Last week one morning, I was driving along in my groove. I passed a Tulsa Police car, and something chirped. It sounded like it was in my car. Now I've got all sorts of gadgets that are never very far from me even at that time. All of them make various chirps, beeps, and rings as part of what they do but this was different. I was looking around and trying to figure out what is going on.

I pulled up to a stop light and suddenly I heard from the car to my left and back a loudspeaker going off. I wasn't really paying attention to what it was saying. I was still trying to figure if the chirp was one of my gadgets or a pre-explosion warning for my car. In my line of business, radios on external speakers are pretty common. If you have a com radio you can switch to an outside speaker so when you are out of your car watching other people work you can hear if your boss is about to show up.

Anyways, then the voice got louder and I looked out and back and the policeman in the car was glaring at me, yelling into his mike, talking about speeding, and checking my spedometer, yada yada yada. And then he took off giving me a hard glare on a swiveling neck as he passed by. I still don't know most of what he said. I mean I could hear that it was high volume but I couldn't make out the words very well.

And then I figured it out. I'm very slow at my fastest and I'm glacier speed this early in the morning. He had given me a friendly little chirp from his car to slow me down and I didn't respond. And, then when he tried to give me a friendly little loudspeaker chat I wouldn't even look at him.

So I don't know what the deal is. I am certain that I was not speeding. I am certain that my spedometer works (It matches exactly the speed reading on my gps the few times I've checked it.) However, I am certain that I violated a fundamental rule. Never pass a policeman, unless other people are, and further, never ever ignore them. I'm also pretty sure that I had pissed him off somehow.

Not a good start to my day, acting like a dumbass. I'm not sure that this loudspeaker citizen communication program the guy was trying to do works very well either.I suspect that he had a call to go to and didn't have time to mess with me.

Hey, check out the Tulsa Police Blog. All sorts of stuff on it.

Palace Cafe - Cherry Street

After Sweetie and I attended the Color Purple on Saturday we went to eat. Going to the PAC shows has turned into "date nights" for Sweetie and I even though we go to matinees. So I guess really they are date evenings. Are we getting old? Nah, I'll just leave it at that.

So the mutual question is, "Where do you want to eat?" I mentioned the Palace Cafe, Sweetie thought it a good idea so we cruised by. It was 5:05 and they open at 5 pm. "Are we going to be the only ones there?" "That's no fun." So we cruised down Cherry Street. "Tucci's - no we ate Italian yesterday. Not eating at a deli, no Panera on a date, not in the mood for Full Moon."

Turn south on Utica, "Hey how about PF Changs, uh OK... Howabout McGills - thats a good place." We pulled into their parking lot. We didn't get out. Sweetie says "Lets go try something new.", "Lets, who cares if we are the only ones there." So we drove back to the Palace Cafe.

Boy, did we make a great decision. We weren't the only ones there and we would not have cared. The place is perfect for a date. Its small and intimate. The staff is very good and non-intrusive. All that is necessary for a date. We've been to restaurants with good food but the experience is spoiled by indifferent service. Not here.

The food here is wonderful.

Sweetie had Tomato Bisque for starters and then the Salmon for dinner. It is pictured below. It had a delicious mushroom rice cake with it.

I started with the house salad. I had to take a picture of it. It tasted wonderul. It had some sort of aged vinegar on it. Sweetie can fill you in on the details. I was too busy eating it.


For dinner I had the "Catch of the Day." It had some sort of italian name but was basically a seafood stew with salmon, shrimp, and clams. It was seasoned perfectly. This may be one of the best restaurant dishes I have ever eaten anywhere. ("Gee, that's really impressive Yogi- is it really better than the Coney Island chili cheese hot dogs?") Believe it I have eaten some great meals at some great restaurants and I will put this dish up against any of them.

I give the Palace Cafe four stars out of four.

Oprah Winfrey Presents the Color Purple

Sweetie and I drove downtown on a cold windy Saturday to see The Color Purple. The short story about this musical is that it is almost perfect. The story is wonderful, the singing is great, the choreography is understated, the sets and the costuming is just right.

This is not a blockbuster like the Lion King. The word I think of for this show is graceful. Everything is just right, balanced, and extremely well done. The songs are wonderful. Some of them have a pop feel to them, others are almost a blues rock type thing. The performers did the songs spot on.

I give this show four stars out of four. I am really really glad that we saw it.

Arrow of Light Ceremony - Soaring Eagles Patrol

Big Night at the Yogi Family Thursday Night.

SuperPizzaBoy goes through the Cub Scout Arrow of Light Ceremony. The Culmination of Five Years of Work.

Sweetie fixed up and fussed over the Boy's Uniform. She fixed up Yogi's also.

The boys were nervous before the meeting. Below is a first ever event, they all sat down together without being herded. They are wild hellions but good kids. They called themselves the Soaring Eagles Patrol

The Arrow of Light Team from Boy Scout Troop 26 of Good Shepherd Lutheren Church did the ceremony and did a great job. It was very solemn and well received.

I didn't get a good shot of PizzaBoy but part of the ceremony is that the boys are brought to the front on the shoulders of the scouts. The Cub Scouts are all very nervous about that part.

Afterward the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts put on a group photo op for the parents.

Nana, Sweetie and PizzaBoy


SuperPizzaBoy and Yogi. We're both happy its over. I'll miss the kids and the kids parents. I really got attached to them. Most of them live in the neighborhood so I'll be seeing about them. I'll always be appreciative of the leadership and most of the parents of the Soaring Eagles Patrol. They went out of their way to make sure that PizzaBoy had a good experience in Scouts. The kids were also very nice to him.

PizzaBoy is going to take a break from scouting. He, Sweetie, and I all think that he might benefit from a year or so of growing up before trying Boy Scouts.

I think Scouting, both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts is very helpful to kids. Not only is it fun but in my mind unifies Family, Church, and School and teaches the kids how to be citizens.

Its fun for the parents also.

Skywatch Friday - Tree in Winter

A couple weeks ago I went out for an afternoon run. I have passed this tree countless times but that day I stopped and took a picture of it. I like trees in winter, you can see the shape better.

If you look closely you can see signs of ice damage that so many of Tulsa's trees had last year.

For great views of the sky from all over the world check Skywatch Friday.

Preaching the Gospel - Spreading the Word - Saving the Lost

Two lost souls were saved yesterday. Two coworkers who although both very nice upstanding members of the community and very nice, pleasant, hard working citizens of their nation were lost. They had not heard the word, they had not found what they were looking for. They were out in the woods wandering around. They had a general idea of where to find what they searching for and they were on the right track but they hadn't found it yet.

Then, that still quiet GPS, said: "Seek over there, and maybe ye shall find"

They responded to the voice, and to the arrow on the GPS they were holding

and

They found their first Geocache! Praise Be!

Sisters Linda and Linda. Uh, I mean Sisters Linda F. and Linda F., uh

Sister Linda and Sister PecanLady

Newest members of the church of Geocaching, Lunchtime Mission

Go forth and find more geocaches Ladies! You are pretty good at it.

We went and found another one a little ways away.

Time to quit. We'll make plans to find more.

2008 Okie Blog Awards

I had a pleasant unexpected surprise this morning. I found out that my blog was nominated for the best culture blog for the 2008 Okie Blog Awards. I'm very flattered and appreciative and if any of my readers want to vote for this blog I thank them. The polls close on February 7.

Just click on the logo aboved to go to the link with the nomination list, the rules, and the procedure.

Some of the other nominees are on my blogroll and I recommend them highly. I haven't had a chance yet to go through the rest of the nominees on the list but I am looking forward to doing so. I expect quite a few will end up on my blogroll. I'm always looking for new blogs to read and just looking at the list there are quite a few that I don't know.

Thank you very much again too those who voted to put me on the list.

Roads to Quoz - An American Mosey by William Least Heat-Moon

Roads to Quoz" is William Least Heat-Moon's latest book. It based on travels that he and his wife took to various parts of the United States. Quoz refers to the odd and remarkable but unexpected that one finds on the road while traveling. This book is not so much a travel book but a book of stories that he picked up while traveling. Darned good stories also about forgotten expeditions, drug running, real estate speculation, childhood escapades. Story after story.

Is this a good read? Sure. Just be ready to jump ahead because he bogs down every now and then. There is an excellent 250 page book in this 535 page book. I rate this 3 stars out of 4.

"Blue Highways","PraireyErth", and "River-Horse" are other books that he wrote that I read. They are all travel books except that PraireyErth was confined to a township in central Kansas. Blue Highways was his first book. He had just got fired and divorced. The writing was to the point. Hey, he needed the money. Its the only book besides Tom Sawyer that I've read three times.

Union Depot - That's My World Tuesday

Tulsa Union Depot, another Tulsa Art Deco building, was completed in 1931 and served as Tulsa's rail passenger terminal until 1967. It sat empty and deteriorating for years until it was converted to office space in the 1980's. Last year another marked the completion of another conversion. It is now the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.

The building has a lot of detailing. Below is my favorite. I couldn't figure out what it was for a long time and then I realized that it was a winged wheel on a railroad. The design is repeated all around the building.

Visit other entries for That's My World from all over the world.

Geocaching 101 - Mohawk Park

SuperPizzaBoy and I went on a geocaching expedition to Mohawk Park Saturday. It was as pretty a January day as you will find in Oklahoma. Oklahoma can get very cold but usually after a front comes through the sun will come out and warm things up into the 50's or 60's. Perfect for being outdoors. Plus the fall and winter are the perfect times for geocaching. No snakes, chiggers, ticks, mosquitos, nor poison ivy plus the vegetation is knocked back so it is easier to get around.

We tried to find a couple of caches in Mohawk proper but the trail we were trying to use was still blocked with dead limbs from the ice storm last year. It was pretty slow going. We could have bushwhacked from a road but SPB doesn't like going through tall grass. One thing I've learned geocaching is that sometimes its ok to plug and abandon a cache. As of this morning there are 715,008 caches worldwide and we have found only about 739 of them, so there is always another cache to find.

Before I get too far down the road a few commenters have asked what geocaching is. I'll use the definition on the front page of the geocaching.com web site:

"Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment."

Basically people hide containers out in the world. They use a GPS ("Global Positioning System") receiver to determine the longtitude and latitude of the containers and then get on the geocaching.com web site and create a web page for the cache with the coordinates and some wordage about what to look for. The containers have to contain at least a log for people to write on and maybe a few toys or trinkets to trade.

Then, other people look up the cache page, get the coordinates, put them in their own gps and then go look for them. When they find them, they write their names and dates on the paper log (that proves that they have been there) and maybe trade a trinket. (The rule on trinket is that you trade something at least as good as what you take.)

Then when you get home. You go back to the web page for the cache and post a log online.

It doesn't cost anything to get an account at geocaching.com. You can create an acccount, using minimal personal information, and start looking at caches. You put in your zip code and it will give you a list of caches and a map. For $35 per year you can get a premium membership which gives you better mapping capabilities and enables you to download directly into your gps (if you have the right gps, cables and software) massive numbers of caches (I can do 2000 at a time).

As far as equipment goes. You can get a nice Garmin GPS for about $70 on sale at Walmart or Academy or I bought a used one for $35 on ebay. There is a hardcore subgenre of geocachers who find the caches without a GPS using topographic maps. I'm not hardcore.

Its a lot of fun. SPB and I have found caches all over town. We have been down most of the roads in this area. Most state parks have lots of caches. I almost always find caches when I'm on business trips. They are all over. There may be a thousand in Tulsa County. People are adding caches all the time.

Its fun hiding caches also. SPB and I have hidden 24. It is fun reading peoples comments when they find them. This morning I read the following comment from somebody (the OxFoxes) who found our Boys Night Out - City Center cache.

"This was a fun hunt.
I literally opened up the cover on that old phone box with a screwdriver to make sure THAT wasn't the cache. (That old thing isn't ever going to work again, but I put it back together the way I found it anyway.) I also went up on TOP to see if there was something up there that looked like a cache. It looked like a LONG drop from up there, with no protective rail.
While I was looking for the cache, the First Presbyterian Church across the street began to peal out Christmas carols and hymns on their chimes. It went on for half an hour. It added an interesting air to my cache hunts downtown for awhile.
Once I figured out where the cache was, I wasn't sure how I was going to GET it. Fortunately I had a very long ice scraper in the car that did the trick. Fortunately, there weren't any muggles around on a Saturday night to watch my antics trying to retrieve and replace the cache.
This was a really clever hide. I enjoyed it, and the ingenuity that went into hiding it.
Thanks for the cache!"

A nice comment like that makes my day. (hint, hint, you lurkers out there!)

Now back to our trip to Mowhawk Park. We struck out in the Mowhawk Park proper so we went to Oxley Nature Center. Our first find of the day was The Enormous Cottonwoods of Bird Creek. There we hid a travel bug in the cache. A travel bug is a little side game to geocaching. Items are tagged with an aluminum marker with a unique ID. The travel bug is moved from cache to cache and the owner of the tb can monitor its movements. SPB and I have several travel bugs. One is somewhere in Germany now. So I get logs that I can't read. The tb we dropped off yesterday is not one of ours we picked it up somewhere else. Its considered bad manners to hold on to them too long. The travel bug below is named Wish it, Dream it, Do it and has traveled 1832.9 miles. Click on the link to see where it has been.



We found another one at Oxley yesterday. I'll show you the picture but not the name of it. It took me an hour to find it. It was about 50 feet off the posted coordinates. You go spend an hour looking for it to! Sorry to be so mean spirited, but that is the way I am.

Here is a picture from the site where a cache is supposed to be located. We didn't find it. You go look for it, let me know if you find it. It is at the site of a an old farm that John Denver's uncle used to farm, the cache owner claims. It is called Once There was a Farm. I liked the area, trees and a meadow. Can't be better than that.

Below is another cache. I'm showing the cache but not the name. SPB found it all by himself!

We finished up after finding 3 and not finding 1. Took about 3 hours. Lots of hiking in the woods. I love it.

A Warm and Well Secured Walk Downtown when its Cold Outside

So what do you do if you work downtown and you need to stretch your legs a little bit but it is real cold outside?

Well if you can make it two blocks then you can walk quite a ways sheltered from the wind and the cold. And, as a bonus, if you take your camera and take pictures every now and then you will have your own security guy. You don't get the same one the whole way, they just kind of daisy chain you from one to the other.

You enter the Philtower building, shown above. It was built by Waite Phillips (The same guy who lived in and then donated the Philbrook Museum to Tulsa before he and the Mrs. bugged out for California.) While there check out the ornate lobby shown below. There is a little room right off the lobby that has a display of the original drawings and such. Check it out. Also, if you have time check out the Philcade right across the street to the south. It is ultra ornate. There used to be 27 shops on the ground floor. Now its pretty much all office space.

From the Philtower you can go north through interconnecting doors all they way to the Midcontinent building. This is where your first security guy appears. He just kind of follows you around as you take pictures. The lobby is even more ornate the then Philtower. There is also stained glass depictions of downtown Tulsa and some paintings. One by Wilson Hurley (one of my favorites).

Go down the escalator, your new friend will go down with you. There is the below right display there. The Midcontinent building is actually one building cantilevered over another building with like a 1/16" gap or so in between. Fascinating techhnically. Led to lawsuits that are still going on. Even more fascinating.

Let me ask you, don't you think that the display is begging for a geocache? Something magnetic and hidden? Yeah, I do also. I have a feeling that my friends wouldn't agree. Maybe later.

From there, head north through the tunnel. Your new friend doesn't follow you. Hang a left at the parking garage and wind your way over to the BOK bank (not the tower, the one in the old Farmers Exchange building. You come out right by the vault. Even I knew not to take pictures of the vault.

On the way you pass some production studios and video conferencing centers and you pick another buddy. Nobody is going to mess with you on this walk, if you are afraid to walk downtown alone, you are on the right path.

And then you go under Williams Green all the way to the Adams Mark Hotel parking garage. Here you have to walk about 100 ft in the cold. But covered and out of the wind.

Go into the Hotel, up the escalators, hang a hard 180 degree turn to the right and go through the skyway to the Williams Complex. You know, where the ice rink used to be. Now its a trade floor, pretty empty now since the Enron debacle.

Now you can join the crowd that goes around and around the expansive lobby of the building.

At the far eastern end of the lobby is our new City Hall. Go check on Mayor Taylor. Why not, I'm in her Mayors Million Mile challenge. I already have about 64 miles. I could ask why she is still stuck at 55 miles. We could have coffee.

Nope, no can do another friend tells me. Public access to the new City Hall is limited. You have to have business with the city or be talking to a particular person. Otherwise, you have to work there. My friend is very nice. I say OK, she is just carrying out policy.

You have walked for about 15 minutes. I don't know how many miles. If you want to walk a lot , walk around and around the old ice rink. Everybody else is. Personally, the sun is out, the wind is down, I'm tired of my friends, nice as they are. So I just walk back on the sidewalks and streets.

Skywatch Friday - Nightime

Once a week after work I get a kitchen pass to go run a few miles. I generally go to the trails on the Arkansas River. I took this picture halfway across the river on a converted railroad bridge looking toward downtown Tulsa.

For great photographs of the Sky from all over the world check SkyWatch Friday.

Lunchtime Geocaching

The weather turned nice this week. It was cold but sunny and not windy. I'll take that anytime. I took advantage of the weather to do some noon time geocaching. It is a great way to get a little sunshine in. The first day I went out to Sand Springs. The first cache was on the grounds of the local Walmart.

The second cache was pretty cool. It is an earthcache named The Sandy Spring. It is what gave Sand Springs its name. An earth cache typically doesn't have a container to find. You usually have to measure something or do some research. The Sandy Spring's web page talks about the history of the spring and how the Arkansas was too salty to drink. To log the cache one must guestimate the water flow from the cache and get a picture of themself to post.

I didn't have anybody with me to take my picture and none of the women walking their dogs on the path nearby acted even the list bit friendly (I can tell you that unaccompanied males in office clothes in parks and trails at lunch time are social pariah's) so I took my own picture with the timer on the camera. The result is below. Sweetie hasn't seen it but if she did she would say "You are doing that thing with your mouth, again"

Another day this week, I checked out another cache, Brady View, on a knoll just north of downtown at the site of a demolished house. Here is a picture of downtown from the site.

Want a little hint, don't tell anybody ok? Its behind the little rocks to the right of the wooden post.

Not too far away I went to check on one of my own caches, Country Club, it had been reported missing and sure enough it had been "muggled." If you read Harry Potter you know what muggles are. To geocachers muggles are those who are not in the know and take caches, not knowing what the are. Below is a picture of an abandoned house being renovated nearby. This used to be a fashionable area of Tulsa way back when but now it is blighted. I could tell you why but I would be getting off topic. Oh, you had a topic? you ask.

There was a restored mansion nearby that tried to make a go of it as B&B but it burned up in a fire. The rumor was that the fire was due to friction. Friction? Yep, that is what happens when you rub a big mortgage against an insurance policy.

I'm kidding about the fire by the way.

I found a few other caches this week. My total is now up to 736 caches found. My what a lot of time and gasoline wasted you ask. I plead guilty your honor, on the basis of long term temporary insanity and acute OCD.

My World - Cain's Ballroom

Cain's Ballroom is a Tulsa music icon. In the 1930's and 40's Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys broadcasted live their Texas Swing music from Cain's Ballroom almost nightly. Wills and his band is long gone by lots of music is still played at the Ballroom. Read all the details here.

For other images from all over the world check out That's My World.

Goodnight Bush

Purchase Here

Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

I am really into these Blogging Reading Challenges. So far, I've entered more challenges than what I've read books in 2009. Let me see, so far, four challenges and, well, ... one boook. Hey, quit smirking.

I use the Tulsa City County Library a lot so I wanted a challenge for public libraries and I found one on the Oklahoma Book Lady blog. It is sponsored by J. Kaye's Book Blog and you can read all the rules and enter the challenge by clicking on the graphic above.

There are three levels of participation: 12, 25, or 50 books. They all have to be checked out from a library and they all have to be begun and finished in 2009.

I'm going for the 12 book level. I picked up my first book on Tuesday.

Here are my 12 books.

1. "Roads to Quoz" by William Least Heat-Moon - 1/20/2009
2. "Scarpetta" by Patricia Cornwell - 2/20/2009
3. "Runner" by Thomas Perry, due January 2009
4. "Murder in the Latin Quarter" by Cara Black, finished 5/2/2009.
5."The Associate" by John Grisham , finished in April 2009.
6. "The Monster in the Box" by Ruth Rendell, finished November 2009.
7. "The Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood, finished November 2009.
8. "The Associate" by John Grisham
9. The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" by Jeff Sharlet, 2009

10. "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown 2009
11. "War Dances" by Sherman Alexie 2009
12. "The Scarecrow" by Michael Connelly 2009
13. "Roadside Crosses" by Jeffery Deaver 2009
14. "Road Dogs" by Elmore Leonard 2009
15. "Parallel Play - Growing up with Undiagnosed Asperger's" by Tim Page 2009
16. "Runner" by Thomas Perry 2009
17. "That Old Cape Magic" by Richard Russo 2009
18. "Rough Country" by John Sandford
20. "The Addict: One Patient, One Doctor, One Year" by Michael Stein 

Skywatch #3

We finally got a decent sunset here one day and some clouds to photograph.

Checkout Skywatch Friday for even more photographs from all over the world.

Great Buddy Award

I am so proud. Kathy at Oklahoma Booklady has given me the "Great Buddy Award." I appreciate it very much. If you haven't aleady check out her site. It is on my blogroll so if she is posting I'm reading and she never disappoints me.

As part of this award I get to pass it on. I have given this much thought and I've decided to award the following bloggers:

Baloney of That's Baloney - Baloney is the one who inspired me to think about blogging so if you want to blame somebody for me polluting the blogoshere talk to her. She is to blame. She has a great sense of humor and her blog can be the funniest I've ever read but she has an amazing talent to communicate deep emotion, caring, and feeling on many subjects especially her two sons. So she can make me laugh and make me cry. I think of her blog as a blogging ministry. Plus for many months I think she, Sweetie, and my sister were the only readers I had, I think.

Dawn of Dawn's Diversions - Dawn is like the friendliest and most expressive blogger on the internet. She just popped onto my blog one day to say hi and I've been following her ever since. I love the design of her blog and her profile picture is the best I've ever seen. Plus how many other women will put their age right there for everybody to see? She is very generous in her comments and also has a wonderful sense of humor. Also, her photographs show a lot of talent and skill. The sense of community that she has created with her blog is a great example for all of us. She is even organizing a physical get together for all her Oklahoma readers. (All except for one that is.)

As honored Awardees they both get to pass the award on to others of their choosing.

Reading Program, Book Bags, and a Chili Coney Special

If you live in Tulsa County and you like to read and get free stuff then head over to your local library and get started with the 2009 Adult Reading Program. You pick up an enrollment card, read 6 books by the end of March, turn in the card, and get a book bag! You can enroll online if you want. Check out the details here.

Afterwards head over to Coney Island Hot Dogs and get the Three Coney Special. Three dogs, with cheese, onion, and chili if you wish and a soft drink for $4.70, including tax. Bring your own nitroglycerin pills.


Three coneys, with chili, onions, and cheese, with hot sauce and chili powder for an extra kick.

They are good but really, really, bad for you. You want to know the secret of eating healthy? Uh? I'll tell you, If it tastes good, spit it out. You'll live to be a 100! But you won't enjoy it.

I'm doubling up on my Zocor tonight.

"Asperger's from the Inside Out" by Michael John Carley

"Asperger's from the Inside Out" is written by Michael John Carley, who is the Executive Director of GRASP, (The Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership). The book is meant to be a guide to life for people with Asperger's Syndrome ("AS") with emphasis for those who were diagnosed with AS when as adults.

Carley is well qualified to write the book. He was diagnosed with AS as an adult and part of the GRASP mission is to set up support groups all over the country for adults with AS.

I read the book not because I have AS but because I'm the father of a son with AS and I thought that it might help give me a heads up on what to expect with him as he continues on his journey.

Carley, I think, is realistic about these kids can expect. Life for them may be difficult but there is an excellent chance they can adapt and live product, even happy, lives. They may suffer lots of rejection and reversals on the way.

It is asking a lot of a book to be a guide for life for somebody with a disability and I'm not sure this book is it. I think the story of AS changes quickly and I'm not sure that books are the best way to learn. That said, I rate the this book as a 3 stars out of 4 for helping this Dad understand what my son may be in for as he continues to grow up.

My World Tuesday #2

I decided to feature another art deco building in Tulsa. Below is the Oklahoma Natural Gas Building constructed in 1928. It was the first art deco building in downtown Tulsa and led to many others. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and you can read all the details here.

The building is still used as office space and is very nice specially the former lobby on the first floor. The layout is that the elevators are at the opposite end of what is viewed here. From the elevator lobby there is a center corridor all they way to the end. So all the offices have nice windows and great views.

Find more My World Tuesday entries here.

Harlem Globetrotters at the Hub Cap

The Yogi family ventured downtown to the Hub Cap, I mean the BOK Center, to see the Harlem Globetrotters. We had a good time. They are still doing the same corny gags they have been doing since I was a kid. They are a lot better athletes though.

SuperPizzaBoy was not a fan for the underdog, Washington Generals. He was very partisan in his cheers. He is turning into a little ham.

Sweetie grabbed the camera and took a picture right back at me.
The Generals lost again, even though they cheated! The coach had to wear a tutu. SPB loved that.

And then we went home!