Spring is Here

Spring has Sprung in Tulsa

MIL's Star Magnolia Tree is blooming





Forsythia on the Arkansas River trail



More Star Magnolia on the Midland Valley Trail (please never mind the wires and cables)



The pear trees are in bloom.

Booker T. Washington High School's Race to the Top

I am very impressed with our young people today. A couple weeks ago I did booth duty with some students from Union High School's Junior Achievement program. All of those kids had their act together.

Our local paper, the Tulsa World, has an article Saturday about students from anther Tulsa area school, Booker T. Washington High School, who are working hard on a contest, the "White House's Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge" where the President will pick a school to deliver an address at their commencement. You can read the article here. According to the article The Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge, invites schools to show how they are making "great strides on personal responsibility, academic excellence and college readiness."

Part of the student's entry is the video (produced by the students) below:



So do you think this is a good contest?

What do you think about our young people today? Are you hopeful or despairing? I want to know!

My World - Texas State Cemetery

I was in Austin, Texas last week for a convention. During breaks I ventured on foot with my GPS receiver and camera into various parts of town to track down geocaches. I eventually wandered into the Texas State Cemetery. I had never heard of it so I had to check it out.

I walked up on Tom Landry's grave. Serendipity, I am big Dallas Cowboys fan. I started when he was the head coach.



He was a great coach. I know nothing about his personal life but to all accounts he was a very good guy.

I saw the grave of J. Frank Dobie. Boy, did I love his books as a kid. I love serendipity!!



and behind Mr. Dobie is Stephen F. Austin, great hero of the war of Texas Independence.



Barbara Jordan, the great Texas congresswoman, is buried there. I didn't agree with her politics very often but I admired her passion nonetheless.



Many politicians are buried there and have listed all the various positions they held. I liked her list the best even though it was the shortest:



Texas Rangers are buried there



There is a memorial to those killed in the 9/11 attack.



Those are actual girders from the buildings that collapsed in New York City.

Veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto. "Remember the Alamo!"



Civil War Veterans of the Confederacy





They have a section reserved for Medal of Honor winners. This is just a few:



I randomly googled Mr. James Marion Logan to see what I could find out. He was born in Lulling, Texas and died in Longview, Texas. You can read his story here and here. If anybody deserved a Medal of Honor, he did.

The grave to the left is that of Robert Edward Galer. He was a Marine fighter pilot during the Battle of Guadacanal. You can read his story here.

To the right is buried Joseph Charles Rodriguez. He earned his Medal of Honor in Korea. Here is his story.

There was no better way to spend a couple hours than being among all these people.

Click on over to That's My World to check scenes from everywhere on this planet.

Making a Joyful Noise - Baloney Sunday Challenge

We had a racket going on the other day. SuperPizzaBoy was giving his cat, LJ, piano lessons. Lots about this picture need fixing: one can hardly see the cat for example, and the piano is way too dark especially where his shadow falls on it, and his face is too dark, but I love the light on on son's back and head and didn't want to change that at all, so the image is right out of the camera.

"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations."

Psalm 100:1-5 (NIV)

Check out That's Baloney for other pairings of scripture and images.

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

One Amazing Thing is about a group of disparate people in the basement office of the Indian Consulate on the  west coast. An earthquake collapses the building and traps them in the basement with very little food, a flashlight, slowly rising water, and no hope of rescue. Nerves are raw and they pick on each other and eventually they start fighting each other. They realize they cannot go on so they take somebody's suggestion to each tell a story about themselves to help pass the time while they wait.

The stories are amazing and help bring these people from widely different cultures and backgrounds together. Hidden resentments between husbands and wives, parents and children, secrets, reasons, they all come out.

I give the book 3.5 stars out of 4 but hey I'm a sucker for a good story. I liked this book. I'll be reading more by Ms. Divakaruni.

A Dead Hand by Paul Theroux

"A Dead Hand" is a murder mystery. Jerry Dalfont, a travel writer with writer's block, a "dead hand," is in Calcutta at loose ends since he cannot write. He is summoned by Mrs. Unger, an rich American philanthropist, to solve the mystery of the body of a small boy discovered in the hotel room of one of her employees.

As he works on the mystery Unger works on him. She takes him under wing and teaches him all about Trantric massages and reveals her Hindu side. In the meantime Dalfont works with the local police and pokes around a little on his own.

An interesting part of the book is when Dalfont meets the famous travel writer, Paul Theroux, in Calcutta. Theroux is not too complimentary of himself in the encounter. I had never read a writer writing himself in the story before.

The book was ok but I definitely didn't love it. It needed a little less Tantric sex and lot more story and character development. The book telegraphs the end pretty far out. I rate this 1.5 stars out of 4. I love Theroux's non-fiction but I've never quite got into his fiction.

Skywatch Friday - Texas Redbud

Earlier this week on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas.

Check out Skywatch Friday for great views of the sky from all over the world.

Flat Baloney goes on two trips

Meet Flat Baloney alter ego of Baloney of That's Baloney fame.



She went with the Yogi's to Branson, Missouri. She was all excited about the trip. She worked hard on a tan and got herself a nice little yellow dress and green shoes just for the trip.

Flat Baloney went fishing and had a good time.



She went geocaching and loved it!!



She played games and drank some malted beverages with us.



Everything was going good and then son SuperPizzaBoy asked her how she met her main squeeze, Hickory Dickory Doc. Well, let me tell you the story she told our 11 year old son!!



Then when we ran out of beer she got even more brazen.



"Open the Big Bottle! Open the Big Bottle!" she kept on saying. No Flat Baloney!! You've had enough! Did she listen? What do you think?

Then we caught Flat Baloney with her camera trying to take some inappropriate pictures.



Her alter ego, Baloney, is the king of inappropriate pictures. She has underwear (if they are lucky they were wearing underwear) pictures of all her friends!!

And then we went home to Tulsa. I went on to Austin, TX the next day and Flat Baloney went along because she has never been to Austin. Well we had a complete transformation there, she straightened out her life. We went geocaching on the University of Texas campus and she fell in love with it. She decided to apply, and got accepted instantly because she was smart. Then they made her a Longhorn Cheerleader because she is so vivacious!! She was so happy.

We did a little more geocaching, she was so cute in her little Longhorn cheerleading outfit. We come upon Tom Landry's grave.



That made her so sad. She loves the Dallas Cowboys so much and she couldn't bear that their greatest coach was gone. Her supreme ambition in life was to be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader while he was the coach.

Oh, she couldn't get over it. She cried and cried and cried, and then she died. Oops.

So I left the little University of Texas Longhorn Cheerleader with her favorite coach. She is up there in Heaven cheering Tom along.

RIP Flat Baloney

2010

"Hookem Horns!!!"

The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You

Ruby Tuesday - Strawberrys and Cream

Check out "Work of the Poet" for Ruby Tuesday every Monday and Tuesday.

My World - Road Trip to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri

The family went on a spring break trip to Branson in southwest Missouri to go to the Silver Dollar City theme park. It's only a few hours from Tulsa but we have never been. I've always kind of rolled my eyes at Branson because of the general chessiness of the whole "show" thing and I'm not a fan of amusement parks.

But hey, Sweetie rented us a cabin, we packed up and went and we had a great time, especially SuperPizzaBoy.

Sweetie booked us a great cabin complete with rocking chairs in the front and plumbing and a fireplace inside.



It was furnished very nicely.



The local food was good, especially the stuffed hamburgers at Chester's.


It was an electronics free weekend so we played Mexican dominoes.



Ate some smores



and relaxed



At Silver Dollar City we did some rides.



(Not actually that one, but I liked the picture.)

We saw some corny skits



We saw Doc Gizmo do his science show



We checked out some shops



We clowned around a little bit



In Branson we saw a light show,



Drove down the strip and saw King Kong attacking the city



Oh, and of course, you will never guess, the whole point of the trip,



We went geocaching!! There were two in the park but they involved taking rides that had long lines. The Yogi's avoid lines so I found two out on Tablerock Lake.

We saw some deer coming back from the caches.





So the last night we toasted to a good trip





And drove back home to Tulsa



For other photographs and stories from all over the world check out That's My World.