Category Archives: Diversions

Wicked – The Musical


Sweetie and I headed downtown Saturday afternoon to see “Wicked” a touring Broadway musical. It is the backstory to the Wizard of Oz. Judy Garland gave us only one side, this play gives us the truth!. As one character put it, something to the effect of, “Can you believe she took the shoes off my dead sister. You would think she was raised in a barn.”

Sweetie and both thought this production was one of the best we have ever seen. The special effects are awesome, the music and singing are superb, and the choreography is wonderful. (I cannot figure out how the producers and directors can pack so many people on a stage all dancing and singing amongst props and nobody ever bounces into somebody else.)

Helene York was awesome as Glinda but Marcie Dodd stole the show as Elpheba. Ms. Dodd played the part on Broadway. The young lady can really sing.

The total time, including a short 15 minute intermission took about three hours, but it went very quickly.

I give Wicked four stars out of four and a special Do Not Miss this Show recommendation.

Summer Soiree

Sweetie and I went partying Saturday night. Left SuperPizzaBoy with Nana and headed to Southern Hills Country Club for a fund raiser for SPB’s school. Town and Country. It is our annual get dressed and go have fun event.

Town and Country School is very dear to us. SPB has really thrived there. They go to extremes to help kids learn. It is for kids with learning difficulties including Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism.
The past two years we have been a sponsor.

As you can tell from the picture below, I was out of control. Sweetie had to rein me in. I need to get a handle on partying one of these days. I just go berserk. Are we not cute? Purple and purple, Sweetie’s favorite color!

We had martinis, a fine meal with wine, desert. A short talk was given by a graduate of Town and Country School. A young man,Brian C. Britt, diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome, who could not function in public school. He enrolled in Town and Country and thrived. He graduated from there as a National Merit Scholar, obtained his B.S. in Communication from the University of Tulsa, and is now studying for his Master’s Degree in Organizational Communication at Purdue University. He teaches two classes in public speaking , an astounding accomplishment for a person afflicted with Tourette’s Syndrome.

Then we had the live auction. I love live auctions. Jay Litchfield did this one. He is good at it. He does lots and lots of charity auctions in the Tulsa area, free, gratis, many times more than one a night. He is a great guy.
They had a band, we danced the night away, sorry, no party pics. Believe me, you appreciate that.

Any Okies want to Moon Amtrak?

It is the little surprises in life that make it interesting. The things you don’t expect. I was going through the Wall Street Journal reading all about how ole Obama is ruining the country and the AIG execs are wanting their retention bonuses (Retention!? Darn let’em go I say. I could go to the plasma center and find people who could lose as much money as AIG has just on the execs regular salaries.) Oh, yeah sorry. Anyway I found out that in California there is a sport called “Amtrak Mooning.”
No lie!! It is absolutely true. It even has its own web site. (Note family safe link – there are lots of non family safe links if you want to Google or Bing “Amtrack mooning.”) They have been doing it for 30 years. It is done once a year in Laguna Niguel, California. You show up and when an Amtrak train comes by you moon it. The local tracks have 38 passenger trains a day starting at 7:35 in the morning and ending at 11:22 pm. So there is lots of opportunities. Thousands of people show up. They moon trains, they drink, moon some more.

You better hurry though. This year’s is tomorrow. So better get your tickets and head to the airport. Also, the town is hard to get to. The authorities suggest that you “Take the train.” Wow, moon and get mooned. Same day. A nice rhythmn, “moon in, moon, moon out.” Kind of like “Don’t worry, be happy.”
Be aware though, the local powers to be are threatening to be out in force and try to stop this event. It is a threat to public safety they say! I think Obama is behind the ban. Another attack on our way of life! Our traditional values and sacred rights! Are we Americans going to put up with this?

Note: Photo courtesy of Amtrak.

Boys Night Out

Its Book Group time for Sweetie! Her once month outing with the ladies. SuperPizzaBoy and I go out and do stuff. Come join us!

Are you ready to go SPB?

First, Dinner at Fuddrucker’s. Plain Cheeseburger for the kid.


Dad loaded his up at the “make your own” bar.

Then to Laser Quest. One 20 minute game. Very intense workout. I came in number one! I gave those 11 year olds a butt kicking they will never forget. I’m the King of the World!

We finished at Barnes & Noble. The rule is I’ll buy you a book but you better be with me at the checkout stand; he was!

Home,

Half Day Off

Yesterday I took a half day off and played a round of golf with some coworkers.

Above, note the equipment. The finest irons on the generic market of 1988. The best $19.95 driver and 3 wood Sam’s had in 1991, and a wonderful $7.50 Walmart putter from 1992. Nothing but the best for me. Sweetie got me the golf bag a few years ago, its the best item of equipment I have, next to my lucky SpongeBob SquarePants golf balls.

BTW – I still love that license plate!

My coworkers. We had a great time.

The weather was warm, humid, and sunny. Wonderful.
Signature hole. I wonder if they would let me hide a geocache there?

We played some golf, we drank some malted beverages, a couple of us made some great shots, some of us made some horrible shots, but we all had a great time.

How did I do? What do you mean? I played golf during working hours so I did great!

Oh, you mean what was my score?

OK, I shot a 64 – pretty good uh?

and

a 62 on the back 9!

Checking out the new Trail

Felt like crap all day with allergies or a cold or something. Stuck in a basement for a training session. The training was OK, I just hate being someplace without windows, especially on such a nice day, especially when I don’t feel good.

Sweetie gave me a kitchen pass so I went running on the newly renovated river trail section from 31st street to I44. It is great. Thanks George Kaiser of Kaiser-Francis Oil Company and the George Kaiser Family Foundation. They wrote a check for the whole thing, about $12.4 million. Incredible generosity.

It has separate paths, for much of the way, for runners and bikers. I always dreaded a head on collision with a bike while running at night. This should cut the chances of collsions.

Quik Trip Corporation paid for a new play park at 41st street. It is incredible. I’m such an old fart that this is the third play park built at this location since I moved here. The one they tore down is the new one. This newer one is wonderful. It has splash pads. I love splash pads. I love Quik Trip. Tulsa kicks some major butt on convenience stores. Quik Trip rocks. When SuperPizzaBoy and I go geocaching we get hungry, so we have geocaching lunches at QT. Hot dogs, chocoloate chip cookies, freezes. Don’t knock it. Above all don’t tell Sweetie!!! Shhhh! Can you keep a secret?

Shadows are getting long. Time to go home. Usually I have a couple of malted beverages and a bath. I felt so crappy I had a couple glasses of spicy V8. I enjoyed the running though. I went abut 5 miles and it is like a dream on a day like this.

Tulsa Tea Party

A big party going on downtown in the Oilfield Capital of the World. A tea party. I’d never heard of such a thing but when I looked out the window at the crowd my coworkers had to tell me what was going on. Where have I been?

So I had to go check it out at lunch. Lots of signs, lots of nerdy looking people with cameras. A helicopter showed up. The photographers went crazy. I refused to join the crowd wasting electrons on a whirlybird a 1000 feet in the air. So I took a picture of this guy taking a picture. He has a lot better camera than I do. The speaker told everybody to wave at the helicopter, and they did!! Who’d have thought a bunch of free thinkers could be led so easily. Kind of worries me, how about you, you worried?

I don’t know what everybody is all bent out of shape about but the speaker kept on talking about taking back our nation, we are a nation of Christians…, yadayadayada badababadababa blah blah blah… No disrespect intended. I hate all political speeches. But I love politics, go figure. I was more into people watching. Then I switched to signs.

Its like everybody was just milling around waiting for something to happen. A couple coworkers came by and chatted. While we were talking every once in a while the crowd would cheer and clap and my friends would clap also. I asked them “Why you clapping. What did the guy say.” They said, “We didn’t hear him, we are justing supporting him.” I asked “Who is he?” They didn’t know. I guess I don’t get it.


I got bored. Time to get a hamburger!

Bids, Baskets, Bites, and Prime Numbers

SuperPizzaBoy’s school had a fund raiser last Satuday night. It was a party. Each of the classes had put together a basket and you bid on each basket in a silent auction format. Everybody spends a lot of time and attention putting their basket together and decorating the table that it sits on. Below is the table that Sweetie decorated. It and the basket she put together is based on the television series “The Office. The typewriter is courtesy of Nana, SPB’s grandmother.

Oh, the food. Each table has food. Lots of food. Almost all of it is good, but bad for you. I never have figured out how things can be good but bad at the same time.

SPB goes to a private school and things are a little different. They have a Halloween party for example. A few parents don’t like it but most don’t seem to think that we are raising legions of devil worshippers. Christmas is allowed! Wow. I’m digressing again, I’m sorry, I’ll get to the point: We could get a glass of wine! I only had one, after all I was driving, but it was great.

I’m really off track. See all the stuff on the table? It now belongs to the guy on the left. Me. Sweetie says no more silent auctions for me. She is so mean sometimes.

Lets see, I won 6 baskets: The fishing basket, complete with with three fishing rods, including a pink one for Sweetie. The spaghetti basket, the photo basket which includes a new digital camera, and a micro camera (oh!), the weaved basket (done by SPB’s class, I had to get it, right?), the Bookworm basket (of course), and the Patio basket!

The good news, I got a lot of great stuff. The bad news, we have to pull SPB out of school, we can’t afford to pay tuition any more. He’s a smart kid. He’ll be ok.

I knew that it was going to be that kind of night for me. How did I know? Because my assigned auction id number was 23, a prime number. I love prime numbers. They are so mysterious and very auspicious for me. I could bore you to tears with the beauty of prime numbers.

Walking with Dinosaurs – The Live Experience

Saturday afternoon the Yogi family again ventured to downtown Tulsa to the BOK Center. This time to see “Walking with Dinosaurs – The Live Experience.” (Click the link if you have time, the production’ web site is awesome).

Walking with Dinosaurs is an outgrowth of the BBC Series with the same name.

This is a great show. The technology used is amazing as the dinsaurs look lifelike. They walk dynamically and in balance, the muscles ripple under the skin realistically.

I could go on and on but the short story is that we loved this show. The narrator of the story (a faux paleontologist with what looked like faux face stubble) did a great job of explaining what was going on all the while dodging the creatures as they maneuvered around the floor of the arena. The dinosaurs roared, some very loudly, the music was great. This is a first rate production.

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.