Category Archives: Birthday

Brother Bob’s Birthday – Celebrating 66 on Route 66

_DSC0370 — The great photographer of the family tells them, you guys stand here and I will go across the street. Well, that didn’t work out well.

Brother Bob came over from Tennessee to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. His birthday is right around that time as well and he was talking about Turning 66 on Route 66. That sounded good to me so on Black Friday we including son Logan went on a phototour

_DSC0373 — So I moved in closer, and no sign of the Meadow Gold sign and what’s worse is that I cut off their feet!

We went to a few Route 66 sites in Tulsa.

_DSC0374 — Okay, I will take this at Cyrus Avery Plaza. Note how Logan towers over his uncle.

_DSC0376 — Poor guys, I cut off their feet again.

_DSC0381 — The eternal debate, stand together? or flank the sculpture? I don’t know.

On to Route 66 Village in west Tulsa. A gigantic locomotive on display there. Logan is taller than the wheels! I can still take him though. I just hope I don’t have to prove it some day.

In front of the train. Not too bad. Not too good. It is what it is.

So Bob, Logan, and I had our #OptOutside black Friday on a stretch of Route 66 in Tulsa. We also ate some Chili Cheese Coney Dogs and ventured to the Philbrook Museum of Art to kind of balance things out. Later on some birthday cake.

Birthday Time

I’m sorry I haven’t been around much. It has been my birthday. My birthday is not an event, it is a whole season nowdays. At least to me. I’m getting trouble getting buy in.

Except from my buddy Fiona. She is into my extended multiday birthday plan. But then, she is still celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day.

So I was totally spoiled on Sunday. I kept wondering what are guys going to get me tomorrow?? I’m very spoiled in case you can’t see.

I got a new camera: a Nikon D5300. I’m still learning how to use it. Fortunately it has the auto setting. Us picture takers need the auto button.

Today was my real birthday. It was kind of drizzly but still Heather and I went up to Woodward Park and I took a few pics of the tulips. The auto button is not bad for that.

I also tried the macro setting. I got a little bokeh action going on.

This evening we went for a family stroll on the River Parks and I took along my new camera.

Here is Heather, Logan and Rascal at what we call the bear park on the trails. The flash pops up and fills in nicely. Except Rascal the dog looks kind of blobbish. Not bad for the auto setting though. I’m a blessed man is what I say.

And there is lots and lots of megapixels so I can do long distance shots like this.

Anyways I had a great birthday. Now, 59 more to go!! Hey birthdays are too nice to confine to just one day!!

When is your next birthday coming up? Is one day enough?

Birthdaying and Partying Hardy in Western Oklahoma

It was a special weekend way out in western Oklahoma. We had three birthdays and and promotion to celebrate. We didn’t mess around. We got right down to business.

You know it is special when the world’s greatest MIL, Nana, decides to have a daquiri. As you can see she got a triple. She said that she only had one…

Me, Sue Carol to the left, and Libby celebrating birthdays.

Tyler just got promoted to Captain in the Marine Corps. We are all proud of him.

As the party wound up we all got friendlier and smilier. You bet smilier is a word. It was Saturday night in Custer County you can bet on that. That is Cheri joining in to the right. We were at her house.

Ruth showed up and joined in and we got rolling. Ruth brags on my picture taking so she gets extra props.

Bella, the world’s most photogenic dog was thinking things really were going to far.

And then Logan and Kyle got into it. They were really standing up straight. Kyle is taller, check back next year and we’ll check again.

And then little Miss C, Tyler’s daughter, showed up and stole the show and put us all to shame in the partying department. Unfortunately I cut off the head of Miss C’s mother Kim. Sorry Kim!!! Didn’t mean to.

What a little sweetie. Look at those curls!

We were a little slow getting up the next morning but we loaded up and went out to check out the cows. Chesapeake is drilling a well nearby headed for the Colony Wash formation. Sorry, the cows are kind of a blob in this pic.

So I changed the exposure settings in the camera. Now we can see them better but they look like Stephen King deranged killer zombie cows. People are all worried about Obama taking over the US. After this weekend I’m afraid of the cows. What about you? Perhaps we need to eat less chicken?

And then the donkeys showed up to get fed and loved on. They are in charge of ranch security and all things comedy. Unless you are a coyote. Coyote’s don’t find the donkeys very funny at all.

Here’s Nolan asking me just exactly what I am good for besides nothing. It’s real simple with him. You either have food or you don’t.

Here is Joe, Cheri’s husband, feeding the cows and being the tour guide. Note the high tech solar powered water well pump in the background. No messing with windmills in the 21st century for Joe.

And Joe drives a 21st century ranch truck too, a one ton Ford.

Joe and his lovely wife Cheri. Cheri is a little dynamo that kept everything going.

So that is what happened to me this weekend. What about you? Did you have near as much fun as I did?

Philbrook Museum of Art’s 2013 Festival of the Trees

(I have decided that I like trees with bosoms. What about you? The tree at lower right was made out of recycled materials. I don’t know about you but we recycle our tree ever year. Yep, we pull it out of the attic and put it back ever year.)

Saturday afternoon Heather, Logan, and friend Patty took the world’s greatest Mother in Law, Nana to Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art for some lunch and to see the Philbrook’s Festival of the Trees.

(These are nice but I don’t thing the kid is buying these kind of trees. Plus where would I hang my Dallas Cowboys ornament. I have a hard enough time sneaking it on the tree every year. Heather has no problem making sure that it goes on the interior side of the tree facing the wall.)

The Festival of the Trees is something I look forward to every year. The trees are all very creative.

(These are unbreakable trees. You could use them for Christmas trees during the season and for traffic barricades off season.)

I don’t think that I would really want one of these in the living room but they are fun to look at.

(You may have figured out that I’m a new subscriber to picmonkey dot com and by gum I’m going to get my money’s worth. Yep, so expect a torrent of collages and treatments. I’m not a huge fan of so called SOC. so leave me alone.)

One tree was a cowboy tree. It didn’t photograph to well as a whole but I loved the wire and rope ornaments.

(I just wish I could eat some of this stuff. I’m a big fan of gingerbread. I’m afraid that they might be a little stale and taste like Elmers.)

The gingerbread houses are also a favorite of mine.

(Ah, some favorites here. The top left was done by some kids in a class at Logan’s school. Top right is of Holy Family Cathedral where I was forbidden by a member to take photographs of the church. And that is why I’m going to hell when I die. I’m going to have lots of company though. Bottom right, Girl Scout Cookies!!!!!, bottom right is actually the gardens at Philbrook museum. Cool.)

It doesn’t take too long to go through both the trees and gingerbread houses.

One of the gingerbread exhibits getting lots of oohs and ahs with this scene of Tulsa. You get a whole tour of the city with this. From upper left clockwise to lower right you have the Golden Driller, the Blue Dome, the Mayo Hotel, and the BOK center. The Christmas tree and ice rink are the Winter Festival. This was nice but…

This was my favorite. Santa needs to go on a diet and so does Yogi.

Nana however is looking great!! Happy Birthday Nana!!

Our World Tuesday

Somebody is Turning Fifteen!

We are having a birthday celebration this week for SuperPizzaBoy.

He can be a very sophisticated fellow, at least for a little while.

He’s already a seasoned stage performer. He loves improv comedy.

He loves his mother. They have a special bond.

He’s loved his mother for a very long time.

He likes to ride horses.

He loves his trampoline in the back yard.

I swear he is part fish.

He loves to bust a few moves.

And you know something else?

He can still blow them all out with one breath.

Happy Birthday SuperPizzaboy!!

Two Days of Birthday

I just had a birthday recently. Actually my birthdays are more of a process than an event cuz I get 58 days of birthday. Who says? I say, birthdays are too important for just one day. Don’t you think?

My latest version started a little early. I had a day off so I helped Sweetie set up the book fair at SuperPizzaBoy’s school. I love school book fairs.

Later on I took SPB and his friend Jake geocaching. Jake found his very first geocache ever. Aren’t you proud.

Then later on we left SPB with the world’s great MIL, Nana and Sweetie and I went to the Brady District just north of downtown Tulsa for the “First Friday Art Crawl.” Boy did we see lots of stuff and lots of people. The place was crawling with people. It is the cool thing to do.

We saw people not like how our regular crowd. Lots of artistic types. There might have even been some Democrats that snuck in to Oklahoma despite the embargo.

We went to a glass blowing school. They were involved in some heavy duty glass blowing. They had two furnaces going. I could relate to this as they burning natural gas. Burn Baby Burn is what I say. Burn that gas. The Fricking Frackers need the price of gas to be higher than what it is. I didn’t see any Fricking Frackers at the Art Crawl. I did see another Gas Pipeline guy. We marveled at our mutual coolness of being there. There is no use being cool if somebody else doesn’t know it right? It is kind of embarrassing trying to be cool isn’t it? But now we can style it like, “My wife dragged me down to the Art Crawl and I saw Bruce there trying to be all cool and everything.” Cuz part of being cool is being slightly dismissive of all the strivers out there. You with me?

We went to the Living Arts Center and we saw some young women going Circus Soleil on us. It was pretty wild. I’m not sure what you call it but I can tell you that I was impressed.

They had a bunch of artistic chandeliers on display. This one was my favorite. A chandelier with goldfish inside. Don’t go all PETA on me, I’m just reporting I saw.

We saw some music also. This group is We the Ghost. I kind of liked them. The venue is “Guthrie Green.” Basically built by an Oklahoma Oilman, George Kaiser, in honor of Woody Guthrie. Don’t you think that has a lot of Okies twirling around. Guthrie is not somebody that the Tea Party brand of Okies likes. Oh well.

We had a dinner that night also. Sweetie took me to a really nice place, Pryhme Steakhouse right in the Brady District. We had dry aged beef and it was great!. Good thing we talked to our banker before we left. Nice dinner but we’ll be paying the second mortgage off for some time I’m afraid.

I showed you the good pic first, then me. Note the tie. That’s my psychological ploy to keep you from noticing the lack of hair.

I did pretty well picking a wife didn’t I? Poor Sweetie though.

Still with me? Hey I said my birthday is a process right. Keep at it, we’re almost done. Next day we went to Tulsa’s Woodward Park to stroll around. We like the Linnaeus Gardens there. You might notice that SPB is now both taller and outweighs me. I can still take him though!

They have a lot of stuff packed into a small space.

The area is popular for photography. I just love stealing pics. I mean they send the photons to me, I’m just capturing what would be wasted otherwise right?