Category Archives: Sweetie

Chicken Fried Steak – the Pioneer Woman Way

We Okies are very proud of Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman. Go check out her fabulous blog. She also has a cookbook. It is not very low fat but it is good. Just ask Bobby Flay who got his butt kicked in his good natured Thanksgiving dinner throwdown with Ms. Drummond (see link at bottom of post.)

My dad, Gramps, visited us over Thanksgiving. His favorite dish is chicken fried steak. So Sweetie decided that she was going to make Gramps an Okie style CFS dinner with all the trimmings.

So we got the cookbook out.

Sweetie got her game face on. Notice the glass of wine she didn’t quite hide. I really don’t think that PW would disapprove. Hey coking has to be fun.

Sweetie started with her own dishes. Mashed potatoes and purple hull peas.

I even got recruited.

I’m usually in charge of anything involving cast iron.

Sweetie took over though on the gravy. Lots of whisking involved there.

Ya gotta get the gravy right. Sweetie did a great job.

The end result. Its like, cmon Yogi, lets eat!! Gramps looks pretty happy with the result.

“Pioneer Woman Takes Down Bobby Flay + Her Recipe” and related posts (manicmommies.com)

Smarts and Arts 2010

The Autism Center of Tulsa had their second annual Smarts and Arts Trivia Quiz Friday Night.

A good time was had by all. My employer, the gas company, sponsored a table so I had some coworkers attending.

Left to right, Eric and Teresa, and Georgette. Eric and Teresa are fellow geocachers but they have let the recent arrival of a new grandbaby cut down their finds. I’ve counseled them about that. I don’t think they took me too seriously.

Jamee, Rebecca, and Pat. Pat brought his toe shoes to the event.

He and tried to start a new thing at work. “Toe Shoe Tuesday” we figured out that the gurgling sound we kept hearing was our careers going down the drain so we put our plans on hold pending further advisement.

The event featured trivia, a silent auction, and art by local children diagnosed with autism. Much of it is quite good.

We ended up buying the piece below. It as a team effort by several children coordinated by an Occuptional Therapist. SuperPizzaBoy participated in its creation.

I helped out at the event. I hauled stuff in and arranged it. My crowning achievement was the creation of the scoring spreadsheet.

The heavy lifting in terms of hours and intensity of work was done by four women: My wife Sweetie, our friend Jonni (of first class blog “That’s Baloney“, and the co-founders of the Autism Center of Tulsa, Jennifer and Michelle. Sweetie and Jonni were co-chairs of the event.

Sorry, I don’t have any photographs of any of them at the event. They were in constant motion all night long. I tried, they were too busy. Below is a photo of Jonni on the left and Sweetie on the right from last Spring. They could hardly stand still then for a photo.

You know, I didn’t notice until just now but their race numbers are anagrams. 718 and 817 each have the same number. Wow. I don’t know what that means. I wanted 666 for my number but it was already taken. Darn it.

The verse of the day is John 20:1, “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb…”

What I think of with this verse is that while the guys were all fast asleep, Mary Magdalene got up to do the work that needed to be done. And some people think that women should not be ministers?

As a bonus, one of my favorite hymns: “God of Wonders” by Third Day. (Thanks to Driller’s Place for for reminding me.)

For more pairings of images and text check out That’s Baloney.

Halloween 2010 #1

Halloween started early. A lady I work with brought her two grandchildren to the office. Her grandson posed proudly for a photo.

His sister was having none of it.

They liked my atomic fireballs though.

Later I went to the Halloween Party SuperPizzaBoy’s school was having. Yep, you heard me, Halloween Party! Yeah private school. For those of you aghast at the thought of a Haloween Part, as far as I know none of the little devils has turned into a satan worshiper, yet.

Sweetie was there helping out. She is here, there, and everywhere. She doesn’t stay still long enough to get a non-blurred photo.

They had a pumpkin raffle and I won two of them.

You should have heard all the grumbling, “I can’t believe he won two of them.” Hey I bought five tickets and only won two pumpkins. I was counting on at least three.

But you know what the big news of the night was?

Bonnie and Clyde made a special appearance!

Aren’t they cute? Bonnie especially is very sweet.

I just love Halloween. How is yours going?

Watery Wednesday – Linnaeus Teaching Garden

Last week the family toured the Linnaeus Teaching Garden at Woodward Park here in Tulsa. The gardens are not very large in area but it is packed with features including a nice pond.

Above is wife Sweetie, and son, SuperPizzaBoy.

Please check out Watery Wednesday.

A Day Off #2 and an Adoption Story

I work a 9/80 schedule. In other words I work 80 hours in 9 days over two weeks. So I get every other Friday off. I love it!!!! Sweetie and I generally spend it together and we spend it doing fun stuff.

This Friday, after I took SuperPizzaBoy to school, we had breakfast and puttered around the grocery store for a little while. Then we loaded up the bicycles and headed off for the Arkansas River trails.

The River Parks in Tulsa are beautiful. They are one of the great features of the city.

It was a perfect day, warm, dry, sunny.

I just love cranes, don’t you??? A new restaurant is being built over the river. It is going to be way cool when completed.

Sights on the River.

Old Route 66 marks the north end of the River Trails.

I always like to go by the “Bear Fountain.”

Afterwards we refueled on Diet Doctor Pepper, dropped the bikes off, picked up our Pomeranian, Rascal, and went to pick SuperPizzaBoy up.

Hey Bud, if you had a better day than we did, you had a great day!

Nope, we are not at the end yet. Sorry, I know that I need to get my story told in 5 seconds, but you have stuck around this long, stick around a little longer. I promised an Adoption Story and that is coming up!

SPB is having his friend Nick over for a sleepover so we went to pick up Nick. I love picking up Nick, he and his family are very nice and they also have critters.

They also have dogs, cats, chickens, peacocks, and Guineafowl. I posted about the helmeted guineafowl last week.

Well, today I got to talking to Nick’s Dad. He said one of the peacocks had laid some eggs but they never hatched so he want to a farm supply store and got some guinea eggs and substituted them for the peacock eggs.

Well, the eggs hatched and the peacock acts like the mother of the guinea chicks and the chicks think the peacock is mom. It is hilarious. I got a little close to the chicks and Mom was hollering at me, she was not happy at all. Sorry about the blurry photo. It was the best I could do without totally stressing her out.

What do you like to do on your days off?

Anniversary

Sweetie and I are celebrating 21 years together today.

The Beautiful Bride

The black cloud is our Pom, Rascal. I know, I know, you aren’t supposed to carry dogs in your lap while driving. Hey, you tell her, she doesn’t listen to me!

But

That is how she rolls.

Just as pretty and so full of life as ever.

She and I make a very glamorous couple, don’t you think?

Dedicated and loving mother to our son.

A very hard worker.

Very down to earth.

And ready for fun any time.

She’ll even go geocaching with me, every once in a while. Believe me, she does it because she loves me.

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!

Wordless Wednesday – Family Game Night

Check out RHOK Wordless Wednesday.

Also check out Wordless Wednesday

The Back Alleys, Pizza Joints, and Wildlife Heritage Center of Antlers, Oklahoma

Last week Sweetie and I dropped SuperPizzaBoy off at his friend Nick’s house and drove down to the city of Antlers in southeast Oklahoma to help MIL Nana with some personal business. We helped her remove personal items from a building she is leasing to somebody else. She and her late husband Charles operated a pharmacy in the building for years and years. Somebody else bought out the pharmacy and leased the building.

This is the back entrance.

Being a small town I think just as many people used the back entrance as the front. It always kind of tickled me. The new owners of the pharmacy aren’t quite as inviting. So its kind of like “Welcome, now go around to the front entrance.”

I’m a real fan of alleys. I think they are cool. The street front is what the building owner wants you to see, the alley is how they really are. Plus the back alley is how stuff is brought in to sell out the front. The back alley has the utility connections. I love utility connections, they show how we are all connected to each other technologically.

It looks like originally there were three windows and a cargo door with very nice arches over them.Now everything is all bricked up. Except oddly one window that was boarded up. Security over style. And look at that tangled web of wiring, both electricity and phone, what a mess. You know, if you have phone, you can connect yourself to the occupants of the building from almost anywhere on the globe. I think that’s cool.

For lunch we ate with some friends at the nearby pizza joint. High Street Pizza, on High Street!

Here is Sweetie humoring her blogger husband.

I love this photo, even if it is a bit blurry. I’m not really into flashes unless absolutely necessary. So things get a little fuzzy now and then.

During a lull, Sweetie and I checked out the Wildlife Heritage Center that her Dad was instrumental in creating. There is a stone bench there in his honor.

It took years for Charles to get the facility built. He had lots of help but he was the driving force. The feature that he liked best was the live deer. He and Nana fed them almost every day. We view the deer as a living memorial to Charles.

So if you are ever in Antlers Oklahoma check out the Wildlife Heritage Center.

As a bonus SuperPizzaBoy and I have a geocache at the Center. You’ll have to ask for it. It is called “Deer Capital“.

Children’s Garden at Tulsa Garden Center and Li’l Green Thumbs

Tulsa has a lot of well hidden treasures and I was shown a gem that is hidden best of all. Its behind this ugly building.

Are you familiar with this building? I hope not! If you serve community service time in Tulsa this is one of the places you used to report t in order to repay your debt to society. Can you imagine the criminals who have gone through those doors? Jaywalkers, Democrats, Liberals, Universal Health Care and Gun Control Advocates, and the like. Oh, it makes me shiver just to think of them. Such criminals allowed to run loose amongst us. Those gun control nuts, I’ll tell you what the Okie method of gun control is. Its keeping two hands on the weapon at all times. Sarah Palin knows what I’m talking about!

Oh, I’m sorry I digress. And the criminals have to report somewhere else now. Now you safely visit the Children’s Garden right behind this building. It is very cool.

SuperPizzaBoy at the Children’s Garden

A little glimpse of Sweetie down the path.

The Tulsa Garden Center has a Li’l Green Thumb Program for gardeners aged 4 to 11. This Saturday, July 17 from 9 am to 11:30 am is their next event. Check the Tulsa Garden Center web site for details. Pre-registration is required. Sweetie is going to be there helping with the program. Come down and say Hi.

Three Ringed Circus

We took our dog pack for a walk tonight including our new puppy, “Rascal.”

It’s a three ringed circus.

Speaking of, Oklahoma’s hot housewives, The Real Housewives of Oklahoma, have a new topic on their Monday meme. I know its a Monday meme but I’m doing it on Tuesday because, well, because I’m special that’s why. Here is the question of the week.

Think about the day you met your spouse. Since then and due to their influence, what is the one thing that has changed about you that you never expected to happen?

I’m going to violate the rules some more. Sweetie has changed in my in a bunch of ways. Some of these are illustrated in the YouTube clip believe it or not.

First, notice the color of my clothes? I was a man of beige and browns before we got married. I thought it was cool. I wouldn’t be caught dead in color unless it was camo. Now, I’ve got all the colors of the rainbow, hardly any brown tones at all. In fact, this is no lie, Sweetie will slap me if I’m lying: I have about three times as many clothes as she does. We have two closets just for me. And I wear them all also. Yep, I rotate through all of them.

Second, notice the shorts. I didn’t wear shorts as a kid. We grew up in small towns in the west. I wasn’t a cowboy but I grew up in amongst them. Nobody in them towns wore shorts except effete tourist kids and doctor’s children who we looked upon with combined pity and disgust. Mom tried to get my brother and I to wear “bermuda shorts” one summer. She had to give up, we wouldn’t go outside the house. We would rather have worn our underwear outside than to be considered a doctor’s kid and be considered with polite pity, and sneering disgust. So I didn’t wear them as an adult either. The fact I had the whitest legs in the world didn’t help. Sweetie got me to wearing shorts. Now I wear them all the time. Sometimes even in the winter.

Third, the dogs. I always liked dogs and cats but you know, they were just dogs and cats. Sweetie and her family love animals and shower them with love and affection. I’ve learned to do so myself. I don’t really “get” people who don’t like animals.

Fourth, notice the big ole pot belly? Sweetie can cook! I’ve really learned fine dining since Sweetie and I got hitched. She can cook anything which is great because I’ll eat almost anything.

I could go on and on. Sweetie is wonderful. What can I say?

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