Category Archives: Family

Weekend Roundup

Busy, busy, busy that was us this weekend. Friday was my 9/80 day. I work 80 hours over nine days and get every other Friday off. It makes for long hours when I’m working but I love having the extra days off. Friday, Heather and I dropped my car off to get tires and then we went to breakfast and then on to the movies. We decided to see The Revenant.

Heather went to see it as a favor to me and I don’t think she liked it as much as I did. The Revenant is a powerful movie and very raw and incredibly brutal at times. I was worn out by the time it was done and I can see why it was nominated for a bunch of Oscars. I can’t really say much about it because almost anything would be a spoiler. I’ve some research I need to do and then maybe a dedicated blog post.

Friday night Logan’s Improv group put on a new show. Logan loves Improv and I love watching him light up when he is onstage. It is great watching his fellow performers also, some of whom have been in the group for years and I love watching the kids grow up. Logan and several others are seniors this year so they will be aging out of the group. We’ll have to see how Logan can continue doing Improv.

The nature of Improv is that you have to have a quick wit and you have to move on. Some skits work and others don’t and you don’t look back, you just go on.

Saturday morning I went for a trail run on Turkey Mountain. It is a great place to get my head on straight.

I saw this note card stuck in a tree. It’s a nice gesture and all that but the first rain this will turn into mush or the wind will blow onto the ground. I’m such a cynic.

Saturday night Logan got all spiffed up for his school’s Winter Ball. Heather and I were the chauffeurs for the night. We drove him to a country club where the Senior Dinner was and then later picked him up and took him to the dance venue and then picked him up. We were glad to do it. It was great seeing the young men and women being all dressed up, excited, and glowing for the event.

Heather and I went first class. I took her to one of the finest convenience stores in the country and offered to get her anything she wanted. I was even prepared to get here the X Large Pizza. Nothing but the best for my wife. She opted for a bottle of water.

Back to the Grindstone!

My barber of 24 years finally retired so Logan and I now have the same one.

I took a lot of time off this Christmas. About two weeks in all.

I always love following Heather around the grocery store taking photos of her in action. She never seems to enjoy it as much as I do.

I didn’t do a whole lot, mainly just hung out the family, including my Mother-in-Law we watched movies, ate a lot of great meals and spent a lot of time together.

Ginger discovered the joys of the fireplace. She doesn’t like sharing it with LJ the cat though.

Our spoiled critters got even more spoiled.

We celebrated Christmas in almost all the senses, the spiritual,

and the Family.

So I had a good time and I’m looking forward to getting back to work.

Packing it All In – A Very Full and Busy Day Off

I had a day off today. I had it all to myself because Heather went off to an Autism Conference in Norman, Oklahoma and Logan had to go to school. So I kissed Heather goodbye at 6 am and made the kid breakfast and made sure that he was dressed and ready to go and off we went to his school. After I dropped him off I headed up to Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center. Turkey Mountain gets all the press, and the people, but Oxley is a gem also and its North Woods Loop Trail is wonderful and deserted. In all the years I have been going there I have seen somebody else there once. I love Turkey Mountain, but the problem is so does everybody else.

And this was my first trail run since my injury on Turkey Mountain back in September. I wanted somewhere that was flat with no rocks. Oxley fits the bill. Plus it is just flat out beautiful. Turkey Mountain will always be my favorite but Oxley is my go to place when I don’t want to deal with rocks and and hills, and lots of people.

I got there about eight in the morning and I have to tell you that I saw lots of deer. I didn’t get a single photo of them. I saw them running through the brush, swimming across lakes and bounding around all over the place. You will just have to take my word for it.

Here is the data on my so called run. I ran quite a bit and walked quite a bit. I went looking for two geocaches and found one. After my jaunt at Oxley I went home, cleaned up, and headed up to Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum. They have an Andy Warhol exhibit going on and I felt ah, well, so what until I actually looked at it and saw a bunch of art that I had only seen in magazines. Warhol’s screen prints of Marilyn Monroe, Mao Tse Tung, and John Wayne plus a bunch of other works. It was amazing. I always thought of Warhol has a lightweight celebrity artist but I’ve changed my mind. They didn’t allow any photography of the exhibit so you will just have to check out the link to see for yourself.

After Warhol, I checked out the gardens of Philbrook. I don’t know what I like better, the gardens of Philbrook or its art. Don’t make me choose is all I can say. The Tempietto above is the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.

Villa Philbrook, the heart of the museum, used to be a house. Not for me is what I say.

Eric Baker’s glass and steel installation, Oklahoma Autumn, is my favorite work in the gardens.

I was also taken by Theordore Van Soelen and his Tesuque (Dark Houses). You see my folks were living at the Tesuque Ranger Station when I was born. That was in the day before health insurance so Dad called the hospital’s in Santa Fe and Espanola, New Mexico and got bids on getting a baby birthed. Espanola won. It cost like $95 or something like that. I’m not like Ben Carson who is running for president so just take my word for it.

I love the pottery from Acoma Pueblo.

And the black on black pottery of Maria Marinez is wonderful.

And here is something different. A catlinite pipe inlaid with lead. I’m not sure that smoking with that would be good for you. It sure looks like though.

So a pretty active day for me, so far about 18,800 steps or over nine miles. Not bad for a guy with a bum knee. Actually they are both sore right now.

I didn’t hear about the news from Paris until pretty late in the day. How sad. I really don’t know what the answer is to radical Islam. They seem to have no regard for life.

Lots Going on Here Lately

There has been lots going on these days. I have not been a very good blogging friend I am sorry to say.

Heather, Logan, and Nana after the play.

Let me see, first up this week, Logan was in a play at school. He plays Baloo the bear in the play “Just so Mr. Kipling” a drama based on Kipling’s characters in The Jungle Book.

It is a a great role for Logan with his deep booming voice. He makes a great bear. The kids all did great. For a one act play it has pretty large cast and you can tell the kids and the director really worked hard on it. They competed in a regional competition a couple weeks ago and won first place. So next week the State Championship so we are all loading up and heading down to Mustang, Oklahoma where the competition is being held.

And then Wednesday night was Corporate Night at Tulsa’s Oktoberfest. We took some customers to the event to drink beer, do the chicken dance, and wear funny hats. I didn’t take too many pics. Not good when you are with customers. I did get a pic of our VP of Operations holding two full beer steins. I am not sharing the pic with you guys though. At least not yet. Maybe after I retire, or he retires, or something like that.

The beer was great. This is Lagunitas IPA. Yum, yum, is what I say.

And then Thursday night the choir’s at Logan’s school gave a concert. Everybody from the first graders on up. Again they did a great job. Again, all I got is fuzzy pics from my cell phone. Sorry.

Saturday, Logan and I are heading out to the Wizard World at Tulsa’s Comicon. Fun, fun,fun exploration of the weirder side of our popular culture.. This pic is from last year’s event.

So that is what we have been doing. Kind of bouncing between Culture, Debauchery, Divine Music, and then Popular Culture. I’m really messing the kid up.

What have you been up to?

Logan’s Senior Year Collage

Logan is a senior this year and his school does a good job of making the seniors feel special. One thing they do is display collages of the students in the hallways so last night, in amongst checking out the super moon from time to time we picked out the twelve images out of the thousands we have and then made our collage in Picmonkey. So this is our creation showing him from his first birthday stuffing cake into his mouth up through the years to a few weeks ago riding a horse.

We had a lot of fun putting it together.

Geocaching, Saying Goodbye to the Kid, and the Dallas Cowboys get a Win

Saturday I dropped the kid off at his school for rehearsals for a one act play that he has a part in. He is a little busy these days. We suspended horseback riding for a while because of the rehearsals and he is missing his improv comedy workshop on Saturday. It is nice for him to be busy. Speaking of busy I went to Walmart after I dropped Logan off and got some stuff for making geocaches. I have three that have gone missing (“Muggled” is the term we nerds use) so I have to replace them plus I wanted to place one at the Tulsa Arrow that I found a couple weeks ago. Camo duct tape is a geocachers best friend. The waterproof match containers make great waterproof “microcaches.” The orange box makes for a good geocache container. I’ll use lots and lots of camo duct tape covering up the orange. The hot wheels are for trade trinkets in the caches in case you bring kids along. And I love Altoids and the empty tins are good cache containers if you can keep them out of the weather because they are not waterproof.

So after Walmart I buzzed downtown and replaced a geocache “Boys Night Out Downtown” that Logan and I placed in 2010 and has been found about 249 times and muggled five times. It is in a spot that homeless people find to be a great overnight sleeping area. By the time I got the thing camo taped and placed I got a text from the kid to come pick him up and then we drove up to north Tulsa’s Reservoir Hill to place the new cache.

It took us a while to find a good spot. I want it to be far away from houses and nowhere close to the City of Tulsa water infrastructure that is also there. I found a good spot, maybe too good. I placed the cache and it promptly disappeared from view so I suggested on the cache page that you bring gloves. So anyway here is the cache page for Tulsa Arrow. I wrote it up on Saturday and it got approved on Sunday.

On Sunday we packed Logan up and took him to school to catch a bus for the Senior Trip. They bused the kids down to TAhlequah, Oklahoma and are going rafting Monday morning on the Illinois River. So Heather and I are childless for about 24 hours. We kind of miss the kid actually but he’ll be back by the time I get home from work. He is really having a good year at school this year. He is taking drama and choir and he loves those classes.

So Heather and I didn’t feel like going out to eat so we went to the local sprouts store to pick up some Salmon. I am a fan of exotic tasting chips and so I found the these pumpkin spiced chips. They are okay but overly sweet and they have no salt. If they had left the salt in, I’d be buying a case of them. They do have a satisfying crunch to them.

Yep, I’m posting this photo again.

And speaking of satisfying the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Philly with the help of my two friends above. The Eagles didn’t play very well and Dallas had 18 penalties. Might be the last win for the Cowboys in a while. Tony Romo broke his clavicle and it looks like Dez Bryant is going to be out for a couple months with his broken foot.

Oh well, that was what happened this weekend. What about you?

Boys Night Out – Exiled from the House

Heather has her monthly book group all year but she hosts it one month generally in the summer. Lots of preparation goes into a book group meeting. The house gets cleaned and the decorations refreshed. Menus are examined, the wines and other refreshments purchased. And of course the book has to be read. It is a big deal. The group has been meeting I think for around twenty years or more.

Logan and I always bug out when the book group is at our house. When he was basically a newborn I stayed with him upstairs in the nursery while the book group was meeting. All the other times we go somewhere. We call it “Boys Night Out.” On school nights we generally just go eat and check out a bookstore or something. During the summer we can stay out later. Last Tuesday night, we went downtown and had some barbecue and then walked down to the stadium from the restaurant. I love that we can do that now.

I love baseball at any level from peewee games to the major leagues. Tulsa has a AA team that plays at a high level. My employer bought naming rights to the stadium and so we get tickets at half price. I love it.

Now Logan hates baseball and so he takes his book and he likes to get up and wander up and down the aisle. So here he is going down.

And here is coming back up with his Harry Potter book under his arm.

He finally settled down some so we could watch the game. Not many people out on a Tuesday night so we could stretch out.

We left with about an inning to go. I am not one who has to stay until the bitter end. I just like watching the game and my fellow fans

Like this guy who was looking for a family member. Such an expressive look.

Do you ever get locked out of the house because of something your spouse has going on?

Remembering in a Good Way: Looking at Old Photographs

We had one simple assignment from Logan’s school lately. They want us to pick out one baby picture and one picture from either Kindergarten or First Grade. Sounds simple right? Well if you are picking photographs of some other person’ kids, maybe, but our kid (or your kid) I don’t think it is possible. All sorts of things start happening when you start looking at old pics, especially if a little wine is around. You start laughing and almost crying almost at the same time. But in our effort to pick out two photos we are about half done, maybe. Until we find another box of pics.

This is a candidate. Logan has always loved books, even before he could read. He is still quite a reader.

And this is our probable candidate. He has always been a beach baby and swims like a fish.

And this is another favorite.

This is beyond baby stage but this is my almost all time favorite picture of Logan. Napping on the beach at Destin a long time ago. I’m kind of cheap but I’ll spring for the chairs and umbrellas from the beach service every now and then, just cuz. This is the one picture I’ve had of Logan in my office for over a dozen years. No matter how stressed I get, I can look at this and chill out. How do you like that thumb action.

Switching gears. This is Logan and his Boompa, Boompa was Logan’s best buddy. He is no longer with us but his memories remain. He was the world’s greatest father-in-law and we miss him.

And look at this. Here is me, actually getting married. And she still lets me hang around. Twenty six years!!

And here is me, in the pre Heather days. See, I told you I had hair. Not much hair but I had it, and about 40 less pounds. This was at my parents house in Albuquerque. There I was with keys in my hand impatient to get back to Houston. Why was I in such a hurry? What did I think I was going to miss?

My advice to everybody, look at old photographs more often.

Father’s Day

While we were on our family vacation in Hawaii, The Smokey Bear facebook site posted this photo below. I would have missed it by myself but we had some family members who subscribe to the site who tagged me in it. It was quite a thrill seeing this picture. It shows my Dad and myself at the Pecos Ranger Station in New Mexico. I have a Smokey Bear and dad is pointing off in the distance. I was just two years old at the time and of course have no memory of it. Dad was the District Ranger which put him somewhere below the President and above just about everybody else in my mind.

The photographer who did the shoot for the Forest Service sent Dad a bunch of prints including this one where my Dad is pointing off in some other direction and brother Bob was looking elsewhere.

Dad is now retired in Idaho. I have always been proud of him. Way back then and even more so today. He has always been my idol.

Happy Father’s Day Dad!

Studio Recital – Logan Sings “The Pirate King”

Logan has been taking voice lessons for some time and the studio where he takes them has recitals every now and then and it is pretty cool. They start with the youngest and move to the oldest. All the kids are dressed up and groomed by their mothers and wear their best clothes. The parents and siblings and maybe grandparents are there with cameras at the ready. It is a great thing to see. It moves pretty quickly especially at first as the songs that are sung or music that is played by the smalls is pretty short and gets longer and more complex as the kids get older. I feel for some of the kids who are scared to death up there and love the few who not only love their time in the spotlight but have spent some time and effort to not only perform their art but sell it also. One young lady sang a broadway tune with not only her voice but with everything she had, facial expressions, body language, gestures, and appeared to enjoy every second of it. She was a hit. A couple of the young gentlemen playing the piano were very accomplished and a a delight to hear.

Our son was one of those dressed and groomed by his mother. He sang “The Pirate King” from the Pirates of Penzance.

And I was like, “Where did that voice come from?” I knew that he had a good voice but this is like really deep. I guess that he continues to grow up.

I never did a recital. I couldn’t do a recital, neither did my brother. My sister and fellow blogger Ellen was a tap dancer and I went to a few of her recitals. She danced well. She should, she practiced a lot. I still remember her record: “Shuffle ball chain, shuffle ball chain, heel toe, heel toe, heel toe, step.” She could also sing. I think she was in the choir in high school. At least someone in the family could sing and dance!

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