Monthly Archives: October 2008

Carrie Underwood Concert

Wednesday night we left left SuperPizzaBoy with Clara the sitter and Sweetie and I headed downtown to the BOK Arena to see Carrie Underwood.

She put on quite a show. She is even more beautiful live than on TV. She is really gorgeous. She was like #2 gorgeous woman in Oklahoma that night. She wore some really nice outfits. Her first dress was very short. As she was going down a runway into the audience bending down shaking hands she said “I’m glad I’m wearing shorts under this dress tonight.” I strained my eyes really hard, I couldn’t quite see her shorts.

She can really belt it out and sing and is really personable. It is very hard to believe that it has been just since 2005 since she won American Idol.

The production was good, the only cheesy thing was the video montage, during a costume change, of her winning multiple awards during the years. Its like, OK Carrie, we know that you are a big star. After all we bought tickets to be here girl. Also, its about time she dropped the “oh golly gosh, I can’t believe I’m a star, and I’m just from Checotah, Oklahoma and I’ve been to Nashville, and I’ve been to Hollywood, and I’ve been to New York City, and I just can’t believe that all that is happening to little ole me and everybody is being so nice to me” rap. We know that you are a star Carrie! Start acting like one.

You can tell that she had true fans there. The fans sang the hit songs right back at her word for word. We were at a Garth Brooks concert once and he said that was the highest tribute that a fan could make toward a singer, singing the song back. I think it is a little strange myself.

Carrie still has a sweetness to her. She had her 5 year old niece on stage to help sing “American Girl” and she had an infant nephew in her arms in another song until they had to cut it short because he started crying. Neither song went quite to plan but Carrie looked she didn’t mind a bit.

Another thing was that when she was done singing, she said good night, the house lights came on, and the audience hauled ass for the parking lots. No encore, no nothing. What is up with that? I’ve never been to a concert that didn’t have an encore. Is that a country concert thing. The only other country concert I’ve been to was Garth Brooks. He had an encore, he’d of sang all night I think.

Maybe she sang all her songs and didn’t have any left.

I like her and all that and am proud of her being from Oklahoma but really and truly I’m can’t help but think that if she had she just stuck it out with Tony Romo the Dallas Cowboys would be doing much better than they are. I just don’t think that Tony ever got over the breakup.

One final note on the venue. The nosebleed seats at the BOK Arena are not very satisfying. They are too high up and the video screens are occluded by some strange apparatus. The sound was kind of muddy up there compared to the Eagles where we were fortunate to sit quite a bit lower.

Anyways, it was nice to go see Ms. Underwood. She put on a good show.

I rate it a 3 stars out of 4. Great voice and performance were huge plusses. Cheesy self promotion video and no encore slight minuses. Venue problems not her fault.

A Sunday Walk

Sunday the Yogi Family went for a walk around Jewell Lake in East Tulsa. Its a water supply lake with a very nice, flat, wide, path around it about 3 miles long. Just right for SuperPizzaBoy to ride his Triton ( a very cool heavy duty tricycle steered with the rear wheels.)

Of course, there was a geocache there so I peeled off and found it. Its underneath the tin in the picture below. Don’t tell anybody though. Geocachers don’t like hints. It hadn’t been found since June. I like finding the ones that hadn’t been found in a while.

Then I went back. I was way behind as you can see. It was a very pretty, sunny, cool, windy day. I loved it.

I caught up with them. I have a very cool video of Sweetie almost crashing riding the Triton down a ramp at the spillway. I have been forbidden to post it. Maybe, if my one or two readers asked she would relent.

Halloween Party

Last week I was working on this: It caused a lot of people to stare from the street wondering what is going on.


It turned into a Halloween Game. After decorating by the school moms.

The object of the game is to throw rolls of toilet paper into the pot.
It was a big hit. The boys kept hitting the seat though. What is up with that?

I wanted to use another toilet seat over a punch bowl with lemonade. I was the only one who thought that was a good idea. So it didn’t happen.

Sweetie made costumes.
SuperPizzaBoy was Link (a video game character from
the Zelda series.)

Sweetie and I were Mario and Luigi. She did a great job.
(No mean comments about the L on my forehead allowed)

I liked the bib overalls especially. They are comfortable.
No belt. I’ll be wearing them a lot.




Geek License, part iv

I got a letter from the State today. They have accepted my supplemental documentation on my Continuing Education credits. So I keep my registration.

Whew.

My self image restored.

31st Tulsa Run

I ran my 15th consecutive Tulsa Run 15K Saturday morning. I love running it. It is the perfect race, Its a doable length, it is in the Fall and you get free candy bars and beer.

Running it is kind of like a dream. I don’t go internal, I go external. I’m aware of the wind, the sun on my face, the scenery, the other runners. It seems like I start, and then its over, I’ve lose all track of time, and don’t remember much.

I like to get their early. My office is right near the starting line. So I get there early and read my book. Where its warm. When I got there, the sun was just coming up.


About 15 minutes before start time, I go down to the starting line. Where it is cold.

Then the gun is shot and off we go! I took my camera and was I going to document the run. I only took a few photos and then quit taking the camera out. It was messing with being external and just taking everything in for the moment.


One thing I missed was the Troops from Fort Sill. They are in Iraq this year. They had a parallel Tulsa Run there in Iraq today that they ran. 15 K.

The thing I heard this year that I hadn’t notice before was the sound of thousands of feet hitting the pavement.

I finished in a shade under 1 hour 40 minutes. The best time I had in years. I was lagging at 14K and thinking about taking a break. A friend of church, (I’ll call him “Sinatra Doc” because he is a surgeon who likes to listen to that kind of music during operations. ) came up on me and helped keep me going. Ironically he had to stop and walk because he was cramping very badly. Being the good friend that I am I left him behind and ran on in. I didn’t see him again. I heard his wife’s name called at the finish line ahead of me.

I grabbed my two snickers bars, a beer, and headed home. I was hurtin.

Obama McCain Loyalty Quizzes

Lots of conflict this election year. Oklahoma is a lost cause for Obama but he is spending money here and there are a lot of yard signs in this neighborhood. I though yard signs for Democratic candidates were banned by the neighborhood bylaws.

I cannot decide which way to go. I like McCain very much. I don’t know why he picked such an inexperienced, mean spirited person for VP.

I don’t think Obama is the devil. I cannot figure out what he saw in Jeremiah Wright. There are several things that I don’t agree with my pastor on several issues but we have the same world view. He wouldn’t be my pastor otherwise.

To help me figure this out I took a couple of loyalty quizzes. Try one or both. Let me know your results!

Obama

McCain

My Obama result:

Your score is 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. You are conflicted about Barack Obama. While you agree with most of what he says and at times find him inspiring, you question whether he has the testicular fortitude to fight off his opponents. You also think he’ll be in for a rude rendezvous with reality when he tries to bring his hope agenda to Washington. But compared to the competition, you think he still might be the best bet.

My McCain result:

Your score is 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. You are an enthusiastic supporter of John McCain. You like his independent streak and the fact that he’s willing to buck the party line to do what’s right. And what is right is to do whatever it takes to keep those gun-grabbing, stem cell-sucking, values-perverting, MoveOn.org-genuflecting liberal defeatocrats out of the White House.

Can I split my vote? McCain for Pres, Biden for VP?

Book Review “The Maverick and the Maiden” by Karla Rovelace

I’m not generally into Romance Novels but I do enjoy a good bodice ripper once in a while. With them you can just skip from good part to good part because who cares about happens in between the good parts. The whole idea of the book is the good parts. Finding them embedded in the text is kind of like an Easter egg hunt.

I’ve heard about May December romances but this book is about an August November romance. It doesn’t last very long, everybody is very hopeful and encouraging but it will end tragically and publically in one day. Each will spend the rest of their days wondering “what if.” Each will return to their loving families. Who knows what will happen with them.

If you like unlikely pairings between a strong character with demonstrated integrity who fell blindly in love with someone who just doesn’t quite measure up (this used to be known as “not a good match) I recommend this book to you!

I give the book four stars for drama, no stars for the good parts.

A-Maize-ing Day Off

I took a half day off last Friday. SuperPizzaBoy had Fall Break and we wanted to do something fun. It was a wonderful warm, dry, Fall Day so we wanted to do something fun outside. We decided we would go to the Corn Maize at 321st east and 61 street, way out east of Broken Arrow in the middle of nowhere.

We had a blast. We went through the maize twice (that is how they spell it, I know it is not standard). SPB had to be enticed, threatened, lied to, whatever, to do it a second time.

SuperPizzaBoy and Sweetie in the Corn

Sweetie and Yogi at the Maize

The big attraction for a child with autism at the Maize is the corn crib. It is a big wooden box filled with corn kernal. It is usually full of kids. SPB absolutely loves it. It has to do with sensory issues, another thing about Autism that I find fascinating. I don’t understand it but how things feel, taste, smell, sound, and look profoundly affect these kids. They either react positively or negatively to the stimulation. The effect can be dramatic. SPB loves the corn crib. The stimulation on his skin puts him in a state of relaxation and he gets all smiles. I think it feels great also. So does Sweetie.

Sweetie and SPB in the corn crib.

And then, a special treat for Dad. The other two let me go find a couple of geocaches. The first was called “Bluegill Crossing”. It is at the very east end of 71st street where it runs into the Verdigris River. There is a huge lock and dam there, part of the Kerr McLellan waterway that makes the Tulsa Port of Catoosa the most inland seaport in the United States.

Sweetie and SPB stayed in the truck while I found it. I got scratched and bug bit while finding it. It hadn’t been found since June. I loved it.

The second cache was a cemetery cache, “Oak Grove Cemetery” in the community of New Tulsa. SPB didn’t think that New Tulsa was as nice as old Tulsa. As my one or two readers know, I love cemetery caches. This didn’t disappoint. Lots of very young people are buried here.

Then, on to Bixby for some Freshberry. Except that SPB didn’t have any berries in his freshberry. That’s part of the sensory thing I wrote about earlier. In fact he wouldn’t sit at our table he move on down a ways


An amaizing day off.

Geek License part iii

As my one or two readers know I’m working with the State of Oklahoma trying to keep my PE license. I have a continuing education requirement. I got audited and I sent in my documentation and the State rejected it all for what I think are arbitrary reasons.

I don’t really need a PE license because I don’t do engineering anymore. I’m in more of a sales job now. But that PE license took a lot of hard work.

First I had to fill out a detailed resume detailing all the engineering I had done. I had to describe my role in detail and provide references who could attest that what I said is true. That took months.

Then I had to take a test. It was only a one day test. The CPA test takes several days so I’m not expecting any sympathy but the test about killed me. When you take the test they mix up the disciplines. So Chemical, Mechanical, Civil, and Eletrical engineers don’t sit next to each other. After the test was over I knew right away I didn’t pass it. I felt worse because the guys sitting around me were saying, “I thought this was supposed to be hard” and other such comments.

Anyway, that was in late October and in due course of due time I found out that indeed I had not passed the test. I turned around and took it again the following April.

Sure enough, I showed up for the next test, and there were the same guys! Maybe they were taking it again for fun but apparently they didn’t pass the first test either. I am not ashamed to say that I was glad to see those guys! I do hope that they passed the test the second time and perhaps learned a little humility in the process. Does it show my rotten character if I admitted that I wouldn’t be heartbroken if they didn’t pass the test?

I passed the second time. Hallelujah! I got my certificate and I got a stamp and a seal. I have never used them except when I stamped the Engineering Badge certificates that I passed out last spring when I taught SuperPizzaBoy’s Patrol the basics of engineering. Too many laws, rules, and regulations about stamping engineering drawings and documents for me to be stamping and sealing things left and right.

Anyway, the PE is very dear to me because it took a sustained effort over time to get it so I try and follw the various rules closely to keep it. I’ve been told by other engineers that a PE is not that big a deal. Funny though, none of the people saying that actually have a PE. I don’t know why that is. I might be one of them if I don’t get this straightened out!

Well I’ll get back to the point. I obtained a letter from the organization that provided the seminars I attended for my CE credit. The letter verifies that I was there at the meeting where the seminars were held. They were nice enough to hand deliver the letter to me downtown. So I scanned it and emailed the scan to the State PE board along with a letter asking them to reconsider their earlier decision. Was it too much to mention my hungry wife and children and the landlord who was going to evict us and how world peace (or at least whirilled peas) hang in balance?

So, we’ll see what happens next.

What’s he doing in there?

I got out all my stuff today to work on a project in the garage. Halfway through I saw a couple of teenage girls staring at me while talking on their cell phones. I didn’t know whether they were calling daddy, the police, their boyfriend, or who. Also people were driving by really slowly while looking.

I looked at the garage and decided it did look a little strange.

So, my question to you, my one or two readers, is what is the old man doing in his garage?