Monthly Archives: April 2009

My World – Philcade Building

The Philcade Building is at the corner of 5th and Boston in downtown Tulsa. It was built by Tulsa Oilman Waite Phillips (brother to Phillip’s 66 founder Frank Phillips). Construction started in 1929 and finished in 1931. It was designed by Leon B. Senter of the Tulsa architectual firm Smith and Senter.

It seems that the Philtower building across the street gets most of the recognition but I prefer the Philcade building because of the elegant arcades on the first floor. The first two floors were built as retail space.
The first floor is very attractive from the street level and at one time there were many retail stores. The storefronts were converted to office space but are slowly being reconverted back to shops as Tulsa downtown seems to be coming back with all devlelopment and construction going on.

To me the detailing is the key to art deco and the exterior detailing in terra cotta does not disappoint.

The interior is stunning. I worked in downtown Tulsa for nearly 16 years before I first walked in. There is lots of gold leaf and the owners of the building keep it in immaculate condition. They will also let you wander around the first floor, look, and take pictures as much as you please, ” please feel free” a security guard told me.

For other views of our world check out My World Tuesday. Join in!

Easter Weekend Happenings

Whirlwind Easter Weekend. Saturday SuperPizzaBoy and I were by ourselves most of the day. I had taxes to do but the weather was too nice, plus I had a brand spanking new Garmin Nuvi 500 crossover GPSr that needed a workout, so we went Geocaching! Found two, one in east Tulsa took an hour to hike to and then find. SPB got a little tired of that one.

First two ticks of the season. One for him, and one for me. So we are tied!!!!

Then Sweetie and Nana made it up from Antlers with Nana’s two kittys. Meet Gypsy (calico) and Piwacket (“Wackycat”). They are spending their time getting acclimated to Nana’s new house in Broken Arrow. Gypsy was nervous and moved into Piwacket’s crate, Wacky wasn’t too happy about that. Move in is later this week! Got to meet one of Nana’s new neighbors also.

Sunday night dinner, Yogi cooked his specialty fried chicken. Hadn’t cooked it in about 15 years. It took me a little to get the hang of it again but everybody said it was pretty good. Sweetie says that I can cook it for Mother’s day. I think I will!!

The drumstick on the left tasted better than it looks.

Then a cut throat game of Farkle. A very fun game with 6 dice that I got as a birthday present. Its fun. But I never win!!! What’s up!!

Oh yeah, and I finished the taxes.

Camera Critters #2 – Our Family

We have too many critters in our Family! We are keeping them all though.

Below is the Queen, a rescued Maine Coon. Is she grateful? Sure she is. Her name is Chrissy and she is about 6 years old or so. We recently acquired the chair. Little did we know we got her a throne.

As you can tell, she is very comfortable in her position as Queen.


And below is the prince, LJ. LJ is just a few months old and he isn’t afraid of anyone. Not even the Queen.

Every once in a while he gets a little cheeky with the Queen and she has to have a talk with the boy. This is Abby. Abby is half Maltese, half Shitzu, and she is our fun loving play puppy. She is only a couple years old. She is a lot of fun but she is a brat.

She is very easy to get along with but even she has to have a talk with the boy every now and then.

This is Ginger, some sort of Dachsund mix. She is our sweet puppy. She loves to curl up with you while you are reading or watching TV. LJ doesn’t mess with her much. So I don’t have any pictures of any discussions between the two of them.

Check out Camera Critters for pictures of all sorts of critters from all sorts of places around the world.

Pizza and Mary Poppins

SuperPizzaBoy and I are batching it Friday night. Sweetie is out of town helping her Mother, Nana get ready to move to Tulsa.

We went to the video store to find something. We settled on Mary Poppins. I have not seen it since it came out. The first time, a long time ago.

We started the movie and and put the pizza in the oven to heat. SPB picked the pizza out at the grocery store. He says that Digiorno makes the best frozen pizzas. It is pretty good, for a frozen pizza.


Lets see, of those present, who is interested in the movie, and who is interested in the pizza cooking? Need a hint, I was standing in front of the oven while taking this picture. Excuse me a second (for crying out loud pizza boy move away from the tv a little. You sit that close, all your kids are going to be born naked!) Ok, I’m back. Lets move on.

The movie was better than I remembered it. Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke do a great job. The singing, the dancing, the romance, the magic. I could see this again. I rate it four stars out of four.
Below is SPB’s favorite dance number “A Step in Time” with the chimney sweeps. SPB loves chaos, and this long number has lots of it especially about 6 minutes into it.

Skywatch Friday – the View from Nana’s Deck

Last weekend I was at my Mother-in-Law Nana’s house in southeast Oklahoma. I was just kind of lazy sitting out on her deck with my camera reading.

I looked up early afternoon and saw the moon. I also saw a flock of birds way up in the air. I could see them in white and when they turned they would disappear. I have no idea what they were. Below is the most magnification I could do before they came “squiggles.”

Later, in early evening. The sky darkened a bit, the moon got larger and a little lower.

Meanwhile, back to the west the sun was setting, couldn’t really see the sunset but we could see the color behind the trees and houses.

Goodnight from Nana’s house!

For images of the sky from all over the world check out Skywatch Friday.

The One Minute Engineer

Remember all the “One Minute” books way back when. The One Minute Manager, The One Minute Teacher, The One Minute Leader, The One Minute …. uh no.

Anyway, I never did see a book for the One Minute Engineer. So I decided to write one and did, it took me about a minute. Couldn’t get a publisher in the one minute I tried so I’m doing a one minute post. I have this information and I also have early onset so if I don’t get this out in one minute, its gone forever.

We are going to concentrate on Chemical Engineering! Wow, ok, ready, there are four lessons. Don’t worry, all four lessons take about a minute! This will be quick and it will change your life.

Lesson 1 – What you need to know is that any type of chemical facility, whether it is a refinery or a chemical plant consists of only two types of equipment (and of course interconnecting piping). These two types of equipment are: LRO’s and TST’s. We are done! Wow, review if you feel the need.

Lesson 2 – Notice the picture above. It is a LRO. LRO stands for Large Round Object. Got it? Need to go over that. OK! Great, you are doing wonderfully. Congratulations. These are very important for the proper functioning of any chemical facility. You are halfway done to a Chemical Engineering Education.

Lesson 3 -Now pay attention, we are stepping up here. The above equipment are TSTs. TST’s are Tall Shiny Things. Go ahead and repeat. These are also necessary for the proper and safe operation of a refinery or chemical plant or whatever else you want to build. OK, you are ready for the final lesson.

Lesson 4 – This is the wrap up, so pay attention. This is where all your hard work comes together. What you do to build a chemcal facility is arrange all your LROs and TSTs into a pleasing configuration. This is where all your design and composition skills come into play. Like above, the tension between the tall and skinny and the short and round against the cloudy sky. Cannot beat that. Oh yes, make sure that the guys and gals you hire to run the thing know how to connect the LRO’s and TST’s together.

We are not done! We have graduation. Below is your reward. Not a diploma, something better, a T shirt! Aren’t you glad you did this? I am. Thanks very much and I wish you much success in your new career.

Thanks Dave for the inspiration.

Pete’s Place – Krebs, Oklahoma

I love little “creases” in time and space. Things that one would not expect. Did you know that Oklahoma at one time had a pretty sizeable mining industry? Yep, nothing left of it now except a few superfund sites in far northeast Oklahoma. In southeast Oklahoma there used to be a sizeable coal mining industry. Many of the miners came from Italy and lived in the town of Krebs just on the other side of McAlester. The coal played out a long time ago but the town lives on. Krebs is known for several things but what it is most famous for are its Italian restaurants and the most famous one is Pete’s Place.

I was introduced to Pete’s Place by Sweetie’s family. We have celebrated many birthdays there and Sweeties parents used to have their employee Christmas parties there. Sweetie’s Dad has passed away and her Mother, Nana sold the pharmacy so we haven’t been there in a couple years but we stopped there on our way back from Antlers this past weekend and celebrated my birthday! For Sweeties family celebrating birthdays is a process, not an event so there are several meals involved, sometimes several cakes, and it goes on for days. I really like the way they do it.

One thing about Pete’s if you have kids, they have a little kitchen set up. You can stir the dry spaghetti if you want and bang on the pots and pans and nobody cares. SPB started doing that when he was about 2 and he still likes it. Here is a shot of him in action.

Pete’s is a little different in that they don’t have a big common dining room. Your dining party gets their own small room with a door. The food is served family style and they bring lots of it. I intended to photograph the food but but the time I thought again, it was all gone.

The pasta is old school. I love the ravioli. This time they had something new, gnocchi. It is kind of a potato based pasta dumpling. I loved it.

The other thing about Pete’s is that they have a brewery on site. One warning though, they only serve their 3.2 beer on Sunday because of local regulations. I had their Peach Beer and it was great. (Jeez, how come Tulsa doesn’t have a brew pub any more?)

Pete’s is open for lunch only on Sundays, other days they open at 4 pm. I rate is four stars out of four.

Krebs has other restaurants also. I’ve been to all of them and they are all good, Roseanna’s, Giacommo’s, and Isle of Capri. Most of them are open during the day. Also try the Italian Grocery, Lovera’s.

Blogs I’d fight Zombie Chickens to Read

Kathy, of the Oklahoma Booklady was kind enough to award me the Zombie Chicken Award. Isn’t she nice. Yes, she is, I can say that even though I’ve never met her plus her blog is tops. She blogs about books and reading but she is also a great photographer and joins in several interesting meme’s. She has always got something new cooking so hers is a never miss blog

The Zombie Chicken award is described thus:

“The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all…”

So I thought long and hard and I’m passing this award on to: (drum roll please)

Michelle of The Froggy Bottom Blog. Michelle blogs about all sorts of different things mostly involving her family. She is also a very talented photographer who take great canded photographs. She is also very encouraging to others and makes lots and lots and lots of comments.

Dawn of Dawn’s Diversion. Dawn has a heart as big as Oklahoma and it shows on her blog. She is a community builder extraordinaire including bringing virtual friends together live and in person through her “hoedowns” (her terminology). She has a great sense of humor and over communicates. She has a blog, she is on facebook, she sends emails. She is a great photographer, especially of children. She is very encouraging and she is a great commenter. I learned from her and I almost always comment on a blog. She has a great sense of humor and can take a joke as well as dish it out.

Sarah of Brit Gal’ in the USA. Sarah is a British Expatriate living in northwest Oklahoma with “Hubster.” She is a talented writer and has a lot to say about life in Oklahoma, her former life in England, and differences between the US and Great Britain. She is a great photographer and very very honest. She is also very encouraging and offers up ideas. She is the one who suggested I try the Skywatch Friday and My World Tuesday memes. Also, she and hubster are a geocaching team and have already hid three. She make lots of comments.

Georgie of Decisionally Challenged. Georgie has the wildest blog on my roll. I never know what she is going to do and don’t hardly ever miss a post. When I first started reading her, it was like, my word, where does she get this stuff? She is very creative and very funny. She also puts herself out there. She is encouraging and makes lots and lots of comments. She was out recently with a bad back back and I missed her terribly. Don’t miss her confessional booth. I am not talking so much about the comments themeselves from some awfully hurting people who need our prayers but Georgies compassion for people.

Baloney of That’s Baloney. Baloney was the first blog I ever read and days she doesn’t post are missing something. If good ole Al Gore had not invented the internet for us and blogging was done by writing on used toilet paper hanging from trees I’d be looking for Baloney’s tree to see what she was posting that day. She is very out there with herself and has a great sense of humor. She can pierce the most inflated and resistant egos with a well placed punctuation mark. She has an eye for bad pictures. She is a talented writer who can express great emotion and feeling. She makes lots and lots of comments also. (Detecting a common thread here?) Advice if you ever run into Baloney. She always has her camera and no picture is taboo so maintain proper decorum at all times.

Jill of Jill of all Trades. I like Jill’s blog because she puts her life out there. She doesn’t crack jokes or do exposes, she just writes about her life. I find her posts compelling, fresh, and honest. I don’t ever miss them and they are always interesting whether she is talking about jury duty, remodeling, a few days in the cabin, or whatever.

Ok Awardees, you have your homework now.

Electrical Bees and I Gotta Get 817

On one of my geocaching jaunts I pulled into the driveway of an electric substation in Broken Arrow. I was trying to figure out how to get to the next cache. If you think talking on your cell phone is hazardous while driving try operating a GPS receiver.

My friend Baloney claims that she has 816 caches. I’m way behind. I think she is lying and my friend 666BOI told her so, but I can’t be sure. So I have to catch up.

Anyway, I pulled off the road to get my bearings. I got to looking at the substation trying to figure out what is going on. I’m a chemical engineer and electricity scares the crap out of me. I mean how can something you can’t see kill you so quickly? I looked at the caution sign and it didn’t say a thing about electricity. The sign was about bees, africanized bees. What’s up with that?

I thought substations were dangerous because of gazillions of kilovolts. I thought that is why those stations hummed. It’s a sham. They are generating electricity with bees. Hey who gets the honey? Anbody tell me that!

Oh well, gotta go, busy, busy, busy, going to number 817. Put a certain Queen B in her place! Second place.

Oh by the way, its my birthday today.

Check out Mellow Yellow Monday for more shots of yellow.