Michael Buble in Concert in Tulsa
Last Friday night was date night. Heather and I went downtown to see Michael Buble at the BOK Center. But first things first, right. Dinner at the Vault.
And some funky cocktails.
And some carrot cake
And then off to the show! I apologize for the photographs. They kind of suck because I didn’t want to take my “big camera” and it not be allowed and then have to take it back to the car. Turned out it would have been okay but oh well!!
This is the third time we have seen him and he is quite the showman. He really connects with his audience.
And he is very generous. He introduced all the members of the band and he had a little playful insult for each of them.
He had a heck of a set also. I had never seen such a thing.
And then here are the Tulsa Strings he had fun with them.
But you know, I’d go listen to him sing in an alley. He is incredibly talented and really connects with his audience. He has quite the raunchy sense of humor without being offensive.
He sang and sang and sang and then he sung some more. Everything from Daft Punk to Nat King Cole to The Beatles. You know the guy knows Tulsa is a big music town and he closed with a Leon Russell song and the audience loved it.
PS – His Opening Act, “Naturally Seven” was great also. They opened for Buble the last time we saw him. They are all voices, no instruments.
Being the obnoxious know it all that I am when I saw the below. I thought, “Ah okay, they gave in to a little percussion.” Gotcha!
Yeah well gotcha me more like it. The curtain dropped and there were no drums. Just a guy doing drums with his voice.
It was an amazing time!
Hey, have you heard any good music lately?
Scavenger Hunt Sunday – Nappy Time Edition
It’s time for Ashley Sisk’s Scavenger Hunt Sunday. So without further ado, lets get to it.
1. Two Things
Well, a double exposure is two things right? I always allow myself plenty of leeway on these posts. This is one of my favorite creations. It is a statue of the great spirit, then double exposed against a tree.
2. Animal
Son Logan has horseback riding lessons almost every Saturday morning. I love watching the lessons.
3. Handwriting
Now, you all (as we say in Oklahoma) got to promise to keep this on the QT, deal? Okay, my real job is that I lead a group of people (Gas Supply Reps) in an effort to get natural gas producers in Oklahoma to connect their wells to my employers pipeline system. This is an application that I got one year when I had an opening. I’m sure that I’m violating all sorts of policies and procedures. So don’t tell anybody okay. No, I didn’t make this up. As my wife and all my coworkers and former teachers can attest, my handwriting is unreadable. It would probably make a great code in case we go to war again. The only problem is that nobody can break the code.
As far as whether the qualifications listed are still accurate, all I can say is that the last woman I chased I married about 24 years and eleven months ago and I last played golf about five years ago or so.
4. Frozen/li>
I hate being cold but I was warm when I took this picture of frozen Mount Rainier in Washington a few years ago.
5. Naptime
This is our fat dog, Abby, and our fat cat Chrissy doing some synchronized napping. Unfortunately, Chrissy is no longer with us and I still miss her.
Well that’s about it for this week’s edition.
Planes – Fire and Rescue
I made Heather and Logan go see “Planes – Fire and Rescue” one of the movies descended from the animated “Cars” which is the second best movie ever made. This edition of Planes is all about forest fire fighting airplanes. It has all the Cars-Disney stuff going for it. You know heroics, redemption, teamwork, and all sorts of stuff not to mention all sorts of spinoffs for toys and video games.
Logan said that it wasn’t as bad as he thought it was going to be. Heather just asked if enjoyed it and my answer is Yes! I enjoyed it. Overall I give it about 2.5 stars out of four which really isn’t bad for an animated movie. It was a great way to spend a hot day.
Check out the Website. Lots of Pics and fun games for kids of all ages.
Foto Friday Fun #8177 or close to it anyway
Blogfriend Gaelyn, Park Service Ranger, at the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and of Geogypsy, one of my favorite blogs, has had a long running feature on Fridays called “Foto Friday Fun” where her readers give her a random number and she posts from her archives that have that number. She is expanding it to a new meme where others can participate by searching their archives for a given number. She started off this week with 8177.
Well it turns out I didn’t have a single 8177 so I’m cheating with 177. This is a picture of Logan at Legoworld in southern California. He is a big Lego fan and this was a fun trip for everybody. Our Legoland adventure was fodder for several posts including this one.
The number for next week is 7777
Weekend Reflections – Rainy Days
It has been raining here in Tulsa lately, a lot. It is the all day soft steady kind rather than the hard driving flood producing damaging kind of rain. We have been going through a drought so hopefully we are breaking it. Northeast Tulsa is called green country because of all the trees and general lushness. All that lushness requires a lot of water and Tulsa gets an average of 47 inches of rain a year and so far this year we are about 10 inches short of that so I hope we are making it up a little bit.
47 inches a year sounds like a lot to me. That is almost four feet of rain a year! No wonder we spend so much money on drainage projects and dams around here!
So what about you? Are you getting enough rain where you live?
Skywatch Friday – Looking the Other Way
You know sometimes the most colorful skies during sunset are away from the sun. If you look just to the right of the pavillion you can see the top third or so of the Citiplex Towers in south Tulsa reflecting the evening sun.
Off to the Ball Game
Heather had her book group last night so Logan and I had our monthly “Boys Night Out.” It will be our last one this summer that is not a school night and we decided to go to Top That Pizza to eat and then go downtown to ONEOK Field to see our hometown AA Drillers play the Springfield Cardinals last night.
The game was uninspiring but it was nice an cool and being a Tuesday night it was uncrowded and this being Tulsa we saw a couple of people I know. Tulsa is the biggest small town I’ve ever seen. I swear that almost anybody you meet here if you start talking with them pretty soon you will find several mutual acquaintances. I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else.
Anyway, after our night of pizza, ice cream for Logan, a nice wheat beer for me, we headed home. I think this was our 193rd monthly boys night out.
I hope that we have a thousand hundred more.
Our World – A Walk on the River
A couple weeks ago me, son Logan, sister Ellen, her husband Irv, and their grandson Mr. Beans all met up in Idaho Falls to see dad and just kind of get together. We all except for dad decided to go for a walk on Idaho Fall’s greenbelt adjacent to the Snake River. Above, left to right is Logan, Irv, and Mr. Beans.
There’s Ellen sandwiched between Irv and Mr. Beans. The greenbelt has lots of places to sit and rest. We took advantage of most of them.
The Snake River is rather pretty as it goes through the greenbelt.
In addition to the benches there are lots of places for photo ops. We liked this two tone vegetative Elk.
Me and the kid. Do you like my high spf hat? I had a dermatologist take a divot out of my forehead earlier this year. I’m trying to prevent any more of those.
And here are the Falls. They are very pretty and make a pleasing noise as the water goes over them. A fun fact is that not all of the water goes over the the falls. The City of Idaho Falls has had low head electric generators on the river since 1900 and presently the city gets about 30% of its electrical requirements from these generators.
At the top middle of the photograph you can see the Idaho Falls LDS (Mormon) Temple.
I am not Mormon but I think it is a beautiful building well situated.
So, have you taken any family walks along a river lately?
Scavenger Hunt Sunday – Upside Down from Behind in the Sunshine Edition
have been traveling and not participating in Ashley Sisk’s Scavenger Hunt Sunday one of my most favorite meme’s but I’m back so without further ado lets get down to the Hunt!!
1. Eyes
I try and learn things from other people, especially people who are smarter than me, like my sister Ellen. She took a photography class and one of the things she learned is that it is important to capture an animals eyes. This is an elephant in the San Diego Zoo. I found its eyes and the eyes of almost all elephants I’ve seen (and they have all been in captivity) to be sad.
I captured this lion at the Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls, Idaho last weekend. He looks pretty healthy. He has kind of a vacant stare. I’m glad that though that he wasn’t looking at me. That would be pretty scary.
2. Upside Down
I have a whole bunch of different type film cameras including an old funky Minolta that uses 110 film cartridges. I sent the film off to Cal-I-Forn-I-A (as we say in Oklahoma) for processing and they sent back a disk with the images. It took me a while to figure out what happened. Turns out that I liked they way they turned out.
3. From Behind
I run in several races every year. I take my camera with me and try and capture some of the experience. My favorite race is the Tulsa Run 15K. I was running along at the start of the race and came up upon this woman with a strange sign on her back.
So I got up along side her and talked with her a little bit and sure enough she was pregnant and the day of the race was her due date! I thought that was something awesome. Running a nine mile race on your due date! Of course, me being me, thought that this is one person that I could beat in the race. I’m so ashamed of thinking such base thoughts, but I do.
4. Sunshine
Hey, Okay, how about some KC and the Sunshine Band? Is that good enough sunshine for you?
Oh do a little dance, make a little love
Get down tonight, get down tonight
Do a little dance, make a little love
Get down tonight, get down tonight, baby
(I am really glad that the 70’s are over!! You can have them. Give me Five Finger Death Punch any day, is what I say.
Here is KC, all cool and slick and separated from his fans by a big wide table. Heather wasn’t going to let that stop her though.
The band members were pretty cool though.
5. Cup
Double Tall Latte for me please!! I love designs like this.
That’s it for this week folks. Come back soon!