SuperPizzaBoy and Sweetie got me Mary Chapin Carpenter’s new cd, “the Age of Miracles” for Father’s Day. Music is always a hit with me and especially Ms. Carpenter. She is wonderful. This cd is great. She really does a great job on this and there is not a weak song on it.
My favorite is Zephyr. Give it a listen.
I just love:
“I tried to be steady and yar But the storms keep breaking over my head I’m aching for blue skies instead”
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?
You want to participate in this? Follow the link to their page and check it out.
They have a Japanese Garden with some charming sites.
All sorts of birds make the grounds home.
A favorite of mine was the sand garden. I And guess what, they even had a few flowers. I have no idea what they are. Ask Sweetie, she is the certified Master Gardener.
They had the remnants of a Children’s Garden that hadn’t been kept up. Too bad. This is the biggest sunflower I’ve ever seen. We appreciated the little shade it gave us. It was 105 F when we visited.
I just loved the little angel inside this flower.
Another panting customer that day. Hey, stay on the walk dude!!
Lots of water features, at least they make it look cooler.
Went for a run this morning. When I started the sun had just risen.
But the moon was still up
The Arkansas River was running full
I got there a little late. One of the guys I ran with went ahead without me. We said hello, he headed back to the parking lot, I still needed to run a few more miles. That’s him down the bridge.
Self Portrait
Time to quit fooling around, I still have some running to do.
I had some help from my friends Diana Krall, Korn, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Metallica, Martina McBride, Eric Clapton, and Rage Against the Machine.
I hope your early Sunday was as good as mine. I didn’t set any records running but it was very peaceful.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12: 1-2 (NIV)
For other pairings of photographs and verse check out my friend Baloney.
The other night Sweetie and I left SuperPizzaBoy in the able care of Jen the SuperBabySitter and headed downtown to the BOK Arena to see Michael Buble in his first American appearance of his Nordstroms Crazy Love Tour.
We saw him a couple years ago at the Performing Arts Center. He had a great show. Sweetie really liked it. This time it was like ok, Sweetie wants to go so lets go. I am glad we did. He really wowed me and about 14,000 other people. I loved it. He sang his old ones and his new ones and they were great.
He is really funny also. He has a kind of self deprecating cockiness too him that is very appealing.
We were sitting pretty well back so I had trouble getting good photographs.
I had never seen a performer connect with an audience like he did. He is a great singer of course but he has that something else that brings everybody together. So, anyway I’m a true believer now.
Here is a review of the concert by the Tulsa World.
The review talks about the last song was “Song for You” written by Tulsa’s own Leon Russell. What the review doesn’t say is that Buble sang the last half of the song without a microphone and without the band. You ever see anybody do that in an arena of 14,000?
If he comes to your town, scrape up the bucks for the tickets and go see him.
From the Japanese Gardens of the Fort Worth, Texas Botanical Gardens. It was 105 degrees the day we visited early this month. We were looking for all the shade we could get.
Check out Skywatch Friday for other views of the sky from all over.
I finally finished this book last night, late. Reading it is all I’ve been doing since I started on it Friday night. It has ruined my sleep. I missed most of the US Open coverage on Sunday and pretty much neglected my family duties in order to see this book through to the end. I did get the lawn mowed last night though.
Its got motorcycle gangs, red necks, skinheads, psychopaths, cocaine addicted doctors, complicated craniatamies, pistols, gunshots, hand grenades, double crosses, double double crosses, and a string of innocent and not so innocent victims scattered across Minnesota and several detectives who just can’t seem to get ahead of the game until the very end. Its a testament to the losers among us who can create so much chaos for so little gain.
This book is great. I give it four stars out of four. I got a free copy from the library. The Kindle version is priced too high at $12.99.
