Elf Going Rogue

Well, I thought Christmas was going pretty well. I’ve strung lights, made cookies, bought Christmas gifts, gone to church, and put up the tree. True, maybe I missed the boat on a few things. Like I almost helped an old lady across the street but she was kind of slow and I was in a hurry and there wasn’t anything over there for her to go to anyway. But hey, nobody is perfect.

But look what I got recently.

At first it was like, hey, that’s interesting. I wonder what’s in the bag? It is kind of suggestive, don’t you think? Red bag, and gold embroidered lettering. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make this. You know they say good things come in small packages.

So I opened it up, and what?

The dreaded lumps of coal.

So, I don’t know. Is Santa running ahead of schedule? Clearing all the bad boys off the list, because there are so many of us maybe. Or maybe he has to get rid of his coal because of the impending global warming legislation coming up. Is Santa not green?

Or maybe the coal was a warning from a Rogue Elf? Maybe I need straighten my act up? I don’t know. Maybe the Rogue Elf is actually, The Ghost of Christmas Future? Oh, that’s not good. That doesn’t bode well.

I started to do my research. Who could this Rogue Elf be. After much exhausting surfing on the net and even more games of Facebook Bejewled Blitz trying to figure this out, bingo, I found the Rogue Elf. Her name is Baloney. She has her own blog, evil elf dot com. Check it out.

What do you think? Do I deserve lumps of coal or not? Am I not a nice guy? Is it too late or can I redeem myself?

Are you getting coal for Christmas? What did you do to deserve it? We want to know!

“The Monster in the Box” by Ruth Rendell

“The Monster in the Box” is an English psychological murder mystery staring Inspector Wexford. Inspector Wexford is lots different from the American detectives in other books that I’ve been reading lately. His main technique is to ask suspects and witnesses lots and lots of questions and then ponder their answers. This is not to say the book is boring. It is very interesting. The emphasis is not on the action, its on the characters and their motivations, background, and character.

This book has a serial murderer who Wexford thinks may have been killing or 30 years or more. The book involves a possible honor killing, an escaped pet lion, familial coverups, and lots and lots of questions.

Inspector Wexford is totally unlike some of the American detectives in fiction. He seems to have a stable home life, doesn’t drink to excess and he manages his business without getting into a fist fights or a gun battles or seducing the principal suspect. Somehow, he is an interesting guy anyway.

I found the book quite compelling. It is the 22nd Inspector Wexford novel. I’ll be reading more.

I give the book 3.5 stars out of 4. I’ll be reading more of them.

BTW – This book completes the 2009 Pub Challenge for me to read at least nine books in 2009 that were first published in 2009. By my count I read 18 such books, so far.

Also, I have completed the Support Your Local Library Challenge. I also read 18 books on that list. There is a lot of overlap between the two challenges but not 100%.

OKlahoma Skywatch #2

A collection of recent Oklahoma skies.

To see other skies from all over the world check out Skywatch Friday.

Road Trip – National Cowboy Museum

Gramps is still visiting. We enjoyed looking at all the western art at the Gilcrease Museum that we decided to make a little road trip down to Oklahoma City to see the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. It’s only about an hour and a half drive from Tulsa. Those two shadowy characters underneath the sculpture is us. (The sculpture is “The End of the Trail” by James Earle Fraser.)

It is loaded with Remingtons and Russells and works from other great art from guys like Bierstadt, Leigh, John Singer Sargent. They also have a great collection of contemporary western art also. Guys that our grandchildren will be talking about. They restrict photography in many of the galleries.

I grabbed this off the Museum’s web site

(“Emigrants Crossing the Plains” by Albert Bierstadt)

It is much more than an art museum though. They have a whole gallery on the west as portrayed on television and in movies.

Remember this guy?

(That is Marshall Dillon from Gunsmoke you Gen X and Y folks.)

How about this guy?

In their Special Events Center the Museum has five triptych works by Wilson Hurley. Each of the triptychs is 18 feet tall and 46 feet wide and are named “Windows to the West.” I’ve attended several banquets and luncheons at the facility and studying the paintings are a great way to get past a droning speaker. (My apologies to the droning speakers I’ve listened to in the past.)

Here is an example.

(“Wyoming Suite” portraying the lower falls of the Yellowstone River.)

I strongly recommend a stop at the museum if you find yourself in Oklahoma City. They have got lots more stuff than what I’m showing here. We were on a road trip. You don’t have time to poke your head into every nook and cranny when you are on a road trip. Road trips are about moving on.

So we moved on to Leo’s Barbecue Factory. You can really pig out at this joint but we just had the barbecue sandwich without any side except the baked potato.

It’s kind of basic, but it is great.

Leo’s Barbecue Factory
7 Harrison Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73104

Next, we motored back to Tulsa. We made a pit stop at the Phillips 66 in Stroud and that is where I found what I’m getting Sweetie for Christmas. I’ll show you what it is but you have to promise not to tell. Yeah really.

What do you think of these?

I think that she’ll love them! And you know, its like as they years go by I can add to her collection. And they are so affordable.

Have you picked out what you are getting your loved ones for Christmas yet? Tell me, your secret is safe here.

Gingerbread and Christmas Trees

Time to make some gingerbread cookies! SuperPizzaBoy turns into SuperGingerBreadCookieBoy this time of year. Gramps is checking out the action. You know there is kind of a resemblance between pizza dough and gingerbread cookie dough. Kind of, I don’t think pizza sauce would work to well on the cookies though.

You can tell the kid knows what he is doing.

They look very pretty in the pan, but you know, the proof is in the eating.

Now, the tree. We got a new high tech, pre-lighted, narrow model this year. But you still have to decorate it.

Everything has to be placed with care.

I hope that you are having half as much fun as we are!

My World – Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum

(“Sacred Rain Arrow”) by Allan Houser

Saturday my Father and I visited Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum. A museum owned by the city of Tulsa and operated jointly with the University of Tulsa. The core of the art collection it houses was acquired by Oklahoma Oilman Thomas Gilcrease who was a fan of American art, especially that of the American west. It is loaded with paintings and sculptures by Frederic Remingon, Charles Russell, Thomas Moran, John Singer Sargent, and others. The museum has a no photography policy that I of course honored but their web site has a link to a sizeable sample of their collection. Below is one of my favorites.

(“Meat’s not meat ’til it’s in the pan” by Charles M. Russell.)

An unexpected bonus was a special exhibit of the art of Allan Houser. Houser was a member Chiricahua Apache tribe and was born in Apache, Oklahoma. He was a prolific artist and art teacher who painted and sculpted. It turns out that he was a very famous artist, and I have just totally overlooked him my whole life. Below is a sculpture of Houser, done by one of his sons, on display at the museum.

If you live in Oklahoma you see this something like this every day.

The archer on our license plate is based on Houser’s “Sacred Rain Arrow” sculpture on display at the entrance to the Gilcrease Museum.

Below is another work by Houser on the museum grounds. I apologize but I didn’t note the name of the piece.

If you find yourself with a few extra hours in Tulsa I recommend the Gilcrease Museum.

For other views of the world we share check out “That’s My World.”

Ephesians 4:2

SuperPizzaBoy and Gramps

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

For other photo-verse combinations check out That’s Baloney.

Suburban Critters

Ginger and Abigail.

Here in south Tulsa we have other critters besides the domesticated kinds.

I went on a run on my usual trail which winds through a long greenbelt through the heart of south Tulsa. Somebody decided to make the landscape more to their liking. I am guessing that they were beaver. I didn’t see the culprits.

Where there was once a small pond, the critters had made into a bigger pond by building a dam.

It didn’t take them long, I run this route every few days.

A couple days later, on another run, the fallen trees had been cleared from the path but the dam was still there. However there were other signs of critters. On my outbound leg I thought this was a muddy stick on the trail. Coming back I saw that it was the leg of a deer.