Pink Panther 2

Valentines Day 2009 – Sweetie and I took SuperPizzaBoy and his buddy Nick to see Pink Panther 2. Steve Martin steals the show in this entertaining movie which works both for both the parents and the kids. (Sweetie might disagree with me. Lily Tomlin has a cameo role where she tries to teach Inspector Cluseau about being politically correct so SPB and his buddy learned about “ogling women.” Tomlin does a great job describing what not to look for.)

Martin is over the top and I loved this movie. It has a great web site also complete with games and downloads.

I give this movie 2.5 stars out of 4.

Making Progress

For Christmas, son SuperPizzaBoy got a black and white kitten. He named him “LJ” and declared LJ to be his “Only Son.” So Sweetie and I instantly became grandparents a few years earlier than what we planned. SPB loves LJ, and so does everbody else in the household.

Except Chrissy our 20 pound maine coon who only likes me, and not that much either. She can, and often does, swats LJ off the bed with one swipe of her huge claws.

Lately though, she is letting LJ lay nearby, as long as he stays still. She won’t play with him though, maybe later.


To see other pictures and read other stories about both wild and domestic critters check out Camera Critters.

Bodean Seafood for Valentines Dinner

SuperPizzaBoy had a sleepover at his friend’s house Friday night so Sweetie and I went out to eat to celebrate Valentines Day a day early. We went to Bodean Seafood. One we have not been there since they moved to their new location across 51st street from their old location. Two we had a very generous gift card that we had got as part of a basket we purchased at a fundraiser last week.

Surprisingly I was able to make reservations after work for 8 pm. We got there a little before. Their old place across the street was nice but a little cramped. This new place is very spacious with a very airy feeling. The waiting area is kind of small but they have a very spacious and attractive bar area.

The dining room is very large and very attractively decorated. The table are ordered in rows and columns rather than a more random arrangement. In a quiet place it could make it seem like you have no privacy but the night we were there the place was very lively. It had a feeling of energy rather than being irritated.

Our server was very inobtrusive but there whenever we needed her. She had a lot of customers to take care of but took very good care of us.

Sweetie ordered the “Pecan Wood Grilled Mahi-Mahi” they came with Goat Cheese “smashed potatoes” She reports that the fish was very good but the smashed potatoes were ok.

I had the Yellowfin Tuna with chilled Soba Noodle Salad and a soy reduction and wasabi sauce. The tuna was cooked “rare” with a sesame seed crust. It was delicious. I’m become a big fun of this type of “almost raw” tuna. It had a fresh clean taste and I loved the sesame crust. The wasabi sauch on the side helped keep my sinuses clear. One advantage I have found with rare tuna is that nobody ever asks me for a bite. For my part once I started eating raw oysters when I first moved to the Texas gulf coast years ago, I’m pretty much game for anything.

I loved the soba noodles. I had never heard of them before Pei Wei’s came to town several years ago but now I’m a fan.

The meal was delicious, the portions were generous, the prices although a bit high for the Yogi family budget were a good value for the food. The dining room atmosphere was energetic and light. We really enjoyed ourselves.

I rate this place 3 and half stars out of four.

Full Moon

The weather has been wild in Oklahoma the last couple of weeks. We had a warm spell, then an ice storm, then it warmed up, and then we had rain storms and tornadoes.

In the midst of all this we had a full moon. I was outside one night taking the trash out or something and looked up in the sky. We had a full moon and low thin clouds racing from the south, just hauling ass, as us Okies put it. It was beautiful. I went inside and got my camera and wasted a bunch of electrons trying to get the moon in a gap.

Check out Skywatch for other pictures of the sky from all over the world.

Award

Becky from Operation Read Bible awarded this blog the “Your Blog Is Fabulous” award. I was thrilled. I’m also embarassed because she gave it to me two weeks ago and I haven’t passed it on yet. Recipients are supposed to write five things that you are addicted to and then pass it on to five other blogs.

I love Becky’s blog. She is an awesome reader and book reviewer. I wanted to do a bible reading challenge but I didn’t want to do it in a year. Her bible reading challenge is much more flexible in the schedule. I’m going to get the Bible read, just not in a year.

My addictions

1. Geocaching, as my few readers know. I love looking for, finding, and hiding geocaches. If you don’t what it is check here. Lately I’ve been evangelizing and winning converts.

2. Blogging. I love writing them and reading them. I think blogging is wonderful.

3. Reading. I read all sorts of stuff. Fiction, non-fiction, magazines, cereal boxes, web sites. I love it all.

4. Coffee – I drink it by the gallon. I love it.

5. Dallas Cowboys – What can I say. I’m hopeless, they are hopeless either. Moving into a billion dollar stadium next season. What up?

Now, I get to pass the award on to five other people.

1. Bobbie and Julie of Friends of Bobbie Armour. A more courageous couple you will never find.

2. Kathy of Oklahoma Book Lady. She is the book lady and the photography lady to and is very generous with her comments.

3. Nick’s Law & Autism Legislation in Oklahoma – I don’t think the author cares about awards, but he cares by our kids.

4. Dana of Dana of Oz– US expatriate living and working in Australia. She hasn’t posted in two months but she is one of my three smartest and best looking nieces. If this looks like nepotism, it is. I am very proud of all three of my nieces, Dana, Mary, and Jillian but Dana is the only one with a blog.

5. OkLawStudent of Dysfunctional Didactics . I have no idea what a Didactic is but I love this offbeat blog.

Bids, Baskets, Bites, and Prime Numbers

SuperPizzaBoy’s school had a fund raiser last Satuday night. It was a party. Each of the classes had put together a basket and you bid on each basket in a silent auction format. Everybody spends a lot of time and attention putting their basket together and decorating the table that it sits on. Below is the table that Sweetie decorated. It and the basket she put together is based on the television series “The Office. The typewriter is courtesy of Nana, SPB’s grandmother.

Oh, the food. Each table has food. Lots of food. Almost all of it is good, but bad for you. I never have figured out how things can be good but bad at the same time.

SPB goes to a private school and things are a little different. They have a Halloween party for example. A few parents don’t like it but most don’t seem to think that we are raising legions of devil worshippers. Christmas is allowed! Wow. I’m digressing again, I’m sorry, I’ll get to the point: We could get a glass of wine! I only had one, after all I was driving, but it was great.

I’m really off track. See all the stuff on the table? It now belongs to the guy on the left. Me. Sweetie says no more silent auctions for me. She is so mean sometimes.

Lets see, I won 6 baskets: The fishing basket, complete with with three fishing rods, including a pink one for Sweetie. The spaghetti basket, the photo basket which includes a new digital camera, and a micro camera (oh!), the weaved basket (done by SPB’s class, I had to get it, right?), the Bookworm basket (of course), and the Patio basket!

The good news, I got a lot of great stuff. The bad news, we have to pull SPB out of school, we can’t afford to pay tuition any more. He’s a smart kid. He’ll be ok.

I knew that it was going to be that kind of night for me. How did I know? Because my assigned auction id number was 23, a prime number. I love prime numbers. They are so mysterious and very auspicious for me. I could bore you to tears with the beauty of prime numbers.

Lunchtime Skirt Lifting

When the intensity at work lifts a little bit (believe me, the intensity of the energy business is lifting a lot) and if the weather is good, then I like to relieve the tension by leaving the office and finding a few skirts to lift.

I don’t like to lift just any skirt, just those where there might be a reward for me. Plus not all skirts want to be lifted. You just can’t go around lifting just any skirt and expect to get away with it. Some people take offense when you start lifting their skirts.

But anyway, last week I find out about a skirt that didn’t mind being lifted and where there was a guaranteed prize for doing so. I talked about it at work and a coworker, Mrs. T, said she would give it a go.

So off we went to lift a skirt. It took a while to find the right skirt. Once we did, T went for it. I’ve never got a picture of a skirt being lifted before so this was a first for me, so it was kind of double the excitement.

So here it is:

Yep, the geocache was right there under the lamp skirt.

We had a lot of fun and will do it again!

Pre – Valentines and then a little Geocaching

One thing our church does this time of year for couples married over 50 years is present each wife with a corsage. They are delivered the Saturday before Valentines Day and the couples are specially honored the next day in church

Getting the corsages to the wives is a big undertaking requiring lots of volunteers. Sweetie and I have been doing for several years. It is pretty cool because the women love the corsages and most of the time we get invited in to sit for a spell and talk with these couples. We love it. These folks have quite the stories to tell.
This year Sweetie couldn’t go. She is the co-President of SuperPizzaBoy’s school and she had to work on a fundraiser Saturday night. So I went. It was still nice but not as nice as having Sweetie along. Maybe next year.

I consoled my lonely feelings by finding a couple of geocaches in a local park. The first was a toughie but I finally spotted it. I’m not going to tell you which geocache it is because I want you to spend 20 minutes in a park trying to act not like a pervert while a bunch of Society for Creative Anachronism folks are battering each other with wooden swords.

SCA is an awesome organization because only they are more dorky than geocachers.

Camera Critters #1

Last weekend on a warm sunny day we went for a walk. We took Abby and Ginger on a new dual harness. After a little discussion between them about who is going to go on what side it worked about very well. Changing directions continued to be an issue.

Then we went to pick up son, SuperPizzaBoy, at his friend Nicholas’ house. Nicholas has chickens and a guinea fowl. The guinea is the alarm system for the rest of the flock and he was sounding off when Ginger and Abby started giving the flock a good barking from the car.

There are also a couple sheep. They don’t get too excited about anything.

The family has a pair of peacocks but they were being camera shy that day. Maybe next time.

Check out Camera Critters for photographs of animals from all over.

Charles Darwin’s Birthday Coming Up, Lets Celebrate!

Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday is February 12, 2009. It is going to be quite the celebration, at least in some quarters. Check out http://www.darwinday.org/ for one.

Darwin of course originated the Theory of Evolution and explained it in his book “The Origin of the Species” in 1859. It was based on his voyage in the HMS Beagle to the Galapagos Islands in the 1830s. He took 20 years to fully develop his theory.

His theory emphasizes natural selection or the idea that favorable traits have an advantage in future generations of the species.

The theory has survived much investigation and has been modified by research over the years. His theory of Natural Selection is the foundation of modern Biology. It has withstood the test of time and in this Christian’s mind is totally compatible with the Bible including the creation stories in Genesis.

The gold standard of a scientific theory is that it can be used to generate testable hypotheses. Natural Selection can and has done that. Creation Science and Intelligent Design although appealing do not generate testable hypotheses and thus do not qualify as scientific theories.

I think part of the problem some people have with evolution is the word “theory.” To a layman a theory is just kind of a guess. It is a gut feeling about something. Its like, “I think the knock in the car is due to bad gasoline.” So when they hear the word “Theory of Evolution” some people think, the school wants to teach our kids about a theory, not anything that means something.

To a scientist for an explanation to get to the status of theory it has to pass huge hurdles. It has to be self contained and verifiable. It has to pass peer review and become widely accepted. For example, the “Theory of Electricity.” Nobody has ever seen electricity, so how do we know it exists? Its just a theory. It may be just a theory but it lights, heats, and cools our buildings, powers our computers. The world’s economy, to a large degree, depends on this stuff that is “just a theory.”

You can learn a whole lot more in this article in Scientific American.