Take Me Out to The Ball Field!

And buy me some ice cream, a hot dog, some nachos, and a funnel cake while you're at it.  Yeah, that's what she said.  And that's what she did.

That's right.  Rebecca and Mike came up from the Big D this past weekend and we took them to the brand new ball field in town.  The Drillers were playing the Cardinals... both farm teams to Major League Baseball teams.  

But this is my FAVORITE part!  This was the view from our 2nd row above the guest team dugout.  Love it!  My next favorite part was the food.  BBQ?  Got it.  Mexican food?  Got that, too.  Ice cream parlor?  HECK YES.  Did I have a sunday?  Sure.  Did I have a rootbeer float?  Why yes.  Keep walking keep walking keep walking....

There was a race between 2 QT taquitos and 1 QT Hot Dog!  It was like a dream come true really.  Really.  And the best part...

The hot dog was winning!  LOL  (hot dogs are my favorite.  really.)  But then something HILARIOUS happened...

My favorite food lost its' pants.  Look very closely.  It was one of the funniest things the entire crowd had seen in a while.  I mean, how often do you see a hot dog mascot's pants fall off as it's racing against two tequitos?  Never.  That's how often.  

So the game was fun, the Drillers lost, but we won.  Because it was Fireworks Friday!!

So when the Drillers played at the old stadium we used to hear the fireworks from our house, but we'd never seen the fireworks.  I have to say, they were pretty impressive!  As was our entire experience at ONEOK Field.  I'll tell you about the perfect activity after a game later.

Ciao.  

Warning: This may be boring to normal people.

This whole having "seasons" thing is still new to me.  This is only the second time in my life where I can remember being joyous over leaves.  LEAVES.  There are fresh leaves in the trees!!  Okay, I'll simmer down now...

So Easter weekend was beautiful here.  I think I spent 45 hours outside.  Working in our yard mostly.  I had some serious lamb's ear to tame.

This is lamb's ear.  I'm sure it has a more proper name, but just call it lamb's ear.  If I'm talking to you about plants, I'm offering you some lamb's ear.  This stuff is awesome.  You can tear pieces of it out of the ground, bury the stem a little under some dirt and it will re-root in days.  It stays green in the winter, then while no one is paying attention it replaces itself with little ears that are brighter green.  This is the point where you have to clean out the dead brown leaves.  Then you realize that your lamb's ear has tripled in size since the Fall.  What?  Yes.  TRIPLED.  This stuff comes back with a vengeance!  It's the perfect edging for this bed we have and you CAN'T kill it.   I've successfully re-located some Bevel lamb's ear to two different friend's yards in the area.  lol.  I'm trying to convert the world I tell you.  

ANYWAY!  So on Saturday, I thinned out my lamb's ear, and I planted about half of it in my neighbor's back yard.  Then I took a short nap.

Then I got up and headed to my new favorite nursery.  Picked up some new gardening gloves, some flowers for the back bed to go with the lamb's ear :) and a pot of tulips!  

Tulips.  I am completely amazed that tulips come up every year with out having to plant them here.  Tulips are a rarity where I come from.  Here they are EVERYWHERE!  In Louisiana people have to dig the bulbs up and freeze them then replant them and..... well that's too much trouble for most.  Like I said, I had no idea...

So ever since we've found ourselves in this cool T-Town, I've dreamed of wanting tulips.  So I saw a pot of them at the nursery and figured now was as good a time as any.  So I took them home... wait, maybe this is when I took that nap...

Then I divided them and planted them.  I ended up with 8 tulips, or maybe 9.  I'm too tired to go out and count them again.  Shane said he doubts if they will bloom this Spring.  As everybody else's tulips are past full bloom now.  My tulips were about 4 inches high with no buds yet when I bought them.  I'm still completely giddy about having these tulips.  

Yesterday I was talking to Shane while I was at work and he said that you could see the buds of the tulips and it looked like they would actually bloom.  "REALLY??!!"   I said.  "Yep." "Okay!  I'm coming home right now to see!"  And it was 2:30.  So, no, I didn't actually leave my job to look at my growing tulips.... but gosh was I tempted.  

This is what I came home to.  Okay.  I know what you're thinking...

But LOOK!!  You can totally see the flower coming out.  Did I mention that my tulips will be the best color of tulips?  Yes.  RED.  

I water them.  They are going to bloom.  It is going to be awesome.  And yes, you will probably be seeing more photos of tulips.  Hey, it's what I've got goin' on outside of work these days...  

Care for a trip to the dog park?

The other day, okay it was a couple weeks ago now, and is was BEAUTIFUL outside for a change.  The dogs were aching for some exercise and "socialization."  So we loaded them up and headed to the dog park.  I decided to tote my camera along and halfway to our destination got inspired to document the entire trip.  That means that I ended up taking 50+ pictures on a short 5 mile ride.  That's the way I roll... hahaha.

We simply hop on 4th Street and take it all the way downtown where it turns into 3rd street.  Roll through downtown, see some really great buildings, pass a weirdo rock house and then you're at the Bark Park!

So call me your personal tour guide for the next couple of minutes...

Our delightful chauffeur...

Hey!  It's the Blue Dome!  And road construction!  I don't know which signifies Tulsa more...

Ahh yes... Spring is finally...uhh springing!  

And City Hall looking as cool and glassy as ever...

Some of my favorite Tulsa buildings... refurbished ole warehouse, the Mid-Continent Tower, and a building I regretfully don't know the name of...

Oh hey!  It's the PAC...

And the cool sculpture in front of it...

Ahh yes, the BOK Tower, the tallest building in Oklahoma...

The side of the Crowne Plaza with the Mayfest murals...love that...

Ha!  Yes, the Williams Towers, and our alarm company's truck...

It's a federal building ya'll... I think...

The BOK Center...

Hello new Convention Center...

Hello cute pup riding next to us...

Hey, it's the weird Cave House...

Finally!  It's Joe Station Bark Park!  This is where the dogs have fun...

See?  This is Brownie having "fun"  

And Belle having fun... She's a little more social than Brown Dog...

See?  Social.  

Social.

And that's the dog park.  Ha!

And then we head back home.  I hope you enjoyed the short, sweet tour.  You have to come visit to see more....

Guaranteed Laugh

Do you need a good laugh?  I'm sure you do.  Everyone can always use a good laugh.

Here's a photo that ALWAYS makes me laugh when I see it:

I mean look at those ears!  That is a dog on the move!  

That is also a dog that refuses to run on his new rock pathway...

~Peace

Lovely Landscapes

Because it's the first day of Spring, and because there's a blizzard outside and because I'm cuddled up inside in my flannels with a cup of hot chocolate... I'm going to talk about what we got yesterday.

First, let me introduce you to Wade Jones:

Wade is a  buddy of ours who is the owner of Greenstreet Landscapes in Tulsa.  Wade isn't just any landscaper.  As you can tell by his website project galleries, Wade takes ho-hum landscaped yards, and puts a little creative energy into the end all project.  He makes his work really stand out.  He's super creative, and totally understands the environment and what will grow and survive in what light and setting.  He knows everything about trees and plants and if you have any doubt of what to put in a certain place, Wade can give you a suggestion.  And you will end up with something that is truly unique.  I'm really not aware of anybody else who could create a complete oasis out of nothing like he can.  The after pics on the website were shot by mine truly.  Wade has helped us over the past year with taking an overgrown, neglected yard into a place that is uniquely beautiful and that we enjoy.  

So here's my story about what we got yesterday:

Shane laid some sod in our mini-backyard last spring.  Then the dogs created this chic pathway leading from our deck to the dog's backyard.  It's quite beautiful isn't it... I do hope you're sensing the sarcasm.  This picture was taken in the Fall... and after this harsh, wet winter, this pathway became much wider and much muddier.  

So to help prevent muddy dog footprints in my house, our yard had a little makeover yesterday, the day before Spring.

This isn't part of the makeover, but look at how thick my lamb's ear already is.  If you think you would like some of this in  your own garden, let me know!  I will be thinning it out soon (after the snow melts). It's so care free, you don't even have to water it after you transplant it.  It will grow like wild fire and look awesome.  

ANYWAY...

 So yesterday, the day before Spring, we had a lil' project going on... Installing a sandstone pathway.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day, 71 degrees and all sunshiney.  

And when I came home from work, this is what I found.  A freshly watered down and grass seeded pathway.  Wade seeded the entire  yard and the dirt in the pathway with grass, so it will grow and become less muddy and more luscious.  

We're really happy with this path and can't wait for the grass to grow.

Wade also just finished a complete overhaul of our neighbors' flower beds.  If you're thinking about doing a project in your yard this spring and don't know where to start... consider Greenstreet Landscapes.  He is great to work with and provides great results.  

Now, on this first day of Spring, lemme go find my snow shovel....

Weirdo. Dawg.

We have a family of four you see.  Two people and two dogs.  This ratio of human to dog works for us right now.  It's what we prefer really.  You see, right now, I can leave for 4 hours, crate the dogs, come home and not go to jail for leaving my dogs in a crate by themselves.  It doesn't quite work that way with kids does it?

Sometimes our dogs do crazy things.  For instance, Brownie likes to spin circles mid air while he's running to the back door if you ask him, "Brownie,  you wanna go out?"  I wish I got the same kind of high from going outside that Brownie does.

Sometimes, okay most of the time, Belle likes to lay down.  That's right.  That's her thing.  Laying down.  Sometimes we have to lock her out of our room where her bed is just so she will do something else besides lay down.  The other day while we were training our dog-sitter/ house-sitter/ beautician/ assistant (don't ask) on what to expect while she was dog-sitting the other weekend, I heard a weird scratching sound.  Belle was locked out of her room at this point mind you...

So I walk to the back of the house to find this:

Belle in a laundry basket.  She freely climbed inside, you guessed it, to LAY DOWN.  Oy.  There was like 2 pillow cases in the bottom of which she was ruffling around to make a comfy "bed."  Why must they embarrass me so?  

Like I said, WEIRDO.  

Before and After... Door Knobs.

Do you ever think about doing something and then you just HAVE to do it.  Right away.  This happened to me a few weeks ago.  You see, over a year ago we bought a house.  Not just any house, an old house, build in 1935.  Why?  Because of the charm, the character, and.... the projects.  Before we moved in, we spent every day painting.  Shane would paint the walls of one room while I was at work, then I'd come home from work and paint the trim of that room.  This went on for an entire week.  There was still plenty of work to be done though.  As with any old house, there are plenty of things that can always be improved.  And  with any old house, there are things that previous owners have done that will drive you nuts.  

Like this.  Over the years apparently someone once decided to paint the entire door knob... of every door.  Then every one that lived in the house after that decided to just continue painting over the entire knob.... you know... because why would you try to refurbish and improve?  

So anyway.  A couple of weeks ago I made it my mission to strip the paint off the door handles and backplates in our house.  

So glad the doors weren't this color when we bought the house... YUCK!  

They even painted over this.  Now this is the only glass knob in the house.  Kind of breaks my heart a bit.  Look at the scrolling in the metal.  

Like any old house homeowner, we are now subscribers to the "This Old House" magazine.  It seams that whatever we are currently focusing on or thinking about doing to our house, they cover in this magazine.  Yes.  They had an article on how to easily strip paint from your door hardware.  And while I failed to take pictures of the process ( I know.  I don't know what I was thinking!) I did get some before and after shots.  Above are the before shots.

So what was the process?  Well we bought a cheap used crock pot at Goodwill.  Then filled it with water and a 1/2 cup of laundry detergent.  Then turned it on high.  Then put all the door hardware that I wanted to strip the paint off of into the crock pot.  Put the lid on and wait about 3-6 hours.  This old house says to wait over night... I think.  But I'm not that patient.  :)  After the waiting period, take the hardware out with tongs... the paint just peels off.  So easy.  I had to scrape and scrub a little, but the end product looked like this...

Which explains why somebody thought painting them was a good idea lol.  This is not the end product I had envisioned when I wanted to strip paint off the door hardware.  I was hoping for either brass or bronze... but I got some kind of weird aluminum or something.  So the next step?  A trip to Lowe's of course.  And after picking out some native grasses and other plants we didn't intend to purchase that day, we picked out some dark bronze spray paint.  

With a metallic finish, the dark bronze paint was what I'd hoped the metal looked like to begin with.  

So Shane set me up with a painting station in the garage.  Note the tarps and lights.  He says you need lots of light.  :)

And some hangers to hook the knobs onto while painting.  This worked really well actually.  In order to keep the spray paint from dripping, you should lightly "dust" the object back and forth, holding the spray can about a foot away from the object.  

Next problem?  Old Screws.  Because I didn't feel like painting the screws the new color of the hardware and because the old screws were in horrible shape, I headed to my local hardware store to buy some new screws.  So I picked one of each kind that I needed and counted how many I would need.  

These were the three different types I needed.  While they didn't have "dark bronze" they did have black, which pretty much is identical to dark bronze in the world of screws...  

And this is the final product!  Just the way I wanted.  And....

Man I wish I had more of these in the house.  I absolutely love how the door knobs and backplates turned out.  

Some questions I still have:  why did I run out of one type of screw and why do I have 3 door knobs and 3 backplates left but no doors to put them on?  I think the boy has something to do with this....  

Next must-do project:  painting our inside doors.  This is something we've been putting off and putting off.  When we finally do it, I will be taking all of the hardware off first.  

~Peace.