Okie Sister

I Ate The Cactus

Guadalajara Taqueria is a fairly new Mexican Restaurant here in Lawton. There food is unique and authentic. It's not like any other place in town. If you crave something familiar, their tacos and enchiladas are excellent. If you want something different, try a Torta. That's a sandwich with your choice of meat.

One of my favorites dishes is the Carne Guisada. I can't even describe how delicious it is. Let's just say that it's a good thing it comes with flour tortillas to sop up all the gravy. Otherwise, I would probably have to lick the plate.

I've barely begun to sample all the items on the menu. Heck, they even serve breakfast. I do feel like I'm cheating on Julio's when I eat at the Guadalajara.

Yesterday, I went out on a limb and tried the Carne Azada Plate.

It consists of: beef skirt steak topped with grilled cactus and green onions, lettuce, tomato, and sliced fresh avocado, rice, a bacon wrapped cheese filled jalapeno pepper, Charro beans, and tortillas. The pepper was too hot for me, so it got passed off to Hubby. Their salsa that comes with chips is pretty hot for my tastes too. The Charro beans are fantastic and I will be special ordering them in place of refried from now on. The grilled green onions were as sweet as a Vidalia. I'll be making these at home. Never thought of grilling them before. I was most anxious to experience the cactus, as I had never tried it. And guess what? I ate the cactus and I like it!

The Original Lawton High School

Toured the new City Hall building on Friday. That’s the renovated Central Junior High School. The original Lawton High School. How wonderful that our city kept this landmark, instead of bulldozing it down and building a mall, like they did  to our downtown main street. Anyway, I digress because it still upsets me that we lost so much history in the name of progress.

The City Hall building is now modern and spacious, with elevators and a new glass façade. At the same time, the integrity of the former facility has been preserved. That’s awesome! They even kept one classroom to act as a museum to the building’s past with photos of former Lawton High students.

The event I attended was a farewell reception for our current mayor, John Purcell. This project was built under his leadership, but he will not serve from the new mayor’s office. A desk was brought in for a final photo op and to fulfill a promise that he would sit in the new office.

The mayor was presented with a plaque that had a photo of the building, a special key to the city and encouraging mayor’s coins that he was so famous for. The photo of the building was taken by Hubby. It's stunning!

Outside, a bronze buffalo has been placed on the grounds and dedicated to this fine and likeable mayor. What a beautiful piece of art to add to the downtown landscape.

Ooh, Ooh That Smell

Note To Self...

Before next power outage, buy unscented candles or candles all the same flavor; because Apple Cinnamon, Bamboo, Banana Nut Bread, Eucalyptus, Pineapple Sage, Vanilla ... all burning at the same time ... is kind of gross.

I Love Love

Hope everyone’s Valentine’s Day was layers and layers of yummy goodness.

Our son gave his lady a diamond ring, so now both our kids are officially engaged.

Fiancée has a nice “ring” to it.

I think this means I need to buy some new shoes, because at some point one of them might actually have a  wedding. Although I’m not opposed to elopement.

Love is in the air.

It takes a lot to find that special someone  who completes you; who makes you happy and puts up with all your faults. The person that you know is going to be there for you in good times and bad. I feel they have both found that.

Or did it find them?

Hubby and I are tired of being the only “old married couple” in the family. We thought our gagging-ly sweet shining example of marriage would be an encouragement for others to following in our footsteps

...even if we can’t remember how long we’ve been married.

Snow Scenes

   

Survivor Man

My Hubby is incredible, but I already knew that. The recent power outage just reinforced my admiration. He's a real man who knows how to "do stuff." Plus he has his own tools, so he can also build stuff. He can take a power saw and cut wood. He can create fire; sometimes without even trying. He can cook a gourmet meal using propane. We ate very well during the blackout. I called him My Hunter Gatherer Man.

He kept a generator running for days; filling it twice daily with gasoline. One morning it wouldn't start back up. He took it apart, diagnosed what the problem was, found a replacement part and put it all back together again. It ran smoothly from then on. He's good at fixin' stuff.
 
We often comment on his knowledge of random stuff. He'll say, "Now, why do I need to know that." I'll say, "Thanks Cliffie," referring to mailman Cliff Clavin, who used to "amaze" his friends with his trivia at a little bar called Cheers. But knowledge is a wonderful thing to be able to access, especially when you are in survivor mode. Somebody needs to knows how electricity works.
 
In the past, I poked fun at Hubby when he would come home from Sams Club with a package of fifty batteries or 1200 forks. Mostly, because we don't have anywhere to store these items. Well, when you actually need that stuff, it is nice to have it on hand. I'll have to remember that next time he comes home with 100 rolls of tp.

 

"Well, Early cavemen, they went out and hunt for the very food that graced their simple table. The women stayed in the cave and developed art, culture, what-have-you. Men down through the centuries have always been hunters, doers, adventurers. Cogito, it is not in man's nature to sit alone and be passive and docile."- Cliff Clavin, Old Flames episode of Cheers.

Out of the Darkness

After 117 hours, the electric trucks showed up in front of my house. What a glorious sight!

I called them the Texas Cavalry. Just like an old western movie, when things look their bleakest, the cavalry ride in and save the day. I big thank you to these guys for restoring my power.

I was starting to stress a bit. I cleaned my desk yesterday and found the following cartoon that my oldest brother sent me last year. I can relate.

After all the Budweiser shoot-out is this weekend.

When The Bough Breaks...

Things To Do This Spring

1. Trim trees in front yard  

 

Tree next to house falls at 2:30. 

One hour later the tree out by the street starts losing branches.

This is what the back yard looks like.

In the middle of these branches is my power line.

You know those videos about icebergs, where a large chunk of it breaks off into the ocean and makes a catastrophic crashing sound as it falls? Well, that's what it sounds like outside right now.

Snow expected later...

 

First Watch 2010

“Please don’t snow. Please don’t snow. Please don’t snow.”
“If it does…. snow enough that I don’t have to work anymore this week, but not enough to knock out my internet.
This I pray, Amen!”

 

Losing Dish Network is a given. It goes off every time it rains heavy. That is normal, right? I mean normal for satellite reception. (Had to do a Google search. I cracked up when I found the following items.)

Dish Wedgie - Dish Hoodie - Dish Skinz - DishWraps - DishRags

 

 I wonder if these work.

 

Does anyone out there use protection?

 

 

 

I was saddened by the departure of Lance Smith on CMT’s Top 20 Countdown at the end of last year. Lance was hilarious as the host of this show for the past eight years. I couldn’t imagine anyone stepping into his shoes. Kudos to CMT for replacing him with sexy Evan Farmer. Evan is the perfect choice. I loved him as the host of TLC’s While You Were Out.

Bye, bye Ugly Betty. I never “got you” and didn’t understand what others saw in you in, but to each his own. You leaving will open a time slot that ABC will probably fill with something else I don’t “get.” Because nobody asked me… like they should, because I would be great at that job. Cavemen…seriously. Leno at an earlier time…no way.

My latest TV find is American Pickers on the History Channel. Two guys rummage through old barns looking for items they can sell…or add to their collections.

Hubby hasn’t stopped talking about the “dressing down” that Lucky Spencer gave Elizabeth on General Hospital earlier this week. I can’t remember the last time he has enjoyed seeing someone else "get what’s coming to them" like that. Must have been back in his city council days.

We’re liking the new Lucky, played by Jonathan Jackson. Well actually, he is the old Lucky, because he played this role years ago. Not sure hunky Greg Vaughan would have pulled these scenes off as dramatically.

Over on Y&R, the new Tucker McCall character is now being played by Stephen Nichols. I recognized him immediately as the evil Stefan Cassadine from GH. I also knew he had been on another soap I used to watch. It wasn’t until he walked into a room wearing sunglasses that I shouted out, “oh yeah, Patch from Days.” See Patch wore a patch over one eye….
Too funny.

Only two more weekends till Daytona! Be still my heart.
I’ll fill the waiting time with guest appearances by NASCAR drivers on Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader this week on CMT but Not the 24/7 Jimmie Johnson show on HBO. I get enough of him during the season.

Wacky Mail

With much trepidation, I changed my internet carrier last year. I was very concerned that in changing my email address, I might lose contact with someone important to me. I sent out emails to friends and family notifying them of the change. I had to update all my online accounts, utilities, credit cards and boards where I post. Then I experienced a dry spell for email and knew that I had a problem. Emails I sent were also bouncing back to me undelivered.

However, I had fantastic (meaning fast) internet connection. After about a month, the email problem finally disappeared.

Then I got notice that my new internet carrier was changing their name and that I would have to change my email address.
Again? Do you know how long it took me to remember all the accounts where I needed to change this info? And now I would have to do it all again. Needless to say, I have no idea who has what address at this point.

This week I got a letter in the mail. It was from my internet carrier.
Seems they were unable to reach me by email.
Huh?
Weren't they able to look at my account? ...because they are my internet carrier!

Last week I received a letter from the Oklahoma Tax Commission. It stated that I owed $80 for my 2006 tax return. With added interest, this amount was now $113. I immediately remembered that I had received a check from them out of the blue sometime around September. I dug my photocopy of it out of the file cabinet. Yep, it was for exactly $80. At that time, they reported I had overpaid them for my 2006 tax return.

What a con!
Is this a new Oklahoma money making scheme?

I wrote them a check for $80 ...even. It got mailed with a letter from my accountant.

Good grief.
 

It's a small world after all

It’s a nice change of pace putting my "mad research skills" to use looking up the living. Hubby has commented before on all the time spent researching the dearly departed on my family tree. I thought he would be more impressed when I started finding long lost friends of his on Facebook.

I’ve found people I lost contact with over the past thirty years too; friends, schoolmates, co-workers, neighbors, and even a long lost relative.

Why do we let people slip out of our lives?

During my first marriage, stability was an issue. We moved at least a dozen times during those ten years. It was very unsettling. It’s hard to build and keep connections when you never know when you might be leaving. Also those years were before email (my favorite form of communication).
The next ten years were busy years of working and raising a family. I had moved back to my home town, but had lost contact with everyone who lived here. Also, I was not the same person as when I left, so I didn’t fit in with the gang I used to party with. Of course, they had grown up too and many probably changed the course of their lives as well.
The next section of my life were the stable years. I settled into a life where I pretty much kept to myself and spent all my time at home with Hubby. I only decided to break out of my shell a couple of years ago. Putting myself out there is still a work in progress, as I have to overcome my social anxieties.

These are really just excuses for my lack of communication.
I’ve never been a letter writer like my mother and my mother-in-law were. These ladies both kept up with the important people in their lives, even if it was at times one sided. I’m impressed by them and look to them as my role models.

With today’s technology and varying mediums, communicating is easier than ever. Heck, we are almost bombarded by information at times (TMI). The key is to make our exchanges meaningful.

Why don’t we let the people in our lives know how much they mean to us? (Maybe instead of a question, that should be a challenge.)

I ran across a photo of an old friend yesterday on Facebook. This woman has no idea how important she was in my life. I would even say that she helped save my life at one point. I hope I get the chance to tell her about it. Ironically, Hubby saved her life once too. Well, he saved her from a bad fall anyway. Small world, isn’t it?

Lawton High School Class of 1980

I finally broke down and joined Facebook.
I had resisted before, because I honestly felt that I could not spare another minute for anything else.
I had already gone from blogging everyday to random postings because of my genealogy research.
See, I have a tendency to obsess over anything new.
However, if I had known that so many of my family were members, I would have joined a long time ago.
 
I was encouraged to sign up by my friend and partner in crime schoolmate, Ranae.
Seems this year is our 30th high school reunion and the group doing the planning communicate via Facebook.
So I'll do my part here by giving a shout out to all the graduates of Lawton High School class of 1980 that might stop by Okie Sister.
Come join me and our classmates on Facebook. It would be great to reconnect with you.

 

Facing Your Fears

In our family, if you are deathly afraid of something, you don’t let anyone know it. Otherwise you open your email and find this clip from your daughter.

Then a few days later, you reach out the front door for your morning newspaper and find this gift from your brother sitting on the porch.

If only there had been a hidden camera so I could have seen Hubby’s reaction.

Reminds me of this past week’s episode of Modern Family and the Dog Butler. Too funny!

Oh and there was another episode of Modern family that featured this guy. Run Fizbo, run!

 

Guitar Chicks Rock

One of the most memorable musical performances last year occurred at the VH1 Divas Concert when Kelly Clarkson teamed up with the incomparable Melissa Etheridge on a song written by Etheridge. It was one of those moments you just don't forget.

Melissa Etheridge |MTV Music

What's In A Name?

After my last rant blog post, I thought I should lighten up a bit.
Speaking of karma (as I did yesterday), reminded me of this post about the bank with the annoying barricade and the new video store that went in next door to it.
That would the Family Video Store that has an adult video section. You know, for your family member who enjoy their porn.
Well, a new business going in that strip mall caught my attention the other day. Here's their sign.

Evidently it's some sort of learning center. I guess spelling is optional.