Picnicking

I'm always telling people to skip the picnic at Woodward Park, at 21st and Peoria. It is, after all and in my estimation, the No. 1 suggested thing to do in this city. I'm not big on doing anything that's often suggested, mostly because I wish I could be a rebel or something neat like that.

In this case, though, I made an exception.

Hubby's birthday hit us over the weekend, and we celebrated with two picnics - one luring and then shooing away and luring again the geese at the Tulsa Zoo and one chasing squirrels and yuppie dogs with Weber's fries and root beer at Woodward Park.

Well, we would have chased them with root beer. Problem was, we didn't think to bring a bottle opener. An age old problem, a new generation.

There are great views to be had at Woodward Park, even when you're knocked flat on your back by Weber's trademark deliciosity:

See? Purdy.

Deliciosity is a word, I swear. Look it up.

And the view to the right:

And away he goes. Cute little baby heinie as far as the eye can see.

He's always doing this: Running away from us, his safe haven, in search of adventure and, namely, doggies.

Good thing the birthday boy was handy to round up our young. I was way too full from stacking the Weber's 21st Century Low-Fat Burger on top of most of a large order of fries to move.

Ah, the men in my life. Always handsome, usually lost in thought, rarely content to just sit around and while away the day.

I love my boys.

Hold on. I'm about to receive a gift.

My very own broken branch from Woodward Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma! Just what I never knew I'd always wanted. Thanks, kiddo.

Hope everyone had as glorious a weekend as we did. Happy Monday.

Eat Local Event to Connect Growers, Consumers

Tulsa’s service industry is about to become even more attractive to coastal dwellers pouring in, thanks to the efforts of Sustainable Tulsa and its Eat Local: Bite of Tulsa event.

This third-annual showcase, the community-oriented incarnation of Sustainable Tulsa’s swanky local foods dinner, is meant to bring the farm closer to the Tulsa table via food purveyors that have hopped on the eat-local bandwagon.

“We want to demystify eating locally,” said Corey Wren Williams, executive director of Sustainable Tulsa.

The event, slated for the evening of July 9 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., will be at Greenwood Cultural Center, 322 N. Greenwood Ave.

Read the rest of this story on the Food page in this week's edition of Tulsa Business Journal.

Stalking

Part of why I love holidays is because I get some time to catch up on my blog reading. I subscribe to so many blogs, but there's just so little time, so I get pretty behind.

I figured that while I do my reading, I might as well pass along the little jewels and treasures I find during my roaming of the local blogosphere.

Free Roastburger from Arby's today! Your part is just to order the fries. While you're at it, check out a few ways to save some skill at QuikTrip. No way to celebrate Independence Day like celebrating our right to free stuff. Thanks to Sarah Roe, the 918 Coupon Queen, for all she does to bring us bargain hunters our daily coupon fix. And, don't forget to remember our bargain hunting soldiers' families this Fourth of July.

Have you all had a chance to check out the new(ish) blog, 77 Counties? @okbeatnik has been putting some wear on his tires with his mission to document his travels to every county in the state of Oklahoma. The photos are absolutely gorgeous (see above), and I enjoy the writing a lot, too. Do check it out, and be sure to follow @okbeatnik and @77counties on Twitter.

Been salivating over the living options available in downtown Tulsa these days? Here's a chance for you to completely empty your salivary glands, thanks to Carrisa over at And So She Blogs. Thanks again to Tulsa Foundation for Architecture for putting on such a fantasy-inducing event.

Give thanks this Fourth of July with (and for) Michael Bates at Batesline.com.

Joe Kelley, the uber-acclaimed-yet-still-totally-nice-guy host of KRMG Morning News, takes us into the bowels of the North Carolina sewer system (pun totally intended). Why? So we could catch a glimpse of this. What the h-e-double hockey sticks IS that?! If anyone knows, please contact some scientists. Don't forget to subscribe to Joe's blog - it's informative and random and just plain good reading. He even lets me be part of it every week, which is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

Support your independent coffee shop. Head to DoubleShot Coffee Company, 18th and Boston, today until 3 p.m. for the best cup of java in town. It's the best in my opinion, anyway, and definitely Brian's, the mouthy DoubleShot owner.

Remember that one time when downtown Tulsa was turned into a movie set? Brigid over at Grey Eye Designs didn't just see the action, she was part of it. Check out that get-up. And, the hair. Her gorgeous, amazing hair. Brigid is one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen in person, and I just know she'll light up the silver screen and catch the attention of some star hunter somewhere and hightail it outta this town and be forced to set up housekeeping in L.A. Good thing she's a nice girl and will talk us T-towners up on the Tonight Show and whatnot.

Oops. That's all the blog reading I have time for today, folks. To be continued, I hope - I just hate to get too far behind on stalking my blogger friends.

Photo from @okbeatnik's new blog project, 77 Counties.

Things to Do in Tulsa This Weekend, 4th of July Edition

Looking for the 2010 list of 4th of July events here on TDT? Get it here.

If you thought last weekend was chock-full of things to do here in T-Town, just you wait. It's Fourth of July weekend, and everyone from here to miles and miles west of the Arkansas River will be out waving flags and setting little bits of paper and gunpowder on fire and eating their weight in grilled dogs and burgers.

Just in case you missed this morning's rundown on the KRMG Morning News with Joe Kelley, or in case you did catch it and yet have an insatiable appetite for goings-on, keep reading:

Get Your National Pride On

• Fourth on the Third. One of Tulsa's two symphonies - Signature Symphony - will delight onlookers at the southeast campus of Tulsa Community College at the VanTrease PACE on Friday night with a selection of patriotic tunes. It all starts at 7:30. Adults, bring $12; kids, $6. Seniors are $8 and students are $6.
• Rhythm on the River. The Fourth of July festivities get started a little early this year with live music on Friday night at the new 41st Street Plaza along Riverside Drive. Pull in at 6:30 for some live music from Ladd Smith. Price of admission is free; just remember to bring a blanket and some lawn chairs along.
• Fleet Feet Firecracker 5K. If you can say that five times fast, or if you just really enjoy sweating your patootie off in the Oklahoma heat and humidity, register for this family 5K/fun run event by Friday afternoon. The races start bright and early Saturday morning at 7:30 by the Fleet Feet store, in King's Pointe Village at 61st and Yale. Stay tuned after the run for food and prize drawings.
• Fourth of July Bike Parade. Feeling a little nostalgic this year? Head to New Haven United Methodist Church (between Yale and Harvard and 51st and 61st Streets) for a parade of decorated bikes, trikes, wagons and strollers. Feel free to bring your own wheeled thing and slide into the parade. Enjoy also some music, sno-cones, a Jupiter Jump and a water slide. This event is free, and it all gets started Saturday morning at 10 a.m.
• Tulsa Barn Dance. Get back to your Okie roots with a little square dancing Saturday night. Look for the outlandishly dressed crowd on Cherry Street at Evanston, and don't forget to bring $5 - twice that much if you bring a date along. My bet is you'd be able to catch a glimpse of the big River Parks fireworks show (more about that below) from this event, which lets loose at 7:30 p.m.

Fireworks Shows

• Red, White and BOOM. Hit US 169 North to Owasso to catch free seating at a spectacular event. It all goes down Thursday night at the Owasso High School football stadium. The gates will open at 7, and fireworks start at dark, about 9:45.
• ONEOK Freedom Fest. Show your support for this purportedly short-of-cash event by heading to one of the three viewing locations for a helluva 9:30 p.m. fireworks show on July 4: RiverWest Festival Park, 18th and Jackson. Live music starts at 6 p.m. with Eric and the Blasters and then on to Brian Lee Dunning and the Rock and Roll Trio at 8:30. Parking is paid at $5 per vehicle near the park and West Bank Arbor Park. Veteran's Park, 18th and Boulder. Live entertainment at 6 with Cindy Cain and Jennifer and Pete Marriot. Concessions will be available all day from 3-9:30, and kiddos get free inflatable toys.
• 19th and Riverside. Check out Susan Herndon at 6 and 106.9 KHITS at 7. Concessions will be around starting at noon and ending at about the time the sky will explode in a fit of fire and color and things that go boom.
• Los Cabos Fourth of July Firework Fiesta. If you're out south near the Los Cabos location in Broken Arrow, or if you find yourself a little further down the river than 19th Street (ahem, Jenks), head to Los Cabos Land for live music and fire shows on July 4. The Broken Arrow location will feature Sextion 8, and Jenks is gonna rock the river with Travis Kidd Band and f-16 fly-overs. There's nothing like stupid-fast planes flying overhead to make a person really feel like an American. Start heading toward either location starting at 3 on Saturday.
• Freedom Fest at Liberty Park. Find Liberty Park in east Sapulpa, at the west end of that little stretch of road we cool kids like to call Route 66. The park will be hoppin' bring and early starting at 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on July 4. The famous America Celebrates America fireworks show will start near the Sapulpa Golf Course (drive toward the lights of Wal-Mart on the west side of S-town) at 9:45.
• Keystone Lake. Who out there can get enough lake time at this time of year. Not I, said the Okie. Work in even more time on the water by heading to K-Lake for some fireworks this year on the 4th. The show will start at 9:30, and the best way to see it is by getting on the water near Derick Island in some type of sea-worthy watercraft. Land-bound fireworks hunters can park in the open area across from Freddie's Steakhouse and Steer Inn in Mannford.

Everything Else

• A Little Night Music. There's nothing like a little romantic comedy, especially if everyone in the production is singing at the top of their lungs. For such a creamy affair, head to the John Williams Theater at Tulsa's PAC at 8 p.m. on Thursday or Friday night and spend a little time with Light Opera Oklahoma. Tickets start at $25.
• Crayons! Improv. Ever been to the Agora Coffeehouse, in the Fontana Shopping Center at 51st and Memorial. Hip little place, it is. It's even hipper when it's full of local improv comedians. One of times will happen Friday night starting at 8 p.m. Bring $5 or risk being the butt of one of the players' spur-of-the-moment jokes.
• Films on the Lawn. What's more relaxing than kicking back with some dinner and a movie? Kicking back with some dinner and a movie under real, live stars, that's what. Get your fill Friday night on the north lawn at Philbrook Museum with the Academy-Award winning Forrest Gump. Gates open at 7:30, and the movie starts at about 9. Cost is $5 for members, $7 for not-yet-members. Bring a picnic dinner, a blanket and a few lawn chairs.
• Wine & Jazz. If you're still kicking after all of these patriotic doin's, head to RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks Sunday evening for plenty of wine, food and live entertainment. Bring $20 to the amphitheater, and be sure to be there by 6.

Shout Out to the 'Rents

Because I live to make you all feel better about yourselves as parents.

You're welcome.

Hot Wheels

The weather is warming, and so is the pavement. Why spend the summer days ahead stuck in traffic running the A/C full blast when the reliable two-piston engine--the bicycle--and Tulsa's 50-plus-mile trail system beckons throughout the city?

Maybe one vital piece of that whole hitting-the-trails equation is missing: The wheels. Problem is, new bikes cost a pretty penny, especially at the local specialty shops. In this town, it's difficult to get into a quality, new bike for less than $250--roughly, the cost of 50 gallons of gas at the peak of last year's summertime surge in oil prices.

This type of hit to the wallet isn't all bad. For that kind of money, a buyer gets top-notch machinery with which to hit the trails, saving money on bike repairs, auto wear and tear, gasoline, time and, potentially, health insurance.

Read the rest of this story in Consumer Watchdog in this week's Urban Tulsa Weekly.

D.I.Y. Nation

Remember how grandma washed her aluminum foil, laying it out to dry so she could use it to store the next evening's supper? And her box of string, buttons and other scraps, things she just couldn't--or wouldn't--throw away?

Maybe she refused to buy new things when hers busted, choosing instead to make do without. Or, she'd concoct some homespun repair job that made her avocado-green dishwasher look more like a science project gone horribly awry than a well-maintained, lovingly used home appliance.

We all made fun of grandma, and her thriftiness may have seemed extreme. But, you know, she just might have been onto something.

Read the rest of this story on the cover of this week's Urban Tulsa Weekly.