A Valentine's Day Joke

So, hey. Why did the banana go out with the prune?

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Skate Date Winners. Yes, Winners with an -S.

You know how I was running that contest earlier today for two passes to Skate Date, the uber-hip, Valentine's Day-inspired event happening at BOK Center all day tomorrow?

Yeah, well, about that.

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Merritt's Winners!

Two people's lives are about to get sweeter.

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For a Valentine Time, Meet Me at Merritt's Bakery

Finally, I caved. After drooling over the Twitter feed of Merritt's Bakery all week long, I finally gave in and took my son to the Midtown location of Merritt's Bakery, at 15th and Harvard. There's only so many photos of sugary, frosted goodness a mortal girl can take, especially this close to Valentine's Day.

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What to Do in Tulsa This Weekend, Valentine's Day Edition

A heard every Friday morning on the KRMG Morning News with Joe Kelley, here's what to do in Tulsa this weekend. If you'd like to view this weekend's events through Valentine's Day-colored glasses only, click here for the complete list of ways to get lovey-dovey in Tulsa this weekend. And don't forget to make reservations for dinner.

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Tulsa Valentine's Day Round-Up

Here it is, folks - the list of love you've been longing for. Here's what to do in Tulsa for Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day weekend and beyond.

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Where to Eat in Tulsa for Valentine's Day 2010

Brian and Shae over at Tulsa Food Blog and we here at Tasha Does Tulsa have collaborated to bring you a list of the best of the best Tulsa restaurants to call for a reservation for Valentine's Day weekend, complete with reviews, recommendations on what to order and, of course, the contact information you need to make your reservations.

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Tasha Does Tulsa, Valentine's Day Style

I'm sitting here with a glass of sweet wine, uploading my photos from the evening of my fifth Valentine's Day as a married chick and my first as a mom.

It was a great time. I roamed T-Town not just glad to get out among the living, but also proud to know I had a diaper in the secret compartment of my purse, along with a toy starfish and a binkie. Just in case.

Romantic, eh?

Our first stop of the evening was the cozy little dining room at Biga, a restaurant at 4329 S. Peoria by one of the best chefs in town. We had lobster ravioli and these amazing, perfectly cooked scallops; then, some cannolis. After, a short nap, because that's the only way to recover from a dinner so ever-loving GOOD.

"Hey, honey, wave to the Tasha Does Tulsa readers!" Heh.

So, Skate Date. I was really looking forward to busting it on the ice, but alas:

Ack! The chaos! My agoraphobia! The port I had with those cannolis! It was pure craziness, I tell you.

Oh! Horses. A carriage. No restaurants or clubs within view of the main entrance of the BOK Center. Idyllic!

But what a main entrance it is. Wow.

There's nothing like good coffee to assuage one's sadness at not having the opportunity to embarass oneself by wiping out in front of hundreds of strangers.

Oh, cute little coffeehouse Valentine's cookies, how I loved you. Blue ones, too, even though I didn't quite get the color choice. And that's okay.

I love The Coffee House on Cherry Street.

Apparently, so does everyone else in town. That place was packed tonight.

We ended the evening with our standard rummage through the bargain bins at Borders before heading home for one last game of "chase" with our little man.

I love how that game always ends in the same way.

Valentine's Day 2009: Success! Even if we didn't stay out all night or bring the house down or whatever it is the kids are saying these days.

Have a good rest of the weekend, everyone!

Just For You

Happy Valentine's Day, Tasha Does Tulsa readers!


This picture of these roses is to let you all know that I think about you on long drives. Also, at the specialty cheeses counter. Because that's where I was in the Whole Foods today when I realized I hadn't gotten my mom and Meme Valentine's Day presents. So, while they'll be getting the actual roses for which I had to fight tooth and nail against the Midtown Whole Foodies getting better service because they were buying these suckers by the gross, you all get a nice, pretty picture of said roses.

And isn't that just as good? Because not only can you do whatever you want with it, but a photo never dies.


See?

Hope everyone has a great night! Don't do anything I wouldn't do. Which means DON'T SPEED. But you can definitely wear a matching Hawaiian print with your husband and little sister to your dad's wedding on the family land during June when it's 102 degrees and the humidity is at 98 percent, forces of nature against which even hot-rolled helmet hair lacquered in Aqua Net is powerless. Obviously.

Day After Valentine's Day

If you haven't had enough of the day of love by Sunday, here's a way to get a second dose: 

Tickets to the event, which starts at 7:30 p.m. at Harwelden at 2210 S. Main St., are $50 per person or $95 per couple. Call LOOK at (918) 583-4267 to get set up.

If you know of other fun Valentine's Day weekend events (especially low-cost or free) not posted here yesterday or today, feel free to leave the information in the comments.  

Valentine's Day Round-Up

Want to do something fun and hip with your sweetie on Valentine's Day? Dinner and a movie just not going to cut it? You're my kind of people.

In my opinion, the whole dinner-and-a-movie date is pretty much the worst ever. I mean, think about it. You're stabbing and masticating and otherwise pre-digesting in front of someone you're supposed to try to impress at some corporate food-serving establishment, and then you go sit in a dark box for two hours, saying not one word to each other while you try to guess if it's the right time to start making out.

Now? No? Okay. How about now?

No, thanks. Me and mine prefer Valentine's Day plans a little more, well, off the beaten path. We like to look for fun and romantic things to actually do together.

Everything going on in the name of love in T-Town this weekend that's listed below beats the pants off of the formulaic V-Day date. You won't even need a crowbar to free your shoes from the gelatinous ooze on the floor of some 3,798-screen movie complex. And indigestion from those "house special" empanadas, which you're pretty sure you saw in the freezer section next to the Totino's last week at the Wal Marts? Fuhgetaboutit.

If you like food and wine, head to Stone Bluff Cellars in the beautiful hills near Haskell for their Valentine Weekend Lunch Sweetheart Special. The lunch, which costs $25 for two, includes a half Stone Bluff club sandwich, a cup of Chef Mikael's savory soup and a decadent dessert. The special runs 11 a.m.-3 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday and 1-3 p.m. Sunday. If you want to make it a party of four couples or more, call (918) 482-5655 to make reservations.

Love to cook, but don't want to spend the evening at your place? Make reservations for the Valentine's Day weekend cooking class with Chef Sean at Cowboy Sharkies, just north of 61st and Memorial. The setting should be intimate enough, since seating at the class is limited to 20. The class, which runs $30 per person, begins at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday night. Call (918) 280-9000 to get set up.

Always wanted to be part of one of those idyllic love scenes on a big, frozen pond, skating along in the arms of your sweetheart as the icy wind gives you an earache? Pine no more. Head to Skate Date at BOK Center. The event, which marks the first time Tulsans will skate on the arena's 17,000-square-foot frozen floor, will be held 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday inside the BOK Center. Concession stands will be open, and long-stem roses and photos will be available in the lobby. Skaters pay $9 (kids and those with their own skates pay $5). After everyone's bum is thoroughly bruised, head outside for a 15-minute horse-and-carriage ride through the streets of downtown Tulsa. Rides are available 5-10 p.m. and cost $25 for a group of four, or $20 for a couple.

Have a wild kind of love? Good for you. Now call 669-6634 for your reservation to Tulsa Zoo's "Wild at Heart" Valentine's Day event. Woo her (or him!) with a decadent evening with fine cuisine and cocktails provided by Taste of the Wild Catering, and take a spin on the dance floor. After, enjoy a twilight train ride. If you're feeling really wild, look for the special presentations by zookeepers on the finer points of love and lust in the animal kingdom. The seduction - yours, not the animals' (I hope) - begins at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night. There is limited space, so call ASAP.

Nothing says love like profuse sweating and rapid heart palpitations - at least, for all you lovey-dovey Tulsa runners out there. Start the day by heading down to Veteran's Park at 21st and Boulder for the 2009 Sweetheart 5K and 10K Runs. There's still time to register, so visit the Fleet Feet Sports Web site to learn more and sign up.

Calling all you lovers who like to play dress-up! Head to the Valentine's Masquerade Ball at The Collective. Get in the doors for $5 (just $3 with a mask or costume - mask-making supplies will be available at the party, so no worries if you couldn't dig one up beforehand) and see DJ Baby Ruthless (Dallas, TX) and local favorites Skeeter, Nutter, Frequency and Emmanuel Rivers. The party starts at 8 p.m. and benefits the American Heart Association.

UPDATE, Feb. 13//Just found another wine event! This one, at Whispering Vines Vineyards and Winery in west Tulsa, involves a murder mystery, with a wine tasting before. The show, which costs about $60 per person and includes dinner, starts at seven. Call (918) 447-0808 to beg for reservations, since my bet is there are only a few seats left.

And Tasha said: Let the lovin' begin.

A Writer's Paradise

I won't claim that I'm good at writing, but it's pretty much my favorite thing to do. This is the third year I've managed to pay the bills by throwing words together, so I think it might be safe to say that I'm a writer now.

Ew. I just read aloud what's after that last comma, and it still gives me that feeling that I've cussed in church. Reckon I'll try again next year.

At any rate, I love to put a pen to paper. But, like my other love in life (food), there are pens and paper (canned ravioli by Chef Boyardee), and there are pens and paper (your Italian grandmother's homemade spinach ravioli in bechamel sauce). Just as one who has never known the labor of love that is a stock from scratch and the vast difference between the taste and feel of the homemade stuff and Swanson's, a writer hasn't really written until he has scrawled a note on Crane's paper with a fountain pen boasting an 18-karat gold nib.

Let me tell you: It's like buttah.

Pengaro's, on the west end of Utica Square behind the new location of KoKoa Chocolatier, is my supplier of all fine writing stuff, above pictured pen included. For my birthday the year I landed my first job as a newspaper reporter, Aaron bought me this pen - the Waterman Charleston, a retro fountain pen inspired by art deco design. I'd had a few of those jobs for which it's a lot easier to be grateful for the experience than to love going to work everyday, so the pen was to commemorate my arrival in my a career field I could be excited about.

I loved it because I'd always wanted a real fountain pen. Plus, it looks like a building in downtown Tulsa. What's not to love about that?

I've returned to Pengaro's many times since I became a fountain pen owner. Today I stopped by to grab a Valentine's Day card for my husband, the man who opened up for me the world of Waterman pens and Noodler's Ink (which I think is still stocked by Gadget Company, once in Utica Square near Pengaro's and now at 18th and Boston).

Pengaro's has quite a collection of quality greeting cards. This is just the Valentine's Day stock:

Despite that I was wrestling with a tired and hungry baby-child, I managed to find the perfect one (by Wild Indigo Design):

The inside says, "Thanks for always holding on!"

As with food shopping, buying from local vendors has its benefits. While you might not have your choice of 250 cards that play love songs by your favorite hair band, you get quality, attention to detail and service with a personal touch from a card vendor like Pengaro's.

Plus, Pengaro's sells really beautiful, heirloom pens. Did I mention that already? Try to find that at the Wal-Marts.