Random...

So I've had a little gap in posting. Every time I sat down to do it I just blanked out on what to post about. So this will probably consist of random babble that will make the reader stop reading... about now.

I do want to promote a couple of Pioneer Woman's recipes that we had this month & really liked! The cookies especially! :)

Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pasta ai Quattro Formaggi

Also, I recently purchased this beauty: I literally sat down & actually read a lot of it. The dessert section is AMAZING. Almost an inch of pages for just cakes!

Some of the recipes are very old, and the author gives the background on a lot of them which I enjoyed. I'm planning to make the Lemon Meringue Pie for Easter, so we'll see if I can pull it off.

Eric has been traveling, and what does that mean? We have a tornado warning in Tulsa last week. The severe weather hits when he is gone about 85% of the time. Fun for me & Capone :) We almost got in the closet under the stairs, but like a good Oklahoman I just went outside and looked up and around and decided we were in the clear. And we just got a good rain, so I continued on with making dinner :)

We have spent the last 3 weekends almost working in our yard. Trying to get the grass in shape (which by the way I mowed the lawn for the first time EVER on Sunday, it wasn't so bad!) and working on the mucho flowerbeds we have.

We aren't quite done so I will post pics when they are finished. Our backyard is almost all shade (some sun here & there), and luckily the past owners had landscaped most of it with pretty expensive stuff. But its ALL green. Lovely enough, but sorry I need some flowers and color! So off we went to Southwood Nursery to get some flowering, mostly shade loving perennials (they will come back every year). I also got Impatiens to scatter throughout the beds.

I got these perennials (pictures courtesy of Internet, not our yard):

Bleeding HeartColumbines (I got purple, fuschia, and yellow)
Clematis (Purple & we have 2 blooms already!)Hydrangea (LOVE these, I so hope it will do well)

We have a bed on the front of the house that wraps around the corner of the house and it was pretty lame to say the least. It also gets full sun. We built the bed up about 3 inches and added a consistant brick edged border onto it. The side part consisted of nasty Nandina bushes, can't stand these things! So we replaced them with pink & yellow Knockout Roses. The front part was basically empty except for mulch, so a blank slate=no weed pulling. We put boxwoods there and I will add begonias & periwinkles this weekend.

Anyway, landscape pics to come and here are a couple of fun pictures of Capone

Blessings

Loving this song right now...

Blessings by Laura Story

Spring has sprung!

March Madness!

This year Tulsans got lucky in having the opportunity to attend rounds 2 & 3 of games for the NCAA tournament. The BOK Center downtown was chosen as a host this year, exciting! Even though no Oklahoma teams participated, Eric's alma mater, Arizona, was chosen & got to play in Tulsa! We got lucky at the last minute that he didn't have to travel, and also got tickets to round 2 on Friday from my dad. University of Arizona vs. Memphis! We were also able to attend a pre-game brunch at the Doubletree Hotel for AZ fans, the band & cheerleaders put on a little pep rally :)

It was a super close game with a lot more fans from Memphis than from AZ, but that's ok! Arizona pulled off the win, barely!

For round 3, they played Sunday evening against Texas. Again, a CRAZY game...back & forth the whole time within just a few points. At the end they were down by one point, and then scored & won by ONE! It was the longest last 12 seconds of a game ever!

We (especially Eric) were so excited we were able to go, not many chances his school will be playing in OK!

Now they are in the Sweet 16 & play Duke on Thursday night. Go Wildcats, Bear Down!

Us with Wilbur!

Final score for round 2 :)

Post-game crowd headed to the big tent

Round 3!

Round 3 final score....whew!

Quick California trip....

This post is insanely late :( Eric has been gone so much that when he's just home for a few days I don't want to be glued to the computer, so I haven't been updating much....he has been in California quite a bit for work lately, and I went out for a few days in February. Snow was still on the ground in Tulsa and I was looking forward to going west.

I flew into Burbank and we met Eric's friends, Darryl & Andrea, who live there, for lunch. They brought baby Madeline who I had not seen in person yet, she was like a little cartoon, so cute! (I didn't get any pics unfortunately)

It was really nice weather that day so we at on a patio, it was lovely! We then went on to Oxnard, CA where Eric stays. The drive there was really pretty, just not the traffic! Eric had to finish writing a paper for his class, so I took a nap :) We then got a phone call that our good friends Adam & Vickie had just lost their baby boy, who was scheduled to be born the next day on Valentine's. So that definitely changed the mood for the day. Please keep them in your prayers!

That night some people from work saw Ricky Schroder at the Outback there in town. What?!

Of course I wanted to go there right away to get a pic because I'm super star-struck :) Unfortunately we went to dinner too late and found out he had left.

So we decided to go eat in Ventura, CA which has a neat downtown. No celebrities there though, apparently they like the Outback!

On Monday (Valentine's Day) Eric had to work that morning so I slept in. Lovely!

He got back at lunch & we had lunch at Johnny Rockets (they make a delicious chocolate malt!) at the local outlet mall, which happened to be the biggest outlet mall in CA. Hello! We hit a few stores only to determine we needed a lot more time there.

We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the fancy dinner I reserved in Beverly Hills! Trying to stay in an affordable price range there is next to impossible, so I decided on Villa Blanca, which is featured on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, ha! One of the ladies (Lisa Vanderpump) on the show owns it and its actually priced really well. Its a lovely establishment, all white with candles and flowers and distressed decor. I had mushroom risotto & Eric had some seafood mix of several things. It was all delish!! But alas, no celebrity sightings :(

Next we went to a Swiss Chocolate shop across the street and got some champagne truffles that were super good. Then we walked a couple blocks to Spago, Wolfgang Puck's first restaurant, for dessert. Yummo! We had flourless chocolate cake that was somehow like 15 teeny tiny layers.
The next day was very dreary & cold. So we drove the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) to Malibu for lunch. Malibu was not what I expected, pretty run down actually...at least along the road. I guess all the fancy houses are hidden away! We found a little outdoor shopping area that had some high end stores and also was the home of Nobu, which is a fave of Jennifer Aniston :) Of course, they were closed for lunch. So we ended up at a Greek place which was very good, Taverna Tony's. Still no celebrities! We also stopped at a deli/bakery called The Malibu Kitchen. What a fantastic place. I wish I owned it. And we saw the biggest real cupcake I have ever seen.

Next we drove into LA to go to The Getty Center. I had always seen it up on the hill but didn't really know what it was. Its a museum that had a lot of cool stuff and really pretty gardens in the back. All pretty modern. They had some original Van Gogh's, Monet's and Renoir's that I was excited to see.

We then went back to Beverly Hills to go to Sprinkles Cupcakes and walk Rodeo, just because its fun. Even though you feel totally inadequate while doing so! I was feeling very Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman that day.

That night we had dinner at a restaurant we like that's in San Francisco, The Stinking Rose. They bring out this roasted garlic to spread on bread and it is so yummy!

Eric had to work late that night and then we had to get up at 4 am to make it to LA for my flight. Boo! We missed all the crazy traffic though, which was the only plus.

Overall, it was a great trip and very relaxing. We got lucky in that Eric had so much free time while I was there. Definitely a Valentine's Day to remember :)