Sunny, Spring Saturday

Well it's been a while since I've posted. It's been busy! And looking back on the month of March I that I worked every weekend except the last one, which I spent lazing around, watching movies on TV and just generally vegging out! Work is great, but I am realizing that I may actually be on the road more than when I was gigging!

Here's my travel schedule for 2009:

March 3-8: Oklahoma City, OK
March 26-29: Dallas, TX
April 16-20: San Francisco, CA (this one is for pleasure only!)
May 16-21: Auckland, New Zealand
June 1-6: Amsterdam, Nederlands and possibly England
June 21-24: Washington, D.C.
July 22-26: Detroit, MI
October 13-25: Nashville, TN

Speaking of gigging, it has been just about a year since J and I sang in public. It was last Easter for a friend's church. We did some excerpts from Handel's Messiah. My favorite! NOT. We've not missed it at all. Oddly enough we got not one, but two requests to perform on concerts this week. They came via email and were for gigs back in CA. I also got an audition notice, but I am pretty sure that was a mass-email. The other two? Flattered that we've been "off the radar" for near a year and people are still thinking of us. But there's no way we'll be doing it.

I can hardly believe Easter Sunday is tomorrow. Today is the quintessential spring's day. Not a cloud in the sky. Sunny and warm, but not too warm. Gentle breezes ruffle the newly greened trees. The grass is just about needing to be mowed. Birds are chirping like crazy in the trees. J is working today (and had a double yesterday and a double tomorrow!) so I am home and feel like Spring cleaning. But first, I leashed up the puggies and went for a stroll in our neigboborhood. We bumped into a new neighbor, Brandon and his 8 year old pug, Pugsley. Brandon is from Santa Rosa, CA of all places! Puglsey is a rescue and looks a lot like Luigi in size and color. Luigi hasn't met many other pugs, so it was fun to see him figuring his elder out. Too cute.

So now? The windows are all open with the curtains tied up. I plan to get to business with the Spring cleaning. I hope I don't hurt myself! Speaking of which, my new want is this Hann Steamer. It's awesome and does a great job on hard floors, carpets and upholstery with just water! No chemicals or solutions needed! In our eternal quest to become more eco-friendly I thrilled with that. I have recently switched to eco-friendly, organic beauty products, including an aluminum-free deoderant called The Crystal and major switch from the Secret Clinical Strength I have been using since the wedding. So far so good. Add this to the Alba Organics and Burt's Bees we've been using (love the AA coconut body butter and lip balm...SO yummy) and Tom's of Maine Whole Care Toothpaste Gel we started using last month. I also love my Weleda Skin Food. It's incredible!

Next on the list? Natural/Organic haircare, which is a huge challenge with my unruly, naturally curly locks. Do they even make organic mousse and hairspray? And shampoo/conditioner, which I have tried a bunch and so far don't like any of them. After that, I'll tackle going green with my cosmetics. Baby steps, baby steps.

Long Weekend in Dallas

Whew! We just got home from 3 nights and 4 days in Dallas. Seems we doged the snow storm here in Tulsa. It was weird to come home to melting snow everywhere!

I had to attend a conference in Richardson, so J came along for the fun. Today, we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Dallas Museum of Art for the King Tut exhibit. It was amazing! I had to keep reminding myself that these were acutal relics and not replicas. The detail that still remains on 5,000 year old pieces is mind boggling. We made it through the exhibit in about 90 minutes and decided to check out the other galleries, where we came across this amazing painting:



It's hard to see it this small, but it is called Abundance of Nature and was painted in 1897 by Belgin artist .Léon Frédéric. This painting pictures an earth mother bursting with life and fertility, surrounded by children, flowers, and fruits. It's oil on canvas and very detailed close-up. I have already Googled to see if I could find a giclee or print and no dice. It's a gorgeous piece! If you're ever in Dallas I recommend stopping by the Museum of Art to see it.

After the visiting the museum, we ended up in the West End district for lunch. We happened by this awesome candy shop called Kokopelli Chocolate. We got the best fleur de sel caramel tuffles, a huge, gourmet peanut butter cup and almond toffee. YUMMY! Not exactly on my diet, but oh so good. Back on the wagon tomorrow...

Off to Dallas!

J and I are loading up the truck and driving down to Texas for the weekend. Even though it's a work-related trip we're making into a little getaway too. J loves Egyptology and the King Tut exhibit is in Dallas. So, we're heading down for the two day convention I'm attending for work and then we're going to the museum on Sunday before heading home to Tulsa. I am excited, I've never been to Dallas except for the airport. There are several restaurants we want to check our while we're there, including brunch at La Duni Latin Cafe where I'll meet up with a long time knottie/nestie whom I have corresponded with online for over two years. She and her hubby were married in Hawaii but live in Dallas. I am super excited...I always love meeting up with my online friends in real life. You can meet her too! At least online, check out her tasty blog: Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats.

This guy rocks!

Adam Lambert is a contestant on American Idol this season. I have never really been that into AI, but this season I am loving what he's bring to the mix. He's got my vote!

Is it June?

Now, when I last blogged, I mentioned that we had some snow. Last week we were running our heater. Today? It's almost air conditioner time. It's nearly 90 degrees. The weather here is truly crazy. It never ceases to amaze me.

I wore a summer dress today with open-toed wedge mules. On the drive home from work, kids played in the nearby park dressed in shorts and tank tops. And I just heard the chimes of the neighborhood ice cream truck down the street. It feels like summer.

It doesn't look like summer though. Aside from the clear blue and sun shiny skies it looks like winter. The trees are bare and the grass is dead and brown. There are patches of green trying to make their way through and some of the pear trees are blooming with white. I am not complaining though. It feels great to have all of the windows open in the house, slight breezes floating through and the warmth of the sun upon my skin. Next week? Who knows? It could be snowing again.

What a random week!

Monday I stayed home from work to catch up on things after being gone all week. Conferences are so jam packed with networking and interest sessions it can be exhausting. We worked 10-12/hours each day, so come Monday, I just wanted to rest.

The rest of this week has flown by...first all of all, my body has not yet adjusted to the time change and I am consistently waking up an hour after my alarm goes off. I must be turning it off in my sleep! My bio-rhythms are totally wacked! Thankfully, we have flex time at work, so instead of getting in a 7:30 a.m. I have been getting in at 8:30 a.m. all this week. I am determined to catch up to myself this weekend.

Oh yeah, it totally snowed yesterday! All day! But it melted once it hit the ground. Still, it was neat to watch it coming down in wispy flakes. Spring is trying to make itself known but old man winter is hanging on for dear life! The poor flowering trees and bulbs must be confused.

Today and tomorrow we have all day Board meetings at work. And then tomorrow night, after work, we have a work-related banquet. It's theme is "Night at the Oscars" and after our meetings all day we have to get dressed up a bit. I am just going to bring my clothes to the office so I can change clothes there and not have to drive home in between the meeting and dinner. I am looking at a 14 hour day when it's all said and done. I might just take Monday off so I can get two days off in a row! The problem is...it seems I end up working double when I have a four day week to make up for the lost time, so we shall see. J is off on Monday which always sweetens the deal. Plus, I am not a fan of 50 hour work weeks if I can avoid it.

OKC: A Working Staycation

It's been over a week since I've posted anything to the blog. Last Tuesday I headed down to OKC with colleagues for a 5 day conference. It's only a 1.5 hour drive from Tulsa. Our organization was exhibiting a booth and I was there to network with the conference attendees on behalf of our company. I was happy to go....one...to get out of the office and two...because I knew I'd get to see friends and colleagues from CA and three...I knew that J would join me later in the week for some R&R.

It was a good time, even though my feet were aching at the end of each 12 hour day in the convention center. We had some lovely meals in Bricktown including Nonna's and Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse. Both had good food, a nice atmosphere and fine service. We arrived at Nonna's with no reservations and still managed to get our own private dining room for 6. It felt quite special and allowed us to sit and visit for 4 hours while dining. The weather was divine! 20-25 degrees above normal for this time of year! It allowed us to walk everywhere and enjoy the pending arrival of Spring.

On Saturday, we checked out of the Sheraton and into the luxe Skirvin Hotel. Raising the bar of luxury even higher, we jumped into the fluffy, white terry robes and ordered room service for dinner. We dined in bed and enjoyed the privacy of our corner room. We slept in and managed to miss the earthquake that hit town at 8:06 a.m. Earthquakes?!? I had no idea they hit Oklahoma. I thought we only had to worry about thunder, lightening, floods and tornadoes. We enjoyed their breakfast buffet with two friends, dropped them off at the airport and headed back to Tulsa. To finish off the weekend we dined at Mahogany Prime Steakhouse where we had the trio dinner for two: filet mignon, lobster tail, king crab legs with burgundy mushrooms and fresh asparagus. The mixed berries with almond-walnut tuille and vanilla creme was awesome! We also found a new wine with which we have fallen in love: Rutherford Hill Merlot. Yummy! Tomorrow? Back on the wagon of grapefruit and egg whites! What a wonderful week of good food and good friends and most of all some well-deserved downtime with my honey.