Against the Wind, Still Running Against the Wind

I am writing this blog on my laptop seated on my front porch :) It is 81 degrees here in the greater Tulsa area today. Just thought I would share that little bit of info to my friends and family back home.

One of the many things I have learned in my 3 months here (I can't believe it has been three months already) is that every day is guaranteed to bring some sort of breeze. As I have told Dustin on several occasions "It is always windy here", usually stated when my SUV is getting blown sideways on the highway. His response is that sometimes it can be "still" in the summer then admitted that we probably have different ideas of what windy actually means. Today the wind is blowing WNW at 18mph. That is windy to me and breezy to Dustin. Spring is the "breezy" season.

Today I headed out on an 8 mile run. I am training for the Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon (my first half marathon) and am at the half way point in my training. Thanks to the mild winter we've had since I've been here, the training really hasn't hit any weather bumps by means of precipitation. What I have had to face, literally, are headwinds!

Now, I'm used to running hills back home in PA. I just put myself in low gear and truck up the endless ups and downs. I don't like them but they are an inevitable part of running in the NE. I come to Oklahoma and I'm thinking "This is great! This state is flatter than a pancake. It'll be like running in Kansas."

No, no it's not.

I live in Sand Springs, OK. Apparently, I live on the ONLY hill in Oklahoma. Hills like we have back home. Hills I hated to run up when I was in PA. So, I think I'm going to outwit topography and head towards the flats of the River Park system.

Not so fast.

I didn't take into consideration that Tulsa is wide open. Our tallest trees are maybe 40 feet tall and they don't grow in bunches. There's nothing to break up the wind. So, that nice little WNW 18 mph feels alot different when it is blowing straight in your face by mile 5 of a 8 miler and continues til you are at the base of the hill at 7 miles.

Moral of the story is that like any good runner in any region, it's just one of those weather related things that you learn to work around. Typically it is much smarter to do the first half of the run facing the wind and then use the wind to blow you back. Today, I was not that smart.

A nice little side note to this whole spring like February. I came home from a run and Dustin very excitedly says "I have something to show you. We have YELLOW LILLIES growing in the backyard!" and showed me these:



I am so super excited that we have DAFFODILS growing already :)

$3 Burgers at McNellie's

Another high five to my favorite Tulsa eatery, McNellie's. Wednesday night is $3 burger night (5pm-8pm)!

Dustin and I headed over at about 5:30 and as soon as we entered the Greenwood District the parking situation let us know right away that McNellie's was going to be incredibly crowded.

The place was packed! The wait was about 45 minutes for a seat downstairs and there was not a seat to be found at the bar. However, the upstairs is the smoking area and is first come first serve seating so we headed up there. Within minutes we had seats at the bar and were ecstatic to see our favorite bartender working :) In all honesty, the smoking level wasn't even that bad. You could smell the smoke but I didn't come home with my clothes and hair stinking.

The burgers they serve for $3 burgers are the same exact burgers they usually sell and they are big burgers. Our burgers were perfectly done with sweet potato fries on the side and enhanced by a Moose Drool Brown Ale and a Left Hand Milk Stout. Awesome mid-week, get out of the house dinner :)

McNellie's is within blocks of the new ballpark. I am hoping they keep up with the $3 burgers because Wednesday night home games are gonna rock!

Nothing says Romance like Pitchers and Catchers reporting

Valentine's Day 2009

This Valentine's Day was extra special. OK, yes, it was me & Dustin's first Valentine's Day together and that's very sweet and mushy. But, really it was EXTRA special because pitchers & catchers reported to spring training.

It was the official start to MY Philadelphia Phillies defense of their World Series Champtionship. To mark the occassion we had a Phillies flag raising at our house.





The theme of the day continued when Dustin presented me with an envelope that contained a partial season ticket plan to the Tulsa Drillers, AA Affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. We can pick and choose any 10 games this season. The season starts on April 16th and I can not wait!

Our evening was spent at a nice little bistro in the Brookside neighborhood called Sonoma (www.sonomatulsa.com).

We really liked it! Despite the fact that it was Valentine's Day, it didn't feel too crowded. The wine list is HUGE and they have a really impressive beer list! We ended up trying a wine off the "Unique and Interesting Red" list called Hey Mambo Sultry Red from Washington State and it was really nice. They have a great appetizer menu and we went with the cheese platter, another good pick for the night. They have a really diverse menu with sandwiches, pizzas, and entrees. Dustin's Grilled Skirt Steak with Gorgonzola was phenomenal and my Pesto Crusted Tilapia was super yummy too. The ONLY disappointment we had was dessert :( The special was a chocolate poundcake with chocolate sauce on it and it was so not what we were expecting. It was kind of small for a dessert special on Valentine's Day and I the poundcake tasted just like the brownies I make at home. But, all in all, we would totall recommend Sonoma!

After Sonoma we headed down the block to The Brook, a Brookside favorite of ours. It was like a ghost town in there which was good for us because the service which is always really great there was even better. I'll have to post a full review of there when we eat there again.

So, that was our day. Hope y'all had a wonderful day too!

Spring Storm Preview

Yesterday I got my first taste of what is in store for my first spring here in Oklahoma. It was a strange combination of being bad nervous and a weird sense of anticipation.

We had a cold front that literally blew through the state starting at 3pm yesterday.

In the end it spun off tornadoes that affected 17 counties in Oklahoma. One tornado took the lives of at least 8 people in the town of Lone Grove, OK, a town in southcentral Oklahoma on the Texas border (or about 3 hours southwest of where I live).

The worst thing we got here in Sand Springs was a downpour that lasted about 15 mintues, high winds, some lightening, and a couple claps of thunder. The closest we got to a tornado in Sand Springs was the one that hit Pawnee, OK which is about 50 minutes to the NW of us. We were very blessed.

Keep your prayers for those affected and for what lies ahead for us come springtime.

Weekend Update: Celebrating 3 months of marriage by stuffing our faces

The weather here in the greater Tulsa area has been nothing short of amazing since last Thursday. The highs have been in the upper 60s to mid 70s, sunny for the most part, and a bit breezy. I can not believe it is February.

Thursday nights at McNellie's

Dustin has started taking a class at Tulsa Community College on Thursday nights. So after class, he and I meet at our favorite Irish bar, McNellie's Public House (http://www.mcnellies.com).
Jessica is the Thursday night bartender downstairs and is cool for so many reasons. She is from Maryland which doesn't make her a Yankee because she is from south of the Mason-Dixon line but that's close enough for me to like her. Jessica knows beer and she loves to tell you about the latest things on tap and can pick the perfect beer for your liking. She joked last week that all her "beer nerds" come in on Thursdays. This week I tried the Left Hand Brewing Company Smokejumper Porter (their Milk Stout is a big favorite of mine) and Young's Double Chocolate Stout. I seriously couldn't tell you which I liked better but, I think Young's edged out because of the chocolate.
McNellie's has a great atmosphere, great food, and an exceptional staff. It is pretty much favorite place in Tulsa and as a bonus, will be right down the street from the new ballpark! Yahtzee!


Mexican food, Biking riding, Hideaway Pizza, and "mild" habanero sauce on a Saturday

Saturday was a unique day to say the least. It was a hodgpodge of all things that I have come to love about Tulsa.

I've mentioned that we are trying to avoid chain restaurants. There are just so many great local ones that it really would be a sin not to take advantage of that. So, for lunch we decided to try what is alledgely the BEST, most authentic mexican restaurant in Tulsa, El Rio Verde.
El Rio Verde is located off the beaten path, in a working class neighborhood in Tulsa (38 N Trenton Ave, Tulsa). Inside the restaurant looks like an old diner sort of place and there was a total mix of every different kind of people. Their wet burrito is really what they are known for so, that's what we tried. It was huge! Dustin & I had chips & salsa, 2 burritos, 2 cokes, one beer, and some sort of Mexican candy for $20. Great deal, awesome food, down to earth atmosphere. I was so stuffed when we left there! We are going back for breakfast one of these days.



From El Rio Verde, Dustin and I went for a bike ride along the southern end of the River Parks (http://www.riverparks.org). We rode from 56th Street down to the Jenks Riverwalk Bridge and back for a round trip of just over 11 miles. It is totally flat so my legs got a decent work out but I could still walk the next day. My dorky husband made a video montage of the trip. WARNING: If you get motion sick, you may want to skip this video.



But, wait, our day did not end there.

After getting showered, we headed out to my favorite pizza place, Hideway Pizza (http://www.hideawaypizza.com). It has been my favorite since my first visit to Tulsa back in 2007. The pizza here is just so darn good, no matter what you order and the beer is always so cold served in huge frozen fishbowl sized glasses. Hideaway makes me happy :)
Hideway is located in the Cherry Street area of Tulsa. It's a street lined with lots of great bars and restaurants: Full Moon Cafe, Drake's, and Kilkenny's just to name a few.
After Hideaway we ended up at Kilkenny's (http://www.tulsairishpub.com). Like McNellie's, it is an Irish place and has an outstanding beer menu (although most of their really good stuff is in bottles, not draught). The bartender was great and after seeing someone else order oysters, Dustin and I got curious. We saw an oyster appetizer on the menu that sounded very interesting and we inquired about it to the bartender. He gave it a big thumbs up so, we tried it. Basically, it was a planko battered fried oyster with pineapple salsa on top of a tortilla chip with a "MILD" habanero sauce drizzled over the oyster. "Mild" habanero is an oxymoron as far as I am concerned. There is no such thing. But, let me tell you something, it was AMAZING! So, once again, we made a mental note to come back and actually do a sampling of all things oyster at Kilkenny's.


So that was our weekend. Sunday was very laid back and entailed church, me going for a 4 mile run, and grocery shopping. Not very exciting stuff but we needed the break.

Playdate at the park

Today was 70 degrees, sunny, and very breezy. My sister-in-law, Jenny asked if I wanted to join her, the boys, and her friend at the park. After running 6 miles yesterday, it was perfect opportunity for me to get out and stretch my tired legs in the beautiful sunshine :)

Here are some pictues from our day!

Chan Man



Bryson coming down the slide



Bubble Boy



Bryson and Bella