Rifreakindiculous!

It is 103 degrees outside right now! We're only one week into summer. W-O-W

I blame it on the black hole...

You know, the one that sucks you into Oklahoma and then never lets you escape? Yeah, that one. Anyway, I found myself watching the bedlam game last night, between OSU and OU. I then found myself cheering on one of the teams... That's right, me. Cheering on an OK team. Yeah, I know... like I said, I blame it on the black hole... it apparently has addled my brain a bit more than I thought.

I cheered for OSU. I'm going back to school next summer and I'm abour 90% sure thats where I'll be going. OSU has a campus here in OKC, a good RN program (Nursing was my first major, before I had my most monumental brain fart and changed it to MFHD... a totally useless degree in the real world, sad but true. By that I mean it's useless when trying to get a good job, not that the knowledge behind it is useless) and odds are I'll be able to complete it all with night classes in a relatively short span of time. I like my job and all, but it's not a career, and it's not where I want to stay forever. Now that we've had to put our dreams of parenthood on long-term hold (due to health reasons, not to mention IVF and/or adoption aren't cheap!) I think it's about time I focus on doing something worthwhile, such as finishing my edumacation and doing some good in the world.

Anyway, OSU lost, but they fought the good fight and had OU sweating the big bullet there for a while. It was fun to watch. It will be exciting to feel more involved next year when I am actually a student of this school. I never thought I'd ever be counted amongst OK school fans, but OSU is cool, I guess. At least it's not a school that takes pride in and names itself after a bunch of sneaks and thieves. Why anyone would be proud of that is beyond me... perhaps the black hole addled their brains too... only to the point of insanity?

Teehee... Can you tell I hate OU? ;)

The dog days of summer

It's h-o-t here in Oklahoma. Icky, sticky, humid and hot. The pups don't really like to spend much time outside, and I can't blame them. I just got home from taking Ben his dinner at work and when I got home the dogs were all clamoring to be let in. Once inside this blessed AC'ed house, they pretty much just collapsed into pathetic looking heaps the first place the could find... 2 on the couch and one on the floor. Here are some pics, they're just so cute I had to share!

Sirius, asleep on the couch.

Luna, cooling off her belly & asleep on Ben's shirt and a blanket on the couch as well.

Mini, probably sulking because she can't fit on the couch and sleep there.

It's that time of the year again!

It's not officially Tornado Season in the Young household until we sing this song, so here goes... feel free to sing along!

I looked out the window and what did I see?
An F5 tornado coming to destroy me!
Spring has brought me such a nice surprise!
F5 tornados right before my eyes!
I can go and hide in my "safe" bathroom,
But if it's an F5 I'll be dead soon!
I wish it weren't so,
But there seems to be,
An F5 tornado coming to destroy me!

Ahhh... how I enjoy poking fun at my greatest fear, in the hopes that it will help me get through Spring with my sanity still intact. Last night we had our first trip to our "storm shelter/safe room" in our pantry under the stairs. After a very pretty weekend, we came home from church to a windy and stormy evening. As things tend to go for us, our satelite dish quit working because of the wind, and about 2 minutes later we found ourselves under a tornado warning, sirens blaring outside... and of course, since we had no reception, we had no idea where the threat was. I jumped online to see that the warning was for our area (our neighborhood included) and as I was yelling to Ben (he was upstairs) to hurry up and come downstairs NOW... guess what? Oh yeah, the power goes out! At this point I'm seconds away from a full blown panic attack... we have no power, there is (surely!) a tornado barreling down on us, and my husband is upstairs, my dogs running around in the dark unsure of which screaming maniac (Ben or I) to listen to! I got my trusty lantern on, and ran into our pantry, coaxed the dogs in after me, strapped on my helmet, and yelled to Ben to get some more blankets. Once we're all "safe" in our pantry, *poof* the lights come back on, and we receive a phonecall from his brother to let us know that we're out of danger, PHEW!
What did I learn from this? Well, for one thing, I need to fix our pantry so that we can all fit better... and 2) I think the puppies would benefit from "tornado drills." Yes, I'm serious... don't laugh! The reason I believe this to be true is because normally they get yelled at if they go into the pantry, and I think thats why they were hesitant to follow me in there. I may have to start running them in there with treats or something so that if there is ever another emergency like last night, it doesn't take us 5 minutes to get them all in there... by which time we could all be dead if there really were a tornado coming to get us!

Anyone need some firewood?

Remember that big ice storm a few weeks ago? Well, it resulted in a lot of downed trees/treelimbs and so everyone in OKC was told to make bundles and leave them on their front yards by the curb... the city would send crews to "clean it all up." Well, what they failed to mention was where all this lumber wood end up. A few days ago we were awoken by the sound of trucks and cranes in what seemed to be our backyard??? We looked out the window and to our horror saw crews filling up the park adjacent to the back of our townhouse with... thats right, you guessed it... TREES! Lots and lots of dead trees. Over the course of the next few days, our little park was converted into Oklahoma City's little dumpster... nice, huh?


As the temperatures have been falling rapidly, and everyone has been scrambling to the stores to buy some firewood, we can at least basque in the knowledge that while our backyard view has been severly compromised, we have all the FREE firewood we want and will probably need for the rest of this winter and probably some of next!

You know your town is PODUNK when...

... the news channels can spend over 40 minutes covering "latebreaking news" entailing a fire in a building under contruction, where absolutely NO ONE has been hurt because there was no one in there to begin with! Mind you, the fire has long been out (about 10 minutes after they started shooting live) yet they still find it necessary to keep reporting on it. Shot after shot of all the smoke (ooooh, how exciting! NOT) and all the fire engines still hanging around. I have lost count of how many times they've told us what this buidling was being constructed for, and what their "thoughts" are on what might have started it, or that ONCE AGAIN, no injuries, folks! So.... now that the blaze is under control (for a good 30 minutes now) and we know that no one was hurt... WHY are we still having to watch this? Is there really nothing else more interesting going on that this has to be on every single channel??? Dancing With The Stars is scheduled to start here in about 20 minutes and they better be done with all this stupidity by then, GRRRRRRRRR! Sometimes I really um... dislike Oklahoma. X<

I looked out the window and what did I see?

So, its not quite officially spring yet, but storm season has started a tad bit earlier than we'd expected. Nothing huge of course, but its coming. Good thing we are nice and prepared with our trusty new NOAA weather radio, huh? Anyway, I've been waiting for this time of year to roll around so I could share with you all my very own version of a much beloved Primary Song... (leave it to me to ruin it for ya, huh?) Ready? Please, feel free to sing along!

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Great big tornados coming to destroy me!

Spring has brought me such a bad surprise,

Great big tornados right before my eyes!

I can go and hide in my "safe" bathroom,

But if its an F5 I'll be dead soon!

I wish it weren't so, but it seems to me,

Great big tornados coming to destroy me!

Creative, huh? Interesting, the things you come up with while watching the weather channel...

My New Best Friend!

Well, storm season has begun here in Oklahoma... a bit early, but nevertheless, it is here. Thanks to Rick Mitchell on KOCO5, all of Oklahoma City was scared stiff this week because of the upcoming severe storms and thus there are no more NOAA weather radios to be found anywhere in the metro area... all sold out! (Ben actually bumped into a member of our Bishopric while out hunting for one earlier this week!) So, after some doctor appointments yesterday, Ben and I decided to go on a road trip in search of these little devices... (and we got one for our 2nd Counselor as well!)

Ahh, here it is. We went all the way to Tulsa to get it, but alas, we have one now! This nifty little device can be programmed to alert any specific county/counties of severe weather and is especially useful when there is a threat of night-time tornadoes b/c they tend to happen when everyone is asleep. (Like what happened in FL and LA this month) Last night was such a night and as you can see, we were under a Tornado Watch for most of the evening and overnight hours. Besides that little light, it is capable of blasting an alarm of 90 decibels that can be heard anywhere in the house... thats quite loud, let me assure you.

Here is a shot of what we were driving back into on our way home from Tulsa. This was at about 3pm-ish... quite the storm a-brewing! Fortunately nothing terrible happened later on that night or early this morning. But had it, we would have been safe thanks to our new little gadget!

Happy New Year!

So the holidays are over and here we are at the start of a new year. Today I had my first (of many, I'm sure) "ah crud" moments when you write out the date and realize the year is wrong because its no longer 200_, its now 200_+1! January is quite annoying because of that every year! Maybe I'll start writing 2008 on everything next December to prepare me for the switch next year... oh wait, that won't work- dang it!
My mom was down here for Christmas and New Years and it was quite fun! The house had to be *perfect* and so the days leading up to this momentous visit were full of last minute cleaning, organizing, and panicking! But alas, all turned out well and we had a grand ol' time! Along with presents (ooh!ooh! I have a creme brulee set now, ramekins, blowtorch and all!) she also brought some tasty treats that I can't find anywhere here. Sad thing about Oklahoma is that its not very diverse... well, unless you're Mexican. Lots of shops and international markets here for those of that heritage and culture, but nothing-zip-nada if you're of any other decent. Uruguayan and Colombian cuisines are absolutely NOTHING like Mexican so I am forced to rely on my mom to bring/send me yummy treats and condiments to cook with.
One such treat were my Alfajores! They are traditional Uruguayan cookie things that have Dulce De Leche (caramel) in the middle and are dipped in chocolate or merengue powder... mmm mmm gooooooood! Ben hates them (too sweet for him) which means more for ME! She also brought me my favorite Italian cookies! No, I'm not Italian, but Uruguay's cuisine and culture is very much Italian influenced b/c thats where pretty much everyones' ancestors are from, if not from Spain. And living in NYC there are scrumpdidlyumptious Italian bakeries everywhere and oh my gosh, I love their food!!! By the way, Shannon, did you read my comment on your Chimichurri entry? Its good stuff, very common in Uruguay too!
Now my mom is gone and although I miss her, I am glad to have life go back to normal. Its nice not to have to play hostess all the time and well, I know we're boring, so I'm sure she's glad to be home too. Sirius misses her quite a bit and goes to the guest room and lays on her bed and cries every morning, its quite a sad site to behold.

DOH!

Ok, so I'm driving to work this morning and there is this lady in a white Taurus in front of me. She was going rather slowly and I was about to switch lanes to pass her when she started hitting herself on the head! You know, the open palmed smack on the forehead you do when you're having a "duh" moment or when you've forgotten something really important? Yeah, she was doing that. At first I thought I must've been imagining it, but then *smack*, she did it again... and again... and again! Soon she was doing it with both hands! (Alternating hands of course, between smacks and holding onto the wheel) Surely she was going to stop this, I thought... well, she did... but rather than resuming driving like a normal person, she started yanking at her hair! By this time we had approached an intersection and she managed to control herself enough to signal and turn... I (despite my curiosity) continued straight and laughed my way to work... bizarre.

Shark!!!

Bull shark to be exact... the largest captive Bull sharks in the world, apparently. Oklahoma has them, can you believe that? Yup, in a little town called Jenks on the outskirts of Tulsa there is an aquarium that houses these man-eaters. As Ben and I walked under the plexi-glass tunnel that seperated us from the immenent death that swimmed above and around us yesterday, I realized Bull sharks aren't really all that big. (Well, at least not in captivity, anyway...) When you see "The World's Largest_____" label, you kinda expect something... well... larger. Oh well, watching the stingrays (in the touch tank that can no longer be touched due to recent unfortunate events involving our dear mate, Steve Erwin) splash around and bobbing up for food was cool! Oh, and I got to touch a starfish... oooooohhh.

Pooooodunk!

Just when I thought OK could not get any lamer... it did. So I was watching the 10 o'clock news the other night and was shocked to see that the last 15 minutes was spent on football. Now, I'm not just talking about NFL sportscasting... I'm talking about highschool football! And just as my jaw was nearing the ground they began covering 7th grade football games!!! I sat there flabbergasted. 1/4 of the news was dedicated to local football action... I knew OK was boring but this is just ridiculous... Thats all, just had to get that out.