White Christmas in Seattle

Got to start out this blog by sending out best wishes to my buddy Greg Wollmuth. Talked to Greg on the phone while I was stranded in the Denver airport and then didn't hear from him again for a few days. Turns out he went outside to shovel some snow, came back in and didn't feel well so his wife took him to the hospital where they discovered he had just suffered a heart attack. GW probably reads my blogs more than anyone so I figured I better include him. He is doing much better and hopefully relaxing in front of the TV today with some college football. Get well my friend!!

New Year's Eve 2008 is really here. I am back in OKC after a great trip back to Seattle for the holidays for what I believe was my second ever "White Christmas". I know we had snow on the ground for Christmas 1990 but I think that might have been it (I'm not counting last year's X-Mas when it snowed for about 10 minutes at noon and left a very thin sheet on the ground). The old neighborhood looked like something out of a Thomas Kincade painting and I loved it!!

Finally got into Seattle on December 23rd and immediately started walking around the backyard and behind my parents yard. There is a creek out back with a wooded area and it is incredible when it snows. Also managed to take some pictures back there with my Mom and Max the family dog. I also put on my boots so that Max and I could explore the neighborhood a little. Later that night I went up the steet to my Uncle's house and played Santa before heading home, changing and then returning as myself for a nice dinner with immediate and extended family.

My Sister and Brother In Law came over to my parents house on Christmas Eve for another great dinner but not before my Dad and I ventured out for some last minute shopping. The snow was still a little bit much for my car so Dad's truck came in handy and the store weren't any too crowded as most didn't want to battle the elements.

Woke up Christmas morning to find 4 new inches of snow. Tried to take Max for a lengthy walk but he wasn't too happy with all of the new snow so I took him for a short one so that he could answer nature's call and then I dropped him off and went out for a larger one. Snow can be a pain in the neck but is great when you are at home without needing to be anywhere. I've never seen that much Christmas snow and loved it. When I returned home I noticed a car stuck in the road 2 houses down from my parents. A teenaged girl had gotten stuck in the road and her car wouldn't move. My dad, a neighbor and I helped tow her car to the end of the road and she had her parents drive over to where we were to help her get the car back home. Definitely not ideal traveling weather and I am hoping that it didn't keep too many families from being together. I have an all new sympathy after my Denver airport experience. Had a great early afternoon Christmas with my parents, sister, bro in law and Nomi my Godmother that flies up from Texas each year. Were joined by Uncle, Aunts, and Cousins later that night. GREAT CHRISTMAS!!

The last two nights of my trip I went out with friends after dinner. On the 26th I met up with 10 people in Lynnwood with mostly old high school friends. On the 27th I went into Seattle where I met up with my sister, brother in law and 5 other friends. I even had a Dick's cheeseburger afterward so I met half of my goal. The other half og my food goal was to get some Spiro's pizza however they were closed for the holidays so my family and I went and had lunch at Pagliaggi's instead. I am a big fan of their's as well but Spiro's is my main pizza. I guess that will have to wait until my next trip.

Heading out to the Ford Center in a few minutes to work tonight's Thunder-Warriors game. Downtown OKC is supposed to be a fun place to watch the New Year roll in so I'm hoping to check it all out after getting off of work.

Hope everyone is doing well and BE SAFE TONIGHT!!

Stranded in Denver

Greetings from wintery Seattle. Having lived in Seattle my entire life, I have never had to travel during the holiday season until now and what an experience!! What I am about to write is going to detail my delay at the Denver airport last Monday/Tuesday and may not be the most exciting read as I am probably writing it more for myself so that I can pull it up later and remind myself of a very long day.

December 22, 2008 is not a day I will soon forget. I got on the plane early Monday morning in OKC after staying up all night. Had a Thunder game the night before and figured why waste time on sleep when that is time that could be better spent on hanging out with friends after the game, packing and blogging. I was tired when I got to the Will Rogers World Airport.

Got on the plane and slept almost the entire way to my connecting flight in Denver which meant I got about an hour of sleep. I was a little nervous as I walked to my connecting flight as I knew that Seattle was getting snow and that they had many delays the day before but I had heard things were getting better. I got to my gate and saw that they still had the Seattle sign up so I figured I was in good shape. Had about 20 minutes to kill so I walked down to where I could get a breakfast sandwich and proceeded back to my gate. As I arrived at the gate I noticed that the sign no longer said "Seattle" and now read "Chicago" and the adventure began.

It was about 8:00 am in Denver and we were told that our flight could not get into Seattle due to weather and that we would all be on stand by for the 12:30 flight. That left a little more time to kill so I put my belongings on the ground, made my jacket into a pillow and took a 10 minute nap on the floor. Also spent some time talking to a nice family from San Antonio that was trying to get up to Toppenish for Christmas. About an hour later the woman working the Frontier Airlines counter told us that they were trying to put together a midnight flight to Seattle and that we should head on down to another gate to get our names on a list. I went down and put my name and phone number onto a sheet of paper hoping that the midnight flight could be a back up plan in case another flight didn't open over the next 15 hours.

12:30 came and Frontier canceled that flight. My new San Antonio friends decided that things weren't looking very good so they went to the counter and got tickets for a 3:30 flight heading back to S.A. A little while later I found out that Frontier caneled the 3:30 plane and now there were a lot of people at the Denver Airport trying to get to Seattle. At that point I was still feeling pretty good because I knew I was on a list for the midnight flight and that was good enough for me. I just wanted to get to Seattle for Christmas and knew I was scheduled to play Santa at my Uncle's house the next day for my cousins.

The 3:30 flight also ended up getting canceled and I think we then all started to panic. Frontier was giving everyone all sorts of mixed messages. Most of their employees were telling us that the weather in Seattle was bad and that the airport was practically shut down but one person was a little more honest with us and mentioned to a few of us when there weren't many people around that the main reason we couldnt get home was because Frontier had run out of de-icer fluid in Seattle. At that point I called my friend Brenda that works for the Port of Seattle at SeaTac to find out what she knew. Brenda confirmed that almost every airline was flying in and out of SeaTac just fine and that Frontier was one of the only ones that wasn't. I then walked up to a counter where an employee of Frontier was in the middle of telling a bunch of standed travelers that most of the airlines were not flying in or out of SeaTac including Alaska. I called Brenda back immediately and she looked out the window of her offices and said "I'm watching an Alaska plane land right now". I then told the woman standing right in front of me what was being said and she immediately confronted the person at the counter with the information. The woman then admitted to us that Frontier was out of de-icer fluid in Seattle but that "other airlines were as well". I then interrupted her and started naming off airlines that I had confirmed were traveling in and out of SeaTac as I was growing tired of the lies. I know the folks at the counter have a rough job when dealing with delayed travelers and I certainly am patient but I don't like being lied to and wasn't going to stand by and let it slide without pointing that out.

The Frontier flights that were scheduled to leave for Seattle during the 5pm and 7pm hours were also eventually cancelled and a Frontier representative then told some of us that there was a good chance we would not be able to get to Seattle until December 26th which was really hard to hear. Some of the people that were staying around then started making arrangements to head back from where they had originally flown in from but I figured I would rather take my chances in Denver then go back to OKC where I would be spending Christmas alone. I was angry and called my Mom to let her know I may not be home for Christmas. I was not happy.

I started hanging out with a college student named Sam who was from Seattle but going to college in North Dakota. I went and grabbed a bite to eat at Panda Express in the airport before meeting up with Sam at the airport bar to watch Monday Night Football. Funny that I would eat at Panda since I used to work by one in Redmond and would always refuse to go there when any of my Keeney's co-workers suggested it because I didn't care much for it. Tasted pretty good though at the airport since I was starved, grouchy and tired.

Got back to Sam at the bar when he turns to me and says "you are going to kill me when I tell you this". I asked what he had and he says "I got a ticket on the 9:25 flight". I was actually happy for Sam. An hour earlier I was in line at the counter to get on the 9:25 waiting list and the woman at the counter told me "you are way down the list". Sam was behind me in line and I made a comment to someone else in line that Sam had been stranded at the airport since Saturday. The woman at the counter heard that and asked to look at Sam's other stand by tickets from earlier that day but didn't do anything with them. Apparently a short time after that Sam went back to the counter to ask another question and the woman said a seat had just opened and she assigned it to him. I told Sam I was glad he got it because he had already spent the past couple of nights at the airport and deserved it. I also warned him that the previous 5 planes that day had been cancelled and that Frontier hadn't landed a plane in Seattle for a few days so he might want to hold off on celebrating.

A few minutes later Brenda called me and said that the 9:25 flight was still on the board at SeaTac as coming in. I told her I figured that would change as I had yet to hear a de-icer update. Brenda then walked over to the Frontier gate at SeaTac and said the crews were in the process of de-icing a plane. I asked if she was sure so she asked a guy at the gate and he confirmed that Frontier has just received the fluid to SeaTac. I turned and told Sam that it sounded like he was going home. That didn't help me though.

At 8:45 pm my friend Jonathan Brooks (JB) landed in Denver from Oklahoma City as he was spending the holidays with his sister and family in Boulder which is about a 45 minute drive from the airport. I went to JBs gate to meet him and he reiterated that I had an open invitation to come to his sister's house with him if I wanted. I thanked him for the offer but mentioned I was going to be on standby for the 9:25 flight and was still hoping that a midnight flight might still happen.

I went to the gate for the 9:25 flight expecting to see a ton of people waiting on stand by but was surprised to only see about 20. Right before the plane was about to leave they started reading off names and all but 8 of us got on board. I WAS THAT CLOSE TO GOING HOME. Very depressing. The woman at the counter then confirmed that it was going to be the only flight heading up to Seattle that night and that the midnight plane never got scheduled. Funny since they told us a few hours earlier that the plane and crew were already at the airport and it was just a matter of them being allowed to fly into Seattle. I don't think they ever had any intention of flying out at midnight and just had us all put our names on a sheet of paper to get us off of their backs. Oh well. They did put all 8 of us on a waiting list for the 8:25 am flight the next morning but warned us that the plane was already overbooked by 5 passengers. I had nothing better to do on December 23rd so I got myself mentally prepared to be at the gate for every plane leaving the next day in hopes of getting home.

I called JB up to find out if he was still at the airport as I knew they were waiting for his sister's mother in law to fly in that night. He said they were in the car about to leave the airport and said I could still stay at his sister's house in Boulder. JB's sister Katie and her husband Rob could not have been any nicer and accomodating about the whole thing. They took me back to their place, gave me a sandwich, toothbrush, and a couch to sleep on. We got to their place at and went to bed at midnight. JB and Katie woke up at 5:45 the next morning and then took me back to the airport. JB even packed me a bag with 3 oranges and a slice of coffee cake. I can not thank all of them enough!!

I walked up to the counter at around 7am to let the woman at the counter know that I was there to be on standby for the 8:25 flight. The guy in front of me was giving her a story about how he had surgery on his shoulder, had a bunch of staples and really needed to get up to Seattle to pick up his 5 year old daughter (he shared the same story with me right before getting to the front of the line). She said she would do everything to help him but couldn't make any promises. I then got to the counter, said hello and handed over my standby pass as she was rolling her eyes and smiled as the other guy walked away. She took one look at my ticket and said "Mr Willits, I just assigned you a ticket a few minutes ago, here you go" and handed me a pass. I was a little confused at first as I thought it might be an "official" standby pass but I looked down and noticed it had a seat number. I looked up at her confused as I wasn't expecting this and was figuring I would be at the airport for at least one more day but the woman then looked at me, smiled and said "if I were you I would go out and buy a lottery ticket today". I thanked her about 5 or 6 times and immediately texted JB to let him and the family know that I would not be needing to be picked up later on that night. I waited about 45 minutes to call my parents as I didn't want to wake them up. A few minutes before boarding the plane I called my Dad and told him that I would be at SeaTac in a few hours. A couple of side notes: the guy with the surgery did get on the plane on standby and I decided what the heck, went out and bought $3 of lottery tickets that night but didn't win anything. Oh well, as far as I was concerned I had already won by getting on the plane.

Brenda met me as I was getting off of the plane in Seattle and I thanked her for all of her information the day before. I was then picked up by my parents and Max the family dog. I did have one more anxious moment as my suitcase was delayed by about an hour. I started to think it was still in Denver and that all of the delays had messed everything up. The bag did finally end up on the conveyer belt and I was ready to head for the house. I even got home in time to be Santa.

Spending Christmas in Seattle was never more enjoyable!! Now more than ever I feel for everyone that gets stranded during the holidays and can only hope that most of the people that I saw at the airport were able to get to their final destinations in time for Christmas.

Will write about my Seattle trip soon but figured this blog is long enough for now.

LaBron comes to OKC, Christmas Bowling and Friday Night Fun

Seasons Greetings from OKC. Just wrapped up another exciting weekend. Sunday was our only visit this season from LaBron James and the Cavaliers. The Thunder hung tough for a while but came up a little short in the end. It was our last game before Christmas and we got to wear cool blue "Santa" hats. Check me out wearing mine in this picture (can't really tell what kind of a hat it is). Probably won't wear this particular hat when I travel to Seattle.






Saturday we had our Events and Entertainment Christmas party at a local bowling alley. We each bought inexpensive gifts and I am now the proud owner of a Party Time TNT set of streamers, party poppers, confetti, horn blowers and party time crackers. I am going to go crazy with my new toy set on December 31st. Had a blast bowling with a handful of co-workers/friends. Hadn't bowled in over 4 years and it showed as my first game was a 115. I was on fire during my second game and had a 155 through 7 frames but then choked on the 8th and 9th and finished with a 190. I'm not a 190 bowler so I was pretty excited although I really wanted to break 200. Great time though.


Friday night the Thunder got another victory. THAT IS NOT A TYPO, we won our 3rd game of the year by defeating the Toronto Raptors at the Ford Center. After the game is when the fun really began and I hope I don't get anyone in trouble with this next story (hope no one in OKC is reading this). We went out after the game to celebrate one of our co-workers final game. A bunch of us stayed out and closed down one of the downtown establishments and then we walked over to the baseball stadium where one of our co-workers knew a guy that knew a guy (wink wink). About 25 of us ended up going into the stadium where they have the nation's largest man made snow tubing slope set up. Intertubing on fake snow at 2:30 in the morning has never been so much fun. No pictures for that event.


Spent a fair share of time at the Ford Center all week as Thursday night I hung out for a few hours while our entertainment groups went through rehersal for their big halftime show that happened during the Cavs game. Turned out I wasn't needed but I did get to help clean up a storage room and free pizza was provided. I also helped out at an event on Wednesday in which 500 local 7th graders got to come into the arena and take part in interactive games as a reward for having good school attendance.

I did watch a little TV on Saturday and caught the last 10 minutes of the UCONN vs Gonzaga basketball game that took place at the Key Arena. It seemed very surreal to watch that game and not be working. Saw many friends on TV that were working at the scorer's table as well as on the sidelines. Andrew from the Promo Crew exchanged text messages with me during the game and I kept telling him to say hello to different people whenever I would see them in one of the corners on TV. It was fun but also a bit sad. A love that building and it breaks my heart to think of how it won't have too many more days like that one. Great to see a large crowd enjoying an exciting game, even if the home state team did end up losing.

Hope everyone is doing well and that all of my Seattle people are staying safe in that weather. If all goes well, I will be joining you soon.

Myriad Botanical Garden, Apartment Holiday Party and It is Cold!!

Cold enough for ya?? Sounds like the Puget Sound has gotten a little snow lately. One of the chilliest cold fronts since December 1990?? That was my senior year of high school and I remember that storm for a couple of reasons. One of which was the infamous December 18th basketball game between the Sonics and the Orlando Magic that I wasn't able to attend because we got hit with a bad snow storm in the late afternoon that messed up the entire region. Just a little over 1,600 people attended the game even though over 12,000 tickets were sold and even some of the players were late arriving. KC Jones was the Sonics head coach and he even showed up more than halfway through the game. Hope it doesn't end up being that bad this week.

Crazy cold front in OKC right now. Yesterday we supposedly had a high temperature of 72 degrees and today the high was around 21. That is not a typo, it is a temperature swing of over 50 degrees. I'm not sure when it was in the 70s yesterday as I thought it was chilly. I went for a jog at Lake Hefner yesterday afternoon at around 2:00 and when I got out of my car the thermometer read 53 however we had 35 MPH winds that made it feel much colder. I ran 6 miles, 3 in one direction and 3 back to the car. The last 3 were straight into the wind and it felt like it was below freezing. I thought it was supposed to be nice out so I wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt. By the time I got back to the car I was miserable and my arms were numb. Wasn't fun.

Last night I drove downtown to the Myraid Botanical Gardens and Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory. This is an area located about 2 blocks from the Ford Center and it was my first visit. The Crystal Bridge is an indoor domed area that has a tropical feel and contains over 1000 different species of plants from every continent except Antarctica. http://www.myriadgardens.com/

During December the conservatory is decorated with festive lights and is open to the public for free on Sunday nights from 6:00-9:00. I think a usual visit is $6.00. There were a lot of people taking advantage of the free offer so there wasn't a lot of time to check things out too closely, besides the plants are much harder to see at night as the conservatory generally relies on natural light and isn't very well lit. I will definitely make another trip there in the future to view the plants better however I was more interested in seeing the holiday lights and it was a good trip. I did take some pictures but most didn't come out very well as it was very dark other than the holiday lights. Most of the pictures were either overexposed and the lights were too bright or underexposed and the lights showed up but nothing else. Some of my least crappy pictures made the blog.

The worst part of the trip was walking to and from my car. IT WAS FREEZING. When I got home I turned on the news and they said it was 26 degrees but that the wind chill factor was 2 degrees. By that time the 72 degrees was long gone. I had gloves, a warm jacket and a scarf and I was still cold. Needless to say I didn't stay outside longer than I had to.

Friday night I went to the Christmas party that my apartment complex puts on. It is held in the lobby and I thought there was going to be a large turnout since there are over 300 units, however only about 30 people showed up. That was good for me since they raffled off prizes and I won what I thought was a $50 gift certificate. When I opened up the envelope I found out it is was 5 different $10 certificates that are good for either Henry Hudsons Pub, Bellini's Ristorante & Grill or Poblano Grill. Hudsons has 10 different locations in the area, Bellini's is a restaurant that I hear has good Italian and Poblano's has 3 locations with what I'm told is good Mexican. Sounds like I have some new places I need to check out. I hear that Henry Hudsons Pubs are not what you would call "classy" and a little incident happened at one of their locations close to my apartment building last year that made national news when a Oklahoma Sooner fan got into a fight with a Texas Longhorn fan. Won't say on here what happened but it was pretty gruesome. Go ahead and google it if you are curious but don't say I didn't warn you before reading the story, especially if you are a male. I will probably just wear a generic shirt when I go there.

Can't blog this week without mentioning that the big sports news around here is OU Quarterback Sam Bradford

winning the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night. Bradford is a graduate of Putnam City North High School which is less than 4 miles from where I live. Way to go Sam!!! Now if only Jake Locker could win the award in 2009 for the Huskies.

Dad's Trips to the Memorial and POPS

My Dad's final day in Oklahoma City was yesterday as he flew home last night but not before we did more OKC exploring. On Sunday we went over to the Memorial Museum so that my Dad could see the exhibits that pay tribute to all that were involved in the April 19, 1995 bombing. The museum is free this month on Sundays (usually $10). It was my second trip into the museum (went with my Mom last month as noted in a previous blog) and I might even go back again while it is free as I still don't think I have carefully read every exhibit. The picture on this post is of he survivor tree that was directly across the street from where the bombing took place. It was surrounded by what was then a the parking lot in which almost every car was destroyed yet somehow the tree lived.

Later on that night my Dad and I returned to Bricktown to go on the water taxi down the canal that runs through the area. The trip is a little less than a mile each way and usually costs $7.50 but is free Thursday thru Sunday in the evenings over the holidays. The canal and the surrounding shops do a nice job of putting up holiday lights to make it festive but I'm not sure the trip would have been worth the full price. We did give the tour guide a couple of bucks each and that was about what the trip was worth. http://www.downtownindecember.com/r.com/

Monday we had a Thunder game and my Dad helped out. We were a little short staffed for the game since it is Finals Week so Dad's help was much appreciated. We even got to watch much of the 2nd half, unfortunately it was another Thunder loss as we were defeated by the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are not having a good season so I really thought this was our chance to get a win but unfortunately it didn't happen even though Kevin Durant scored 41 points and had 10 rebounds. Our current record is 2 wins and 20 losses. No where to go but up.

Yesterday we headed 20 miles east from my apartment to pay a visit to POPS Shops on Route 66. POPS is a fairly new landmark that has a 66 foot tall sign (see picture with my Dad) of a soda pop bottle that has cool LED lights that luminate it at night. This was my first trip and we went there for lunch so I haven't seen the lights yet. POPS is a cafe, shake shop, gift shop, convenience shop and gas station all rolled into one. They carry over 500 different sodas and beverages from all over the world so I did get myself an assorted soda 6 pack: Grape Nehi, Grape Boylan, Grape Crush (old school), Nesbitt's Strawberry, AJ Stephan's Root Beer and Route 66 Root Beer. So far the only one I drank was the Route 66. It was good but nothing special. My Dad made it a point to get his picture taken next to the gas sign as it is now down to $1.45. http://www.pops66.com/

Seattle has two new Championships!!! Everyone says these are hard times for Seattle sports but I did notice that two local colleges have won national championships in the last couple of weeks. The UW Women's Cross Country team won the NCAA Championship but more importantly, my Seattle Pacific University Falcons women's soccer team won their first NCAA Division II National Championship the other day!! WAY TO GO FALCONS!! Embrace the titles Seattle.

Dad's Arrival Has Us Exploring

My Dad arrived in OKC on Thursday night and so far we have had a great trip. He flew in at around 8:30 pm and we immediately went over to Cattlemen's Steakhouse to grab some dinner. I've written about Cattlemen's before. Very casual and reasonably priced as far as steak is concerned and the food is excellent. We then drove over to the site of the bombing and walked around the memorial for a few minutes.

Friday was kind of a tourist type of day. We drove down to Norman where Oklahoma University is located and checked out the area. It was the first time that I had ever walked around their campus which wasn't too bad. Not quite as pretty as UW main campus but they did have some classy older buildings that were fun to check out. Of course we went over to the football stadium and checked that out. We got to go inside but not on the field. The highlight there was the Barry Switzer Center which is a 3 story building that houses all of their trophies. OU has a very storied football program and they have some really neat stuff inside.

We then drove back to downtown OKC and had lunch at Tobey Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill. No Tobey spottings but we did get a great meal. Walked around Bricktown quite a bit, and peaked thorough the fence of the baseball stadium where they currently have the nation's largest man made snow tubing slope which costs $10 for a 90 minute session. I might have to try that before the winter passes. We then drove over to the Bass Pro Shop Outdoor World to check out their 104,000 square foot store. This place is very cool for anyone who hunts and/or fishes. I don't do either so I wasn't as excited but it was interesting to see what all they carry. I didn't realize there was so many types of shot guns and fishing rods, two things that many folks in Oklahoma seem to possess.

Saturday morning we headed downtown to that I could run the SandRidge Santa Run which is a 5K fun run and the Thunder were one of the secondary sponsors. Probably over 400 participants and everyone seems to have a fun time. I'm not quite as fast as I should be right now as I ran a 24:08 but I still enjoyed it. After the run we headed over to the Stockyards a few miles away to check out the end of their Stockyards Christmas Parade. We got there in time to see the final few entries which surprisingly enough were horses and Santa arriving in the back of a stage coach. Supposedly the parade starts out with quite a few cattle going down the street but we never saw them. We did however see some of what they left in the street and I am glad that I'm not in charge of post parade clean up. Walked around Stockyard City checking out some of the Western shops before heading home.

Went home last night and watched the Big 12 Championship Football Game that everyone has been buzzing about for the past week. Final Score: Oklahoma 62 Missouri 21. HA HA TEXAS LONGHORNS!!

Not sure what we are doing yet today but we are throwing around a few ideas. Should be fun though.

Trans Siberian Orchestra and Full Lap Around Lake Hefner

I'm now enjoying the ability to post pictures and since I don't have any new ones to share I thought I would post a few from my trip a few weeks ago to College Station Texas for the college football game at Texas A&M.

I ended up having a great birthday on Sunday. I met up with some co-workers at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch football for a few hours and then it was off to the Ford Center to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra. A couple of my friends were contemplating going with me but they weren't big enough fans to pay full price so they went to the arena to see if anyone was trying to unload tickets for under face value (one of them lives a few blocks away so it wasn't like they were wasting a great deal of time). When they couldn't find a deal I went up to the box office and found a great single ticket 13 rows back from the stage. This worked out well as the only non singles they had were in the upper bowl as far away from the stage as you can get. Sometimes going solo has its advantages.

The Trans Siberian Orchestra put on an amazing show. They played for 2 hours and 45 minutes straight and were incredibly entertaining. Great music, pyro and light show. I highly recommend them to anyone that enjoys live entertainment.

I did manage to do something today that I had yet to do. I ran a complete lap around Lake Hefner!! Supposedly the distance around the lake is 9.5 miles but I think I might have pulled a Robert Frost and taken the road less traveled. There are a couple of places where the trail forks and perhaps I didn't take the shortest path as I think I ran closer to 10 miles based on my time. Who knows, all I know is that I parked my car and started running in one direction and kept running until I came back to my car from the other direction. Not exactly John Glenn orbiting the earth but seeing that I am not in the best shape of my life, I will gladly take it and be happy.

Originally I wanted to complete my first Hefner circle on my birthday but unfortunately I bruised my foot pretty good dancing last Friday night so I had to put it off for a few extra days. The foot is still bothering my quite a bit but not as bad as it was over the weekend. I do think I picked the wrong day to do my first Hefner circle. We didn't get any rain today but the temperature was around 45 degrees and the winds were at 30-35 MPH all day. I dressed appropriately but it was still BRUTAL. There were some places on the trail where I was running into the wind and it felt like I was barely moving forward and other places where the wind was blowing me sideways so hard that I could barely run straight. It was not a very enjoyable run but every once in a while you need one of those to see what you are made of. I finished so I am feeling pretty good.

My Dad is flying into OKC for his first trip tomorrow night. He will be here for a few days so I should have quite a bit to report on over the next few days as we get out and explore.