Monday, March 29, 2010

OKC trip

A couple of weeks ago (OK, almost a month ago) I went down to Oklahoma City with my mom and sisters for our annual girls’ weekend. Jenny studied on the way down (she has to keep up her perfect 4.0 GPA in grad school, you know). As usual it was filled with lots of laughter and some really good food.

Christopher, one of my nephews, lives in Oklahoma City and works at a couple of restaurants. We went to one of them while he was at work and it was a great experience. Ingrid’s is a German bakery and restaurant. We dined there on the Saturday for lunch and my reuben was excellent, but the slice of German chocolate cake I ate for dessert was the best I’ve ever had. It was so good I took a picture of it and my sister, Teresa, made fun of me. On the left is mom's strawberry cake. On the right is Teresa's coconut cake. My German chocolate is in the middle.
It really was divine.

There was live music when we got there but they put away their instruments not long after we arrived. Ingrid’s was featured on a recent episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” on the Food Network. We got to meet Maggie, the kitchen manager, who showed Guy Fieri how they make their famous reubens. Search for it on YouTube if you haven’t seen it.

Here’s a picture of Christopher at work behind the counter. He’s very photogenic, don’t you think?

We also ate at Iron Starr barbeque and it was delicious as always. Sorry no pictures of that.
There was also a healthy dose of slot machine play for my sister, Jenny, who has a bit of a gambling itch that needs scratching every now and then. Mom, Teresa and I were happy with about three hours’ worth of gambling. Jenny needed about eight hours’ worth. So we left her there and picked her up later. Very little shopping this year. Mostly we just hung out, ate and played cards. It was so much fun I'm ready to go again.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

A Keeper photo

In January I went to Exploration Place with Jennifer, Bella and Jake to get a sneak preview of the Mr. Potato Head exhibit. We weren't really that impressed with it and Bella was very unimpressed with the costumed spud, but she did consent to one photo with him.

After this picture was snapped she wouldn't go near him and hid behind me every time we saw him.

When we left EP the flames at the Keeper of the Plains were ablaze. Here's a picture I took that turned out pretty good, for an amateur photographer.

Happy Vietnamese New Year!

A couple of weeks ago I had lunch at Saigon on Broadway. Behold, the number 56:

It was the perfect day for lunch at Saigon. They had entertainment to celebrate Vietnamese New Year, which included the popping of firecrackers outside (to ward off the evil spirits) and some drum music and two dragons winding their way through the restaurant during the lunch rush. I'm sure they symbolized something, but I don't know what. I liked the atmosphere, though. It was lunch AND a show!

As you can see I wasn't the only one taking pictures of this event.

After we'd eaten, we also got to pick out an envelope from a basket. Each envelope (or ours anyway) contained a Power Ball $1 quick pick. I am sad to report that I didn't win anything, but it was a good day to lunch at one of my favorite places.