A Kid’s Retreat-My Plan for the Future

We don’t have rug-rats, yet. I have taken this non-rugrat season to observe parenting styles, take notes, ask questions and compare results. I am like a scientist without all of the sciencey stuff.

While Biceps and I were finishing up this last tour, I discovered something wonderful in the backyard of our friends. They have two little boys and one dominates this treehouse.

While the dominator was dressing up in a skeleton costume-for some unknown reason-I snapped these shots for future reference.
If we were to have a boy-and I hope we do-this is what I would love to build for him.

I began taking notes on the treehouse, rope bridge and all, stowing the information in my ‘boy’ file.
I could see building something similar for myself. Who doesn’t love to hang out in a tree?

I suppose if we don’t start pro-creating soon, I could always build this in my backyard and pretend that it’s for my nephews. I think people would buy it.
Unless of course they caught me swinging from the rope bridge. I had better get a gate that locks.

Lady Bike and Me

I took advantage of the cooler weather this morning.
And when I say ‘cooler’, I mean less than the typical two thousand degrees it’s been outside, as of late.
My Lady Bike and I partook of a speedy adventure out of doors.

Lady Bike definitely has a personality all her own. She participates in the biking action, for the most part.

However, Lady Bike sometimes forgets that she is the mechanical aspect of the whole deal, causing a lot of grinding and whirring noises to announce my upcoming arrival to anyone else on the path.

But, I love her and her quirky ways. Plus, she was a bargain when I found her and I won’t complain.

I like to take Lady Bike to romantic places, although we are usually accompanied by Bicep’s ‘Man Bike’. Today, we were flying solo.
This is the ‘Kissing Bridge’, which had been dubbed years ago when I was in college for various unknown reasons….

This happens to be one of Lady Bike’s favorite views of downtown Tulsa. And mine, too.

This forgotten park on the west side of the river always cracks me up.
Nothing about this park looks fun to me.
But, maybe I should ask the opinion of a child that has burnt their behind from the blazing hot metal stage coach, or the one with the splinter in his hands from the ‘town’.

Lady Bike and I swung into the skate park and practiced our skills. This skill in particular, is called ‘resting’.

This skill here is called, ‘What was I thinking?’
I do love that my train case stayed attached.

We sailed past the ‘Space Needle’ towards one of my favorite spots on the trail-the magical arching tree.

Take a gander at this tree. It arches perfectly over the trail, not a limb in sight, until it is safely on the other side.
Lady Bike ushers me under the archway and we enter into our magical dreamworld where french fries are good for you and where cats are never squished by cars.

About the time I pass ‘Little San Francisco’, I begin to ring my bell.
The path is pretty deserted at this point and I love the way it resounds against the cement overpasses close by. I keep ringing it for as long as Lady Bike will let me.

The bell’s a little rusty and sticks from time to time, but she gets the job done. Runners cower in fear when they hear the ‘Cuh-RRRRRING!, Cuh-RRRRRING!’ coming their way.
The bell ringing might be my favorite part of biking. But don’t tell Lady Bike-she is already extremely temperamental.

The Best BBQ Whole Wheat Pizza

Every once in a blue moon, I like to share recipes with you.
But only if the finished products are mouth watering and approved heartily by Biceps.
Trust me, he keeps asking me to make another one.
And another one….

And another one and another one…

Here’s what you’ll need for the whole wheat crust:
1 1/4 C White Flour
1 Package of Active Yeast
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 TBS Dried Basil
1 C Water
2 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 3/4 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 Hungry Tummy

Dump your white flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the 1/2 Tsp Salt.
(If you want to add garlic salt to your crust, cut the 1/2 Tsp Salt down to 1/4 Tsp.)

Add your 1 TBS of basil.

Make sure you tear open your package of yeast with your teeth so that when you photograph it, it looks like a wild animal got ahold of it.
Add your package of yeast.

Mix your dry ingredients together with a wooden spoon.
Place your 1 C water into the microwave for a minute to warm it up.

Add the 2 TBS of extra virgin olive oil to your water and whisk it for a second or two.
Add your water/oil mixture to your dry ingredients.

Stir until all the dry ingredients are mixed in and the dough is very sticky.

Stir in as much of your whole flour as you can with a wooden spoon, until the dough becomes too stiff.

Knead your dough by hand, adding the remaining whole wheat flour.

Cover the dough with your bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees at this time.

The Tasty Components:
1 C BBQ Sauce
1/2 Red Onion, sliced into fancy rings
2 C Mozzarella Cheese
1 small can of mushrooms, drained
6 Slices turkey bacon (or I suppose you can use ‘real’ bacon, too.)

If you have a cast iron skillet, I recommend using it for this application.
If you don’t, that’s sad. You should.

Spray your skillet lightly with a no stick spray and cook your little bacon on a low heat, turning once. Don’t cook it too long-you want the bacon to be a bit chewy.
Drain the bacon on a paper towel and let cool. Cut your bacon into bite size pieces once you can handle it without burning your little fingers.

Throw your onion slices right into that bacon goodness and cook on a low heat, caramelizing them.

Back to the dough! Press your dough out as far as you can by hand.

Roll out the rest of your dough until it’s big enough to cover your pizza pan. Spray your pizza pan with no stick spray and transfer your dough onto it.

Cook your pizza dough at 425 for 10 minutes.
Fasten your seat belts. Two beautiful worlds are about to collide.

Once your dough is done with it’s ‘pre-cook’, spoon a thin layer of your BBQ sauce onto the dough. Save any extra for a dipping sauce later on.

Add your bacon pieces, mushrooms and caramelized onions.

Smother it with cheese. I mean it, really smother it. Don’t be stingy.

Cook the entire pizza for 10-12 minutes at 425.
If you stick a finger right into the center of the pizza and that dang thing is hot all of the way through, it’s done.

This is so good. It’s 9 in the morning and I am getting hungry just thinking about this pizza…..
I might just have to change our dinner plans.

A Sneaky Surprise for Cynthia

Yesterday, my best friend turned another year older.
I had a sneaky thought and decided to act upon it:
Decorate her house while she is gone.
I am very, very sneaky.

Plus, I love cutting things out of construction paper.
It’s kind’ve a win-win.
This is my trial run of the proposed decor on my kitchen floor.

I fell in love with this crazy ‘w’. It will be hard to let him go.

Her front door is about to get decorated and it won’t even know what hit it.
I was thrilled at this point that I hadn’t misspelled anything.

Giant confetti bits will be dotting the windows of her house.
Watch out world, here we come.

And no birthday decorating extravaganza is complete without flowers.

I have become pretty obsessed with tying notes to things using ric-rac. It just adds a little sassy pizzaz.

Biceps was on ‘tape duty’, I was on ‘placement duty’.
I regret making the ‘I’ in ‘Cynthia’ so dang large. I don’t know what happened there.

I think we added just the right amount of crazy to the birthday girl’s house. And gave her puppy a little excitement during the day. Sorry about that Mabel….
Oh, well. Happy Birthday, Cynthia!