WE DID IT!

Thursday evening, Mindy and I stood in line for 4.5 hours to meet The Pioneer Woman and get her new cookbook signed. (You can read about the craziness here where The Food Dude likened the line of eager fans to a line to see Santa: The Pioneer Woman Comes To Town)

We arrived after work at 5:45 for the signing that was to start at 6:30...we finally got our books signed at 10:00pm. Wowsers. I was anticipating to wait awhile in line but was not nearly prepared for the wait we had. My feet ached, my back was killing me, I was starving...and I couldn't even feel sorry for myself because my seven-months-pregnant best friend was standing next to me the entire time - but I wouldn't have chosen anyone else to stand with :) In fact, I'm not sure anyone else would have be crazy enough to stand in that 5 hour line with me...

Just to put it in perspective, Mindy, who has already birthed one child totally au naturale, said this was the longest she had waited for anything and at one point compared it to when she summited Mt. Kilimanjaro. Seriously. We may have been a little delirious from starvation at that point.

PW was very gracious and took time to speak with everyone that was in line. Her entire family accompanied her to the event: her husband Marlboro Man, her four punks, her sister and nephew, her mother - all the major players from her blog. They were all so sweet and people were so eager to get their books signed by someone that they were asking MM, the punks, her sister, anyone to sign their books and they very sweetly obliged.

So here is the proof that we met The Pioneer Woman:

This is the picture I took of the line when we first arrived.

Oh sooooo close....

We made it! I already know my mother will say something about my slouching, but I was tired and hungry and achey. And when we finally got to the table, I had not one funny, witty, memorable thing to say to her. Awesome.

Our new best friend, Ree. She just doesn't know it yet.

Marlboro Man in the flesh. He was quite dashing in person ;)

(PW is patting Mindy's belly to say hi to the baby.)

10:02 pm and those people still have a long wait ahead. Word in the twitterverse is that she was signing books until 12:30am. Oklahoma loves us some Pioneer Woman.

Victory!

See? We are best friends! Three hearts AND a smiley face :)

Oooohhh, do you know the Pumpkin Man?

I was invited to tag along with the Wilsons on an afternoon visit out to the Parkhurst Pumpkin Patch in Arcadia (poor Boom was still teaching lessons :-/ he was so bummed to miss out); Hazel saw a lot of "pumpkin mans" while we were there. There were pigs and goats and ducks...a hutch of rabbits...pony rides...a corn maze. There was an Oklahoma song happening almost anywhere you looked ;)

Follow this link to the photo set I added to Flickr: Pumpkin Pictures

I even got to bring this little guy home with me.

The Sugar Free Allstars got a write up in the OKGazette this week; you can read it here:

SFA: DVD write up

I feel like I've become an advertising space for children's entertainment...

Yellow Finch Designs GIVEAWAY!!!!

Yellow Finch Designs GIVEAWAY!!!!

Look away! I'm hideous!

Seriously, parents, hide your children...if you're sensitive, have a sensitive stomach, faint easily...look away. I used picnik.com to ghoul-ify my profile pic for Halloween and now I'm creeping myself out. Yikes.

For some real-life ghouls, be sure to come to Downtown OKC this Saturday for the 3rd annual Ghouls Gone Wild Halloween Parade; the Sugar Free Allstars are going to be on a float sponsored by Iguana Lounge and deadCENTER. I'm just hoping for some fish tacos out of the deal ;)

At least, I hope they're fish...mwaah-ah-aah!

Can you tell where we keep P.Kitty's food?

Are we cheapskates?

We just haven't been able to bring ourselves to turn on the heat yet. Surely we're not plunging straight into winter with no fall?? I keep thinking (hoping) that the days of 70 degrees will return. Pretty please, Mother Nature, with sugar on top?

Until then, we have been enjoying a toasty fire every night. Maybe it's not so bad...

I think I left my Clever in bed.

Wednesday evening we enjoyed another evening at Table1 in the City; it was their one year anniversary so they hosted a special evening to celebrate. It was a ridiculously fahbulous 10 course meal and a wonderful evening with friends, old and new.

Tonight we're headed to the OCGS Annual Shrimp Boil at the Harn Homestead - an entirely different culinary experience, but always really fun and we never leave hungry. My boss has been cooking since 8 o'clock this morning because there are about 900 pounds of shrimp that have to be cooked. That is a. lot. of. shrimp.

Tomorrow night, SFA will be playing at two different events, so if you don't have plans, you should check one or both of them out:

First at 6pm, they will be playing a kids set at the Plaza District Festival. This is one of our new favorite areas of town that has really been revitalized in the last year.

Then at 8pm, they will be playing the Route 66 Road Rage Block Party (on Broadway between 7th and 9th Street). Apparently the main purpose of the event is to entertain a big group of richy-riches as they cruise coast-to-coast from one end of Route 66 to the other.

I just got my daily Martha Stewart recipe email and the subject is: Chicken Pot Pie with Ham. Um, pretty much the last thing I would ever want to cook, much less consume.