Friday, May 17, 2013

AAR - Oklahoma City

"Something called 'the Oklahoma Standard' became known throughout the world. It means resilience in the face of adversity. It means a strength and compassion that will not be defeated."
- Brad Henry (D) - Gov. Oklahoma
Let me throw a few little comments from JAFO for you to start this off...

First- In Oklahoma City, the Airport is not on Airport Rd...
(And just to add to the irony- Terminal Rd is NOT where the Terminal is located.)

And since we're starting on The Airport...
It's called the 'Will Rogers World Airport'?
Because Will Rogers International Airport was taken?
Will Rogers Intercontinental, maybe?
Meh.

(Looking at the flight displays there weren't many flights to Madrid or London.
There was a flight to LA so I guess its KINDA like an international flight.)


Now, the Chesapeake Energy Arena- now this was a nice place, and the guys running it were top-notch...

But - the name...
With the 'Chesapeake' in the name I would expect it to be in Baltimore or Norfolk... It might be reasonable to give that name to an arena in Richmond VA (University of Richmond- Go Spiders!)...

But in Oklahoma City- How about a local Fortune 500 Company?
Why not The Sonic Arena, or the Braums Forum, or maybe the Hobby Lobby Center?
(I would even suggest the name "Love's Shack" as an arena name, as Love's Truck Stops & Country Stores is a large corporate entity in OKC, and they have a decent marketing presence inside the arena already. Not sure how it'd go over with the B-52s though.)

Anyhoo-
Quite the trip. It was a last-minute gig, and on the spur of the moment I took a chance at reaching out to Famous the Evyl Robot and his inestimably better half- Jennifer to see if I could coax them out to a nosh and good conversation over tiffin.
And glory be- they acquiesced! And they brought along That Guy (a/k/a TeenBot) from Intelligenttrousers.com... A soft-spoken young man, but from reading through his 'blog, he might well be a force to be reckoned with in the 'blogosphere if he continues his writing...

Michael suggested we met up at a little joint in beautiful downtown Edmond OK,
Zarates Latin & Mexican Grill...
Holy mackerel! Such food, you would not believe...
Check out their menu-
I highly suggest a visit any time you are within 100 miles of the place.
I had the Pabellon- a Venezuelan version of Ropa Vieja... shredded beef, peppers & onions in a red sauce... Sooo good.
Michael had the chuleta and Jennifer had the Peruvian saltado (I think...).

I got to see Michael's modded Leatherman, and man, I'm going to whip up a pair of them tout damn d'suite... Go check it out...
Michael and I also discussed my desire for some custom leather for the the 92F Twins and my Anaconda. We'll see how that works out... From the photos and examples I've seen of his work, it should be amazing.

The conversation ranged far and wide- I got to hear the first-hand tales from the NRA Convention, which has steeled my resolve to attend the festivities in Indy next year. We discussed the different bloggers we have all met over the years, talked about firearms, blogging, family, shooting (and lack thereof recently) and all manner of things we find fun...


I got Jennifer to tell the tale of her banner pic with the KSG by Oleg Volk, and we discussed rampant stupidity of mouth-breathing droolers (Those colors don't go together!)
Jennifer and & broke out our iPads and shared pictures, and generally we all had a great time.

But- all good things come to an end- they had obligations and I had an airline employees to make miserable, so we parted company- only briefly, I hope.
One never know who will show up at a blogmeet.

They are Good People-
Odd how that works- JayG and all the NE Blog Crew, Borepatch, the folks in Indy, and all the Texas bloggers like KX59 and Belle in Houston, to BobS and good folks up in Dallas, to the danged Florida bloggers like Robb and McThag that I can never seem to get around to visiting even though they are 3 hours away....
The GunBlogging community are just amazing folks to be around, and I count myself fortunate to be able enjoy their company now and then.


Wrapping up- Michael, Jennifer & Teenbot- y'all are awesome- thanks for a great afternoon.


TBG- ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE

5 comments:

Old NFO said...

Yep, good folks all! :-) And usually know a good restaurant or two also!!!

Angus McThag said...

Dude, you hold still and we might come see you!

The Big Guy said...

@ONFO
Damn!
What a brain fart!
I missed you in my roll call in this msg, Jim...
Wow I must be slipping even faster than I thought.

@McThag
Let's do it! Maybe we can get Stephen and Jacked Up Glock Mom et al to some central location...

TBG

kx59 said...

The BAR clan holds you in rather high regard as well Big Guy.

Jennifer said...

There are 2 major airports in the state, each named after a guy that died in a plane crash.
Chesapeake is a local company ;)
So glad you got in touch with us. It was a lot of fun. Hopefully you can stay longer next time you are this direction. We'll drag you out to a BBQ joint and then to shoot up the countryside.