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Sculpting Netherland

The preponderance of procedures such as breast augmentation, and certainly minimally invasive processes like Botox, have helped erase the previous stigma surrounding cosmetic improvements.

However, even today, some increasingly popular cosmetic procedures don’t exactly lend themselves to dinner table talk at many homes. And discrete procedures not readily visible to the eye aren’t just for women.

Laser assisted surgery could likely be the impetus for the increase in popularity of vaginal rejuvenation, or vaginoplasty. Vaginoplasty is a surgical procedure to tighten the vaginal muscles, resulting in improved appearance and size of the vaginal opening. Often women seek the procedure following childbirth, which frequently causes stretched musculature. Age can lead to the same conditions, and many women consider the procedure a way to enhance or renew their sex lives. In the cases of many other women, the procedure is a means to address incontinence. The procedure itself consists of removing excess vaginal tissue and strengthening vaginal muscles. The laser surgical procedure takes an hour or two, and vaginal tissue will be painful afterward. Full healing takes six to eight weeks with checkups from the surgeon, although women can go back to work after just a few days. As of approximately 2010, the national average cost of vaginoplasty ranged from $3,500 to $8,000.

Women aren’t alone in increasingly seeking out sculpting parts of their body unseen to most others. Over time and with the effects of gravity, men’s scrotums can become elongated. The condition can also occur due to a varicocoele (enlarged veins around the testicle) or due to a hydrocoele (fluid around the testicle). The varicocoele should be corrected prior to the scrotal reduction. While primarily a cosmetic issue, some men do have problems with chafing or discomfort in some clothing as a result. A reduction, or “lift,” entails reducing the size of the scrotum while maintaining the correct shape. Generally, the procedure is done on an outpatient basis, takes less than two hours and despite some discomfort over a period of healing, the patient is generally able to return to work in just 4-5 days.

Both of these procedures have gained in popularity in recent years, and while both can address medical and quality of life needs, on many occasions they address strictly aesthetic desires and subsequently lead to enhanced self-esteem and comfort – benefits of cosmetic procedures not to be overlooked.

Joey’s Pizzeria

Tucked away in the shiny new sheen of Film Row is Joey’s Pizzeria, a classic pizza joint that offers the standard pies alongside crisp salads, pastas and toasted subs. A favorite dining spot before or after a Thunder game, Joey’s is lauded for its pies that pack a wallop, like Joey’s Meatball Pizza, a pie topped with meatballs, red onion, fresh garlic and mozzarella. There are also pies that set Joey’s apart from other pizzerias, like the Under The Tuscan Sun: ham, red peppers, mushrooms, oregano and feta all capped off with an over-easy egg. Joey’s boasts an impressive bar menu, along with great appetizers for sharing with friends. 700 W. Sheridan Ave., Oklahoma City. www.joeyspizzeriaokc.com

Right Tree, Right Place

Trees are everywhere, figuratively speaking. Symbols of life, growth and strength, trees permeate poetry and literature throughout human history. Two Oklahoma nonprofit organizations have been working for more than a quarter of a century to ensure that trees are everywhere in the literal world as well.

The Tree Bank Foundation in Edmond is celebrating 25 years of serving Oklahoma through programs that donate trees to public areas throughout the state. Schools, public parks, community buildings and other public common areas have benefited from the services provided by the Tree Bank. Nicki Largent became the executive director of the Tree Bank Foundation in August 2012, taking over for Mary Caffrey, who had served in the position since the nonprofit foundation began in 1987. 

“Our main goal will always be to keep improving Oklahoma, one tree at a time,” Largent says. “As far as numbers of trees, I don’t have a specific number for the future. We’re hoping to be able to continue what we’ve done over the past 25 years.”

What the foundation has done is distribute nearly 200,000 trees across the state. The Tree Bank is also active in educating Oklahomans on the planting and maintenance of the trees it donates to programs like Campus Trees and STOP (Shade Trees On Playgrounds). And it has done so with a staff of one and an army of volunteers.   

“There’s definitely a lot to live up to,” Largent says. “I just want to keep reaching more and more people. There are never enough volunteers.”

Volunteers have also played a major role in the success of Up With Trees, which has been serving a similar role in Tulsa since 1976. The impact of Up With Trees can be seen throughout the city, on street medians and along expressways, in parks and walking trails, nearly everywhere one looks a sign announcing the presence of Up With Trees can be found alongside the trees the organization has planted.

“Our first 30-something years, tree planting was the focus,” explains Anna America, executive director of Up With Trees, “but over the past five years it has become about education.” 

The organization still gets out and plants trees and maintains the landscape, but the folks at Up With Trees are just as likely to be found at the Tulsa Community College garden center teaching Tulsans how to plant and maintain their own trees, or at the Philbrook Museum leading a group of nature lovers through the grounds and talking about the varieties of trees they see.

“One of our main concerns recently has been telling people about what they need to do to care for their trees during the drought we’ve had,” America says. “Sometimes we take trees for granted, but people need to understand the role that trees play, not only in a healthy environment, but in property values and utility costs. If you lose a shade tree from the west or south side of your house, you’ll see it in a big way in your energy bill.”

Both Up With Trees and the Tree Bank continue to make Oklahomans aware of the value of trees in the lives of their communities and environment. For the members and volunteers, it is a labor of love.

“As much as I enjoy helping coordinate our programs, I always like being involved in the planting,” Largent says. “I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty.”

Simply Healthy

In February, we shower our significant others with candy, specifically chocolate. While appreciated and ultimately devoured, it may not be the healthiest gift, right?

Actually, it can be. Studies have shown that dark, bittersweet chocolate between 60 to 70 percent cocoa is healthy for the heart. And in this month of love, it’s fitting to give something that is good for the heart and satisfies the sweet tooth.

Dark chocolate contains flavonoids, plant-based compounds with strong antioxidant properties that help keep blood vessels cleared of cholesterol and in good working order. As a result, they can aid in the prevention of heart attacks and strokes. Dark chocolate can also help lower blood pressure.

Remember though that even with this important benefit, dark chocolate still has calories and should be eaten in moderation, just like everything else.

If you don’t think you’re a fan of dark chocolate, try this recipe that combines dark chocolate with super healthy pistachios and dried cherries for a sweet treat that you’ll love to give, and receive.


Dark Chocolate, Pistachio and Cherry Bark
Makes one pound

3/4 c. shelled, dry roasted pistachios, coarsely chopped
1 c. dried cherries
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest
1 lb. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
In a small bowl, mix together pistachios, cherries and zest; toss to combine. Spread nut mixture in an 11-by-17-inch sided sheet pan. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat chocolate for 30 seconds; stir. Continue heating and stirring in 20 second intervals until chocolate is smooth. Spread melted chocolate over nut mixture. Chill until firm and then break into pieces.

Starring The Eclectic

An early spring sunset drive through Gaillardia in Oklahoma City turned out to be the biggest surprise of Linda Haneborg’s life.

Her husband Steve, a realtor and entrepreneur, drove to a vacant lot, uncorked Champagne and surprised Haneborg with the gift of the beautiful lot. Today, the lot features a two-story Country French home, a style featured in Tulsa architect Jack Arnold’s portfolio.

“We altered the plans with Lee Hensley, a builder and visionary,” Haneborg recalls. “What he did with a red pencil was amazing.”

The exterior entrance suggests Old-World charm. Inside, a whimsical flair is evident.

“It’s a very eclectic home,” Haneborg says. “There’s a story to everything.” The Haneborgs have not been timid about mixing design styles and collections.

The entry showcases the elegant stairway to the guest quarters and provides glimpses of the living and dining rooms. At first glance, the home seems very traditional. But tucked in a living room corner, near French doors leading to a bar and library, is an antique barber chair.

The heart of the home is the family room/kitchen combo, a generous area designed for entertaining.

“We thought it was fun,” she laughs. It provides great contrast to the oak Army officer’s wardrobe from the Civil War.

“For several years, I admired a painting of a nude in a Taos antique shop,” Haneborg adds. “I bargained for it for two years. She was sent back East for an auction, but finally returned to Taos. I got it. She was meant to be in the living room.”

In the dining room, formal chairs are dressed in zebra stripes, mixing with an Italian camphor glass chandelier and an antique carousel horse.

“The horse now sits atop the glass dining table, an idea from designer Shelly Cook McInroe. I would never have placed her there. I designed a space for her on a buffet. Needless to say, this horse gets around. She sometimes lives in the entry or in front of a fireplace,” Haneborg says.

The heart of the home is the family room/kitchen combo, a generous area designed for entertaining. This space reflects the couple’s love for the West, especially Santa Fe, where they own a condo.

The limestone fireplace hearth showcases an antique Blackfoot ceremonial dress. A ghost chair and ram’s horn lamp complement a Charles M. Russell sculpture and an R.C. Gorman painting.

A 1950s jukebox reflects early marriage but is now a treasured vintage piece.

“We have dance marathons occasionally, so we ‘rock around the clock’ with our 1950s 45s,” Haneborg laughs.

Throughout the home, unique wall treatments, unusual woods, faux finishes and specialty handmade wallpapers add elegant surprises.

The black marble kitchen island and hanging pot rack is an ideal place for displaying Haneborg’s ceramic chickens. The kitchen was designed for easy entertaining. A butler’s pantry often doubles as a bar. This area exudes design style and is a feast for the eye.

The east wing master suite reflects a hushed mood and reveals more of the home’s French personality. An antique, ornately carved white oak fireplace mantel is a striking accessory in the master bedroom.

A morning room introduces the master suite and is Haneborg’s favorite place to read and relax. A gold ghost chair in this quiet setting flanks a Napolean-era tulip table, found in Limoge, France.

This secluded enclave opens to the sheltered outdoor living area, which features a fireplace and large entertaining area. It overlooks a small pool, a favorite place for Cheyenne and Cody, the family dogs.

Throughout the home, unique wall treatments, unusual woods, faux finishes and specialty handmade wallpapers add elegant surprises. The home has the look of the 17th century with a contemporary twist, reflecting the couple’s love for surprises, in interior design and in their marriage.

Curling’s Southern Conquest

In a state lacking skiable mountains or prolonged cold snaps sufficient to freeze ponds and lakes to a safe thickness, most Oklahomans have long been on the outside looking in where traditional winter athletics are concerned.

But the explosion of a slippery sport from the Great White North onto the state’s ice rink scene has found rapidly growing numbers of Oklahomans sliding into a love affair with curling.

An Olympic sport tracing its origin to Medieval Scotland, curling is an icy version of shuffleboard played with 40-pound blocks of round granite and a broom. Curlers score points by sliding the blocks into a painted target area while three team members use special brooms to sweep the ice ahead of the gliding granite.

Oklahoma’s burgeoning curling community is a melting pot of backgrounds comprised of Canadian expatriates tracing their love for the game to childhood, as well as curious Oklahoma natives captivated by Olympic competition. It is a sport enjoyed by men, women, young, old, athletic and not-so-athletic, alike.

Count Tulsa Curling Club founder Eric Vardeman among the curious captives. A chance televised viewing of the curling competition during the 2006 Olympic Winter Games set him on a quest that would ultimately lead to his establishing the Tulsa club. “It was a vendetta,” he says of his instant passion for the game. “I just had to learn how to play it. I got addicted to it without even playing it.”

When the curling bug first bit Vardeman, Tulsa lacked a curling league. He found the scratch for his curling itch in the Edmond-based Oklahoma Curling Club. Holding the distinction of being the state’s first organized curling organization, OCC was born of founder Jonathan Havercroft’s desire to find a game on the north bank of the Red River. “I grew up in Canada where curling is a big winter activity,” he explains. After moving to the Oklahoma City area in 2007, Havercroft found himself making Sunday drives to Dallas to get a game in. “After about two years I was getting fed up with this, and I decided to start a club up here.”

Curlers score points by sliding the blocks into a painted target area while three team members use special brooms to sweep the ice ahead of the gliding granite.

The trick, Havercroft says, was determining the viability of such a club. “I posted an announcement on Facebook for a meeting at a Starbucks, and five people I had never met before came out to the meeting. That was when I knew that there was at least some interest.” Nailing down a host rink would prove somewhat of a bigger challenge. After a tentative reception from the first rink he approached, Havercroft’s fortunes changed two days later. “I received a call from Darryl Rowley, the manager of the Arctic Edge ice rink in Edmond. He started asking really technical questions about how to set up the ice, and he was using a lot of curling-specific terms. I asked him, ‘Have you curled before?’ and it turned out that he had and that he was from a big curling family back in Canada. That’s when I knew I had a shot at getting him to try curling at his rink.”

Like Havercroft, geography played a role in Vardeman’s decision to establish the Tulsa club when gliding back and forth on the Turner Turnpike became a burden. After confirming a home at Oilers Ice Center, the next order of business was introducing curling to a region largely unfamiliar with the sport. “I just knew we needed eight people to play two teams. If that was all we had, that was all we had.” Borrowing stones and brooms from OCC, the Tulsa Curling Club held its first open house in January 2012. “I expected between 20 and 25 people,” Vardeman says. When 67 people showed up, any doubt that curling could be a viable enterprise in the Tulsa area was once and for all swept away.

From humble beginnings, both OCC and TCC have thrived. And in many cases, the sport has proven a rejuvenating force for those who have caught the curling fever. “One guy told me this was the first sport he has ever played,” Vardeman says. “One guy could barely walk. But when he got on the ice he was like a 20-year-old.”

Curling’s repetitive nature allows novice participants to rapidly pick up on its subtle nuances. Vardeman says a curler goes through approximately 50 weekly repetitions during a 10-week season. “It’s like golf. You get that one good shot and it’s like, ‘I could do this forever.’”

As curling continues to establish its growing Sooner State presence, Vardeman is excited by the prospect of seeing Oklahoma curlers compete on a future Winter Olympic stage. “I have delusions of grandeur,” he says, pointing to the Austin, Texas-based Lone Star Curling Club’s ongoing efforts to build a dedicated curling facility as a similar long-term local goal for TCC.

But like any legitimate visionary on good terms with fate and ambition, he pauses and thinks about his self-described delusions. Very convincingly he declares, “I don’t think they’re that far-fetched.”

Oklahoma Private School Guide

The end of the school year is months away, yet families are already looking into the future and at private school choices. Oklahoma Magazine makes the search a little easier with a round-up of information on private schools in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City areas. We asked the most credited and popular private institutions for all ages and grades for the answers you want most and profiled each participating institution. From enrollment figures and tuition costs to location and curriculum, the guide offers a first look at what to expect.

The Return Of Tom Skinner

In the July installment of this column, I wrote about Red Dirt music’s Mike McClure and the new record label he’d started with friend Chance Sparkman, 598 Recordings (named for the phone prefix Sparkman and McClure share in their hometown of Tecumseh.) With acts including the Damn Quails and McClure himself, 598 surged right out of the gate.

Then, the label scored a real coup, releasing the first new disc by singer-songwriter Tom Skinner in more than a decade.

For those who know Red Dirt music, this is a very big deal. But don’t take my word for it. Ask Garth Brooks, who calls it “a very, very special gift from Tom to all of his fans . . . of which I am one.” Or listen to Steve Ripley, head of the platinum selling-group the Tractors, who says, “Like none other, when Tom Skinner sings … I listen.”

In addition to those two musical heavyweights, Tom Skinner’s new, eponymously titled disc comes with the enthusiastic endorsement of such leading lights of the Red Dirt movement as Cody Canada, Stoney LaRue, Jason Boland and McClure himself, who are all quoted in publicity material for the new CD.

Sure, hyperbole is a part of the entertainment business. But in the case of Skinner, the praise is justified, and then some. Skinner is not only one of the originators of the Red Dirt sound; he’s also a guy who’s done more than his fair share to keep it going since the very beginning. Among other things, his weekly Tom Skinner Science Project shows – basically, Red Dirt revues – have been a part of Tulsa’s entertainment scene for the past dozen years, bringing audiences a musical potpourri that exemplifies the unselfishness and collaborative nature of the Red Dirt scene.

Tom Skinner’s new, eponymously titled disc comes with the enthusiastic endorsement of such leading lights of the Red Dirt movement as Cody Canada, Stoney LaRue, Jason Boland and Mike McClure.

Skinner’s new album does the same thing. A longtime fan might be surprised to see several other songwriters represented on Tom Skinner, especially since Skinner is as well-known for his songwriting as for his performing. But, in true Red Dirt fashion, Skinner wanted to spread things around a little bit.

“Well, to be honest, I write some songs – and I’m glad I do – but I feel like I probably get more credit as a songwriter than I deserve,” he says. “And I have so many good friends who are great songwriters that it’s hard not to do some of their songs. I could do this great song that a guy has, or I could do one of mine that’s not as good.”

Is Skinner just being modest? Probably. But it’s a trait he shares with most of the rest of his Red Dirt comrades, who seem far more interested in expressing themselves through well-crafted lyrics and having fun with one another than in chasing the national spotlight.

It wasn’t always that way for Skinner, though. In the 1980s, he and Brooks were musical partners in a popular Stillwater-based group called Santa Fe. The guys – including Skinner’s brothers Craig and Mike – played a type of music that anticipated Red Dirt: country-influenced, especially in its emphasis on the lyric rather than the groove, blended with rock and folk and other musical elements. In a 2002 interview I did with Brooks for the Tulsa World, he said, “My sound was created in Stillwater…I don’t think we would’ve had this sound anywhere else. And if I hadn’t run into the Skinner brothers, I don’t think you would’ve heard the sound we had.”

In the late ‘80s, Santa Fe took its shot at stardom, heading to Nashville to try and score a record deal. Against overwhelming odds, Brooks came through the struggle to emerge, ultimately, as one of the biggest pop-music stars who ever lived. Skinner, on the other hand, gave up the chase.

“When I came back from Nashville, I was burned out,” he admits. “I moved back to Bristow, where I’m from. I had a family and stuff, and I just went to work.”

He landed a position with the city’s water department, where he’d remain for some five years, putting the notion of stardom behind him. But about a month after he’d begun the day job, he made a life-changing discovery.

“I’d always thought that I wanted to do another one, because I wanted to make a record that I liked,”

“I’d kind of quit playing music,” he says. “But then, one day, I realized it wasn’t the music I was sick of; it was all the stuff that went on around it, trying to keep a band going and all of that. That’s what I was burned out on. So I just went back to the bedroom with a guitar and tried to reconnect with what made me like music in the first place – which was basically the way a guitar sounded, a G-chord ringing.

“I learned that, really, all that other stuff didn’t matter. And that’s when I started developing the “mud hole” theory of life. As you walk down the road, there are mud holes, and you can jump in them if you want to, but you don’t have to. You can step around them, you can jump over them and you can go on. You don’t have to get in them.”

Certainly, the new disc is no mud hole. But it still took a little time before Skinner decided to jump into it. He’d recorded a couple of discs back in the late ‘90s for the independent Binky Records, but he hadn’t been satisfied with either – partly, he thinks, because he produced them himself.

“I’d always thought that I wanted to do another one, because I wanted to make a record that I liked,” he explains. “So that was my long-range goal. But I just got so busy playing all the time that I never quite got around to it.

“Mike (McClure) has been after me to do one for a while,” he adds. “Then, when he got this record label started, he said, ‘Okay, I’m just going to have to make you do it.’ I said, ‘You don’t have to make me. Just tell me when you want me to be there and I’ll be there.’”

The Tom Skinner CD, produced by Joe Hardy (whose credits include Steve Earle, the Georgia Satellites and ZZ Top) and McClure, emerges as a disc that any artist could be proud of. In addition to both vintage and brand-new originals, Skinner covers the likes of fellow Oklahoman Hoyt Axton (“Gypsy Moth”), The Rev. Gary Davis (“Light of This World,” in which Skinner references the late Red Dirt Ranger Benny Craig), and Randy Pease, one of the first songwriters Skinner met in Stillwater following his discharge from the Army in the late ‘70s. The Pease contribution, “I Love This Game,” is told from the viewpoint of a washed-up minor-league pitcher, and it joins Skinner’s liner notes and his new publicity photo in suggesting a baseball motif for the disc.

“Well, I don’t know about that,” says Skinner with a laugh, “but I do know that when you’re playing baseball, you’re a kid again – and music is kind of the same way. When you’re on stage, I figure it ought to be the best two or three hours of your day.”

Tom Skinner is available at online outlets, Tulsa-area stores and at Tulsa’s The Colony on Wednesday nights, when The Tom Skinner Science Project can be seen and heard.

Act Naturally

It seems like we’ve been hearing about the viability of natural gas as a transportation fuel for so long that it’s almost like thinking about a flying car. Sure, it’s cool to dream about, but it will probably never happen in our lifetimes; that’s something for the future. But the truth is, flying cars are edging ever closer to becoming a reality, with a number of companies completing successful test-flights in the last few years. And widespread use of natural gas to fuel our vehicles? One Oklahoma company is leading the charge to make that a reality much sooner than one might think.

A leading producer of natural gas, Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corporation launched the subsidiary Peake Fuel Solutions, with the goal of developing new technologies to allow for more widespread use of natural gas as an alternative to traditional transportation fuels.

“(Peake Fuel Solutions) is a venture capital effort by Chesapeake,” explains Kent Wilkinson, vice president of Natural Gas Ventures at Chesapeake. “We’re not only developing the tools and technologies that will help make natural gas attractive to potential customers, we go out and try to bring these systems to market.”

Last November Peake Fuel Solutions introduced their latest system, a conversion kit that allows 2010-2012 model heavy-duty diesel engines to operate on a mixture of diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG). Upon conversion, a truck can operate on up to 70 percent CNG or LNG, saving up to 30 percent on fuel costs. Trucks outfitted with the diesel natural gas (DNG) conversion kit also maintain the ability to run on diesel alone when CNG or LNG is not available.

“What puts us at the forefront of DNG is that our kit is the very first to be EPA certified,” Wilkinson says. “It’s primarily for the heavy-duty trucks, the class seven or eight. But this type of technology will lead to other systems. You’re going to be seeing the same development in the spark-ignited engines.”

All of which sounds wonderful but still doesn’t answer the concerns of many who wonder where in the world they will be able to fill up on natural gas. It’s a valid question. It’s also one that Peake Fuel Solutions can answer.

Can you imagine never needing to go to a gas station again, except for, maybe, a late-night frozen burrito?

In October 2012, a little over a month before the announcement of the DNG conversion kit, Peake Fuel Solutions announced its collaboration with General Electric for the launch of the CNG Fuel In A Box system. This system is marketed not only for trucks with the DNG conversion kits, but also for any vehicle that operates on CNG.  

“In collaboration with Peake Fuel Solutions, GE is developing infrastructure solutions to accelerate the adoption of natural gas as a transportation fuel,” says Mike Hosford, general manager of Unconventional Resources, GE Oil & Gas, in a press release announcing the system. “The CNG In A Box system is a unique fueling solution that brings together some of the best innovation from across GE to help fleet owners and everyday drivers realize the benefits of cleaner burning, abundant, more affordable natural gas.”

The system receives natural gas via pipeline and compresses it on site. On site can mean at a traditional fueling station, like a convenience store, but it can also mean anywhere else, as long as there is access to a natural gas pipeline and in accordance with local ordinance. The pay at the pump technology means an attendant isn’t necessarily required, either.

“There are some exciting opportunities for entrepreneurs,” Wilkinson says. “These can be entirely self-contained. You could have an unmanned operation.”

The system has a compact design – the “In A Box” moniker is pretty accurate – that allows for mobility, and with 250 units in production, it won’t be long before you’re seeing a few more places to fuel up your new natural gas vehicle. With a price-per-gallon equivalent to about half that of the average price of diesel, and, according to estimates, a 100-year supply in the U.S., natural gas is looking more like a viable alternative fuel to many. And the DNG converter kit and CNG In A Box systems are only the beginning. 

Can you imagine never needing to go to a gas station again, except for, maybe, a late-night frozen burrito? Peake Fuel Solutions is also working on a system that will allow natural gas vehicle owners to refuel their cars at their own residences using the same natural gas they use to heat their homes. No announcement has been made as to when this kind of system will be available, but with a company like Peake Fuel Solutions working on it, odds are it will be sooner than you think. And those flying cars? Maybe the manufacturers building those things should look at converting to a natural gas system. There should be plenty of places to fuel up.

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