<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashadoestulsa/4476429169/" title="Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman by Tasha Does Tulsa, on Flickr"><img alt="Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman" height="283" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/4476429169_649ff2afa2.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />Turn out the lights, hang the clothesline and scrub those recycling bins until they sparkle, Tulsa. Earth Day, on April 22, is fast approaching, and you don't want to be caught with your insulation made of old denim pants down.<br /><br />A lot goes on in Tulsa for Earth Day, but I, blogger geek that I am, am excited about one in particular: <a href="http://www.cfbeo.org/eb10.html">Empty Bowls 2010</a>.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>"Bountiful Earth...Empty Bowls" is the theme of this year's hunger awareness dinner and fundraiser at <a href="http://www.cfbeo.org/">the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma</a>, a Tulsa nonprofit that, by <a href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2010/03/homemade-life-two-free-copies-here-at.html">bringing booksignings with famous bloggers</a> and contributing generously to <a href="http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=208614&amp;id=403568208507&amp;ref=ss">the monthly Tulsa Blogger Meetup</a>, has been a great friend to the local blogging community.<br /><br />The event kicks off at 5:30 p.m. on Earth Day at the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel and Convention Center, in south Tulsa at 6808 S. 107th E. Ave. (on the east side of US 169 at 71st Street).<br /><br />Empty Bowls will include a simple meal of soup, salad and dessert. It'll also play host to both a silent and a live auction.<br /><br />This is where things for the blog addicted get rather interesting.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashadoestulsa/4476429169/" title="Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman by Tasha Does Tulsa, on Flickr"><img alt="Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman" height="283" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/4476429169_649ff2afa2.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />Up for grabs in this year's auction is <b>a two-night stay for up to four couples in The Lodge</b>.<br /><br />And fans of <a href="http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/">The Pioneer Woman</a> know exactly what I mean when I talk about <a href="http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeandgarden/category/lodge/">capital T, capital L, The Lodge</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashadoestulsa/4476429289/" title="Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman by Tasha Does Tulsa, on Flickr"><img alt="Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman" height="333" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2710/4476429289_c262ac77ed.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />For the uninitiated, The Lodge is on Drummond Ranch near Pawhuska. While Ladd Drummond, a kazillionth-generation Oklahoma cattle rancher, tends to the herd, his wife <a href="http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/">Ree, a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman, blogs like the dickens at ThePioneerWoman.com</a>. <br /><br />For her trouble, Ree's blog gets 22 million page views each month. And it's landed her on <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/02/web-celebrities-internet-thought-leaders-2010.html">Forbes' 2010 Web Celeb 25</a> list. And a few Weblog of the Year nods (among others) at <a href="http://2010.bloggies.com/">the Bloggie Awards</a>. And a <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1697885376">cookbook that topped the </a><i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1697885376">New York Times</a></i><a href="http://thepioneerwoman.com/my_cookbook/"> bestseller list</a>.<br /><br />Yeah. We Web crawlers, we like her a little, apparently. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashadoestulsa/4477333420/" title="Pioneer Woman Booksigning by Tasha Does Tulsa, on Flickr"><img alt="Pioneer Woman Booksigning" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4477333420_9726affa3f.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashadoestulsa/4476557021/" title="Pioneer Woman Booksigning by Tasha Does Tulsa, on Flickr"><img alt="Pioneer Woman Booksigning" height="375" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4476557021_d2495ab494.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashadoestulsa/4469833075/" title="Oklahoma Biscuit Standoff by Tasha Does Tulsa, on Flickr"><img alt="Oklahoma Biscuit Standoff" height="332" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2757/4469833075_0c7e352801.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />Me included.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashadoestulsa/4057450032/" title="Pioneer Woman Booksigning by Tasha Does Tulsa, on Flickr"><img alt="Pioneer Woman Booksigning" height="375" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2445/4057450032_015ce23e19.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />Um, yeah.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tashadoestulsa/4477333028/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Pioneer Woman Booksigning by Tasha Does Tulsa, on Flickr"><img alt="Pioneer Woman Booksigning" height="375" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2797/4477333028_53b08e2e63.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />Woah. Hold it down there, Tash.<br /><br />Last year's Empty Bowls event raised more than $120,000 for the Food Bank.<br /><br />I suspect that with auction items like a two-night stay at The Lodge, as well as:<br /><br />-a private cooking class for 10 at the Lobeck-Taylor home with former Tulsa mayor Kathy Taylor and Chef Timothy Sean Fitzgerald;<br />-a Napa Valley vineyard retreat that includes six bottles from Oklahoma-bred winery Far Niente (this is swanky stuff, let me tell you);<br />-University of Tulsa football package that includes sideline passes and a behind-the-scenes tour;<br />-and dozens more...<br /><br />...that Empty Bowls 2010 attendees are going to blow last year's pot out of the water. <br /><br />To check out and bid on these items, including the  stay at The Lodge, grab your tickets right away to Empty Bowls 2010. Tickets are $35 and include dinner and a souvenir handmade pottery bowl (get it? Empty Bowls?). Reserve by calling Frances Bevel at (918) 585-2800, ext. 109. Or, <a href="mailto:fbevel@cfbeo.org">e-mail her</a>.<br /><br />Happy bidding! <br /><br /><i>All photos of Ree at The Lodge are by Tulsa-based photographer Shane Bevel. </i><a href="http://shanebevel.com/"><i>Visit him on the Web</i></a><i> and </i><a href="http://twitter.com/shanebevel"><i>follow him on Twitter</i></a><i>. </i>