<div>It's raining here in T-Town right now, and the weather forecasts tell us things aren't going to get any better as the weekend progresses. Even so, a little rain shouldn't stop everyone from carpooling to Muskogee tomorrow for the 43rd annual Muskogee Azalea Parade. </div><div><br /></div><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tZVufRlMtzM/SeimWvXCBMI/AAAAAAAAA3w/XA_6t-CfBXo/s400/DSC04338.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325689468966012098" border="0" /><div>We Okies are darn proud of our azaleas, let me tell you. Our gardens and parks explode with red, pink, purple and white during the first couple of weeks in April, and we walk around swooning at their beauty and taking hundreds of amateur photographs of ourselves and our loved ones in front of them until they fry (the flowers, not us or our loved ones, excluding red-headed me who got a moderate sunburn from a quick lunch on the patio at <a href="http://www.eatfullmoon.com/">Full Moon Cafe on Cherry Street</a> yesterday) in May.  <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>If you've never been to the Muskogee Azalea Parade, go tomorrow. It's quite a sight to behold. Plus, there will be chili and barbeque. Really, really yummy chili and barbeque - good enough to attract 10,000 visitors and raise $800,000 for various charities benefiting children, anyway. The whole shebang starts at 11 a.m. <a href="http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/local/local_story_106185332.html">Check out the Muskogee Phoenix Web site for more information</a> before you head out.</div><div><br /></div><div>Or, if you're lazy (don't tell anyone, but I have a problem with sloth - the disposition toward laziness, not the weird little animal), head to Tulsa's own Woodward Park (at 21st and Peoria), where something like 15,000 azalea plants are really showing their stuff. </div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of stuff, check out my little man (click to enlarge - just do it): </div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tZVufRlMtzM/SeilnQK-gGI/AAAAAAAAA3o/oi5PP7kxq5Q/s1600-h/DSC04326.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tZVufRlMtzM/SeilnQK-gGI/AAAAAAAAA3o/oi5PP7kxq5Q/s400/DSC04326.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325688653140099170" border="0" /></a>Sorry. It's Friday, and I thought everyone could use a drool shot to kick off the weekend. This way, you have something to look forward to - it only gets better from here. 