Hallowed Ween

Happy Halloween, everybody! Vivian and I enjoyed playing dress up with our friends once again. I bought a white collar shirt from JC Penney and put on some suspenders to become Bill Lumbergh from Office Space. I had to put on a few minor touches to complete the look, such as shaving off my infamous goatee and putting on my gigantic 10-year-old glasses. Vivian dressed up as a hot chick, and we enjoyed parading our costumes for a couple of our friends the week before Halloween.

Our mutual friend Jenny had a birthday party at Hugh's house, where a bunch of our friends dressed up in amusing costumes and carved pumpkins together. Merinda also had another blow-out event at her house, where several guests did the dance from Thriller together on her basement dance floor. They'd apparently been practicing just for the occasion. I got video from both events and have it linked below via YouTube.

House Parties

Vivian and I are closer than ever to being homeowners! After a month or two of thorough hunting throughout the Omaha metro area, we finally settled on a lovely little home down in Bellevue. We batted offers back and forth with the sellers and were finally able to arrive on a price last week. Before making our first offer, we had some of our friends over to see the house before making a final decision. It was quite fun to have a house party in someone else's house. The home isn't exactly what we wanted, but it's a good location and a very fair price. We're looking forward to moving in soon and calling it our own, but it still needs to be inspected, appraised, and underwritten before we can close. Keep praying in the meantime!

In the meantime, we've still found time to enjoy parties at other people's homes, including our hopefully soon-to-be neighbors in Bellevue, Troy and Merinda. Merinda had been planning a giant birthday blow-out to celebrate turning 30, and had managed to book the Mezcal Brothers to perform in her basement of all things. Unfortunately, they had to postpone their appearance, but we still enjoyed making a scene dancing to Thriller and a wide variety of swing tunes. Geoff, our new Irish friend, brought some smooth Irish whiskey that it made much easier to make fools of ourselves on the dance floor before heading home.

Fall Fun

Fall's finally here, and with it comes weather that's only slightly cooler than the weather we've enjoyed throughout the summer so far (which is insanely wonderful). Per tradition, Vivian and I went by Vala's Pumpkin Patch to check out this year's festivities. We went with our bible group from Christ Community Church, (which is the first time I've mentioned them in my blog so far, oddly enough) and got to wander through a corn maze, have some succotash, and pick out a pumpkin for carving later on.

Another fall tradition is the Great at Adventures Hayrack Ride up in Santa's Woods. Vivian and I opted to take the less "rowdy" hayrack ride so we could enjoy looking up at the stars and not have to pick straw out of our clothes and hair for the next two weeks (like some other friends of ours will have to do). We did get to enjoy swing dancing in the barn to some country music and grilling hot dogs and smores on an open fire as well.

Three decades of Viviroonie

It's been another busy, busy week for Vivian and me. We spent a good portion of our Saturday looking at houses (and no, no definite winners just yet). We're planning on looking at several more over the next week or two and will let everyone know when we have a certain change of address coming along.

Of course, we also found time to attend the wedding reception of Vivian's co-workers Tamra and Andy. We've been following the exploits of this couple since early last year, so it's nice to see them finally tie the knot. The reception was held at Tamra's parents' country home north of Omaha, which had a gorgeous view that took us ten minutes just to drink in. The weather was just perfect to play game of ladder golf or hammer nails into a stump with the wrong end of a hammer (don't ask). There was a yummy buffet luncheon from Qdoba followed by a couple tearful speeches by the happy couple and their mutual relatives.

The next day, we celebrated Vivian's 30th Birthday down in Platte River State Park, near Louisville. The weather was beautiful, but the wind was kicking up something fierce, especially from the top of the park's observation tower. We enjoyed a picnic lunch outdoors with plenty of food and drink courtesy of everyone. We played a little impromptu frisbee afterward and then spent a good hour or so trying to destroy Goofus, a hideous piñata made with concrete. Vivian's parents originally made him for my birthday party, and he managed both to bloody a few of our knuckles and break our stick TWICE as we barely managed to defeat him. The sun set in the meantime, and then Vivian got to open her presents. Among other things, I got her The Ungame, a social boardgame from the 1970s with very few rules (but loads of fun to play).

Happy birthday, Vivian! I'm so happy we get to share the next 30 years of our lives together.

Vivian's Birthday Video