Swinging kids and overdue reunions

Spring is almost here, and it couldn't have come too soon! The snow is rapidly melting away and turning into slush, and even though winter had one last gasp of a blizzard this week, I can feel the warm sunny days of spring right around the corner.

Last Thursday, I dropped by the Apple Store for my weekly Final Cut Express training only to discover the store had been evacuated. The power had gone out, and somebody smelled smoke, so they called the fire department. Three trucks and two ambulances came to rescue, and the store was closed for the rest of the day. It was amusing to see a giant cluster of Apple Store employees taking photos of the scene with their iPhones, and I was able to make a couple jokes about FireWire before heading back to the office.

On Thursday, our mutual friend "Ms. Kouba" invited us and bunch of our jitterbug friends down to Plattsmouth to help put on a swing dance for her students at Plattsmouth Middle School. They'd seen the film "Swing Kids" and wanted to learn how to dance, so Vivian and Eric showed them a few basic steps in East Coast swing. Of course, we also had to show them such things as the donkey kick, and I think Olin got a few of them doing butt spins before the night was over. We danced to "traditional" swing music as well as some hip-hopping club music, which was just as fun. There's nothing quite as mind-boggling as seeing Dan Wondra doing the Lindy Hop to some hard core techno.

On Saturday, we stopped by Jolene's house to help celebrate her birthday with her husband Randy and a bunch of our friends from GAMe. We hadn't seen each other in a while, and we had a lot of catching up to do. For instance, Randy and Jolene are now expecting their first child, so we got to see their first baby pictures in the form of ultrasound images hanging on the fridge. They also have an adorable chinchilla that looked absolutely terrified of all the new people hanging around.

That evening, we attended a couples dinner event in the basement of 1314 Jones street. Craig and Debby put on the event for both married and dating couples involved with Great Adventures, so we got to eat and play a few hilarious rounds of charades before the night was over.


On Sunday, Vivian and I had a long overdue reunion with our old friends Mike and Bekah and their kids. I've written about them on this blog before, but I hadn't seen them since my wedding, where Mike had been a groomsman. They'd had a third child since then named Eden, so we got to meet her and show them some of the photos from our honeymoon and anniversary trip before calling it a night.