Nathan's 30 and other stuff

Last Tuesday, my brother Nathan turned 30 years old. I'm not sure why this came as a surprise to me, but it seems like just yesterday that I was celebrating my big "three-oh." Time certainly does fly. To celebrate, Vivian and I met up with Nathan and his wife Ranae at their apartment in Lincoln to have some Fat Pat's pizza, and then we went to see Toy Story three with my other brother Jonathan, who drove down from Wayne. Naturally, we arrived early enough to get good seats and play some video games before the show started. We were actually the first ones in the theater and arrived shortly before a troop of several dozen Thespians dressed up as superheroes ranging from Robin to Inspector Gadget.

The Grand Marquis were playing at JNO Friday night, and even though Vivian and I managed to fritter away most of our evening going to the YMCA and watching a DVD of Bosom Buddies while drinking Buttery Nipples, we still found time to go to the dance. It was a surprisingly small crowd for a night with a live band, and the few of us who had the natural desire for breakfast after midnight decided to crash at the Bellevue IHOP for a change of venue for our post-JNO BS'ing. (Kevin seemed particularly interested in figuring out where he'd met our waitress before. It was apparently at the same IHOP.)

On a blazing hot Saturday, Vivian and I dropped to see our mutual friends Tim and Robin at their housewarming party for a barbecue. It was apparently so hot that they had to call the Bellevue Fire Department over to cool things off a bit, but Danny had his wading pool out, and a few extra squirt guns helped everyone else in the vicinity keep cool for the afternoon.

In other news, Vivian's brother Oliver was in town, and she spent part of the day shopping with him for bathroom faucets. The lot of us had dinner at Outback, where I learned both what "Pittsburg" grilling means, and then we crashed back at our house to watch Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland before calling it a night.

On Sunday, Vivian and I had dinner with some bible study friends in Papillion. Justin and Kelly served up some tasty stuffed pasta shells, and Justin got to show off his recently completed shed. They're dog-sitting their neighbor's Lhasa Apso (named Dusty), and he managed to keep us company by being irresistibly cute.