Labor Day Weekend

Nebraska has had a sudden and very welcome spurt of beautiful weather, recently. We've gone from 90 degrees and muggy to 70 degrees every day and sunny, so Vivian and I have been making the most of it before the snow and bitter cold hit.

On Friday, I took Vivian on a "surprise date" to Matsu Sushi downtown. The rest of her co-workers were actually going on an all-you-can-eat sushi binge over at Wasabi sushi, but Vivian wanted to save that for a time when she won't have restrictions on raw fish (among other things). We had a sushi caterpillar among other things and wrapped up the evening with a trip to the theater to see Captain America.

On Sunday, we had another bit of Asian cuisine down at China Road to give our friend Don a send-off party. He's been reassigned at his job, so we won't be able to see him at church on Sunday mornings anymore.

On Sunday night, our mutual friend Jenny threw a labor day party at her house. The weather was still quite cool — just perfect for a game of stereo Frisbee in the backyard. We had burgers, and dogs and then settled down for a few more hilarious rounds of Telestrations inside. We also got to toss around a few Angry Birds sometime before midnight.

Vivian and I had no specific plans for Labor Day, but the weather was so nice, we had to get out and enjoy it, so we took an impromptu trip to Lincoln to visit the Secret Bridges one more time before the baby comes due. There were several other people wandering around Wilderness Park on bikes enjoying the weather with us. A couple things had changed at the bridges since we'd been there last. For one, the old graffiti had been painted over. For another, someone had planted some flowers up on the top of the bridge. Someone had built a fire pit underneath the second bridge, and the old meadow had been overrun with a few trees and thistles. I poked around the trail a bit more and found a historical marker for a train wreck that occurred back in 1894, which the trail we were following had been part of the Rock Island line. I still don't know much about locomotive history, but it's still interesting to see the remnants of a hundred years still lingering about. (I even noticed the train tracks we always crossed had been lain 13 years apart — one with wooden ties, the other with concrete.)

The beautiful fall weather seems to be continuing indefinitely for the time being. Now we can only hope we'll get to have another outdoor dance, camping trip, or some other outdoor event so we can fully appreciate it.