Romney, Spanakopita, and Mother's Day

Springtime is in full bloom here in Omaha, with roses and peonies all in full bloom and the weather still lovely and not all that warm (yet) — the perfect weather to walk around downtown and see a Presidential candidate.

On Thursday afternoon, Vivian and I (and Hannah) squeezed our way along with a couple hundred others onto the deck of Rick's Cafe and boatyard to get a glimpse of Mitt Romney as he dropped by to say a few words. We stuck around for a little while afterward hoping to get a chance to shake his hand and perhaps hand him a baby to hold for a picture, but the Republican candidate seemed to vanish like a ninja shortly after giving his speech and after sticking around a while to see if he'd reappear, we eventually gave up. I was fairly pleased with my ability to snap several decent pictures with my new Canon and its zoom lens, despite the giant crowd of spectators, most of whom had their own cell phones and digital cameras waving in the air in front of me.

On Saturday, Vivian and I enjoyed hanging out with some of our friends and eating all of their food. First stop was our friend Tamra's apartment. Her landlord raised her rent, so I and a few others (her dad, boyfriend, boyfriend's brother, and Jon Paper) hauled her stuff up and down two flights of stairs and one block away. We stuck around for Digiorno pizza afterward, but the promised "comedy show" with Royce never seemed to happen.

That evening, we dropped by Phil and Jen's to celebrate Phil's certification to sell financial products. They had a giant pile of Greek food for us, which included spanakopita, flatbread, dill yoghurt dip, and a kind of Greek salad with feta cheese, olives, and grape tomatoes. Opa! We stuffed ourselves while watching UHF and a few episodes of Police Squad. Hannah seemed to stay content just playing with her feet.

On Sunday, I got to celebrate Mother's Day for the very first time with Vivian (as an official mom). Twin Valley Church was hosting another giant Mother's Day breakfast for all the moms (and ladies in general) in our congregation, with pancakes, eggs, and sausage made up by Pastor Drew and the gang. Hannah wore her baby bonnet and spent her time looking adorable and playing with grampy's beard. Darlene had brought a bunch of flowers for the mothers in the congregation to take on their way home as well.

Back home, the ladies of the family all dressed themselves in leis as Jack and I worked on a mother's day dinner for everyone. Naturally, we stuffed ourselves with appetizers first before working our way up to glazed pork butt, yucca, and salad when dinnertime finally rolled around. Hannah's been eating at the table with Vivian and me now, quite fascinated with us handling silverware to eat solid food. Afterward, we gave Donna a shirt that Hannah helped decorate with her own handprints.

Happy Mothers Day, all you lucky mothers out there!