Sushi, cake, and Seabiscuit

If you're friends with Vivian or me on Facebook, you might have read that she had a kidney stone over the past week. It knocked Vivian out for a few days, but after a few days of bed rest she's bounced right back, so thank you all for your prayers and thoughts while she's been recovering here at home!

Over the weekend, in-between of taking care of both Hannah and Vivian, my brother Nathan had a birthday! My other brother Jonathan came down for the weekend to celebrate, and we spent some quality bonding time playing Utopia on the Intellivision together. Nathan dropped by on Saturday, and Jonathan and I took him out to see the Jack Black / Shirley McClaine film, "Bernie," which was apparently based on a bizarre true story out of Carthage, Texas. We dropped by Sushi Japan afterward to stuff ourselves with sushi and then headed home for a little more quality time over cake and ice cream. Nathan also got to see his niece, Hannah, for the first time this year. She turned seven months old on Friday and spent most of her time with us just being adorable.

 

On Monday, Vivian was feeling well enough to head down to Turner Park by Midtown Crossing to see Seabiscuit. On Mondays this summer, the local theater shows free sports movies on a large, inflatable screen, and Vivian had been wanting to hold me to a long-held agreement that if she saw my favorite film — Terry Gilliam's Brazil — that I'd watch what I expected to be a fairly predictable based-on-a-true-story sports nostalgia film. I wasn't disappointed, of course, but I did have fun hanging out in the park with the family, as well as Aunt Lisa, who dropped by to share some spicy trail mix and Raisinettes with us.

I'm glad Vivian's recovered so quickly, because now she won't have to miss our annual camping trip with Jenny and company. (That will be our next update, of course.)

Father's Day and Julius Caesar

Those of you with fathers might be aware that last Sunday was Father's Day, and my first as an official Dad. Vivian and I kicked off the weekend with a trip to Jitterbugs Night Out, dancing with the usual batch of Lindy Hoppers and passing around Hannah to our usual set of friends. As she gets older and more mobile, we can't be sure how often we'll be able to make it down to 24th and Douglas for a Shim Sham, so we wanted to take the opportunity to drop by while we could (and join in Lee's birthday jam).

On Sunday, Vivian surprised me with breakfast from Abelardo's for Father's Day! That was sweet — nothing starts the day like a football-sized burrito made of potatoes, eggs and sausage inside a fried tortilla. On the side were some fried french toast sticks and some blackberries courtesy of my mom-in-law.

At church, Pastor Drew brought everyone bottles of Dad's Root Beer (among other bevery) to celebrate the day. That evening, Vivian prepared one of my favorite foods — ribeye steak — for a Father's Day Dinner. Since Jack was technically a father, too, he got to have Johnny Marzetti, which is apparently popular in the Canal Zone, where he grew up. We also got presents from Donna and Vivian, which included a double-boiler and barbecue sauce for me, and a new grill and nose-hair trimmer for Jack. Hannah participated in the festivities by squealing at us and chilling on the couch.

 

On Thursday, Vivian and I went to the opening night of Shakespeare on the Green down at Elmwood Park with a bunch of our mutual friends. I took of early from and snagged a spot down near the front before other people started to arrive and crowd their way in. Several people brought wine, cheese, chips, fruit and other things to nibble as the sun set and the show got underway. This year's show was Julius Caesar, a play I'd actually studied in my sophomore year of high school, so it actually brought back memories to see it again. Vivian was actually ill (with what we learned later was a kidney stone) but insisted on coming at least for Act 2 of the show. I handled Hannah in the meantime along with the help of our dozens of great friends. We actually left the car's lights on, so Mark had to come back and give us a jump while Eric and Maggie helped haul a bunch of our stuff back to the car. Times like these would never be as good if it weren't for our wonderful assortment of friends!

Forsooth.

Ballgames and the Sumtur

Summer's back in full swing, and you know what that means — baseball! Vivian and I took Hannah to see her very first baseball game at Werner Park last Saturday, where the Omaha Stormchasers beat the Memphis Redbirds 3-0. The bases were tied up in the ninth inning, but it really wasn't even close, so we paid more attention to the crazy games between innings that involved spouses diving on each other and throwing things at goofy mascots. The weather was beautiful, though, and we managed to enjoy the game was the sun was done burning holes into our eyes and dipped below the horizon somewhere round inning five. Of course, we had to stay for the fireworks afterward, which left us with plenty of happy sunspots on the way out of the park.

The fun didn't stop there, of course. Our neighbor Troy was busy hosting a bunch of swing dancers who came to crash after the Omaha Jitterbugs' "champions weekend," so we dropped by on the way home. It was a great chance to meet a few cool cats, dance with some of our familiar friends, have a drink, and pass Hannah around to a few new folks, including champion instructor Dee, who called her the most adorable baby in the world and held onto her for an hour so Vivian and I could dance.

The following Thursday, I grabbed a few of my fellow swing dancers to dance to some live jazz music down at the Sumtur Amphitheater in Papillion. The Brad Cordle Band was playing for free for anyone who happened by, so Eric, Sherry, Jessica and Sean came by to dance down in front of the band. The music was quite good and the weather was perfect. We just need to gather a few more dancers before we try it again.

The next day, Vivian's mom and dad took us to Outback Steakhouse to use up a gift card and a coupon, which was nice. It was Hannah's first experience with a restaurant that has turned into something of an annual birthday tradition for the Taber household. We all had steaks, and Hannah just drank from her bottle, holding it all by herself in her little carseat.

After dinner, it was back to the Sumtur again, where Vivian and I watched Cars 2 for lack of anything better to do, and Hannah fell asleep in my arms.