Thinking Pink

It was a weekend of serious swing dancing for Vivian and me. It started off with the Pink Party on Friday night, which had been postponed one week due to inclement weather. (The snow, by the way, had all but vaporized by Friday.) Viv and I had offered to help set up for the event, so we were there at seven setting up tables before our pink-clad guests started showing up. The pink polo I wore was, for some reason, mistaken for orange all throughout the night. I suppose it was just a rather manly shade of pink.

We tried not to stay up too late, however, because on Saturday morning we got up to have breakfast with Lee Terry at Billy's Cafe at 50th and Grover. Lee Terry is the congressman in our district, and he apparently shows up to meet with is constituents every now and then. I "friended" him and Facebook and learned about the event, but the place was packed tanks to a notice in the Omaha World-Herald. We did get a chance to sit down and eat breakfast before the place filled up with questions. We also got to shake Lee's hand on the way out. It definitely felt good to feel a little more involved in the political process than going to vote for some guy you've never seen in person every four years.

On Saturday night, our friends Troy and Merinda had the grand revealing of their newly-finished basement. I heard about the progress on this remodeling project for months now, and it was quite exciting to see the finished result: a gorgeous dance floor that fills the entire space of the basement, as well as a fully-stocked bar in the corner. Sweet! I got a serious workout dancing to some of my favorite music from the 80s and today, which was quite a refreshing change from the standard 40s swing playlist we're used to hearing every Friday night.

Naturally, the Order of the Shovel was present and had a ten-second group huddle and got our photos taken for no apparent reason. Rock on!

Snowy Valentine's Weekend

It's been another busy week for Vivian and me, with Valentine's Day, a Wedding, and a blizzard adding to our usual fun of hanging out with friends from our variety of social circles. On Wednesday last week, Eric called the Order of the Shovel together at Famous Dave's for a fun night of eating barbecue. I'm glad we had the chance to get together, because the blizzard that hit Omaha on Friday wound up cancel ling the long-anticipated Pink Party. I'm always amused when the "Shovelers" get together, because it seems several of us have digital cameras and spend much of our time snapping photos of each other for no apparent reason. Lisa felt obgligated to explain to the other patron in the restaurant that "we're always like this." I usually just hope they think this is some kind of a class/family reunion and we don't get to see each other several other week as it is.

On Friday, I decided to have Valentine's Day a little bit early so I could surprise Vivian at work. A passing snowstorm dumped several inches of the white stuff on Omaha, so I suppose Vvian was even more surprised when I showed up with roses, soup, and hot cocoa. HyVee was selling blue roses this year, so I was able to get one of those for Vivian as well, since blue is her favorite color. On Saturday, Vivian treated me to a Valentine's Day breakfast with heart-shaped pancakes and bacon arranged like an arrow, which was very sweet. That evening, we cuddled up on the couch and watched Sixteen Candles, courtesy of my laptop and iTunes.

It was a fairly quiet Valentine's Day this year, because we spent most of our time helping our friends Craig and Debby get married. I was recruited to be an usher at their wedding, so Vivian and I showed up on Friday to learn what to do at the ceremony and reception afterward. We got to have dinner at Spaghetti Works in the Old Market when we were done and got a fairly good night's rest before the big day on Saturday.

Vivian and I actually got to the church early at ten o'clock so she could make lunch for the wedding party as their photos were being taken. The ceremony itself was a two o'clock, and I made sure to get plenty of photos and video inbetween my ushering duties. It was a lovely ceremony, and we got to have the reception in the basement of 1316 Jones Street, where GAMe holds its weekly bible studies. It was a good time, but after about ten straight hours of standing up, I was about ready to collapse when Vivian and I got home.

On Sunday, Vivian and I had every intention of spending the day resting up, but a bunch of our friends decided to take advantage of the recent snowfall and go sledding out in Northwest Omaha. I hadn't been sledding since I was a kid, and Vivian had been wanting to go sledding all year, so we couldn't say no. We had a great time, and I was able to relive a bit of my childhood in Michigan sliding down the steep hill by Standing Bear Lake and trying not to wipe out on an slippery, inflatable sled. Venche had the bright idea of starting a snowball fight as a few of our friends tried to get back up the hill after one run. I stayed far enough back to take photos before joining in.

In all, it's been a great week, and I'm glad we'd been able to see many different groups of friends who for one reason or another don't always hang out together. I'm also glad I was able to put the camera down long enough to have some fun with everyone this time around.

• Photos from the Shoveler's Barbecue Dinner
  
• Photos from Craig and Debby's Wedding
• Video from Craig and Debby's Wedding
  
• Photos from sledding on Sunday
  

Meet the Rolling Shadow

A few weeks ago, Vivian took the Rolling Prune into Walker Tire for a check-up and received a fairy grim diagnosis. It needed a number of serious repairs totally more than the car was worth three years ago when Vivian bought the 95 Chevy Cavalier, so it was time for us to trade her in. Finding the ideal replacement wasn't nearly as easy as I'd hoped. Viv and I visited several car lots here in Omaha, both big and small, and none of them seemed to want to sell us anything other than new or nearly-new vehicles that cost double or more than we wanted to spend. We were finally able to find a small dealer in Ashland with a 2001 Honda Accord that he was willing to sell us for well under its "blue book" value. Over the weekend, we drove the rolling prune off into the sunset and came back with a shiny new rolling shadow.

It's been a busy couple of weeks for Vivian and me, but we've still done our best to get out of the apartment and stay social with our friends. Last Sunday, we had a great Superbowl party at our friend Venche's house, with some of the retreating to the basement to play Clue during the second half. On Friday night last week we made a brief appearance at JNO, and I'm glad we did. Robin Merserau made a rare appearance with her husband Tim and son Danny. She was a regular at JNO long before I came on the scene, and it was good to see her again. Vivian and I had dinner at her parents house on Saturday, and we got to play a couple games, including one called Snafooey that was invited by a friend of mine in Lincoln.

Though we're doing our best to remain social, there is a real chance Vivian and I may become homebodies soon. I just recently discovered how many full-length movies are available for free on Hulu, and Vivian and I can watch them on our new TV just as easily ad popping in a DVD. We watched Rudy last week, one of her favorite movies, and it seems new ones are popping up all the time. We could even watch Horse Feathers, my favorite Marx Brothers movies (check it out if you haven't seen it — these guys are hilarious even after seventy years). At this rate, Blockbuster will soon be out of business, and Vivian and I won't have any reason to leave the house.

Two years of making it official

It's been two years since Vivian and I became an "official" dating couple, so we decided to have a couple pretty special date nights over the weekend. On Saturday, we went to the Chanticleer theater in Council Bluffs to see a couple friends of ours performing in "Love, Sex, and the IRS." Omaha Jitterbug board member Andy Meredith played a sneaky bachelor who listed his male roommate Leslie as his wife, and our bible study friend Jolene played Kate, his would-be fiance who is caught in a love triangle with Leslie. It was a very funny production, and it certainly helped to see a couple of our own friends caught up in the plot.

Monday, January 26, was our Sushi Anniversary, marking two years since Vivian turned to me in the car and asked, "So, do you want to make it official?" after having a sushi dinner at Sakura Bana. This time around we ate at Blue Sushi, a fairly classy sushi restaurant in West Omaha, and we both picked out a variety of Japanese treats to enjoy, including some delicious squid salad. Afterward, we wandered by the 20 Grand theater, where the Clint Eastwood film Gran Torino was still playing. My dad and several other people had recommended the movie, so we thought it was a safe bet, and we weren't disappointed.

I have to say, the last two years have been nothing short of miraculous. I still probably drive most of my single friends nuts when I act gushy and lovey-dovey with Vivian in public, but we keep growing closer in ways I can't describe, and I've found that I love her more and more with every passing day. The more I get to know her, the more I know God had us both in mind when He created us some 30-or-so years ago. I love you, Vivian! Here's to two blessed years and many, many more.

The Cheese Party

Over the weekend, Vivian and I got to host our long-anticipated Cheese Party at our apartment. Around a dozen people dropped by with samples of unusual cheesy comestibles, and we all got to vote on our favorites. Vivian did some great work researching the "proper" way to eat cheese, with served it up with individual knives for every cheese and slices of a baguette to cleanse the palette between samples. Other friends brought bottles of wine, which we got to enjoy together liberally as Vivian whipped up some five-cheese lasagna for dinner. I put together a list of insanely difficult cheese trivia questions, and we handed out prizes for the guest who got the most questions right. We also had a prize for guessing the number of cheese cubes in a glass vase and a cheese ball cap went to Venche for bringing the most popular cheese.

We stayed up late watching an especially cheesy Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie: The Horror of Party Beach. A handful of us stuck around afterward to play with Apple's photo booth connected to our flat-screen TV, producing over a thousand snapshots of silliness that lasted until two in the morning.

On Sunday, Vivian and I dropped by our friend Sarah's place to help her move into her new apartment. There was pizza for everyone afterward, and we got to hear Ben screeching out a couple notes on Sarah's viola while we was running to pick it up from Godfather's. We got the Wii hooked up afterward, giving us a chance to goof around with Wario Ware: Smooth Moves and a couple rounds of Bungee Buddies before heading home.

Free Redbox DVDs at HyVee

For anybody who lives in Omaha, here's a treat for you: go to the HyVee at 96th and Q anything before January 15 and get a free DVD rental. Just use the promo code
"hyvee15" after you pick out your movie, and you can rent it for $0.00. Vivian and I were able to watch Journey to the Center of the Earth last night, and this time it was the correct version with Brendan Fraser, and not some MST3K-worthy rip-off.

Jillian's Farewell

This past weekend, Vivian and I bid farewell to our friend and fellow swing-dancer Jillian. We've met her only recently through swing dancing, but she has also worked at the French Cafe in the Old Market for a couple years and remembers when I took Vivian there for our first date. Now she's moving to New York City to go to culinary school, so a bunch of us gathered together over the weekend to say goodbye.

On Saturday, Vivian and I braved icy roads to spent the afternoon at Jillian's house in Council Bluffs. We spent most of the afternoon and evening eating delicious hors d'oeuvres and playing an extensive sound of Apples to Apples. We got back together on Sunday afternoon at Ted & Wally's for some mid-winter ice cream. More of our friends dropped in to play Fluxx together while the sun went down. Sarah Little brought a pack of Nano Fictionary cards that looked like fun, but we really needed an audience larger than the three of us at the end of the table to play the game properly. We spent dinner together at the Panera on 78th and Dodge, which was convenient since Vivian has to pick up donation bread there every Sunday. That gave us a few more hours to goof around, eat soup and sandwiches.

Good luck in "New Yawk," Jillian! We'll miss you back here in Nebraska.