Cookout in Nashville: Day 2

I've been playing with Javascript while writing the last few updates to my blog. Click some of the linked words in the entry below to see extra photos in a neat little "lightbox."

On Friday, Vivian and I got to have some more fun with our friends in Nashville. I have to commend the good people at the Opryland La Quinta for putting up with us, because we started the day off by testing our dart guns on each other in the fifth floor hallways.

We drove downtown for some sightseeing after a brief lunch at Sitar, a small Indian buffet. Our first stop was the Parthenon in Centennial park, a scale replica of the famous structure in Athens. It was originally constructed over 100 years ago for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition, but the citizens enjoyed it so much that they kept it around. Now it serves as a giant museum, complete with a giant statue of Athena on the second floor (along with plenty of naked frieze sculpture to snicker at).

Our journey continued downtown afterward as we went exploring along the waterfront. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and we had some fun posing with local statuary, standing Fading Aura beneath an amusing sign, playing with a rotating guitar at the Hard Rock cafe, and poking around an educational reconstruction of Fort Nashborough. We sat down on a couple benches facing the Cumberland River so Dave could climb a tree and Vivian and I could deface some public property.

Our war games continued back at the local, and we also broke out the Comic Genesis Candy dish. There were several edible gummy things available inside, as well as some of Hogan's now infamous candy from across the pond. A couple of us were brave enough to try one the ammonium chloride tablets that tasted, according to Dave, like "dying children."

Cookout in Nashville: Day 1

Vivian and I headed on down to Nashville last weekend to attend the annual Comic Genesis cookout. This has been an annual get-together for the comic geeks on Comic Genesis for the last six years, and I was able to attend in 2006 and 2007. Last year I was a little busy starting a new job, moving to Omaha, and getting married, so I wasn't able to attend. It felt good to catch up with my awesome web comic friends once again and introduce them to my new wife.

We had a special new member at the cookout this year: Beth and Ryan Kolter's baby boy, Tristan. The Kolters have hosted the last five cookouts in St. Louis, Missouri, but their new baby has been keeping them busy, so they passed the mantle to "Aggie," artist for the comic American Gothia (above left, with Tristan). She lives in Nashville and coordinated much of the cookout and associated activities for us, including arranging the hotel rooms, catering, and activities for us while in town.

Tristan definitely stole the show while we were there.

Most of the other attendees were still arriving on Thursday, but we still managed to find some time for some sightseeing. Several people suggested we check out the Opryland Hotel located next to the Grand Ole Opry, so we managed to stop by before dinner. The place was very impressive. We had just enough time to visit the lavish garden in the center of the hotel, which had a running waterfall had a rotating cafe.

We dropped by the Opry Mills mall afterward to have dinner in the food court and then go hunting for some toys. We wound up going by a local Wal-Mart to buy some dart guns to play with tomorrow. Vivian and Hogan also got the chance to try out a couple foam swords before we headed back to the hotel. We're like a bunch of big kids when we get together.

Aloha!

It's been another fun, busy weekend for both Vivian and me. On Saturday, we went up to Benson to help paint a basement. Andy and Tamra, two of Vivian's co-workers, are getting married in the fall and needed some help putting some olive green on some walls, so Vivian and I and several of their family members came to help out.

That evening, Vivian helped to host a luau party at Jenny's house up in Northwest Omaha. Several of our mutual friends from swing dancing came and joined us for some grilled shish-kabobs and a limbo contest. There were grass skirts and leis for just about everyone who came, and some of the girls demonstrated a hula dance for us. We also celebrated a couple of birthdays and danced into the night on a very crowded deck.

In other news, the pool at our apartment complex is now open, so Vivian and I were able to enjoy the still-pretty-frigid waters on Sunday. We are also the proud new owner of a 2002 Honda Civic! Some of know already that our dear Honda Accord recently got totaled (nobody was hurt, fortunately, but the car was considered a total loss by our insurance company). We found the new car on Craig's List for a reasonable price, and so now we own a slightly newer vehicle with fewer miles and a sunroof. Now all we have to do is think of a name. (Vivian has already ruled out Rex 2.0).

Video highlights from the party

• Luau party photos (Eric's photos)
• Paint party photos

Memorial Day Weekend

There no pick-me-up quite like a three-day weekend, and this Memorial Day was no exception. Vivian and I started the weekend off with nothing on our calendar, but it got filled up pretty quickly. On Friday, we had our usual visit to the Eagle's Lodge for dancing followed by a long overdue run to Village Inn for an after midnight breakfast afterward. Saturday was Jessica Ritchie's birthday, so we'd had a birthday jam for her on Friday night.

On Saturday, Vivian and I were invited over to Jessica's house to have dinner with her folks and a couple of her friends. She's apparently a big fan of chili, so we all got to stuff ourselves and play some Fluxx before heading out again. (Don't let the picture on the left above fool you -- the wine glass was only filled with water).

For the last month, Crossroads Mall has been hosting live bands and ballroom dancing in its food court on Saturday evening, so Vivian and I decided to drop by and check it out. The crowd seemed to be made up mostly of seniors, but our friends Dan and Margaret were there to walk Vivian and me through a few basic steps of a waltz and fox trot. We were still pretty stuffed from Chili, but that didn't keep us from doing a triple-time shim sham toward the end of the night.

On Sunday night, we headed up to Blair to have a cookout with our friend Dennis and Kara. We got to meet Kara's parents, and then we all got to have a healthy sampling of wine while teasing Brandy and Millie as they ambled about among all the guests.

On a personal note, my family's experience a serious tragedy over the last couple of weeks, and I've considered posting something about it here, but the details are still under investigation. Please just keep the Gibbs family in Colorado in your prayers in the meantime.

Jitterbrats on Parade

Over the weekend, Vivian and I unexpectedly became members of the "Jitterbrats" down in Louisville, Nebraska. A few weeks ago, Dan Wondra had asked if we and a few of our jitterbug friends would like to demonstrate some swing dancing in a small town parade. It sounded like fun, especially since Lindy in the Park was down to once a month now, and the cool May weather was too nice to waste indoors. Four other couples joined us, and we had some fun doing the Lindy Hop down Main Street together before coming back to do a street demo. Takashi performed some karaoke for us, and a bunch of us headed down to Gambino's to fill up on pizza before heading our seperate ways.

I'm still surprised how a picturesque little town like Louisville had hide so successfully just a few miles south of the burgeoning urban sprawl of West Omaha. Visiting a small town in Nebraska is like traveling back in time, where Main Street looks much like it did a hundred years ago, and there's still a working soda fountain at the corner drugstore (as there had been since 1938).

That evening, Vivian and I drove down to Lincoln to see Star Trek with Nathan and his girlfriend Renae. It seemed like a decent movie, but I think the plot was mostly lost on all four of us. I was also hoping to see a film that fit just a bit better into the continuity of the rest of the Star Trek story, but I suppose they'll have time to clean that up a bit in a sequel or two.

Nueve de Mayo and Mother's Day

Vivian and I had a pretty busy weekend. On Friday night, we dropped by the house of Vivian's co-worker Sally to attend her graduation party. Sally had just gotten her Master's Degree, so we filled up on cake and hors d'oeurves before trying to burn it off a little later at Jitterbugs Night Out. Her house is in the Stony Brook section of Omaha, which Vivian and I instantly fell in love with. We actually spent close to an hour driving about looking at houses and might be changing our mind about fleeing down to Bellevue or Papillion when we settle down and buy a home.

We made an appearance at the Eagle's Lodge a little later. Vivian and I have been trying to get back into the "swing of things," but I keep feeling some kind of a funk at the old FOE building these days. Maybe it's the gloomy "for sale" sign out front, or the Jitterbugs' catalog of music, which I'm guessing would barely fill a 128 meg MP3 player, is starting to get old. In either case, I give props to whoever decided to play Indigo Swing after the shim sham -- a healthy dose of neo-swing can always get me back on the floor.

On Saturday night, our mutual friend Benta hosted a Nueve de Mayo party at her house in West Omaha. It seems like the south-of-the-border holiday has extended to more than a week by now, but we enjoyed it. A bunch of us got to take a crack at a piñata in the basement, and then we got to put together some homemade maracas with paper cups and rice. The homemade guacamole was quite good as well, but I found myself getting droopy eyed before midnight. I'm guessing my age is starting to catch up to me.

On Sunday, we celebrated the return of Lindy in the Park down at the Gene Leahy Mall. This is the third year I've participated in the free, outdoor swing dance, and it was the first time some of our newer friends Kristin and Anna got to join in the fun. Ben Cass was kind enough to bring food for everyone, including sloppy joes, coleslaw, and some delicious strawberry cake.

Vivian and I headed down to Bellevue afterward to celebrate Mother's Day with Donna. We got to eat ham and au gratin potatoes outdoors and play a little croquet when it wasn't raining. Vivian also brought a delicious triple-berry pie that she baked (the first pie she's ever baked from scratch, which turned out quite delicious).

It was a fun-filled weekend, and I got close to filling up the 2 gig card on Vivian's camera with photos and video of all the fun. It definitely felt good to have a bunch of new shots to toss up on the old Flickr account.

Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everybody! Vivian and I had an enjoyable weekend "south of the border" in South Omaha to enjoy a parade and plenty of Mexican food over the weekend. 24th Street was jam-packed with spectators hoping to catch some candy thrown by local banks and community colleges. They had plenty of auto dealers and politicians making the rounds as well -- a toddler next to us was accosted by Republicans and Democrats alike and wound up covered in political stickers by the time the parade was done. There were also some "gauchos" at the end of the parade riding a troop of amazing prancing horses. I thought something was seriously wrong with the animals at first until Vivian pointed out several of them were tapping around in sequence. It was quite a sight. We had a long, long walk through the heart of South Omaha sampling Mexican food from various booths and getting plenty of sunburn. There was also plenty of free music for everyone to enjoy as we stood in line for our tacos and chicharrones.

May the fifth this year also happened to be Free Comic Book Day. Vivian and I had celebrated the day two years ago by meeting Margot Kidder at Krypton Comics and getting to see a comic book I edited for Comic Genesis available on the shelf at Dragon's Lair, which was quite awesome. This year, Krypton Comics brought Lou Ferrigno (best known for his role as The Incredible Hulk on TV back in the 1970s) to Omaha, but there was a huge crowd waiting to get in an hour before the place opened, so we dropped by a smaller comic shop on Leavenworth instead. In addition to an assortment of freebies, I also picked up a copy of Watchmen for 50% off. I'd been meaning to read it for ages.