March celebrations

I had a fun week with Vivian that really made me appreciate being married to such a good cook. Wednesday was St. Patrick's day, so she made up her traditional corned beef and cabbage, which we ate with Irish soda bread and washed down with some creamy Bailey's. Yum! There also was plenty of corned beef left over, so the next day Vivian made up some tasty Reuben sandwiches.

Thursday was an exceptionally nice day, especially coming out of a Narnia-sized winter, so I met up with Vivian for lunch and took a walk around Benson Park. It was so warm that I didn't need a jacket, but we hadn't heard the last of old man winter. The very next day, we had a spontaneous blizzard that turned the world back to January. It was bizarre, but I think we took comfort in knowing that the few inches of snow wouldn't be around for long.

Last week was also my brother Jon's birthday, so he and my other brother Nathan came down to our house in Bellevue to celebrate. My dad gave him a box full of Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVDs, so we were able to suffer through Attack of the Eye Creatures together, just like old times. We were also able to play a round of Apples to Apples with Vivian before going up to Dave & Busters to have some burgers and win some tickets together. We stopped by the Hollywood Video in Bellevue afterward to pick through some of the DVDs they're trying to liquidate before shutting their doors forever. It looks like all the good movies have been snatched up, but if you'd like to get a used copy of The Adventures of Pluto Nash or Glitter, they're yours for $4 each. Or just check in the dumpster next week.

On Sunday, we joined Molly and her crew from the Jaycees for another stop on her tour of restaurants around Omaha. This month we tried Mexican food at El Dorado in south Omaha. Vivian and I skipped breakfast so we could devour a mountain of seafood, which included abalone, shrimp, calamari, squid, stuffed oysters, crab legs, and little slices of plantain. We returned home stuffed and blew the afternoon watching the first season of The Office with Tamra and Andy and some of their tasty homemade (and doctored up) popcorn.

Pancakes, Comedy, and the Whiskey Roadhouse

There's nothing better after a hard night of dancing than pancakes, and why go to Village Inn when you can have a pancake party right at your own house? Vivian proved to be the selfless hero of the night, using a whole box of Aunt Jemima to feed our hungry dancing crew. She also fried up some bacon that we washed down with orange juice and lemon lime soda that a few Jitterbugs were kind enough to bring. The best part of having a house is being able to have all your friends over for a midnight pancake party.

On Saturday, Vivian and I attended a comedy night fundraiser with GAMe at 1314 Jones Street. About five or six stand-up comedians performed for donations to help the Haitian relief effort and the Market Church, which meets in the same building on Sunday mornings. I love stand-up comedy, and it was fun to see a couple good acts while drinking coffee with friends. Now I just need me some Sheboygan Sausage!

On Sunday, I was able to attend two dances with my Jitterbug friends. The first was part of a fundraiser for Burke schools, where Dan Wondra was called to help out. He gave a few lessons in East Coast Swing and Jitterbug for the parents of high school and middle school band members (as well as a few of their kids), and we enjoyed dancing while the bands played a number of songs, ranging from Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy to Thriller.

That night, the Prairie Cats and Grand Marquis were performing live at the Horseshoe Casino, and admission was free. Who could turn that deal down? Apparently not most of our Jitterbug friends, as they all showed up to dance on a jam-packed floor for an hour or two. There's nothing quite as fun as dancing to live music in front of a room full of curious spectators.

Swinging kids and overdue reunions

Spring is almost here, and it couldn't have come too soon! The snow is rapidly melting away and turning into slush, and even though winter had one last gasp of a blizzard this week, I can feel the warm sunny days of spring right around the corner.

Last Thursday, I dropped by the Apple Store for my weekly Final Cut Express training only to discover the store had been evacuated. The power had gone out, and somebody smelled smoke, so they called the fire department. Three trucks and two ambulances came to rescue, and the store was closed for the rest of the day. It was amusing to see a giant cluster of Apple Store employees taking photos of the scene with their iPhones, and I was able to make a couple jokes about FireWire before heading back to the office.

On Thursday, our mutual friend "Ms. Kouba" invited us and bunch of our jitterbug friends down to Plattsmouth to help put on a swing dance for her students at Plattsmouth Middle School. They'd seen the film "Swing Kids" and wanted to learn how to dance, so Vivian and Eric showed them a few basic steps in East Coast swing. Of course, we also had to show them such things as the donkey kick, and I think Olin got a few of them doing butt spins before the night was over. We danced to "traditional" swing music as well as some hip-hopping club music, which was just as fun. There's nothing quite as mind-boggling as seeing Dan Wondra doing the Lindy Hop to some hard core techno.

On Saturday, we stopped by Jolene's house to help celebrate her birthday with her husband Randy and a bunch of our friends from GAMe. We hadn't seen each other in a while, and we had a lot of catching up to do. For instance, Randy and Jolene are now expecting their first child, so we got to see their first baby pictures in the form of ultrasound images hanging on the fridge. They also have an adorable chinchilla that looked absolutely terrified of all the new people hanging around.

That evening, we attended a couples dinner event in the basement of 1314 Jones street. Craig and Debby put on the event for both married and dating couples involved with Great Adventures, so we got to eat and play a few hilarious rounds of charades before the night was over.


On Sunday, Vivian and I had a long overdue reunion with our old friends Mike and Bekah and their kids. I've written about them on this blog before, but I hadn't seen them since my wedding, where Mike had been a groomsman. They'd had a third child since then named Eden, so we got to meet her and show them some of the photos from our honeymoon and anniversary trip before calling it a night.

Fried Days

Last Sunday, Vivian and I decided to be a little adventurous and tried out an Ethiopian restaurant in downtown Omaha. I had no idea what to expect Ethiopian cuisine to be like, but it was quite good, consisting of vegetables, lentils, and lamb served on injera, a giant pancake used to scoop it up (instead of using flatware). It was much more filling than I expected and incredibly spicy. I washed it down with a tiny cup coffee so strong it'll keep my children awake for generations.

The next day, we had a benefit swing dance for Haiti at Creighton University, giving me the chance to try out my new Lumix DMC-TS1 digital camera. My previous cameras had the unfortunate tendency of getting dropped or sucking in a speck of dust now and again, so I thought this little brick would be a nice step up. It proved to be somewhat irritating, splattering ghost specks all over each photo (which is why I used one of Eric's photos instead).

I had the chance to play with the camera some more by Friday, when Vivian and I dropped by St. John Vianney Catholic Church for a fish fry with our friends. We'd attended last year's fish fry and were quite happy to stuff our faces with grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, and pancakes (as well as fish) without standing in line getting drunk for hours and hours beforehand. There was beer and wine flowing freely around our table, but we wound up getting intoxicated with digital cameras and paper hats instead.

Vivian and I forewent swing dancing so we could spent some time on Saturday tidying up and making some creamy pesto chicken for our mutual friends Dennis and Kara. One of the best things about having a house is being able to have people over for random dinner and movie nights, so we stuffed ourselves on Vivian's tasty cuisine and then settled downstairs to watch National Treasure 2. I should have stopped by that lake in the Black Hills to check for that secret lever that unplugs the drain.

V-Day

Vivian and I were able to have a lovely, romantic Valentine's Day weekend together. I surprised her at work with lunch and some flowers on Friday, and then we went to the Jitterbugs' Pink Party that evening. I always wind up scrounging for vaguely pink thinks to wear, and this time decided to go with the red dress shirt Vivian gave me for Christmas with a white tie. Eric surprised us with a romantic "I love you" metal sculpture he got in the Old Market. That particular hand sign has become a trademark of Vivian and me.

The pink party featured a couples dance competition, which David Trietel and Anna won fairly handily (though we had some very talented runners-up). David had Anna show us some of their blind-folded, Jedi-style swing moves at Village Inn afterward.

(Above left photo comes courtesy of Onion Boy's camera.)

On Saturday, I took Vivian out to see Avatar in 3D at the Twin Creek theater in Bellevue. She'd been dying to see a 3D movie, and I hadn't seen one since Captain EO back in 1985. The movie was fun to watch, but the obnoxious "nature good, military bad" theme got a little old after the first ten minutes. By the time the movie ended around ten o'clock, every restaurant in Omaha seemed to be closed. This surprised me, since I thought at least someplace other than Denny's would be open late on a Saturday night, but after trying four restaurants that had their doors shuttered, we stumbled upon Margarita's on 72nd Street. Famished, we stuffed our faces with gooey carbs before going home.

On V-Day, I took Vivian to breakfast at Cracker Barrel and presented her with a pair of tickets to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood from Whose Line is it Anyway at the Holland Center in May! Colin was Vivian's favorite performer, so I snatched up the tickets as soon as they went on sale. That night, I made Vivian a special Valentine's Day dinner — heart-shaped meatloaf! I had secretly borrowed a heart-shaped cake pan from Donna the other day and managed to whip together a fairly tasty meatloaf (considering it was the first time I'd ever made it).

The next day, Vivian and I took her parents out to celebrate their anniversary. We ate at Spezia's, a lovely little Italian restaurant on 72nd Street, and we continued both our romantic weekend and carb binge by dining in style for one more night.

Cheesecake and a Superbowl

Vivian and I enjoyed a somewhat improvised weekend with our friends in Omaha. On Friday, Vivian and Robin had a "girl's night in" to watch a chick flick (in this case, the Time Traveler's Wife) while I went to JNO. The Grand Marquis was playing, so I got to enjoy some live music with the rest of the regulars. Bill and Shannon, two dance instructors who usually show up at Cowtown, were also on hand for a workshop weekend. Some of their student got up to strut down the dance floor.

On Saturday, Vivian and I stayed buy with a Body Pump class in the morning and then shoveling snow in the afternoon. Nebraska had its one hundredth snowfall this year, and I got to borrow Donna's snow rake to scrape off the roof. We also watched a couple CGI-animated movies — Monster vs. Aliens and 9 — both of which were enjoyable. We rounded off the evening eating cheesecake made from scratch (thanks to Vivian) that we ate with with Eric and Venche. Yummy.

On Superbowl Sunday, we joined a bunch of our friends from GAMe to watch the big game and stuff our faces with chili. There were about fifteen different pots of chili to choose from, and I didn't have nearly enough room to sample them all. As for the game, I really couldn't have cared less which team came out on top, though I was secretly rooting for the Saints, being the underdogs. I was mostly interested in the commercials, which were somewhat disappointing this time around. No Apple to smash big brother or trio of beer croaking frogs this year.

Sushi and Meatballs

Last week, Vivian and I celebrated what we've come to call our "sushi anniversary," the anniversary of the date we officially became a dating couple back in 2007. Vivian asked me, "So, you want to make it official" right after we'd had dinner at Sakura Bana, so we've made it a tradition ever since. This time, we visited Sushi Japan Yakiniku Boy and ordered the gigantic Sushi for Two.

On Friday, we set up the Eagle's Lodge for Jitterbugs Night Out and wound up staying the whole night dancing with our usual cast of characters. We did have a couple visitors — the proprietors of the Tannenbaum Christmas Shop in the Old Market and the candy shop next door dropped in to dance. The former had apparently been a swing dancer even before Nate and Christy started, and the latter had met Vivian some time earlier when she first took a swing dancing class at Metro Community College. We'd visited his candy shop on our first date.

On Saturday, we celebrated International Gluttony Day. We dropped by a Sizzler for lunch just for fun, and then went to Cici's Pizza Buffet with a bunch of our friends from GAMe. Then we trotted over to Westwood Cinema to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and felt quite full afterward. It was a surprisingly hilarious movie — I'd read the back way back in elementary school and had been thoroughly unimpressed. It's usual feat to turn a short children's book into a decent feature-length film, but this time they pulled it off (and did a heck of a lot better than Where the Wild Things Are).