Fried Fish and Bill Cosby

It's been another busy, fun week for Vivian and me and our cluster of fun friends. The deep winter freeze is giving way to spring early this year, with a week or two of gorgeous, unseasonable warmth so far this year.

Last Sunday, a bunch of us gathered to see our friend Sarah Porter perform in the Taffetas at the Chanticleer Theater in Council Bluffs. Sarah and her fellow cast members have been frequenting the Eagle's Lodge on Friday nights the last couple of weeks, singing "shaboom" a capella as the rest of us dance after the Shim Sham to encourage us to come and see the show. The play itself consisted of a medley of songs from the 1950s, and the girls did a great job with their selection of tribute songs. We had a great time, though we unfortunately weren't quite up for the run to Panera afterward — Vivian and I get our fill of America's favorite bread store every Sunday night.

Over this past weekend, we got to attend our first fish fry of the year down at St. John Vianney Catholic Church. Our friend Anna wanted us to come and help out her youth group's bake sale, which we were more than happy to do. We got our fix of warm, carb-laden comfort food, such as grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, and even pancakes. We also got to enjoy putting Eric in jail for a few minutes, and then Lisa won a bunch of pork chops with a raffle ticket. We wrapped up our dinner, naturally, by doing some swing dancing in the middle of the floor as the one-man band played a handful of oldies tunes for us.

We reconvened at the Eagle's Lodge afterward to burn off some of our meal at Jitterbugs Night Out. The Grand Marquis from Omaha were back to play some live music for us once again, which was nice. We also had a handful of birthdays in our group, including David and Robin. I presented Robin with a special jar of Birthday Jam I relabeled just for her.

The lovely weather continued on into the weekend, so on Saturday a few of our mutual friends through an impromptu picnic down in Bellevue. Spring is one of those odd times in Nebraska, where you have to take advantage of the one or two Saturdays when you have both sunshine and temperatures between 50 and 80 degrees.

That evening, Vivian and had I had a much-anticipated date night in downtown Omaha. After getting a few appetizers at the Panda House at 16th and Farnam, we joined a swarm of other patrons at the Orpheum Theater to see Bill Cosby. It was a real treat to be able to see the 71-year-old comedian performing live, and I had been able to secure seats in the third row, so we were up close and personal with one of the greatest stand-up legends of all time. His new material was quite a bit more "adult" than most of the family fare I'd heard before, but he ended his show with the Dentist routine, which was one of my favorites from his 1983 film, Bill Cosby: Himself. I'd seen this bit so many times before that I could probably perform it from memory, and it was quite surreal to see Bill Cosby himself performing it again just a few feet away.

My new web comic

It's been a long time in the making, but I finally started my new web comic: www.outatfive.com! I'm planning on updating every M0nday and Friday. Go check it out!

Wine, Women, and Costco

Vivian and I have been keeping busy for the last couple weeks being social with our numerous circles of friends. We've also been taking time for each other whenever we get the chance, dropping in at IHOP for breakfast to celebrate National Pancake Day and helping to set up at JNO all through February.

Last week, our friend Jolene turned the big 3-0, but we celebrated her birthday a little earlier because her husband Randy was being deployed, and she wanted him to be there for her party. It was a fairly simple affair with pizza, cake, and Vivian's delicious artichoke cheese dip. We hung around for an hour or two talking and playing foosball, but by ten o'clock, just about everyone has gone home. Vivian and I and Randy and Jolene were left somewhat bedfuddled. I guess the four of us hadn't been married long enough to forget what it was like to be single and stay up late on a Saturday night.

Last Friday, Vivian and I had a date night together and went to see the African Children's Choir at the Orpheum Theater downtown. They're a group of young African children (ages eight to eleven) who perform traditional songs and danced from various African countries. They are often orphans and come from very disadvantaged backgrounds, and their performance is part of a fundraiser to help them to go to school and a better life growing up. Vivian had seen the group perform at her church once years ago, and she was quite eager to see them again, and it was grea to be a part of this experience myself.

On Saturday, the two of us finally broke down and got a membership at Costco. I had heard you can save money with them in several ways, from car insurance to their premium credit card, so I thought it might be a good deal. We're already saving money buying a whole month's supply of V8 in advance. Vivian seemed to like being able to pick up a pound container of blue cheese and packages of Italian Dry Salami as large as a baguette. If anybody needs to get an entire palette of Gummi Bears, let us know.

On Saturday night, the two of us drove up to Blair to hang out with some older JNO/GAMe friends Dennis and Kara. We got to take a look at their new house and then have some Italian chicken and white wine together as we discussed the possibility of Vivian and me buying our own home while prices seem to be in our favor.

Speaking of wine, this week Vivian and I got to be part of a wine tasting event at the HyVee across the street. There's a wine club that meets in the dining area every month as a means of promoting new wines in the store. We got to sample a variety of red and white wine from Argentina and Chile this month while nibbling on crackers and cheese. Most of the samples were far too dry for my own tastes, but one called the Pascual Toso Torrontes had a sweet, smooth flavor that I enjoyed. I think the two of us are dangerously close to becoming wine snobs, so we may need to call on our friend Onion Boy to bail us out with a bottle or two of good old Blue Moon.

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.