Final showers, a hobo party, and a new camera

Vivian and I are going to be childless for only a few more weeks as the baby countdown is well underway. Vivian's had a number of showers up to this point, one most recently at our church at Twin Valley. It's all very overwhelming, since we both have such generous friends and co-workers. We have enough diapers and baby wipes to last us well into our child's teenage years.

We've still managed to have some fall fun with our friends as well. Our friend Tamra threw an impromptu "hobo party," which involved eating chili out of tin cans and trying to figure out how to have a fire inside a large boat shed while the wind was howling outside (too much to keep a fire going). Joining Second-Hand Matt and Sassy Pants Vivian were Grubby Heather, Goofy Jenny, Wild eyed Lou, Two-Tooth Tamra, Cardboard Mark, Jon, Heather Amanda and a couple others whose hobo names I can't remember. Mark broke out the guitar at some point to strum through some sheet music from the 70s and we spent a couple hours of hammerschlagen before retreating inside to watch MST3K (the Deadly Bees).

You might notice the pictures above are a slightly slightly different dimension than my other photos on this post. That's because Vivian and I finally broke down and bought our dream camera — Canon Rebel T2i DLSR. Our excuse was to be able to take some beautiful baby pictures once our bundle of joy arrives, but it also works beautifully taking snapshots at Jitterbugs Night Out or just eating pizza with the Stubbs for Deena's birthday. The nice, big lens makes it easy to get sharp photos of action on the dance floor with those horrible dust globes swarming around.

This new camera actually brings back memories of using my dad's old Nikon film camera for my photography class. It was always so much easier to get beautiful pictures using a "real" lens and film that I could with a tiny point-and-shoot camera. Vivian and I broke in the camera over the weekend traveling around Omaha and taking a few nice, high-quality pictures of landmarks that had entries on Wikipedia and no decent pictures to go with them (such as the Sokol Auditorium, the Bohemian Cafe, the Saddle Creek overpass, and the Joel N. Cornish House in the old gold coast district). It's already proven be useful getting pictures of our pastor's family (for a Christmas photo) and some last-minute baby belly pictures with Vivian before our inevitable due date.

The next entry you read here will likely be about our new bundle of joy, so stay tuned. Our original ETA is November 30, but just about anything could happen between now and then.

Halloween 2011

Vivian and I had another fun-filled Halloween weekend together. We kicked things off with a Halloween dance at the Eagle's Lodge with our Jitterbug friends — Eric, Frank, and the Nothnagels came as Angry Birds, Maggie and Lee came as Batgirl and Robin, and Frank and Julia were Buzz Lightyear and Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl from Toy Story. We had a costume contest and a jack & jill contest, but everyone who came by were winners in spirit — especially those who stuck around for after-midnight breakfast at Village Inn at stupid o'clock.

On Saturday night, Jenny and Tamra hosted a pumpkin-carving party up in northwest Omaha. Vivian and I bought a couple of discount pumpkins the other day that we hacked together with a bunch of our friends — Keith, Jon, Amanda, Anne, and Venche. There were plenty of treats to go around, of course, including a bunch of caramel apples. We also scooped out the seeds, which Vivian washed and roasted with some cinnamon and sugar afterward.

We wound the party down later on by watching John Carpenter's original Halloween film. It was the movie that introduced Jaimie Lee Curtis to the world, along with the concept of the modern "slasher" film that became quite popular throughout the 1980s. This film seemed quite tame by comparison, with most of us yelling at Jaimie to go stick a knife in Michael Myers' heart (rather than simply assume poking him with a sewing needle effectively killed him for the rest of the film).

Of course, no Halloween weekend would be complete without a party in the Nothnagel's basement. The party fell on a Sunday night this year, which meant Vivian and I had to deal with picking up donation bread from Panera and getting up early for work the next morning. We still managed to squeeze in a good deal of dancing with our colorful assortment of friends once the party got started. Ruth showed up wearing a hilarious "shark eating somebody" costume, so I naturally put Mack the Knife into the evening's playlist (no word yet on whether the party "jumped the shark" at any point). Eric and the Angry Birds made another appearance, as did an assortment of gangsters, superheroes, and a super villain (kudos to Bruce, aka Red Skull, for being the only person at the party who knew who I was dressed up as).

I swear Halloween is now more popular with adults now than with children — more of the "grown-ups" I know play dress up nowadays than actual children who come to our door begging for candy. But at least nobody TP'ed our house. This year.

Costume Party and a Hayrack Ride

The fall fun continues for Vivian and me. Last Saturday we partook in another autumnal tradition — Jenny's birthday costume party, which we've attended for the last four years in a row. This year I came as Number Two from the 1960s TV series The Prisoner. Pretty much nobody in our group knew who I was supposed to be, but that didn't matter. I loved the show, and I needed to buy a gray turtleneck anyway. Vivian came as a cat-who-swallowed-an-entire fishbowl, making use of her eight-month-old pregnant tummy. We had several other hilarious costumers in our ranks this year — the Straussers as the Super Family, Heather as a Major Award, Jon Paper as a headless person, Keith as... Captain Keith, the Kams as a pumpkin patch, and Jenny as Lady Gaga (singing Bad Romance via karaoke just as we walked in the door). Dean West was our host this evening dressed as Bamm-Bamm, and his parents just happened to show up to join us.

We drifted between karaoke and pumpkin-style food upstairs and a dance floor downstairs. Jenny got to have another birthday jam (after getting one at JNO on Friday). Vivian and Venche served up pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin pie (respectively) to contribute to our sugar rush throughout the evening. We continued on with the Hokey Pokey for some reason and wound down the evening setting up a Christmas tree with random objects gathered from Dean's basement (which included boots, a beachball, and Scotch tape among other things).

On Sunday, Vivian and I partook in another fall tradition — going on a hayrack ride. This year, we went with several of our fellow members at Twin Valley Church to the Hall's ranch down near rural Plattsmouth. We loaded up in two hayracks and got toted about for a couple miles, enjoying the gorgeous weather and countryside along the bumpy country roads.

Everyone brought plenty of food to stuff ourselves with afterward, and we had a roaring firepit going as well, which was just perfect for toasting s'mores with some of the ginormous marshmallows Jeff West was able to smuggle in. The weather was absolutely gorgeous the whole time we were there — warm enough for a T-shirt — but as the sun fell we were reminded that it is, in fact, October now, so the fire was a welcome addition to the evening. (Little Rachel just stared in awe as if she'd never seen an open fire before.)

Showers and silly movies

On Saturday last week, Vivian had the first of at least three baby showers, this one hosted by our friends Jenny, Venche, and Tamra. I didn't attend, but from what I've heard and the pictures I've seen, it looked like a lot of fun. The girls decorated about a dozen "onesies" together and gave a bunch of baby gifts to Vivian. There was also food — specifically tiny cheese-cupcakes, a couple of which Vivian saved for me. Thank you to Lisa, Jen, Tamra, Heather, Andrea, Li-Ya, Kara, Kelly, Jenny, and Venche for making this new mommy-to-be feel so special (even without a sticker).

On Sunday night, we joined Phil and Jen and a bunch of other random friends for a Silly Movie night together. The evening also involved some very improvisational cooking — on the Facebook invite, Phil asked guests to bring "an ingredient for us to cook — pasta, meat, vegetable, fruit, or cheese whatever." That, naturally, left the field quite wide open. Vivian and I settled to bring some tomatoes and basil fresh from our garden, as well as some crushed tomatoes and garlic in case anybody needed to make either marinara sauce or bruschetta (or both). Other people brought biscuits, sausage, corn, egg noodles, and a variety of other stuff that Phil and Jen managed to turn into a handful of tasty dishes for us. The rest of us watched Airplane while sipping on sangria and riesling (or in Vivian's case, water), which was just as funny as I'd remembered it, especially with a group of silly people.

Party packed

For some reason, October is an insanely popular month for celebrations. In addition to the usual Halloween and fall-related fun, there are about a hundred birthdays crammed into the tenth month, along with a wedding or two just for good measure.

I took Vivian out to Summer Kitchen on Thursday for a random breakfast date. Then on Friday, we decided to drop by JNO for an evening of dancing and then crashing at Village Inn afterward, just like old times. After we become parents, staying out until two in the morning will likely be a rare occurrence. Eric and Kevin were kind enough to keep us company over breakfast and OneUpMe.com before heading home.

On Saturday, Vivian and I had several different events to juggle. We had lunch at Five Guys with the Hunters to celebrate Lisa's birthday. Five Guys is about the closest thing we have to In-n-Out burger this side of the Sierra Nevadas, and I had a little fun cutting in line via cell phone to order a burger online from my table. Viva technology!

That afternoon, we dropped in at Twin Valley Church to attend Steve and Krista's wedding with several of our church friends. (We also got to see Deena wearing a dress — gasp and shock!) We left shortly thereafter to attend a birthday party for Vivian's co-worker Anthony. He held it at Gerda's on Leavenworth, so I got to tell him, "alles gute zum geburtstag" while eating bratwurst and spaetzle (a kind of German pasta). He wanted to play Young Frankenstein for us to watch, but eventually settled for showing the Cornhusker / Ohio State game instead. Several people were so disheartened to see Nebraska get pummeled during the first half that they didn't bother to stick around to see what happened in the second.

The next day, our church gave Lisa a birthday party in our church basement. Vivian brought peanut butter cookies to go along with the popcorn and cupcakes, and Lisa opened her presents as a dozen kids ran around in circles screaming in the next room. Lexi brought her baby Samantha and Rachel got to be all kids of cute for everyone with a camera handy. (Of course, I drew a caricature of Mark and Lisa on their card, which I suppose is tradition for now.)

It was a fun, busy weekend overall. Now to get back outside and enjoy some more of the unseasonably beautiful weather while it lasts.

Sushi, Cinedine, and Chicago

It's been a fun, busy week celebrating Vivian's birthday! Officially, she turned 2⁵ (you figure it out) on Tuesday, but the festivities ran the gamut from last Friday to the following Thursday. I think we'll be staying home on Friday night just to recover.

Before the celebrations even started, we had a surprise visit from our old friends Mike and Bekah! They now have four kids — Drew, Alexa, Eden, and Owen (the fourth of whom we'd never met before). We had them over to our house for pizza, salad, and plenty of catching up before kicking off a week of birthday-related fun.

Of course, we had to drop by the Eagle's Lodge for Vivian's birthday jam at JNO. The crowd was decidedly thinner than usual, possibly due to the wake of people being "lindied out" after the Cowtown events during the previous weekend. We still had a great time, and there were plenty of die-hard swing dancers there who took turns with Vivian in her jam circle. Vivian led the shim sham afterward, and we capped of the night with a traditional run across the border for tacos at Alvorado's until stupid o'clock.

On Saturday, we had Vivian's birthday party over at our house. This year, we did a "roll your own sushi party," and we had origami as an "appetizer" beforehand. Everyone seemed to get in on the action, and we had some pretty impressive folded paper sculptures at the end of the night. Tamra made a T-Rex, Jessica made a flower, and Jenny and Vivian made, um, face masks.

Of course, the highlight of the evening was actually making (and eating) the sushi. Vivian made up a bunch of sticky rice for us to use, and we'd supplied the basic ingredients for California rolls — avocado, cucumber, and imitation crab meat. Phil brought some more exotic things, such as raw white tuna, smoked salmon, cabbage, and mango. Lisa brought wraps to make inari, which seemed to vanish quickly after they were made. Mark brought us an actual wasabi root imported from Washington state, so we got to enjoy the real thing instead of the green-colored paste that even high-quality sushi restaurants seem to be restricted to. The potency of the wasabi lasted for only half an hour, though, so we had to eat it quickly.

We rounded out the evening playing a round or two of What's Yours Like, and I presented Vivian with a "cake" made of maki rolls with lit candles stuck inside of them for Vivian to blow out. Around midnight, Vivian passed her guitar around for our fellow musicians to pluck around before calling it a night.

In case I haven't mentioned it enough, the weather here has been unseasonably gorgeous for the past week or two, so on Vivian's birthday, I decided to surprise her at work with a trip to Benson Park to have some cobb salad for a picnic lunch. Afterward, we had a quick walk around the lake and fed a few of the geese lounging about. They seemed to expect we were about to feed them and paddled on over close to the shoreline when we got near. We've got to enjoy this a few more days before the long, dark, cold winter inevitably descends upon us.

That evening, I took Vivian down to the "Cinedine" theater for the ultimate date experience — dinner and a movie, all in one go! We'd never actually visited the new Midtown Crossing complex in downtown Omaha, so it was kind of nice to wander about a bit. A live band was playing some music outside Coldstone Creamery for anyone nearby to enjoy — mostly families with young children wearing balloon headgear made for them by a clown and older folks walking their fluffy little dogs.

There were only a handful of movies at the theater to choose from, none of which we'd heard anything about. I did a quick search on Rotten Tomatoes and decided on Moneyball, one of those based-on-a-true-story sports movies that involved the Oakland A's (a team Vivian actually saw herself growing up near San Fransisco) recruiting undervalued ballplayers in order to compete against other, wealthier, pro teams. It wasn't the kind of movie I'd normally watch on my own, but I enjoyed it. That might have been because Vivian and I both got to watch it in comfy, reclining seats while eating prime rib wraps and fries served to us. I even got a glass of 12-year Glenlivet — something I never thought I'd be able to enjoy at the movies without sneaking it in under my coat.

The next day, I gave Vivian one of her birthday presents — tickets to see Chicago at the Omaha Community Playhouse! She'd mentioned wanting to see the show in passing, but she didn't expect that I'd actually get tickets to see it. I was even more surprised that I managed to snag the two best seats in the house — front row center! That meant we got to sit right behind Music Director Jim Boggess in the orchestra pit. He actually popped up to wish Vivian a happy birthday (Jessica, who is doing sound for the show, mentioned we were going to be there!)

It was a great show, of course, but even better sitting inches away from the performers as they pranced about the stage. One actor (Erik Quam playing Amos Hart) came down and shook hands with people in the front row during one number. There's something about live performances that just can't been duplicated in any other way — especially when you're this close to the action.

Afterward, we got to shake hands with all the cast members out in the lobby, and I managed to get a quick picture of Vivian with the two leading ladies of the show, Vivian with leading ladies of the show, Kirstin Kluver as Roxie Hart and Melanie Walters as Velma Kelly.

The birthday festivities weren't done yet. Vivian shares her birthday week with both her dad and her mom's friend Shirley, so on Thursday they took us out to our traditional birthday dinner at Outback Steakhouse. We had our bloomin' onion and rib-eye steaks, as usual, and this time we actually mentioned that we had a few birthdays in our party. That meant our waiter brought out free ice cream. Sweet.

Back home, Jack opened his presents, and Donna served us up some decadent dark chocolate cake. (She'd also made some adorable fruits and vegetables made from marzipan, but they looked too dark cute to eat.)

I think Vivian and I are looking forward to a few quiet days now that we've had a busy week of celebrations, but I hope she'd had a wonderful 2^5th birthday! I love you, sweetie! Every year just keeps getting better.

Autumn kicks off

And with the blink of an eye, fall is here! We went from 91 degrees on Monday to 55 degrees on Wednesday with nary a segue in-between. I don't care though — I love the season of changing leaves, and Vivian and I have been busy finding ways to enjoy it together.

Last weekend, we attended Mitch and Amanda's wedding. Amanda is one of Vivian's co-workers and Mitch owns a comic book store out in Gretna. I'd met them all of twice and wasn't sure how much fun I'd have at a wedding of two people I barely knew, but it was a great evening. The ceremony was short and the reception was long and fun, with beer and wine flowing and plenty of crazy dancing mixing things up throughout the night. I've been to plenty of long, dreary, dull weddings in my life, but this was one was ideal. I only hope everyone who came to our own wedding 38 months ago had just as good a time.

This weekend was Applejack Weekend down in Nebraska City, so naturally Vivian and I had to go down to get our fill of apple turnovers, apple pie, and apple-picking at the orchards there. We dropped in at the firehouse's pancake breakfast to stuff ourselves with flapjacks courtesy of the Pancake Man, and then walked down to the library book sale to grab a couple used, discount books. We skipped the parade of course, learning from experience that sitting through a couple hours of marching bands and shriners driving in circles wasn't as much fun as exploring the rest of the town.

We dropped by Arbor Day Farm next to get a bottle cherry wine, among other things. We had the most fun at Kimmel orchard, where Vivian and I got to wander among the apple trees and stuff as many apples as we could into our ten-pound bag. We grabbed a couple stray grapes from the vineyard as well, which were absolutely succulent. I'd never eaten grapes right off the vine before, and it was like eating candy.

Back in Bellevue, we dropped by the remains of our church picnic in Everett Park. They'd held a makeshift tailgate party outdoors completely with TVs to watch the game when it came on. I mostly ignored Nebraska crushing the Washington Huskies, who were downright pathetic (one guy literally dropping the ball at the one-yard line, giving the Cornhuskers an easy touchdown). I mostly enjoyed the chili, salsa, hot dogs, and fellowship with other members of our church (fellowship being Christian-speak for "pigging out.")

Of course, this was also Cowtown weekend for the Omaha Jitterbugs, but the four long days of swing dancing events was more like background noise for Vivian and me. We showed up at the dances long enough to dance once or twice with each other and then pick up cups before heading home.