St. Patrick and Harold Lloyd

Aside from a freak blizzard last week, spring seems to be pushing its way into Nebraska bit by bit. We had over a foot of snow come out of nowhere, but by Friday it was in the 60s and getting vaporized. As such, I took Hannah out to the park to play on some swings and be generally cute with Mommy one she got off work.

Our old friends Tim and Robin returned to Bellevue after a brief stint in Oregon and elsewhere, so they stopped by with Danny to say hello and meet Hannah for the first time on Saturday morning. I'd bumped into them back in 2007 when Danny was just a baby.

Monday was my brother Jonathan's birthday, so he dropped by over the weekend, and we went on a spontaneous road trip together to Burchard, the hometown of silent film legend Harold Lloyd. It's a tiny town near Nebraska's southern border and doesn't feature much other than an old bank and a sign or two advertising Harold Lloyd's birthplace down on 2nd street. After a few obligatory pictures, we wiggled our way home past random sights in Pawnee City and Auburn. That evening, Jonathan made up some lasagna for dinner and we had some cake made by Donna. Oh, and presents, of course.

Sunday was St. Patrick's day, so Vivian and I spent much of it at Phil and Jen's house having an ingredient party with an assortment of mutual friends. We'd attended two of these so far, and our favorite culinary duo always manages to turn random things into something delicious. This time around, Vivian and I brought eggplant and beef to add to cabbage, canned squid, pineapple, and any number of other things, which became some kind of mousaka, bubble and squeak and I'm not quite sure what else (but it was good). Hannah played with Dennis' little girl Emily and was generally cute in her little Shamrock dress, and the rest of us watched Airplane in the background. For dessert, we had some kind of frozen dish infused with caramel Irish cream, which one person described as "better than sex." Ahem.

Kidstime and Frydaze

Last weekend, we managed to get Hannah out of the house for some fun with other kiddos. Saturday morning, she had a play-date with Cameron, the little boy of one of Vivian's co-workers who met Hannah over a year ago to "shake hands and touch feet."

That evening, Dennis had a bunch of us over to his new house to pretend to watch Cars II in the other room as the grown-ups had red popcorn and shrimp in the kitchen, chatting about such things as the difference between rolled oats and steel cut oats. On Sunday, Vivian and I played babysitter to Jake and Samantha. There were plenty of toys all over the house for the kids to get into, but they all seemed to enjoy the big "toy" in the basement with all the keys. Anything that makes that much noise and seats three has got to be the best toy in the house.

 

On Friday night, our rag-tag crew of mutual friends showed up at St. John Vianney's for their Friday night fish fry, a tradition we've been carrying on since 2009. Of course, we initially picked this particular church because the line was unbelievably short (in contrast to the horror that is Mary Our Queen, et cetera). Word must have gotten out, because every year the line has become more insane, this year wrapping around the entryway about four or five times and turning into a jumbled mess of lent-practicing Catholic mayhem. The crowd was so massive that it somehow swallowed Dan Wondra without a trace, but we were fortunate not to have any other causalities. It was still fun to hang out with our noisy friends as we spent over an hour shuffling our way to the front of the line. We were quite ready to binge on macaroni, pancakes, grilled cheese, and (of course) fish once we got there. The fried carbs were enough to turn us into blobs by the end of the night who could barely "bah bah bah" along with Sweet Caroline (requested specifically by Vivian). Good times never seemed so good.

Spaghetti and Spaceballs

 

Most of the posts on my blog have to do with friends and food. Mostly food, of course. Two of our favorite Foodie Friends and Phil and Jen, and they invited us over to their place on Saturday night for some Spaghetti and Spaceballs. Phil created some handmade spaghetti with fresh dough and the two of us round up some meatballs made with pork, bacon, and lamb. Mel Brooks kept us amused in the background, particularly Hannah, who seemed to think one inch from the screen was the ideal place to view the musical adaptation of the Spanish Inquisition (which none of us expected).

On Sunday afternoon, the brakes went out on my Taurus on my way home from church. I'm not entirely sure what happened yet, but I was able to coast safely to a stop by pumping them several times (one of the few things I remember from Drivers' Ed). The car's in the shop now awaiting a verdict. I'm mostly grad that this didn't happen to Vivian during rush hour, when losing your brakes at highway speeds could prove a little more dangerous.

That evening, the Johnson Family dropped by the Kleven House in west Omaha for an Oscar Party hosted by Venche and Bente. It had been a while since Hannah had seen Venche and she was able to show off such things as being able to climb stairs and accept an award for Best Supporting Baby. I didn't pay much attention to what was happening on the red carpet or on the stage afterward, as I was mostly corralling Hannah and feeding her chicken nuggets from my plate, but it was nice to hang out with a few other people for the evening, particularly after a somewhat scary afternoon.

Love and murder

 

Love was in the air last week, with just a whiff of murder. On Sunday evening, Twin Valley Church hosted its first Valentine's murder mystery potluck party. We had almost the entirety of the congregation participating, including Mark and Lisa, Drew and Teresa, Jack and Donna, and a handful of other willing suspects. The setting was an Australian island after some kind of shipwreck involving a cluster of Olympic athletes. I got to play a Swedish ping pong champion, a la Jan-Ove Waldner, who didn't do much other than pee on trees and run away from snakes. Several of us enjoyed getting into our characters, including Pastor "Terone" from Detroit. The actual killer turned out to be Lynn Sahs, which took almost everyone by surprise, since we had about a hundred red herrings floating around for our characters to fish for.

 

On V-Day itself, I made up some heart-shaped pancakes for Vivian for breakfast. Then, I spent a busy morning preparing some fettuccine alfredo for a surprise lunch visit to Vivian at Friendship Program. Of course, I brought Hannah along for the ride so everyone at her office could coo over our rapidly-growing up baby girl. (And left a surprise on Vivian's desk when no one was looking.)

That evening, we had a modest romantic dinner at one of our favorite burger chains, Five Guys. I'd taken Vivian to other more (traditionally) romantic venues in the past, but we somehow enjoyed our burgers and fries much more, particularly because we didn't need to worry about Hannah interrupting anyone else's candlelight affairs. After dinner, we topped off the evening by getting Naked at Aldi. Yes, we did.

In other news, Hannah knows herself from head to "toooooooe!"

Where's the beef?

The fun just doesn't stop for the Johnson Family! Last Friday, it was our turn to set up at Jitterbugs Night Out, so we naturally brought Hannah along for the ride. She tended to be a handful upstairs, toddling out onto the dance floor and trying to participate with the Lindy Hop lesson, so I took her downstairs where the older folks at the Eagles' Lodge got to go all gooey over her. Vivian and I stayed long enough to have a dance or two together, and we also said hello to an old friend, who'd grown his hair out and decided to show up.

 

On Friday, I took a trip to Lincoln with Vivian and Hannah to celebrate my old friend Mike Duewling's 50th birthday. It was a reunion of sorts, as I got to see several familiar faces I hadn't seen in many years, ranging from high school classmates to friends from one old bible study or another. For whatever reason, it was a men-only affair, so Vivian took Hannah to a cute little children's activity center called Lost in Fun. Hannah was too little for most of the activities, but she did enjoy swimming around in the ball pit.

Sunday, of course, was the Superbowl, so Vivian and I crashed at the house of church friends Kelly and Andy. Pastor Drew and his Crew stopped by to play with Hannah as we watched the game (or pretended to, anyway). I think Hannah was rooting for the 49ers, and the blackout pushed the game a little beyond her bedtime.

 

On Tuesday night, the grandparents treated us to a baby-free evening of fun. We had a Groupon for the Pizza Shoppe in Benson that was about to expire, so we decided to spend it while taking in a live comedy show from 88 Improv! We invited a whole troop of our goofy friends, which was perfect as the group decided to play a series of improv games rather than their usual "long form" improv show. That meant we had volunteers from the audience coming up on stage to be "handy" with the players. Vivian provided some manual dexterity, and I got to be a bit of a poser, seeing how long I could bend over acting crazy in a slideshow routine. It was a fun time, as always, and our Groupon paid for our whole pizza. What could be better? Well, maybe Stilton Blue Cheese ice cream from Ted & Wally's. (Yes, we did that.)

By the way, where's the beef?

Sushi date, part six

Winter seems to come and go with fits and starts this season, with a blizzard here and there and temperatures ranging from single digits to almost 50. I'm not complaining one bit, of course, but Vivian and I have learned that if we want to take our little girl outside to play, we have to make sure to time it just right. Personally, there's nothing I find cozier that doing freelance work from inside my warm, cozy house.

 

On January 26, Vivian and I were able to leave Hannah with the grandparents and go on our sixth annual Sushi Date together. For those of you who haven't been reading for the past couple years, Vivian and I went to Sakura Bana on the night we "made it official" and started dating, so we've gone out for sushi together every year since then (including going all the way to the seafood buffet at the Rio in Las Vegas). This time around, we dropped by Okinawa Sushi at 120th and L, making use of a Living Social coupon and getting a giant sushi boat to share. I swear, there's something about sashimi that tastes both decadent and healthful all at the same time. After dinner, we took a stroll downtown to the Old Market to get some ice cream at Ted & Wally's. Tonight, they were serving garlic butter popcorn, which brought out a grimace from Vivian (we got baklava and apple pie instead).

It's hard to believe that it's been six whole years since we first started dating. Of course, I like to remind the two of us that we are still dating — we just have some special circumstances nowadays.

The Cheese Party

 

Last Saturday, the Johnson Family hosted the third Cheese Party at our home in Bellevue. We've been hosting it every other year since 2009, and January always seemed like the perfect, dreary month to do something fun after the holidays. (Naturally, about a hundred other people this year decided the same thing.) In any case, we had a fun time with our typical cluster of cheesy friends, sipping wine and trying out a number of hard, soft, and stinky cheeses together. Mark won the crown for a tasty Dubliner cheese and Phil and Jen won for a soft, stinky cheese. Ryan took the prize in for cheesiest joke after several rounds, which eventually turned into dirty limericks (after Hannah went to bed). We spent a little too much time cheesing around to watch one of the fine cheesy movies that Phil and Jen brought, but hopefully we'll have the chance to do that next year. The Return of Captain Invincible looked suitably cheesy.

In other news, Walmart had some frozen turkeys on sale for 50 cents a pound, so Vivian and I bought a large one and decided to roast it. Add in some stuffing and cranberry sauce from Aldi and we had ourselves a little Thanksgiving in January, which was delicious. Hannah also turned 14 months old, becoming more a little lady every day. We also paid a visit to Lisa and her ailing mom, quite happy to share what adorableness our little girl can bring to those in need.