January - February Bridge Week 2012

I suddenly remembered this blog post from just a short two years ago when seemingly everyone around the Omaha metro was complaining about the cold. Not as many people are complaining about the warmth, including me. I went for a walks outside on consecutive days, January 31 and February 1.

Monday was not a very exciting day, especially since I stayed home sick, and barely left the house to go to the grocery store. I did get work on the Mass Chaos book, which I like, but it's going slower than I wanted. Tuesday night when I wanted to write my book, instead I got caught up in chatting, sheesh.

Wednesday I was finally over my migraine. Yay! It also seemed to be my day. First while walking outside I looked up to the overcast sky and saw an angel complete with halo around it's head.

The picture came about 12 seconds too late.

Then later in the day while looking at various memes around the interwebs, I came upon this curiosity. Naturally I could not resist the temptation to try this with poor Zeke, who put up with with the whole thing for about ten seconds, but it got me to laugh about 25 minutes straight when I saw this picture.

Hi, my name is Zeke, and I'm a victim of inbreading.

On a more serious note, Wednesday was the four year anniversary of me putting down Cherokee. I know I'm not quite done with it, because I cried about it on Saturday.

Thursday the internet blew up, okay, just my Facebook feed, about this article about Kaleb in the Omaha World-Herald. Then people said I was in the paper, yes, my name and picture made it into the print edition. After work I went the latest version of Rome and Coke, this one about Lectio Divina. I really enjoyed the discussion, and hope to make this a point of reading in my life. I like the intention of reading with no timeframe goals, just to read with full understanding.

After the discussion, I headed over to Kaleb's to play a game of Agricola which I mistakenly thought that I played before. I had not, I was confusing it with Puerto Rico ... the reason that I confused the two will demonstrate what a geek I am. Agricola is the #2 game on boardgamegeek.com and Puerto Rico is the #3 game. Consequentially, I missed the explanation of the rules and basic strategy Kaleb gave Cecily before I got there ... guess who finished in last place? Part of it was my own fault, I started the game with one strategy, and then switched mid-game to another one. However the evening wasn't a total loss...

...I got a cute picture of Q-Bert sitting on Cecily.

There was one really bad part of the evening. I broke a tooth. I broke it in a unsalvagable way. I knew it right away too. It wasn't painful, but like I do whenever I do something bad to my teeth, I do it fabulously.

Friday during the day I set up a dentist appointment for Monday, finished my day at work, ate dinner with Beth and Teri at an impossibly packed Hy-Vee, and went to the regular dance. The grocery store was packed because Saturday was supposed to be Snowmeggedon 2012, and well, Omahans are people who pride themselves at being prepared, even if it is at the last minute. As for the dance, most of the time I like it better when the dance is crowded as opposed to sparse, but this time, the lack of a crowd seemed like a good thing.

Saturday Snowmegeddon came and left 9.1 inches of snow (curiously last February 4, we had 6.2 inches). The snowblower did not work because the snow was so wet and heavy, so I did the entire driveway with an old fashion shovel. I was pretty worn out after 2:15 minutes of shoveling, so I came in, showered, and took a nap. Later in the evening, she snow had stopped and the roads cleared. This seems like a good time for board games! I invited Maeg and Ben over, Maeg got there first, and with Troy we played one game of Giza before Ben arrived. There was some feline entertainment as well.

Zeke had a tough week with food.

After Ben got there, we set up for what we had hoped would be a difficult game of Arkham Horror with a couple expansions. We separately chose three investigators, and picked one ... i.e. no collaborating to get a balanced team. My character was a complete failure, I didn't close one gate, I didn't kill one monster ... I didn't even battle any monsters. I played Diana Stanley. Her special effects never came into play because I didn't battle anything, and the Silver Twilight Lodge membership ended up being useless in that my encounters there only had bad results. Regardless, we won the game before the ancient one awoke.

We then played the new game that Maeg brought, Elder Sign. Same publisher, same mythos, same background as Arkham Horror, but a smaller, quicker game. Almost as if Arkham Horror was suffering from feature creep, so they just did a rewrite of the whole world. I really liked the game. (I was disappointed on Sunday that I didn't get to play again)

Sunday I met Teri for Mass at Saint Columbkille, Father Kevin was the celebrant, yay, good to see him. We went out to Village Inn to eat, Teri's treat: thank you. I came home, took a very short nap, and headed over to Kaleb's to his Super Bowl party.

About the football game: I admit it, I thought it was going to be a blow out in the Patriots favor. I should have know when the experts were picking the Giants, and the Vegas had the spread in favor to the Patriots. I bet the sports bookies made a fortune with people plunking money down on the Pats. I generally think it's unfair to characterize a game as turning on one play, but I thought the combination of Wes Welker dropping a difficult pass, then a few plays later Mario Manningham making a spectacular one was the difference(s) in the game. I don't necessarily think Welker should have made the catch, but he could have, but I do think that Manningham had no business catching that ball and it brought to my mind the football cradled against the head catch that David Tyree made to help to decide the Super Bowl a few years back. I think the momentum shift from one team to the other with the combination of drop and catch made decided the game. I didn't believe the Giants would beat the Patriots then, and I didn't believe it this year either, maybe I'll think it through more carefully next time they face each other.

Looking back on the season, it was disappointing to me. I thought the Bears had everyone right where they wanted them when Jay Cutler broke his hand, and the rest of the season fell apart. As far as my predictions went, I had the Super Bowl winner wrong, I had New Orleans, but I had the loser correct, New England. Of the twelve playoff teams, I correctly picked six. Meh. I'll put away the sports stories until next fall ... except for some lame predictions about the NCAA Tournament, or if the Bulls or Blackhawks make their finals, I'll pretend like I know what I'm talking about.

The party itself was fun. We listened about Kaleb getting indirectly mentioned on Saturday Night Live, played some around the world ping pong, stopped and watched Madonna's half time show, more ping pong, watched the last few minutes of the game, then more ping pong, one game of Qwirkle Cubes, and finished the night out with Rock Band. Oh and did I mention? More food than you could shake a stick at?

One other thing happened at the party. After much discussion with friends, careful consideration, and a whole lot of perseverance by Maggie, I told her how I felt and we will be boyfriend / girlfriend. I am very happy to have the support and love of our mutual friends, and the love a smart, sweet woman. I am very blessed.

Next week: it's Facebook official.

Fourth Week in January, 2012

This awaited me Monday morning as I went out to start my car. Thank you Jenny!

Monday after work I had the best of intentions to be productive, but that didn't go so well. I mostly chatted all night and played some computer games. So Tuesday I planned to get to work on my book, but instead, Kevin called me and we went out to dinner at Five Guys, so yes, I had a burger, but no ketchup. We stayed there an awfully long time talking. He told me he was leaving to move to Virginia the following Monday. On Wednesday I went to RCIA. It was a catch up night since we'd missed three sessions in a row, so I knew we'd be going late, but it was okay, the deacons have quite the comedy routine. Thursday was back to dullsville.

Friday started the fun. After work I took a nap, then off to the Jitterbugs dance. It was the usual good times, but I started to feel a little icky. I decided that I was going to forego the UNMC Skate-a-thon for Parkinson's ... but then eight other people were going, including Kevin who was on a victory tour of sorts. We got to the skate-a-thon around 0030, got laced up and started skating.

Things I did not know; Lee had never been skating (oops, sorry I knocked you over), since I think Maggie and Cecily can do anything I was surprised to see them unsure of themselves (so I held Maggie's hand), if I am going to fall I go forward, Maggie goes backward (I fell, kind of sideways), and core temperature matters (see picture below). At 0100 they did Thriller on ice, and at 0200 they did a skimpy skate.

Seriously, I can't do the dance on carpet or cement, these people are good.


My wrists got cold, especially the back of them, but really not my chest at all. Photo credit: Dena

I would not have done it if it weren't for Dena getting out there in just her dress. She went, then I went, then Cliff went, and finally Adam joined in with a T-Shirt on. So much for my manliness. After ten laps, the skinny (skimpy? skivvy?) skate was over, we got dressed, collected our prizes (a signed Husker shirt for me), and we headed over to Village Inn to eat and warm up. We were there until about 0330. I think I like to stay up once a weekend.

Understandably, I slept in on Saturday morning until almost noon, then it was off to have a long lost lunch with Kimee. Instead of the normal Runza, we went to Old Chicago. It was nice to catch up with her.

You're going to need people of intelligence on this quest ... thing.

We also went shopping at Target, her for food for her party, and me for some items for the one I was going to. I came home, took a short nap, and got to creating. Unfortunately, my creation was not quite what I imagined it to be. It wasn't bad, but I expected something with a little more flavor. Perhaps a little background would help, it was called an Hors D'Oeuvres Deathmatch. I was not the winner, Tamra won with a really cute entry.

The name for my creation was Tuna Racing Stripes.


Yes, pig in a blanket, very funny, ha ha. Photo credit: Matt


First smile! And who is holding her? 'Uncle' Eric, that's right! Photo credit: Matt

We must be getting old, we didn't stay up past midnight, there wasn't even a stupid o'clock anything. There were some suspicious Telestrations drawings, but not even Jenny could get mad at them too much. I did not bring my camera, but Matt had his, you can see his pictures here.

Unfortunately Sunday did not go well, I had a migraine developing, and it continued all day. I slept until about 1600, and was back in bed not very long after that either. I was actually encouraged when this one ended, because I felt so great the next day that I was reminded that whatever the cause, they are real and make me feel like crap. Boo migraines.

Next week: Stuff and more stuff!

Third Week in January 2012

Monday was kind of a dull day with not much going on. I sat and chatted online most of the evening. Tuesday after work I went to the grocery store, came home cooked, and then got to work on the Mass Chaos Book. Good news, I downloaded Pages to help me with it; bad news, I lost about half the work that I had already done on it, so I'm a little behind on my goal of finishing by March 1.

This happened as I left work on Wednesday. It got me down more than it should have as I left work ... but the next 60 hours were pretty good.

After work I went with my RCIA group to see a presentation by Omar Guitierrez about the catacombs in Rome. The presentation was excellent and uplifting, I thought Omar said it was online, but I can't find it. Thursday I attended a lecture, this time by the Archbishop about saints. I appreciate the Archbishop very much, words that will stick with me "...if anyone asks you what God's purpose is for them, you can answer with confidence 'God's purpose for you is to be a saint and be with Him forever.'" Friday we met at Joe's house for the next two episodes in the Catholicism series. There was some fun as all three of Marilou's daughters and Lan tried to wrestle me to the ground at once, I prevailed until they got the bright idea to try tickling me instead ... oh, look, the next video is on.

After the videos ended, I went downtown to the dance ... I love the dance ... people are fun, dancing is fun. After the dance we went to Donut Stop and sat and talked until very late, meeting two new people, Rachel and Amanda. I'm thankful my life is so blessed with interesting people and activities.

Saturday at lunch I drove up to the Eagle's, where there was a dance weekend with Christian and Jenny coming up from Saint Louis to teach eight classes. I wasn't doing any of the dance class, but I did know there would be lots of people I would like to have lunch with, and I was right, I went out to lunch with ten other people. At the end of the lunch we came back to the Eagle's Lodge and there was music playing, so I danced with some people. Just as Christian and Jenny arrived, I was trying a move with Maggie that we had done before, but it went wrong, and Maggie and I ended up on the floor laughing. Christian spoke up to the room, and said "Next, we'll be learning this move."

After lunch I came home and napped, and then in the late afternoon I completed (my part of) the original Mass Chaos mission and visited the last of the churches on the list, Saint Agnes. I went to church not feeling very good about myself, and left with a new perspective and a sense of accomplishment. Thank you Teri for coming with me short notice.

After church I came home, met Maggie and Ben here, and we went out to eat with Christian and Jenny at Swine Dining. I showed them my pictures from Heartland Swing ... at least from the iPhone they looked like good pictures, better than I remember taking anyways. Maggie, Troy, and I played a game of Small World. Maggie had an impressive win. I think it's one of those games that I am very 'meh' about.

Sunday lunch was nearly an exact duplicate Saturday, except with five people instead of eleven, and no sprawling on the floor at the end of a dance move. The rest of the day was taken up with cooking and writing the Mass Chaos book.

Second Week in January 2012

Much has been made about the weather being so warm this winter. I may not miss the cold and the snow, but with it so being so dry, my allergies are going crazy. I like rain, I like high humidity, no matter what the temperature. Given that this blog has talked about all kinds of winters, I'm not going to get too excited about this one, but I will enjoy it while it lasts.

Monday I had nothing planned, it being the first day off after on call, but then I heard that the Ozone was hosting the final Prairie Cat show ... ever. It's kind of a bummer, I really enjoyed their music (and I still will). If I understood what they were saying, it was too much for them to maintain their schedule with the individual band members spread out across towns up and down the Iowa / Nebraska border.

I shared my meal with Marilou, and got a dance out of it! Photo credit: Matt


We were running out of chairs in our corner. Photo credit: Matt


Thank you Prairie Cats! Photo credit: Matt

You can see all of Matt's pictures from the event here. The show was good, except for the Ozone part. The staff there consistently does something to be annoying, this time it was wanting to charge me for another refill on my soda after I bought a meal. Good food, but I would just rather eat elsewhere because of the b.s. that goes with going there. I was home and in bed by 2215.

Tuesday I intentionally stayed home, figuring that I would be out on Wednesday and Thursday. However, Wednesday rolled around, and RCIA was cancelled. So I got plenty of sleep in the middle of the week. Thursday I went to Rome and Coke, the discussion was about the Communion of Saints. I thought it was a good discussion. Afterwards, Ronny, Ronny's friend Nate, and I went to Village Inn. They seated us right across from Merinda and Katja. A little later Tom joined us and we had a fun conversation until almost 2300. Easy for me to stay out late, I wasn't working on Friday.

Friday morning I slept in ... yes! After I finally got moving, I ran some errands, the recycling center, the insurance office, getting gas, washing my car, and visiting with Jillian. Having lunch made for you by a master chef is way above average.

In the evening, I bought a pizza at Lansky's and headed over to Joe's house to watch episodes 3 & 4 of the Catholicism video series. It was a smaller crowd this time, so many more boys than girls ... what's up with that? I thought episode 3, on the Mass, was just the sort of thing that would be awesome to share with non-Catholic Christian friends who are wondering what all the fuss is about ... I guess that the same can be said about episode 4 about the Saints too. I left about 2145, and drove downtown to the dance, and ended up dancing quite a bit for the short time that I was there. I didn't stay out late, I just came home and went to sleep.

Saturday during the day, in between naps, I got over to the grocery store and made a few phone calls while listening to the NFL playoffs on the radio. In the evening Kaleb was having a game night, so I headed over and was the first one over there at around 1720. We watched the end of the first football game, which was fabulous, I think there were 57 points scored in the final 39 seconds. Then the game playing began, first up was a game new to me, Quarriors. It's kind of deck building game, but with dice. I am unsure if it would have replayability over the long term, but it was a good for one play, and I won. Next up was the old favorite of ours, Shadow Hunters.. I was on the winning team (Shadows). The third game we played is one of my favorites, Shadows Over Camelot, it's a cooperative Knights of the Roundtable game ... hmmm, we won that game too. The final games we played were two games of Ultimate Werewolf. The first game I was the Witch (good team), and I played it very well. Beth was the moderator, and we had some miscommunication about when I wanted to save someone, however villagers still won, so it had no effect on the game. The second game was the only game I wasn't a winner on all night, I was killed early. Kaleb and Beth mixed in some new cards so even though we play every time it still seems new. The rest of the night was consumed with ping pong and Rock Band. It was a very good time, and I love Kaleb's generosity a lot. We finally got thrown out around 0415.

Sunday I slept in, but got to church, again at 1230 at Saint Mary's in Bellevue. In the early afternoon I took a longish walk with my still sort of functioning camera.

You can see all my pictures from this walk here.

The rest of my day was spent writing. I have started the Mass Chaos book. I think I'm going to have to use a different program than the one I have to get it done, but I have managed to get a couple dozen pictures ready and about 1800 words down. I'm excited about it.

First Week of January 2012

Monday was an off day, so I made the most of it by sleeping in, and then heading to Kaleb's house to watch the Nebraska bowl game. It didn't go Nebraska's way. When it was obvious that Nebraska wasn't going to win, Kaleb and I played some ping pong, I even let him keep score. He won. I admit it, I don't try very hard at ping pong, and at some level, I think of it as a social game. I am competitive at other games and sports, even badminton at Kaleb's house, but I can't really 'turn it on' for ping pong.

About 1600 I met VK at Target at Crossroads for the express purpose of buying a pair of jeans. It didn't happen. I think it's funny how it is so difficult for me to buy jeans. What I didn't buy, and should have, was hand weights for walking. We made our way over to Noodles and Company for dinner, I ate, VK didn't. I think I always order the same thing there, which I like, but can't remember what it is without looking at the menu every time. After eating we headed over to Kaleb's and we played some ping pong, this time I won, and we test played the Little Empires game Kaleb has been helping an acquaintance out with.

Tuesday started on call, and a headache. I came home right after work, and as I parked the car, I remembered that we didn't have any butter, so I went to Aldi to get some. After I cooked, I spent the evening catching up on my blog.

Wednesday after work was the same as Tuesday, except I did a cooking experiment. Although the results look good, it was kind of like the steak I cooked a few weeks ago, good, but kind of an unexpected taste. As I have discussed here before, my brain and preconceived notions about taste really trip me up for eating new things.

This may just be the obligatory picture I have to have on any blog post.

Thursday was a dull boring, stay at home kind of day.

Friday was a pretty exciting day of work, and by exciting, I mean really really busy. I only ended up working about 20 minutes late however, it was an important 20 minutes. Joe began showing the Catholicism video series. I was late getting there because of working late and several missteps getting there. I was so late in fact that Marilou beat me there, but only by about 10 seconds.

The first two episodes were shown with about 10-12 people in attendance. Some of the first few words from Father Barron set the tone "I don't want to see Jesus become domesticated..." then he laid out how Jesus 'came with a sword' ... it was fabulous viewing, there was almost no talking during each of the sessions. The videos got over around 2200, and we sat and chit-chatted until 2315. I ended up going downtown for the last 20 minutes of the swing dance. Then home and to bed.

Saturday during the day I went grocery shopping and to Walgreen's, then came home and watched football. It was fairly dull for a regular Saturday, but downright eventful for an on call one.

Sunday morning, um, at 1230, I went to church with Joe at Saint Mary's in Bellevue. I am always amazed at how efficiently the priests in our Archdiocese are at getting Mass to last exactly one hour. Father Mark was did not appear to be feeling very well, but he didn't seem to rush or slow down, I looked at my phone as we left, it said 1330. I didn't get any work calls, so Joe and I went over to DJ's Dugout and had lunch and watched playoff football. It was so exciting, I can't remember who was playing, I think it had to be the Giants and the Falcons, but I am not sure ... no wait ... yes, that was it. After lunch was over with, I came home and napped. The weather was too nice to not get outside for a little while after the nap, then I ran some errands, and caught end of the game with the Steelers getting Tebowed on the radio. I took a few calls in the evening, but that was the extent of my week and on call.

Just in case anyone was curious, here are my exercise totals for 2011:

• 1796 push ups and dips
• 4542 sit ups
• 3h 24m of aerobic exercise (not dancing)
• 59m of yoga
• 92h 59m of dancing
• 313.16 miles of walking
• 19.30 miles of running