Catching Up: Staycation

As is my usual tradition, I took the week following Cowtown Jamborama off as a vacation. It's a usual thing, mostly because I'm too sore from all the dancing on Monday to do anything, and it's a nice time of year to take a vacation.

Monday I mostly just worked on the Cowtown photos and relaxed, but Tuesday I had plans to go meet up with Jillian and go to the zoo. As an added bonus, she had a guitar to lend me so I could start lessons.

I guess I wasn't the only one worn out from all the weekends activities.


We took a ride on the skyfari, where we spied all kinds of animals like rhinos, cheetahs, ostriches, and ...


... Maeg? Who let her out of her display.

I took many more zoo pictures, who knew?

Wednesday started out to be kind of a disappointment. I wanted to go golfing, and I thought I had a certificate for a free round, then I read the fine print ... oops. After running around for ninety minutes, I finally gave up on the golf, and went for a hike on the Bellevue History and Nature Trail just north of Haworth Park.

Even I know not to eat wild strawberries.


Even when you know there is a bird in picture, it can't always be easy to spot.


We kind of surprised each other.

If you take your camera on a nature trail hike, you might as well take dozens of pictures.

Thursday was the big road trip of the vacation. VK and I were going up to Ponca State Park near Sioux City. On the drive up we went by VK's house in South Sioux City, learning about the old haunts and histories of your friends is one of life's little pleasures.

School was in, kids not around and so we (almost) literally had the park to ourselves. I was interested in the park because it is one of two places in Nebraska where the Missouri River is not channeled. It turns out that the unchanneled Missouri River looks a lot like the Platte River. Now it much more understandable how the settlers crossed the river without a bridge or ferry, however, it turns out that the highlight of the park wasn't the river, but the gorgeous bluffs that the park sat on ... and the weather.

Not everything was perfect, squirrels kept running right in front of the car, VK had never been stung by a bee before and got it twice, and we took a late afternoon hike that was longer and felt more like being lost than we wanted. However I'll remember this trip for years.

Three state lookout: Nebraska (in the foreground), South Dakota (across the river), and Iowa (away on the right). I think I'm getting a look too.


Our picnic spot in one of the campgrounds, VK packed a tasty lunch.


I went up and down this twice, three out of four trips went well. VK's car is in the picture.


They say this tree is 365 years old. I thought it would be more lofty or something.


Somewhere around 200 feet straight down.


Well you have to include one artsy picture.

More of this road trip can be found here. Be sure and ask me (in person) about the bald eagle. After we left the state park, we drove up and down the streets in Ponca to see what kind of houses were available in small town Nebraska. We then went over to Sioux City to see the other house VK grew up in, and then dinner at Outback. After an uneventful drive home we got our cars and she went home, and I went to game night.

Friday I actually did get to golf, but not where I wanted to. I ended up down in Plattsmouth at Bay Hills, and shot an 82. It was a good round that got spastic at the end, finishing double bogey, birdie, double bogey, par. Later that evening, I went dancing at JNO for a very special occasion, Vivian's birthday jam! Amazingly there are no photos of the event, although Matt put up a YouTube Video about Vivian's birthday and it has the jam in it.

On Saturday there was a "goodbye" party for Pam. I use quotes because she isn't going anywhere soon, but eventually. After that I went over to Kaleb's for game night. Again, there is a disturbing lack of visual evidence that any of this actually took place. I remember it, but what if aliens or the government implanted the memory to cover up what really happened ... meh, I've heard goofier conspiracy theories.

On Sunday was Vivian's birthday party, and there are tons of pictures from that. It was at Platte River State Park at the Turkey Run Shelter. More beautiful weather and great friends.

I think you can tell from our hair that it was just a little windy at the top of the tower.


Our group always seems to have a large supply of frisbees.


Donna made the pinata ... from cement and superglue evidently. It destroyed that stick and made at least two people bleed.


Vivian liked her cake, and her gifts, and well, the whole day.

I took a bunch of pictures, they are found here. Matt also took a bunch, you can find them here.

Catching Up: Cowtown Jamborama

Cowtown has come and went again. Even though I know what makes it special is that it is just once a year, but still it would be so nice to see people from out of town more often. The lead up was a little more interesting this year as Maeg, Merinda, and I coordinated the housing for the event.

I take vacation for Cowtown, so I was able to attend everything, and it began on Thursday night at the Elmwood Park Pavilion.

What time is it? COWTOWN JAMBORAMA TIME!!


Looks like a pretty good place to have a dance.


The floor was not exactly danceable, but the crowd was.

As the dance got over Merinda and I got a call from Steve at the airport. So we left to pick him up. They had a we're really not kidding no stopping policy in front of the terminal at the airport, so Steve jumped in the car while we were slowly rolling along. Poor Merinda fell asleep as Steve and I talked about Utah, and where he was living. We drove up to Troy and Merinda's, where I met Amanda and Isabel from Kansas City. Finally after visiting with Steve for a while, I went home.

Friday during the day I took four classes. One was Pure Balboa with Peter and Mia, obviously I can dance Balboa already, but learning anything Bal from Peter and Mia is like learning how to paint from Pablo Picasso.

Here Sarah learns a new move under the watchful tutelage of The Cow.


Anna discovered that the old apple a day adage didn't work as well as she wanted it to.


Mia: "Peter, that guy with the camera is kind of weird."

After the classes we met up with a bunch of people at China Buffet. Well half of us showed up at one time, then the rest much later. It was one of those rare times that I did not take "all you can eat" as a personal challenge.

The Friday night band, The Little Harper Big Band, a derivative of the Omaha Big Band, turned out to be fantastic, even better than that. I was quite pleasantly surprised. Between that, shopping at Carol's Closet (I got a new suit coat), and dancing with new people, it was a great night.

Amazingly enough, Audrey Hepburn showed up to the dance. (This picture is already at #36, with a bullet, on my all time views list on my Flickr account.)


Personally I think Ben should have got more sleep. Trisha should have been leading, he'd have woke up.


Mandi and Joe are in disco heaven baby.

The late night was downstairs at the Eagle's club and had an available meal cooked by the staff. It included the most butter laden hash browns in the history of mankind.

Saturday morning classes were performance routines, and I was not interested, so I stayed in bed. I actually considered skipping the day classes altogether, and go to the Apple Jack festival in Nebraska City, but those plans fell through. Eventually I got over to the classes and was pleased to see how many newish dancers were going to the beginner Lindyhop classes.

No, don't look at Jenny and Liz, it's Jillian in the background that counts.


Lauren and Ben learn some Frankie moves in Peter and Mia's Savoy Sampler class.


Steve has a camera and a smile, and isn't afraid to use either.

After classes, I actually went home and napped. This was going to be the late night out, so I wanted to make sure I was prepared. The Southside Aces were playing, so Robin and I conferred, and we agreed to stay out until 0300. Ready, set, go...

Robin grabbed my camera and took quite a few shots, I wondered where my camera was, but I sure can't complain about the picture quality.


David and Maeg show off more moves in one picture than I got in my whole repertoire.


Kate likes it so much in Omaha, she wants me to leave.

Robin and almost made it to our 0300 goal, it was 0257 on my car clock when I pulled into the parking stall.

In a thoroughly unprecedented in 2009 event, I missed the Sunday morning classes. That hasn't happened since every other Cowtown Jamborama that I've been to. Weird, eh?

I know why Frank and Joe are doing this, but I don't know why ... you know what I mean?


Check out the new fall lineup on the Jitterbug channel.

The Sunday night dance was held at the The Old Mattress Factory, so in between the end of classes and the dance VK and I had dinner ... at The Old Mattress Factory. I usually have a talent for picking good things off of a menu, not this time, I finished VK's sandwich, but saved a little room for the Omaha Jitterbug Corn Eating Contest.

I was in no particular hurry, so I only ate four ears of free corn, and got this really cool hat too.


Matt let all of his past Corn Eating victories go to his head.


It's hard to eat corn when you are giggling.

I was not particularly interested in winning as much as I was in free corn on the cob. Casey was sitting next to me and she put cinnamon on her corn on the cob, I tried it and it was good.

The band for the night was Rebel Fever, the band that usual plays downstairs at the Eagle's club on Friday's. They played mostly country and old time rock'n'roll. It was fun, and they were good. Plus a football game on the television.

Jenny Jitterbugs cuts a rug, or a wooden floor, or something. You can bet she knew all the words to the songs.


I'm unsure who the referee is calling a penalty on. Make sure you dance correctly.


Here is the picture, but I still can't picture Katie with straight hair.

I finally took off about 2300. Thus ended Cowtown Jamborama (for me) 2009. I heard it kept going later, but I'm sure I was in bed by then.

So many new friends. So many hours of dancing. So much fun. So many pictures, here are mine, Matt's, Maeg's, Jillian's on Facebook and Steve's on Facebook.

Catching Up: Second Weekend in September

Well hello again blog readers, um, both of you. This is the time of year that I catch up on everything that happened the preceding three weeks. It's tradition, I don't mess with it ... it has something to do with Cowtown taking up so much time.

Way back on September 10th, the Creighton University Swing Dance Club had a welcome back to school dance for it's students. I was invited by more than one club member, but that still didn't help me from feeling like the creepy old man, I only danced with one person I did not know. That being said, the weather was amazing, I can't believe more people weren't out on a night like this ... I even missed the first pro football game of the season to go.

Andi (not pictured) wore shoes to dance, and Brianne didn't. You missed it, probably will never happen again.


There is so much weirdness in this picture, it's hard to know where to begin.

I only took ten pictures ... with Robin's camera, not mine.

I know this may sound like sacrilege, but I actually skipped Jitterbugs Night Out on Friday figuring I would be dancing enough the following week at Cowtown. Saturday was celebration for VK's birthday. It started at Kona Grill, picked by the birthday girl. After dinner we went out to Soaring Wings Vineyard for celebration and then back to VK's house for games.

It was another fantastic weather night. Add in the live jazz playing, friends, and some good wine, it was everything a birthday should be ...


... plus dancing ...


... and a really tasty cake ...


... and the usual shenanigans, it was a night to remember.

Between Matt and I, we posted about 70 photos from the event.

Sunday was the last "official" Lindy in the Park of the year, and it featured the return of the prodigal, um, chef. Annette was there too, heck it seemed like old times, only newer.

It's a Jillian sighting.


Speaking of Jillian, she made up for all the birthdays she missed by making us all some treats. Mmmm.


I think I shimmed when I should have shammed.


There was power napping going on.

More people took pictures of this event than you can shake a stick at. Me, Maeg, Matt (the whole 2009 season, start middle of fourth row from the bottom), and Jill ... if I forgot someone in there, sorry.

Matt wrote similar blog entry, it can be found here.

Goodbye, Pedometer, We Hardly Knew Ye

I lost my pedometer on Sunday. On a walk. In grass. Good luck finding it.

I was really enjoying seeing how many 'steps' I had taken. For the 27 days I kept record, I took 273,590 steps. I walked about 27.5 miles. A good indication of how much I liked it, twice I left the house forgetting my phone, but I never forgot the pedometer.

2009 NFL Season, and This Hurts

Bear down, Chicago Bears, and we'll follow you to victory!

What is this? An offense? The Bears haven't had this kind of scoring offense since, never. Even the 84 team with McMahon and Payton didn't have the kind of point scoring potential that these Bears do with Cutler, Forte, and tight end Greg Olsen. This team has the potential to light it scoreboards all around the NFL. This is a top five offense. I'm excited, like when Grossman was good a few years ago, but without the flakiness. However, my Bears have the same sort of issues on defense that they did a year ago ... I believe they will improve from last year, but will it be enough?

Unfortunately, I just have to say no, and it hurts to say this, Green Bay is just too good. So here are my predictions for the year:

NFC:
East - Eagles
North - Packers
South - Saints
West - Seahawks
Wild Card 1 - Bears
Wild Card 2 - Cowboys

AFC
East - Patriots
North - Ravens
South - Colts
West - Chargers
Wild Card 1 - Steelers
Wild Card 2 - Titans

NFC Champion: Packers
AFC Champion: Chargers

Superbowl Champion: Chargers

The surprise team of the year: Kansas City Chiefs, new staff with a winning pedigree, a good home field advantage, and let's face it, they are playing Denver and Oakland twice. I think they will jump up to 8-8 or 9-7.

I think the Bears, Saints, and Colts are A-/B+ teams, but I think the Packers, Chargers, and Patriots are all A's. I think the Chargers division opponents make for an easy schedule, and the best record in football. I think this will allow them to get to the playoffs better rested and in better shape, so this is their year.

I'll happily be wrong and have my Bears win it all!