Thanksgiving Week 2010

Monday I still felt crappy from Saturday and Sunday. I went to work, but when I got home, I still had the chills, so I went to sleep at 2030 and didn't wake up for 11 hours. Tuesday I worked out and that was about it.

Wednesday after work began my four day weekend, and Jenny had a party and was showing off her new boyfriend, Kris. Jenny usually has good things happen at her parties and this was fun.

We liked Kris, and we took the whole thing very seriously. Photo credit: Matt


Oh, hey, one good picture.


There was a draft in the window, VK was getting cold so Kris and I tried to save the day ... unsuccessfully I might add. Hey Jenny's landlord, fix that thing.


We played What's Yours Like? and The Game of Things. Photo credit: Matt

Thursday I went over to Matt and Vivian's for Thanksgiving dinner with her, Matt, and Vivian's parents, Donna and Jack. I liked to give a big public THANK YOU to them for inviting me. I thanked Matt by mocking him as he played Mega Man.

As usual at Matt and Viv's, I filled up on the hors d'oeuvres, so this was my only plate.


Thank you again, I love this tradition.

Friday was the first time I can ever remember intentionally taking off Black Friday. I have had it off before, but only as a regularly scheduled day off. I celebrated my day off by Jess and Ben come over and test out my chili recipe before I made it for the contest next Sunday. We played The Order of the Stick game, even after we warned Jess that it would be four hours. We did pretty well almost finishing in three.

Later on in the evening we went over to the regularly scheduled Jitterbugs dance. It was Jillian's first dance back from New York. Jenny brought her new boyfriend, Kris, we worked hard at teaching him how on to dance. We also had Jillian's birthday jam. I went home right after the dance in anticipation of...

...my friend Jen was on a train from Denver to Chicago which, by schedule, was due in to Omaha at 0500 and would be there for 15 minutes. That would be plenty of time for hugs and giving her a lemon bar I baked. I dragged my butt out of bed at 0445 and drove down to the train station. I arrived just at 0500 and there was no train so I walked in and asked the clerk and he told me that it would be another hour. Ugh. I might have been tempted to stay if it were warm, but it wasn't, so I went back home to sleep. To answer the question that some of you are bound to ask; no you cannot track a train online.

Later in the day, when it was warm, I cut the grass. That'll be the last time of the year. Now I have to learn how to work the snow blower. Saturday night was a birthday party for Jess at CJ's. We did a lot of talking and played a couple of games of Werewolf. CJ's sister Amy is one smart cookie, but only as a Werewolf.

Sunday was the latest installment of Mass Chaos, this week we were out in Elkhorn. We ended up meeting at DJ's Dugout at 1515 to watch the Bears beat up the Eagles. That was as chippy of a game as I have seen in a while. If I wanted fights, I'd go to a hockey game.

Sunday night ended with our latest session of Pathfinder. We now have a five person group, plus a fighter that CJ is playing for the group. I'm sure I said it before, but I really like this group, no one takes it too seriously.

Third Week in November 2010

Monday after work I played video games and in general decompressed from being on call. Tuesday I got the long called for haircut. As usual, it was physically traumatic, and my head hasn't gotten used to be cold yet. Wednesday, I cooked oddly, I had a salad with Thousand Island dressing, (mild) curried potatoes and lentils, and Tuna Helper.

Thursday was the big trip to Thursday Night Swing Social in Des Moines. I met Brianne and Ben after work, and we car pooled to Des Moines. It took about 2:10 to get there, park and walk in. We made some new friends and saw some old ones. The location, Java Joe's was very nice, but I realized once again how spoiled we are in Omaha with our dance floor.

Here we are! The sad part of this picture is that Ben took his glasses off for it.



I tried to get artsy with my camera.


I'm considering a new kind of dance move, Hannah is considering if she trusts me enough to follow it.

You can see all of my Des Moines Swing Road Trip pictures here. After the dance, we met Rae, Larry, and some of the other dancers at TGIFriday's on the west side of Des Moines. There were a lot of laughs. I had the 'Captain Morgan™ Caribbean Conga-Line Chicken Sandwich' ... first off, it was good, but it was quite strange, I can't really compare it to anything else I've ever eaten. Around midnight we took off and made it back to Omaha and our cars just after 0200. A good time was had by all.

Friday was a busy day, but a good one. I started off the day with a trip to the doctor and a finish up my 75,000 mile check up, they drew some blood and gave me a tetanus shot. I was hungry for ice cream in the afternoon, so I took the gift card that Maggie gave me for lending her my boots, and Merinda and I went to eCreamery to get ice cream. If you thought I whined about Ted and Wally's flavors, I don't even bother doing so about eCreamery, they are consistently weird. The funny part was on the way over, Merinda was talking about getting some cinnamon flavored ice cream if they had it. I tried to say cinnamon, and my speech issues really drew it out "sim ... sssimn ... ss ... ssinnoomm", finally in frustration I just said CINNAMON! really fast and kind of angry. It came out perfectly.

I tried to say it again slow, but nope, it didn't work. Back to fast and angry, it came right out. Then I tried other words that give me issues. Sure enough, slow is stuttery, fast works. We both had a good laugh. I had creme de menthe ice cream, it was good and easy to say.

In the evening, I was supposed to go to the Nighthawks football game with Heidi, Ann (who I don't know) and Carrie. I dressed really warm and headed over to Heidi and Carrie's house. It turned out that Ann backed out, and the only Heidi could give away her ticket was to give away her own too. So it left me, and Carrie, and a (nice) couple we all know, but that was too many third wheels for me. It didn't hurt that Holly was there in town too. Heidi, Holly, and I had one of the best conversations I have had in a long time. It was mostly boys and girls and getting into relationships. It's hard.

The three of us ended up at the Friday swing dance, which turned out to be considerably warmer than the football game. After the dance twelve of us went to Alvarado's for a late night snack. Good conversation until 0200.

Saturday I decided to put the workout to the test. Actually, it was me that ended up tested. I probably did about :45 minutes, I wore myself out.

Saturday evening I went to game night at Kaleb's. I actually managed to only play one game of Werewolf ... and eat a lot of food. It was a different version of Werewolf. Plus socializing and ping pong. Near the end of the evening, I got really dizzy and nauseous, I don't know what was up with that, but ...

... Sunday I missed Mass Chaos for the first time, because I slept until about 1115, which never happens no matter how late I stay up, and I wasn't up particularly late the night before. I went over to CJ's to play Pathfinder. I thought I was feeling better, but I probably should not have done it. By the end of the night I was kind of cranky.

Second Week in November 2010

This is on call week, so prepare yourself for the shortest 'weekly' update ever. Monday on call started ... I ended up working late anyway, and then taking a couple calls when I got home. Troy received his Kinect, so we had some fun after he got it set up and running. I was sore for the next couple days.

On Tuesday I made significant NaNoWriMo progress.

Wednesday on call had me working at home for three and half hours. After I finished I went downstairs to watch Troy play Dance Central.

P p p poker face p p poker face.

Thursday was Veterans Day. My employer went out of their way to make myself and the other veterans feel special, and I was quite touched.

One of our customers brought in a Army vehicle for us to see.

After work I wrote some more for my NaNoWriMo. After writing 600 words I decided that the section probably belonged elsewhere in the book.

Friday I stayed home and waited for work to be busy and it never was. I did take a couple photos of the first snow of the season.

The weather screwed up my lawn cutting plans for Saturday.

Saturday was the same story, work was just never busy. Later in the evening Troy, Merinda, Maggie, and I played Dicecapades for the first time. It was fun, but could be a little more tweaked.

Sunday was not so lucky for work being dead, after being woke up early, I was able to make it on time to the latest installment of Mass Chaos. I tried to enjoy lunch with my friends after wards, but I kept getting calls! Such is the life of being on call.

First Week in November 2010

I am participating in NaNoWriMo this year, you can see information on the side bar to the left. I strongly suspect writing will drag me to December and January. My progress can be seen here.

Monday after work I went to see Beauty and the Beast at Millard North High School. Kimee was doing the makeup for the show, and she wanted me to come. The show was very nice. It was kind of funny because the number of kids on the production staff was greater than the number of people in our entire shows when I was in high school. The show was good, and everyone looked great.

Tuesday I stayed home. Wednesday Jenny came over and I made her dinner. We ate in the basement and looked at pictures of her weekend in Nashville and mine here in Omaha. Thursday was also not a very exciting day.

Friday immediately after work was the quarterly JIVE meeting for Omaha Jitterbugs. I guess I am not afraid to talk in meetings, I can never figure out if that is a good thing or bad thing. Afterward I went home, and then right back to the dance. The original plan was to go to Alvarado's after the dance, but I was the only one left there who was in on the original plan.

Saturday was Hugh and Sarah's wedding. It was a well organized, beautiful wedding, that just happened to take place during a Nebraska - Iowa State game, the bridal coordinator said she was instructed to take the groomsmen's phones away from them. Troy DJ'd the reception, the cake was amazing although it was destroyed, and the company was awesome.

Okay, maybe I was a little sentimental on this one.


It was breathtaking to see how much Sarah loves Hugh.


The most popular picture in the set.


First dance.


We got together and took a picture of all of us friends together. A couple people escaped.


Each table had its own cake, this is how our cake ended up. Thanks Ben A., if you want to see how it's really done, look here.


Everyone was all smiles!



There were cake shenanigans. I may have had some payback coming.




There was plenty of dancing.

You can check out all of my pictures here, Matt has all of his here. If you are the Facebook type, Sarah posted pictures here, Rachel posted pictures here. Also, Matt posted a YouTube video here.

Immediately following the wedding, I followed Jenny to her house, and then we went out to Shady Lane Ranch for Brianne's birthday party. I only took a three pictures, and they were fire pictures, but others took some pictures that I was able to borrow.

It was a little windy, so this fire was really hot.


You just never know where vampires will turn up ... don't worry they are repelled by carton/box wine. Photo credit: Brianne


Aw, too cute, before Ben tried to walk across a pile of loose wood. Photo credit: Brianne

Since we got there late, the party broke up shortly thereafter. Ben C., Jenny and I went down to Alvarado's in Council Bluffs for lotsa noms ... I mean good food.

On Sunday there was an extra hour of sleep and we went to Mass Chaos at a reasonable time. Immediately following Mass, we took a trip to the Holy Family Shrine. It was my first trip there.

You can see the rest of my pictures from the Mass Chaos visit to the Holy Family Shrine here.

Next week: I am on call, so basically nothing will happen.

Fourth Week in October 2010

The previous Friday, when we went to Donut Stop after JNO, Kevin went to Alvarado's first, and then came to Donut Stop. So we all had to watch him eat a huge burrito. Having all those great donuts sitting there was a big help, but I still couldn't shake it. So on Monday I grabbed the offending Kevin and we drove over to Council Bluffs and Alvarado's. For only the second time ever did I manage to finish an entire (#21) Pollo Asado platter. Not only did I finish it, but then I ate at least half the dessert that Kevin bought.

Tuesday I went to Shannon's house after work and played with the littles and Kam while Shannon did her homework. On Wednesday I worked late getting my Windows 7 box set up for work. I actually only forgot one thing, which, in my own defense, I thought would be on the standard install. I also got a Facebook message from one of my long lost cousins, Amy! It's exciting to be in touch with family I never really knew. In the morning the car would not start, no it's not a bad battery, the explanation can be found here. If you can patiently wait, it will start.

Later on Thursday I went to Theology on Tap. Right after that I went to Frank's birthday party at DJ's Dugout and their Blazin' Pianos show. It was Frank's choice, and it was a good time.

Yes, Frank is on the piano.

In other news, on Friday my brother Carl was in New York City to accept his Walt Whitman poetry award. Friday was JNO's Halloween Dance. I actually took my camera!

We did the "Thrill the World" Dance.


I was on guard duty until 2300. My costume was good enough for second place.


I thought these two deserved an award. Photo credit: Steven

At 2300 I changed out of my costume. Rob and I had a funny conversation about uncomfortable costumes in the mens room, but since it was a mens room conversation, that's all I can say. I was on the teardown crew, so I was there quite late. Here are my pictures of the event, and Matt's can be found here. There are plenty to be found on Facebook too.

Saturday I decided to go on a photo safari to the one of the places I went on June 20 to record pictures of the flooding this year. I thought there would be good colors, but unfortunately, it looked liked the majority of leaves were gone already from the forest, probably due to the high winds earlier in the week. Here are a few I liked:

I think I would have walked further, except that I was suffering from empty stomach syndrome. You can see the rest of my pictures here.

Saturday night was Merinda's big Halloween party. The house looked fantastic, and by 1900 people started arriving. Warning: Ben's panda was so creepy, I'm still having nightmares.

I warned you it was super creepy. Photo credit: Jess


The king of pop was there ... no monkeys.


A pair of identical twins ... one of whom liked the lipstick more than the other. Photo credit: Matt


I swear if I have to wear these tight shorts for even one more minute! Photo credit: Matt


What could be sadder than an out of work Jedi. Photo credit: Jess


This is the textbook definition of foppish.

A good time was had by virtually everyone. You can see all of my pictures here, Matt took quite a few too. There are a bunch of Facebook pictures too. We ended up playing Werewolf kind of late, I got killed fairly quickly in both games, so I just started cleaning up ... and randomly yelling at everyone for killing me. There was also a game of Apples-to-Apples. I finally got to bed at 0345.

Sunday morning we made our only Mass Chaos trip to the Cathedral. Too early! What idiot planned this thing anyways? Right after church I went home and tried to get a little nap, it didn't work. I then went over to DJ's dugout to watch some non-Bears football. Finally after this I got some sleep. When I got up, trick or treaters were in full swing. I don't like to drive when they are all out and about.

So I'm caught up with my blog. Yay! It's November, and I'm starting to get everything put back together that got left all summer long. It took just four days into November to be caught up. I am hoping NaNoWriMo will keep me busy.