Category Archives: St. Patrick’s Day

Orpheum, St. Patrick’s Day, & Jonny turns 40

The Ides of March are always a busy time for us, between Pi Day (3-14), St. Patrick’s Day, and Uncle Jonny’s birthday, we’ve always got something going on. Squeeze in an oil change, a trip to the Orpheum, and a couple bikes rides, and it was a relatively normal, busy week.

Our CR-V was overdue for an oil change, so we left it at the shop on Monday as my dad drove me to work. He took me out to breakfast at Panera beforehand, where we had some breakfast sandwiches and caught up on the family.

Hannah’s friend Sam came over for some quality time after school in the meantime, where she showed Hannah how to draw characters in a “manga” style.

It was also Pi Day (3-14), so Vivian and I got to share one of the little pies she got at Walmart. I’d dropped by Aldi to find a full-sized pie, which they didn’t have, but they did have a cute kitchen sign that I couldn’t resist getting.

I got outside for a couple chilly bike rides through the week, burning a few calories as I went around the demolition of a few sections to trail to visit Trader Joe’s, the 48th street overpass, and Hy-Vee on separate days.

On Friday, Hannah and I got greened up for St. Patrick’s Day. Then she spent the day visiting the Orpheum Theater with her class from Abiding Life, and they got to have lunch at Chick-Fil-A afterward. Then that evening, Vivian made some corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day, which we had with some green cake from Grammy.

The next day was Uncle Jonny’s 40th birthday. I dropped by in the morning to look through some old slides with my parents, courtesy of Nathan’s iPhone. Then Vivian and the kids came over, and we had sandwiches for lunch with a countertop full of various ingredients.

The kids had made Uncle Jonny a cake in the meantime, mixing the ingredients and baking it the night before and then frosting it in the morning. He also had a few presents, which included some seasonings from Volcanic Peppers (which Aaron got a whiff of). We stayed a little while afterward introducing the kids to such vintage shows as Little Rascals and The Price is Right online before they went home. Then we played a couple rounds of a game called “FIbbage” before calling it a day.

Herbster, Biking and St. Patrick’s Day

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Spring is right around the corner, making it warm enough for Hannah to take her dolls for a “swim” in the backyard and even for the kids to have some ice cream on the porch after dinner.

On Monday, Charles W. Herbster paid another visit to Omaha, this time speaking at the Pachyderm luncheon at the Garden Café. I’d seen him twice before and almost didn’t go, but it was easier than packing a lunch for myself. The place was packed, with extra tables being hauled into the party room and overflow guests relegated to chairs (or standing) on the periphery. In addition to Herbster, who gave a stump speech on immigration, critical race theory, and accepting Christ, there were a dozen or more candidates and other folks giving 45-second pitches for their own campaigns or other issues. Though I’m still on “Team Lindstrom” for the time being, I found Herbster as charismatic than ever.

I was also reminded how much he likes to “name drop,” talking about a conversation with Mike Huckabee in addition to endorsements from Donald Trump and Gov. Kristi Noem. He also recently got an endorsement from my old friends Don and Sue Stenberg, and he was introduced by former Mayor Hal Daub, which seemed to suggest more local support. Of course, he also got a recent endorsement from Mike Foley, which naturally ruffled feathers with the Rickets/Pillen crew.

I’ve been making more and more visits to Wildewood recently. In addition to a Wednesday night study on “Counter Culture” (with Hannah coming along for their youth group), I went on Tuesday for the Men of God dinner, having some chicken strips and chili while listening to one member talk about his work with local youth at a juvenile detention center.

It’s been sunny and warm this week, so I went for a few lunchtime bike rides on Tuesday and Wednesday, dropping by Trader Joe’s for some treats for St. Patrick’s Day, and then taking a trip up to the silos by the Field Club Trail. I even managed my first bike ride to work this year, though it was cloudy and windy and cold and not nearly as pleasant on Thursday.

Then on St. Patrick’s Day, I wore a green shirt and tie to work and got to have some Irish soda bread with Kerrygold butter in the break room. There had been plenty of treats for days beforehand, including some cute St. Patrick’s Day donuts and pots of “gold” brought by some of our vendors.

Of course, we also had a veritable Irish feast at home that evening, with corned beef and cabbage with red potatoes made by Vivian. Donna also came by with some nut butter cookies and green Jell-O from Donna (and also Bella). Then after dinner, we watched Darby O’Gill and the Little People with the kids while eating some St. Patrick’s Day ice cream afterward. The movie was strangely more enjoyable for me the second time around. Aaron also cracked up at some of the scenes with the leprechauns but got a bit scared at the Cóiste Bodhar toward the end.

Friday was Uncle Jonny’s birthday, so our kids colored up a couple birthday cards and brought them over to say “Happy Birthday.” Then on Saturday, we had some lovely weather for a walk over to my parents’ house again for a proper celebration. (Hannah even got to ride her bike over.) Uncle Nathan joined us all as we had some Casey’s pizza for lunch and then played some video games. We briefly tried playing an eight-player round of Pico Park together, but it proved to be a bit too difficult to get everyone to cooperate and complete more than a couple levels together. Hannah tried playing a game called “Heave Ho” with Uncle Jonny before we turned over to watching a few home movies to finish off the afternoon.

Musical, Museum, Fish Fry & Parade

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It seems this last week has been jam-packed, with activities every night and a few during the day. I’ve also given up coffee for Lent and have been running on Postum the past few days, which I had to special order online, as they don’t tend to sell that sort of thing in local stores.

On Wednesday afternoon, Aaron’s class had a music performance for us, where he and his little classmates sang a few songs from Seussical the Musical and Disney’s Coco. Vivian and I stood up in the crowd and Aaron’s face broke into the biggest smile when he saw us. We also liked being able to see Aaron and all his little classmates, some of whom we only get to hear about on occasion.

Then on Thursday evening, Aaron’s first grade class got to spend the evening at the Children’s Museum. It gave Aaron the chance to interact with his friend Nico as he colored spaceships and cars to add into a virtual world on a projector’s screen. The kids also got to see the traveling exhibit upstairs about wood, which included a tiny house they could help “build,” along with model trees and a tree house.

The most adventurous moment of the evening came, however, when someone pulled the fire alarm. We got to stand outside in the damp cold for 10-15 minutes as the kids played on the playground while the fire department rolled up to inspect and clear the building. It was the first time Hannah had actually experienced anything like a fire drill at home, making me think we ought to practice this sort of thing more often.

On Friday, we went over to Phil and Jen’s house for our a family fish fry. We were joined by a few friends, including Jenny and Kody, who had a cluster of kids among them who kept ours busy running around the house for a few hours. Phil and Kody breaded and fried fish (as well as cheese and some shrimp), which we ate throughout the night with such things as macaroni and cheese and some funky Taiwanese fish snacks. while having some hilarious grown-up banter as the kids kept themselves busy.

There was also some birthday cake for Gabriel (and a few presents). I was mostly just happy to see our mutual kids getting along so well, running in circles around the house as the grown-ups made hilarious banter with one another at the big table.

The next day, Hannah and I braved 12-degree temperatures and went to downtown Omaha to march in a St. Patrick’s Day parade with my friend Brett Lindstrom. He’s running for governor along with a few other people (like Jim Pillen and Theresa Thibodeau), but I’ve finally decided to put my support behind him this season. There were many other politicians in the parade, including Mayor Jean Stothert, and I saw a bunch of familiar faces with Don Bacon’s crew, though the congressman himself was still in Washington DC.

The parade went from 16th and Harney down to the Old Market and back along Howard Street. Hannah emptied multiple buckets of candy handing them out to kids along the route, and I got a nice little workout walking along, taking photos, and jogging to the pickup truck and back to refill Hannah’s bucket. The cold wasn’t even that noticeable once we started moving, and it felt good to be back in the swing of parade season once again.

We had a family movie night that evening watching The Love Bug (1968) with the kids over pizza. Then we spent Sunday covering as we turned the clocks forward and lost an hour of sleep for no good reason.

A Birthday, a Fish Fry, and a Holey Cow

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Our Spring Break continued with some lovely weather last week, which warranted a least one more trip to the Park. We had some Burger King for lunch before walking the kids up and down the Keystone Trail. They got to see a bridge with several padlocks clinging to the chain link walls, symbolizing bonds of love in a unique counterpoint to the broken plate we saw on Tuesday.

Then that evening, Hannah and Aaron took it upon themselves to clean out our garage and extract our little red wagon for a walk up the street. It won’t be long before we’ll be using again for a concert in the park (I hope).

Then we had a fish fry feast with Phil and Jen on Friday (say that three times fast). We brought along things to make grilled cheese as our friends Jenny and Kody brought Banana Bread and some Mac and Cheese, respectively. Phil and Kody battered up and fried several filets of fish, along with some french fries and tater tots. We grown-ups also got to sample such unique things as peanut butter beer and some of Phil and Jen’s stash of hot sauce. We also got to try various treats from Taiwan, including “horse beans” and a soft drink made from white asparagus.

Our kids ate and had some fun playing with our mutual group of kids for a couple hours. It was also Gabriel’s birthday, so he got a dinosaur racetrack to play with before we had some blueberry cupcakes for dessert.

We had a mostly quiet weekend and celebrated “Pi Day” with some actual chicken pot pie, courtesy of Vivian. Then on Monday, Hannah and her homeschool group got to see a “holey cow” provided by Nathan from the University of Nebraska and 4H. They got to learn about the insides of a cow, partly by literally putting their hands inside of it. This cow had a surgical hole in its side, which meant you could reach inside and even pick up the grass it had already eaten. I’m still reeling a bit from the idea, but it was hopefully educational.

In other news, it was also St. Patrick’s Day this week. That meant we learned a bit about St. Patrick at our monthly men’s dinner (which featured chicken from Pizza Ranch). We also had to have our usual Irish dinner of corned beef and cabbage, along with some Irish soda bread Vivian was kind enough to bake to go along with our Irish butter. I even got some Lucky Charms for a “full Irish breakfast” in the morning.

Thursday was Uncle Jonny’s birthday, and it was just sunny enough for an evening walk down to grandma and grandpa’s house to celebrate. Hannah and Aaron each decorated some cards for him, and I brought along a “Koffee” mug as a gift. If you’re familiar with the Pokémon TV show, you know exactly how to say that word.

In other news, Hannah likes puzzles, Aaron lost another tooth, and I used a giant batch of leftover mashed potatoes to make potato pancakes.

Sheltered in place

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So, how’s COVID-19 treating you and your family these days? The sheer number of things that have been shut down in a week is just staggering. A week ago, I was taking Hannah to her Wednesday night church group without a second thought. If you read my blog, you can see every entry has some activity where we’re around ten or more people at one event of another.

Now, we can’t go anywhere with ten or more people and every church, restaurant, and public facility is shut down. We’re still making the most of this downtime, but it’s still hard to come to grips with so much of the world being turned upside down.

We’d planned on going to a St. Patrick’s Day parade on Saturday, but it was cancelled, so I went out with my folks to breakfast at First Watch instead, hoping to get in one last meal in a sit-down restaurant before everything became take-out only a few days later.

We also got a bit of a freakish, mid-March snow in the meantime, leaving us with a frosted winter wonderland for a day or two. With all group activities cancelled, we’ve been taking the kids on a few extra walks outside just to get some fresh air — one thing that hasn’t been restricted by any guidelines from the CDC.

St. Patrick’s Day was similarly low-key — we got some corned beef and cabbage with red potatoes for dinner, but shopping has become a bit of a thrill ride. Every other store seems to be completely out of something — not just the famously impossible-to-find toilet paper or hand sanitizer but now pasta, canned tuna, bread and even milk can often be completely cleaned out of one store or another. Hearing rumors about a two-week lock down that included grocery stores (which later turned out to be Fake News) spurred me to fill an extra bucket of emergency food just in case

We’ll soon have to figure out some creative ways to have fun with ten or fewer people at a time, just to avoid cabin fever as we’re busy avoiding the Corona Virus. Fortunately, we got a head start on this schooling-from-home thing long before it became mandatory for everyone.

Fish Fry, Skating, and St. Patrick’s Day

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The Lenten season is upon us again, so that means touring some of Omaha’s famous fish fries, in particular the one at Holy Name. It’s is one of the biggest draws in town, attracting such guests as Congressman Don Bacon, as well as our tiny group. The fish is good, and watching it being battered in a custom-made contraption is a show all in itself.

This particular fish fry is baffling as many in the crowd outside — and packing the halls inside — seem more interested in standing around drinking instead of lining up for fish, making it difficult for the rest of us to know where to go. It’s a fun time once you make your way inside, though (and the smell will linger with us for weeks).

The next day, I went downtown with Hannah to see the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It had been delayed a week due to unexpected snow and nasty weather, and it was about half as long as last year as well. We still saw the standard of parade participants, ranging from politicians to Star Wars characters, to Irish dancers, clowns, and even a Family Reunion of sorts.

The weather was just about perfect, with temperatures rising to the fifties, so Hannah and I spent a little extra time watching geese fight along the now tree-less Gene Leahy Mall and looking at some of the flooding along the Missouri River. We even took a few minutes for a daddy/daughter date at Chick-Fil-A before heading on home.

Later that day, we celebrated Uncle Jonny’s birthday with my parents and Uncle Nathan. Jonathan wanted to go roller-skating down at Skate City on Fort Crook, so I brought Hannah along and spent some quality time staggering awkwardly around the rink with her for an hour or two. It was legitimately the first time I’d ever gone roller skating, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined (particularly after one guy helped tighten my skates). Hannah, much to my surprise, had a grand time skating around the rink using a kind of walker they had on hand for the little ones.

Then that evening we headed back to my parents’ house for some Marco’s Pizza and pumpkin pie for dessert. We finished off the evening watching some family slides with the folks and then playing some Choose Your Words before calling it a night.

On Sunday, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with our traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage with red potatoes and Irish soda bread, though we also had some special green foods for the kids that we hoped would be more palatable.

Then on Monday we headed down to the waterfront a family to get a look at some of the flooding from the Missouri River. The devastating flood has made national news, but we live and work far enough away from the flooded area that we’ve been largely unaffected. It was daunting to see the statues at Lewis and Clark landing drowning once again (as they did in 2011), as well as the entirety of River’s Edge Park completely underwater, making me wonder about the fate of Loessfest this year.

The kids mostly enjoyed the chance to get outside and run around, and we also saw a number Canadian geese migrating overhead, flying in wave after wave heading north in a V formation. The effects of the flood were sobering in the meantime, but I couldn’t be prouder of the response of our friends and neighbors, who are stepping up with volunteers and supplies gathered at nearly every church I can name, including the ones we attend on Sunday and Wednesday night. Nebraska Strong, indeed.

Rock’em Sock’em Birthdays

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Winter has been having fits and starts, but it looks like we’re on our way to spring. Last Wednesday, Vivian brought the kids to the park along with some cupcakes to share (in lieu of paying $4 each at Jones Bros). After some brief time on the swings (with Raffie), we ran up and down a few hills to burn off the sugar rush before calling it a day.

Then on Friday, we paid a brief visit to Phil and Jen and their new baby Gabriel. This was a long-anticipated miracle for the two of them, and I was quite happy to take a few new family pictures of the happy parents.

On Saturday, we joined my parents and two brothers to celebrate Jonathan’s birthday at the local Pizza Ranch. Hannah and Aaron each made a birthday card for Uncle Jonny (featuring Mega Man characters), and then we binged on pizza and fried chicken as the kids played horsey around the party room.

Back home we had some “impossible pie” cake and got to play a bit with a prize Jonathan brought home — a classic Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots game. We also looked at some old family slides and played a couple rounds of Use Your Worlds together, but Hannah was more interested in watching her shadow jump in front of the screen.

That evening, we gave the kids some green foods for St. Patrick’s Day, and then Vivian made a feast with corned beef, potatoes, cabbage, and Irish soda bread. We also had some Irish cheese, which we ate while watching the classic Disney film, Darby O’Gill and the Little People, which is about as Irish as movie as you could find.

The next day, I got some one-on-one time with Hannah and decided to make some mint chocolate brownies with green icing just for fun. There’s never a bad time for sugar around our house!

Fish fry, St. Patty’s Parade, and Chili

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It’s the season of “spent” once again, which naturally means indulging in a variety of lenten foods together with our friends.

First item on the agenda is a fish fry at our traditional fish fry of choice, St. John Vianney in Millard. Our mutual friends Jenny and Kody, Jon, Phil and Jen, and their parents (who’d never been to a fish fry before) all joined us in the long, long line before getting our fill of fried fish, mac and cheese, french fries, and all the other greasy beige goodies available. My old co-worker Cliff dishes the fish, and Guitar Guy (whose name turns out to be Win) had us all “bah bah baaing” along to Sweet Caroline as we ate. We got a few raffle tickets as well, but nobody won anything. We did also see our friends the Mills — we’ll likely do a fish fry with them at a different venue in a couple weeks.

On Saturday morning, we enjoyed some slight-above-freezing temperatures in downtown Omaha to see the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which was put on by the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Omaha. We got to see some Convertibles, monster trucks, and lots of people dressed in green. There was even a legion of Stormtroopers wearing kilts for whatever reason. And of course, there was plenty of candy, and we got a bigger share than usual being at the very tail end of the parade. We wound up missing the first half of the parade, but it was still nice to be able to see our first parade of the year in relatively nice weather (and stumbling upon an already-paid-for parking spot).

Then that evening our friend Jessica was hosting her Second Annual Chili Cookoff at her apartment. Kate brought her girls, who played happily with Hannah most of the night as the rest of us samples each other’s chili. We saw a number of familiar faces form the night before, including Phil and Jen, who brought along some Mapo Tofu. There was also a rare appearance by Richard Burney, who brought along an Irish chocolate cream pie and a copy of RiffTrax, which kept us terribly amused toward the end of the evening.

Big winners of the night (if Chili gift cards, no less), was Phil for the mist unique chili, Kate for the spiciest, and Vivian for the best overall! We finished off the night with some delightfully weird RiffTrax shorts, courtesy of Richard, which included kids making horrifying monstrosities out of grass. of all things.

Reunions, Economics, and Easter Eggs

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Aaron turned 21 months old this weekend, which meant taking him to a park to see if we could crack a smile for his monthly picture. We didn’t have success, even when using the swing that got such a nice smile from Hannah at that age, but the next morning I made Aaron crack up by abusing some of Hannah’s toys. I love my kids.

Then on Monday, we got to have a bit of a reunion this week when Teresa Rietjens and her kids came to town and met up with a bunch of friends from Twin Valley Church at the local Chick-Fil-A. Hannah got to catch up with Rachel and get some quality playtime in as the rest of us ate chicken sandwiches and talked with Teresa about thier new life in Clear Lake, Iowa. Hopefully, we’ll be able to pop over for a visit sometime this summer.

On Tuesday, I went to see economist Stephen Moore give a presentation on supply-side economics at a forum hosted by Americans for Prosperity. Moore’s a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a contributor on the Fox News Channel, so I suppose my withdrawal from hanging out with politicians every week had started to wear off. He gave a very informative presentation showing correlations between lower taxes and higher revenue, a cornerstone idea of his friend Art Laffer’s career. Moore stuck around for plenty of Q&A with the relatively small crowd, and I enjoyed chatting with some of my political friends before going home to cry about Marco Rubio dropping out of the Presidential race. (Sniff, sniff.)

And in case you haven’t checked the calendar recently, Easter is almost here. It’s an early Easter this year, which means our office wound up having a special egg-decorating day on St. Patrick’s Day. Pam and the events committee had eggs and dye and lots of green goodies upstairs. Our family all dressed in green for the day, and a few of my co-workers’ kids showed up for some of the fun. They made friends quickly with Aaron and Hannah. Hannah especially liked finding eggs hidden throughout the third-floor conference room, and she dyed and painted a handful of eggs herself to take home.

We concluded the day with corned-beef and cabbage, per tradition, with the kids.

Holy Name and Homemade Pizza

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It’s been a busy week here in Omaha, with lots of fun involving food (of course). On Monday last week, with temperatures pushing their way into the 90s, the whole family took a trip down to Lincoln. I had some freelance work to attend to, and Vivian took the kids to Lost in Fun for an afternoon of bouncing around. Hannah had been there when she was just one year old, but now she was old enough to visit more exhibits than just the ball pit, such as the big ceiling-projected video game in the “dark room.”

For dinner, we drove up to Big Sal’s and gave Hannah and Aaron her first taste of mom and dad’s favorite pizza place in Nebraska. Yes, Aaron got to nibble on bits of black olive and pizza crust, and Hannah managed to finish a whole piece by herself.

The next day was St. Patrick’s Day, so we got to imbibe in our annual tradition of corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread, and red potatoes. Every store was selling out of corned beef up until March 17, and then the price plummeted to less than $1/pound, so we picked up some that on sale to have a couple reubens down the road (which were, in fact, invented in Omaha. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.)

No green beer or Bailey’s, however — I’ve given it all up for lent.

On Friday, we had our second Fish Fry of the year, heading up to Holy Name in north Omaha with a cluster of our fabulous friends. I’d heard about this fish fry from our mutual friend Lisa, primarily being one of the first and biggest fish fries in the area. It was also notorious for having one of the longest lines, which was quite ironic, because when we arrived, there was absolutely no line at all. Seriously, we were able to walk right in, but we stood in the hallway for some time just to get the whole standing-in-line experience. (A crowd outside was hanging around for the same reason, I expect.)

The cafeteria was packed pretty tight, however, steaming hot and filled with the smell of fried fish that stuck to your clothes. The fish itself was hands-down the best I’d had at any fish fry before. We had freshly-battered chunks of pollock that were steaming and delicious the moment they were put on your plate. I washed it down with a can or two of Cheerwine that I smuggled in from outside and a fun night of goofiness fueled by deep-fried goodness.

Then on Saturday, we celebrated Uncle Jonny’s birthday down at my parent’s house. Jonathan had been wanting to relive his childhood, so my dad put out the lawn flamingos and spent the afternoon playing Intellivision and eating homemade pizza for dinner (literally the way mom used to make). Vivian also brought along one of her legendary chocolate cheesecakes.

We brought the kids along, too, of course. They got some time being cute with grandma and grandpa, which included learning the joys of chasing a red dot from a laser pointer all over the house.

The Cornstalker's Journal: Matt & Vivian's Blog

Family, friends, and food (and sometimes politics) — our life in Omaha since 2006!

Category Archives: St. Patrick’s Day

Orpheum, St. Patrick’s Day, & Jonny turns 40

Herbster, Biking and St. Patrick’s Day

Musical, Museum, Fish Fry & Parade

A Birthday, a Fish Fry, and a Holey Cow

Sheltered in place

Fish Fry, Skating, and St. Patrick’s Day

Rock’em Sock’em Birthdays

Fish fry, St. Patty’s Parade, and Chili

Reunions, Economics, and Easter Eggs

Holy Name and Homemade Pizza