Tag Archives: Phil & Jen

Political Drama, Comic Books, & a Pho Crawl

We’ve had a couple of busy days catching up with family and friends and then diving headfirts into some political events happening in the Omaha metro. (It was also Berkshire weekend, and as a shareholder I could have attended had I taken the initiative to figure out how. Maybe next year.)

On Thursday, I had lunch down at the Pizza Ranch with Don Bacon. Though he’s technically not my Congressman, I always enjoy hearing updates from him on what’s going on in the House, and he talked ab it about the debt ceiling, military spending, foster kids, and the war in Ukraine. He also listed his favorite candidates for 2024, with Tim Scott at the top of the list (and not Donald Trump), followed by Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. He didn’t mention Vivek Ramaswamy, who I’m hoping to see on Tuesday.

Then that evening, my dad and I drove on down to Gretna for a Sarpy County GOP “open house” at the VFW. What we got instead was some kind of contentious meeting, which had started an hour earlier. Nebraska’s Secretary of State Bob Evnen was slated to speak but didn’t get the chance as there was argument over membership among other things. My dad wound up taking an empty seat netx to Evnen in the back, so I introduced the two to each other during the proceedings. It was still interesting nonetheless, and perhaps next time I should consider becoming a “member” (whatever that entails) so I can take part in this hubbub.

The next day, I rode my bike by Taco Bell for Cinco de Mayo. Then that evening, Vivian and I got to attend the Elephant Remembers dinner once again. We’d gotten a pair of donated tickets from a friend at the Pizza Ranch and got to attend for free, which was nice. Vivian and I got to dress up and run elbows with a handful of elected officials and then have some chicken, potatoes, and zucchini for dinner while hearing from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, among others.

There was a strong undercurrent of drama at the dinner, however. Gov. Jim Pillen talked about “falling and having a hiccup on the vote for 626,” the “heartbeat bill” killed by Merv Riepe during the second cloture vote. Pillen talked about this as Riepe himself sat stone-faced at the dinner, saying “we will get more people in there who are pro-life, and we will have way more than 33 votes.” In other news, Charles Herbster and Julie Slama were also both at the event — the latter having accused the former of sexual assault at a previous Elephant Remembers dinner in 2019 (which Vivian and I also attended). The honoree for the evening was Dan Welch, who had been ousted form his position in the NEGOP the previous summer and joked about his “early retirement.” It was an interesting mix of guests to say the least, and you can read more about it in my political blog.

Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, so I took the kids to Ground Zero Hobby in Bellevue to get a couple free comic books to take home. I also browsed some of the toys and games and found a D&D starter set that might make a nice birthday present (hopefully Aaron isn’t reading my blog yet).

I then spent the afternoon at my parents’ house with an estate sale agent named Shayne. My parents walked her through a handful of their valuables in the house as they talked a bit about plans eventually to downsize and move into an assisted living facility down the road. Afterward, I had some pizza and wings with my brothers while watching a few more home movies before heading home. Then Vivian made us a belated Cinco de Mayo (or Seis) dinner that evening.

On Sunday, the kids at Wildewood ran a lemonade stand and bake sale in-between services, selling brownies, cookies, and lemon bars (and lemonade) to help fund an Appalachian missions trip for the youth ministy.

Then that afternoon, Vivian and I spent the day in Lincoln with Phil and Jen and a few of their friends stuffing ourselves with pho. Jen had wanted to go on a “pho crawl” in Lincoln for some time, visiting three of the various Vietnamese restaurants along 27th street through the afternoon and comparing their pho with one another. We started at Pho Ngyuenn, always a favorite of mind, and had some chicken pho and spring rolls. We were also introduced to Vietnamese iced coffee, which was quite strong and made with sweetened condensed milk. We moved along to Pho Factory a block north after that, having some steak and meatball pho with a Vietnamese crepe (bánh xèo), which was kind a salad you roll up and shove into your face. We had a quick break at the Asian grocery store next door to stock up on various sauces and other Asian things not available at Aldi.

Then we finished the crawl at the Vung-Tau Pho Grill for some egg rolls and more beef pho. I decided to finish our crawl by literally crawling out of the restaurant afterward, though I was surpised not to be quite as stuffed as I expected. Either rice noodles and broth isn’t as substative as I thought it would be, or I’m just that much of a glutton (probably the latter).

A candidate, a fish fry, and a Jesus Revolution

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We had another fairly busy week making our way out of winter and toward Lent, kicking things off on Sunday with some Triple Pepperoni Pizza from Casey’s and watching The Indian in the Cupboard.

On Monday, I got a haircut at Donna’s house after work on my way to meet Eric Jon Boerner, a Republican candidate for President, at Barley’s Bar in Council Bluffs. I hadn’t heard of until I learned of this campaign stop. Around 12 other people joined me at a couple tables and chatted with him about alternate energy, immigration, and other issues that seem considerably lukewarm compared to fiery topics being debated in congress and state legislatures, like sex changes for minors and drag queen story hours.

Boerner is a businessman from Washington State, has not held elected office before, and seemed like a moderate trying to find ways to reach out to Gen Z than engaging in “culture war” issues. I got to shake his hands afterward and told him his campaign was a ‘long shot,” but meeting and greeting people in an early primary state is certainly the right way to start a campaign.

Then on Tuesday, Mama Ginny came to stay with us while the Mills are away and spend some quality time with her son Harold. I dropped by Wildewood for the Men of God dinner to have some shrimp and sausage over noodles while finishing the 33 Series and meet some people from Martinwood Christian Church in Council Bluffs.

Then on Wednesday, Aaron went back to Royal Rangers and got to play outside with his friends for a bit, now that the sun is up past seven o’clock, thanks to Daylight Saving Time. (I spent my time catching up on more reading while sipping an iced coffee.)

I’ve also been riding my bike, of course, getting our four days during the week over my lunch break. I was able to ride around some of my usual favorite spots, including a trail through Wildewood Park in Ralston. They finally fixed the bridge that led to the 84th Street overpass, where I walked with Vivian the day before I proposed to her (on the very first Sushi Anniversary).

I had Friday off for work, so Vivian and I went by the AMC in Council Bluffs to see Jesus Revolution, a very well-done movie about the “Jesus Freaks” of the late 1960s. Hannah got some quality time with grandma and grandpa in the meantime.

Then that evening, we dropped by Phil and Jen’s house for another fish fry before closing out Lent. We got to hang out with Jenny and Kody and have some fried fish together, along with way too kuch cole slaw and mac and cheese. Josh and Carrie were there again as well, and our kids to play together for a couple of hours, running around with toy swords and battling monsters together for the evening.

Fish Fry, Zoo, and Jordan B. Peterson

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Spring has sprung! We had some gorgeous weather for the first day of spring on Sunday, so right after church, we got some burgers and headed down for some quality time at Halleck Park. Hannah made a few new friends on a see-saw, and I got to do some swinging with Aaron over on the swings. We also got to check out the stump where a giant tree had gotten torn down during the wind storm last July (with Vivian counting its rings). Then I walked down to Dairy Queen with Hannah to get some ice cream before we headed home.

The weather was so nice that I decided to go for a bike ride with Hannah a little later in the afternoon. The rode the South Papio Trail for a couple miles West until we got to Eagle Ridge Park, so Hannah got a little more park time before we started heading back. Then I took her for a second round of ice cream at Culver’s, just because. (Don’t tell Aaron.) In the meantime, Aaron helped Vivian made dinner by glazing up some chicken legs with barbecue sauce, which he and Vivian baked for us.

I had an exciting evening on Tuesday as I made a two-hour trip to see Jordan B. Person at the Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines. I’ve been an avid fan of Peterson’s for a couple years, having read both his books and listened to his podcast (and even gotten a t-shirt). I missed the chance to see him live in Des Moines a couple years ago, so this time around I snatched a ticket back in December as soon as they went on sale. (The show was now sold-out.)

Peterson appeared with his wife “Tammy,” who introduced him at the beginning and then gave him a list of pre-screened questions at the end for Q&A. Peterson also talked for a little over an hour about a few of his 12 Rules for Life (getting to only 2 or 3 of them). I was quite familiar with his material already, but seeing him live certainly made things interesting. The audience would laugh and applaud at various parts, and I could see Peterson was using some kind of presentation slides via trio of screens on the stage (and a clicker in his pocket). We weren’t allowed to take photos in the theater (which was painful for me, as you can guess), but I did sneak a couple blurry shots with my cell phone to commemorate the experience.

Friday was a fairly busy day, which I kicked off with some waffles, since it was apparently Waffle Day. Then once Aaron was off at school, Vivian and I took Hannah down to spent a good portion of the day at the Omaha Zoo. Vivian got to see the sea lion exhibit at long last and watched the playful, barking things both above and below water. We got to see some gorillas, rhinos, tigers, elephants, and a cheetah, as well as some odd creatures we’d never heard of, including okapi, bongos, takin, reeves muntjac, and Père David’s deer.

Hannah and I got to pet (and feed) some stingrays at the Stingray Beach exhibit, and we got a selfie with a giraffe. The Lied Jungle unfortunately closed just as I got there at three, but then we got to watch them feeding the penguins in the aquarium before calling it a day.

Then that evening, we celebrating the Feast of the Annunciation by gorging on fried fish at St. Charles Borromeo after a long day of walking. Our friends the Simpsons and the Dougans joined us for pizza, fried cod, tilapia, mac and cheese, and tater tots together. The line was relatively short as well, so most of us went back for seconds. It felt good to be back at a “normal” fish fry after things had been shut down for a year or two, particularly since the last time we’d been to this place was right before all that started back in 2020.

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.

Hot in the Pot

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We’re enjoying the downward slope of summer and getting a few things done around the house before fall. I’ve been doggedly putting a fresh coat of paint on the house, which would have been hard enough if the paint store could consistently match the paint. Donna also came by and got the kids to help her plant a few new daisies in our yard (transplanted from her own). In addition to this, we’ve had an abundance of visitors — namely bag worms wrapped in leafy cocoons — descending from our maple tree into the yard. I’ve been busy getting rid of the little pests and hoping they haven’t caused any permanent damage.

We had some lovely cool weather on Friday night for our second and final trip to the SumTur this season. The August and Gabriel (and Joe) came along for some quality running-around time with Hannah and Aaron, dancing by the stage and flipping chairs before the sun went down. Then we headed back to our blanket to watch How to Train Your Dragon 3.

On Saturday, we took the kids down to Dreamland Park for the first time since its major remodeling last year. They got an hour or two of swinging on giant saucers and climbing on a rope merry-go-round. There were plenty of other fun places to explore, like a rope bridge, captains helm, bouncy bridge, sticky metal slides, and some replicas of a few historic buildings in Council Bluffs (redone as play areas). I also found a stash of a certain plant that I’d found there last time we visited three years ago. (Apparently nobody’s gotten rid of it yet.)

Afterward, we stopped by Arby’s to have a dinner of sandwiches, fries, and milkshakes with the kids before heading for home,

Then on Sunday, Phil and Jen invited us over for a “hot pot” at their house. I can’t recall having such a thing before, but it apparently involves cooking a variety of raw ingredients in a giant wok — shrimp, beef, chicken, fish balls, fish cakes, boh choy, rice noodles, and any number of things — full of boiling chicken stock. Another family was invited with their kids, so our kids got to play with some new friends for a while before we sat down to eat.

I managed to help myself to multiple tiny bowls along with some Asian “barbecue sauce” (mixed with raw egg and soy sauce). I was also happy that our kids sampled a bit of everything, including the fish balls we’d brought from the Asian market. After we’d had our fill, we got to sample some of Jen’s birthday scotch before she served up some shaved ice with vanilla ice cream, sweet red beans, and frozen fruit for dessert before we called it a night.

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!

Mudpies, Tamales, and Rainbows

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The Johnson Family had some time to play in the dirt over the weekend. On Thursday, Hannah and Aaron got to play with mud down at the Fontenelle Center during Mud Pies. That included making muddy footprints, making paintings with mud, and also having frozen chocolate “mud bars” as a snack. It’s something they do every year for Mud Pies and the first time Aaron’s got to experience it himself.

Then on Saturday morning, dad and I got to do some manly work together as we fixed a couple fence posts in my yard. Spring rains and strong winds pushed our fence over to the point where we needed to re-anchor it with cement. It was a fairly simple job, but required two people to level the posts and tie them down with stakes before I poured cement at the base and cleaned them up with a makeshift trowel (i.e. stir stick). After half an hour or so — huzzah! Good as new.

That evening, we celebrated our friend Jen’s birthday party with another culinary experience — making tamales! Phil and Jen both had corn husks, masa (corn meal with lard) and a pair of meat fillings — rabbit and pork — laid out for us to assemble. It was a surprising amount of work to make tamales, and I learned in the process how instead to make pupusas — pancakes made with the masa and meat and fried instead of steamed. We always love going to Phil and Jen’s house since we always learn something new about food when we come over.

On Sunday afternoon, we took the kids to a piano recital for the Folken kids, who played a few songs for us and also recited a few bible verses from memory. It was a good lesson in getting the kids to sit still before hanging out afterward.

Then that evening we went by the Bellevue Christian Center for a kind of graduation ceremony for the little ones at Rainbows. It went very much like last time with the kids singing a song or two and displaying what they’ve learned this year (and flirting with boys). Hannah got to show us her collection of badges before returning her vest for the summer. Sammy is in her class and had to give Hannah a hug goodbye as she and her family will be sadly moving to Minnesota before long. All four grandparents (and Aaron) were also in attendance, at least until Hannah’s class was finished.

Hannah’s Fourth

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It was a birthday-ful weekend for the Johnson Family as we get geared up for Thanksgiving and t he Christmas season by first spending a few days opening presents with friends.

We spent Saturday evening at Phil and Jen’s house with 30 or so of our mutual friends celebrating Phil’s birthday. “Bar food” was on the menu, which involved a deep fryer that left my clothes smelling like delicious grease the morning after. Chips and dips, egg rolls filled with smoked pork and potatoes, as well as chicken wings were all on the menu. I was a bit anxious how Hannah and Aaron would deal with the crowd of people in a living space clearly designed to hold less than half of them, but they did fine. Other kiddos were also on hand to be cute and eat with the rest of us, but it was still a bit of a madhouse. We did wish Phil a happy birthday before we left. I’m not sure if he heard us.

By contrast, we celebrated Hannah’s birthday the day after and just invited her best friend Sammy over to celebrate. Of course, that meant Miss Lexi and August came as well, but that was all good because it gave grown-ups time to catch up and little Aaron someone to toddle around with all afternoon. Grammy brought over a pair of Dora and Doc McStuffins cakes while Pop-Pop introduced Aaron to static electricity. My mom and dad came over a little later as well, along with Uncle Jonny, an we got to have cake and watch Hannah open presents together. We had a couple pizzas from Papa Murphy’s for dinner before calling it a night.

It was very low-key, but Hannah seemed to have a tremendously fun birthday. She actually got up at five to discover her room filled with pink balloons and was jumping all morning at church telling everyone, “I’m four! I’m four!”

Then on Monday, we had another visit with Marco Rubio in Council Bluffs. I met him briefly back in July when he visited, and this time around I brought my mom and Vivian to hear him speak. There was some Q&A after his talk, and the Senator from Florida hung around to meet and greet just about everyone in attendance. The usual characters were on hand for interviews afterward, and I was impressed with Rubio’s accessibility. The questions weren’t screened, and pretty much anyone was able to approach him afterward. (And somehow I wound up on Fox News again as a result.)

Then on Tuesday, we brought the kids down to the park for lunch before the inevitable cold and snow comes this Thanksgiving to bring a brief end to our park time.

Kimchi burgers

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The heat is on again, with temperatures climbing back into the summery 90s and feeling more like July is supposed to. We did have one lovely cool day last week and took the kids down to Haworth Park to enjoy. Aaron got to crawl around in clover and try out a slide for the first time, and Hannah got to hang out in her own “Gazebo House.” We last visited this park two years ago, when it was still mostly devastated from the flood of 2011. It’s been improved quite a bit since then, but nothing like the glory days when we had our Comic Genesis picnic here in 2010. How’s that for reminiscing?

Then on Friday, we had our foodie friends Phil and Jen over to have some burgers out on the deck. Apparently bacon, egg, and kimchi are the perfect combination of toppings for a hamburger. (Just be sure not to wear anything white.) The oppressive July heat was already setting in, so we spent the rest of the evening inside watching the crazy surreal black comedy film Rubber.

On Sunday afternoon, Aaron got dangerously close to taking his first steps, and then he spent an hour or two with Hannah splashing about in the water table on our deck. Then on Monday, we had a family picnic at Stinson park for lunch. Jones Bros. had a special on ice cream cones, and then the kids got to run about in the fountains for a little while before Hannah went off to a dentist appointment (where she got her teeth cleaned like a champ).

On Tuesday, I got a day all to myself and spent it having lunch with my dad at Louie M’s Burger Lust and puttering around the house. I found a $50 gift card just for cleaning out my car. All in a day’s work!

Ah, autumn!

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Fall is definitely the most festive time of year for the Johnson Family in Omaha. October is always packed with fun things happening outdoors and in, and the weather is more than accommodating for those of us who enjoy the colors changing this time of year.

On Friday night, Tamra dropped by to babysit Hannah so Vivian I could have a date night. We went to the premier of Atlas Shrugged Part 2 at the Oakview AMC (which was much better than Part 1 — I highly recommend checking out) and then had a late dinner together at the Zin Room downtown. The next morning, we dropped by our friend Phil’s 5 Buck Lunch Truck for some breakfast burritos. If you’re ever in the vicinity of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Store on Galvin in Bellevue, stop by and check it out.

That evening, our autumnal festivities kicked off with a pumpkin-carving party at our mutual friend Amanda’s house in mid-town Omaha. Several people brought tasty pumpkin-related goodies (including a pumpkin liqueur), and we had some fun playing 80s-movie charades and carving up pumpkins as a storm passed briefly overhead. We also had amusing “deaths” taped to our backs and we had to spend the evening guessing how we “died.” I can’t remember who won the pumpkin-carving contest, but we had plenty of worthy competitors. Hannah also seemed to enjoy her first genuine Halloween party, despite a brief plague of spiders (both real and plush).

On Sunday, Hannah got to experience another fall tradition — her first trip to Vala’s Pumpkin Patch. Vivian and I were somehow able to beat the traffic by taking the secret passageway on 168th street (thanks, Eric). Hannah got to see some pig races and wander around a corn maze with us for the very first time, though she’s unfortunately not old enough yet to participate in the go carts of the jumping pillows just yet. She did get to see a giant pile of colorful fall leaves for the first time, which she spent a few minutes playing in as everyone with a camera (including passersby) snapped pictures of her adorableness. We got enough exercise to justify having succotash and giant pork tenderloin sandwiches for dinner before calling it a night.

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

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

Tag Archives: Phil & Jen

Political Drama, Comic Books, & a Pho Crawl

A candidate, a fish fry, and a Jesus Revolution

Fish Fry, Zoo, and Jordan B. Peterson

Musical, Museum, Fish Fry & Parade

Hot in the Pot

Rock’em Sock’em Birthdays

Mudpies, Tamales, and Rainbows

Hannah’s Fourth

Kimchi burgers

Ah, autumn!