January--enjoying the arts

On New Year's Day morning we tried to access information using the internet.  This is what we saw.

Definitely NOT a good way to start the new year!

After three days of living in a black hole (no internet connection) we received our new modem from Spectrum cable service.  All is well.


On the first Friday of January we joined friends Clayton, Susan, Annette and Pete for the First Friday art walk.  We started out at the bookstore Francie and Finch.  Two different artist had there works displayed in the store and were there to answer questions.  (We succumbed to buying more books.)

local jazz artist provided music

Then we went to the 9th Street Gallery and saw wonderful sculptures.

cute

 We ended the evening at a local favorite, Yia Yias Pizza.

Blue Bloods, a local brewery, is now the home for Monday night jazz.  Two former policemen are the owners of this brewery.

exterior view of Blue Bloods

The building is located above Robbers' Cave.  According to legend, bank robbers from years ago hid out in this cave.  Originally it is believed that Native Americans made some form of beer and stored it in the cool cave.  In the '70s --90s it was a place for many young people to drink, especially those not of a legal age.

Robbers' Cave

On the first Monday of the month Peter Bouffard hosts a jazz trio at Blue Bloods and invites guests to sit in.

Rusty sat in this month and sounded awesome!

A few days later Rusty treated me to dinner at Dish.  The meal was so beautiful that I almost didn't want to eat it.  The incredible mixture of textures and flavors made it a meal to remember.  This restaurant also has rotating art work featuring local artists.  There's always a few fun surprises!

To top off the evening, Peter Bouffard joined us at the end of the meal.

We love to host dinner parties.  This month we made Puerto Rican stew for our guests.  We finished with my Boozy Christmas Cake and a little Grand Marnier.

Sissy, T.C. and Rusty

Puerto Rican stew with fried plantains

Lincoln Southeast High School has an annual Athletic Inductee Dinner.  This year Olivia's 1992 Cross Country Team was inducted.  Both the girls' team and the boys' team set state records that still stand today!

Font row: Jen, Dana, Emily.  Back row: Kat, Coach Susie, Coach Ted, Olivia.

Olivia is a super Mom and she has fun with her boys.  Here they are groovin' to the music while shopping at Costco.

The next night we attended the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra concert.  It was a special night for two reasons.  NJO sponsors a Young Lions competition where high school players audition for chairs in the band.  They perform all the songs in the opening set of the concert.  They are amazing!!

The featured performer was Scott Whitfield, trombonist, vocalist, composer, arranger.

It was one of those very cool, inspirational evenings.  Hard to go home and go to sleep after all that!

I wasn't able to attend The Women's March this year, but Ruby did.

Ruby also got her first TV interview on MLK day.

I've been busy getting my latest set of Valentine cards into a few local stores.

On January 25th I was finally able to get in my first bike ride of 2018.

Riding with Ray and Annette

Hmmm.