Lincolnite

Looking for something to do tonight? Head to Misty's (Havelock) and/or Grandmother's tonight to participate in a little pre-game revelry as members of the Cornhusker Marching Band fire up the Husker faithful. Pep bands will play at 7:30 and 8:30 at Misty's, and 10:00 and 11:00 at G-ma's. Don't dress too warmly, and bring ear plugs and your hollerin' voice.

This week I asked everybody what they thought were "Lincoln's Best" in five different categories. For today's Friday Five, I present my favorite in each category. Here we go:

1. Best Park: This goes to Pioneers Park, hands down. It has trees, prairie, wetland, open space, water, flat spots, hilly spots, trails, playgrounds, an amphitheater, animals, sculptures, a nature center... What's not to love?
2. Best Building: The capitol building, of course. Call it cliche if you will, but that thing is a treasure.
3. Best Restaurant: This is a tough, tough call, so I'm going to weasel out and pick three establishments that serve very different purposes. The Oven, Crawdaddy's, and Ivanna Cone. I would happily eat my last meal (or caramel shake) at any of those, depending on my mood.
4. Best Retailer: Another toughie, but for sentimental reasons I'm going with Avant Card.
5. Best Venue: The Nebraska Coliseum, home of the Husker volleyball team. Without a doubt.

It's the last day of "Lincoln's Best" week. Today's topic is venues, whether for music, drama, sports, or anything else. What are Lincoln's five best venues? What makes them the best?

Chuck Mizerski, Lincoln Southeast football coach and Frank Solich's replacement back in 1979, coached his last game last night. He finished his career with 5 state championships under his belt. Not bad at all.

I don't think I ever mentioned how Avant Card -- that fantastic little card and gift shop on O Street -- played a role in our adoption of Robbie. Here's the tale: The Missus and I already knew that we were being considered for the adoption of a newborn in Boston. We had only the barest details, so all we knew was that we might be chosen by the mother. Or not. We had already been passed over a few times before, so we knew not to get our hopes up too high. Well, a few days later I received a call at work from the adoption agency with the good news. By coincidence, I was meeting The Missus at Planet Sub in only two hours. How could I tell her the news in a creative way? And by the way, how often does the dad know before the mom that they're going to have a baby? This was new territory. I decided to tell her with a card. I first said "I love you" with a card, so why not make greeting cards the medium of choice for big announcements? I really wanted a Mother's Day card, since I was about to tell her she was a mom. But Mother's Day was several weeks earlier. Clearly I needed a business I could count on. So I headed to Avant Card. Surprisingly, the nice young lady behind the counter gave me only the tiniest hint of an odd look when I asked if they happened to have any Mother's Day cards hiding in the back. She quickly began the search, and she came back a few minutes later, not with a couple cards, but with a whole friggin' box of hundreds of cards. It took me a while to flip through them all -- thank goodness they were sorted, so duplicates were all together -- but I eventually found the perfect one. I paid, thanked her profusely, and left. Not long after, The Missus opened the card and found out for the first time that she was a mom. Everything worked out just perfectly. So there's the story. Now you know one of the reasons I'm such so pro-Avant Card. Gotta love 'em.

It's the Thursday edition of "Lincoln's Best" week here at Lincolnite. Today's topic is local retailers. What are the five best local retail establishments in Lincoln? What makes them the best?

Is it a sure sign that the Huskers are going to lose to Texas that the Journal Star is running "Nebraska is cool" articles? The message seems to be "they may whoop us, but at least we know they think we're o-kay". In other Nebraska vs. Texas news, the Husker volleyball team stopped Texas in a tough, five-game battle last night. I caught the first two games on TV, and the Huskers looked alternatingly brilliant and lost. One of these day's the team's slow starting ways will bite 'em in the butt.

If you thought the debate over a Wal-Mart at 84th and Adams was over, think again.

So far, Pete Ricketts' campaign commercials have been almost entirely ridiculous. Well Pete, here's something of substance you can attack Ben on: the Benator's "power ranking" in the Senate is a pathetic 88. The power scores are calculated by looking at Congressmember's position, influence, and legislative activity. Seems to me Pete has an opening to attack Ben on the grounds that Ben lacks the drive and power in Congress to get anything done on behalf of Nebraska. (Insert standard acknowledgement that this is just a number, and that it doesn't necessarily reflect Ben's influence in Washington. Lies/damned lies/statistics. Blah blah blah. It's just a campaign commercial, folks. Deep analysis of the underlying methodology doesn't apply.) If you're curious, Chuck is an above-average 43, but that's not very impressive for a presidential hopeful. In the House, Tom sits at 222, Lee at 311, and Jeff at 329. Frankly, 329 seems high for Fortenberry. Can anybody name one thing he's done in Congress besides vote the party line?

It's the hump day edition of "Lincoln's Best". Today we're talking restaurants. What are Lincoln's five best restaurants? What makes them the best?

Scenes from Robbie's first haircut:

Urgh, I'm tuckered today. I worked at the computer until 2:00am last night. A website client wanted some work done by yesterday, even though I didn't even receive the bulk of the necessary material until 6:00pm last night. I could have just said "Yeah, right", but a) I'm a pushover, and b) if I want that new laptop, I need the money. I was surprised to discover that I was able to cruise along pretty well until 1:15 or so. When Robbie started crying at 2:00, I took that as an invitation to shut down the computer and go take care of my sick kid. And I'm glad I did. As it turned out, Robbie was crying mainly because he couldn't sleep due to his cold. He wanted to cuddle, I wanted to sleep; I sensed a win-win situation. So I propped him up on my chest, propped myself up on the bed, covered up with a blanket, and watched as Robbie immediately passed out. I fell asleep a few minutes later, and I ended up having one of the deepest, most restful sleeps I've had in ages. It must have worked wonders for Robbie, too, because he was in fine form this morning. It's probably a good thing I got some practice at staying up late, because Saturday nigh I have two evening soccer matches, followed by a three-hour drive home. I figure I'll pull into the driveway around 1:30am or so Sunday morning. Fortunately I'll be traveling with a talkative guy, so I shouldn't have to worry about dozing off.

It is day two of "Lincoln's Best" week here at Lincolnite. Today let's talk about Lincoln's best buildings. What are Lincoln's five best buildings? What makes them the best?

Don't try to renew your driver's license this week. All DMV offices are closed until Friday for "essential training in fraud detection, computer use and customer service". Here's a hint that the DMV might need a little work on customer service: their website doesn't contain any information about the closures.

Robert is 5 months old today. The milestone, such as it is, serves as a good time to reflect back on how many strides he has taken so far. In one sense he's the same little Robbie he was four months ago in Boston. But then I look at him when he's all stretched out and I think: he's huge now! And you know what sticks out most about him right now? His voice. Robbie's voice is becoming less like an infant's and more like a baby's. When he cries it sounds like a child's cry, not a newborn's cry. When he laughs, there's a hint of the sound of a toddler laughing, rather than just his previous infant giggle. And when he babbles, though he has a long ways to go, I can already hear how he is beginning to think about giving meaning to his sounds. Unfortunately, Robbie is celebrating the start of his sixth month with a cold. It drove him nuts last night. At 4:30 he had had enough, so I went into his room and slept propped up with him on my chest. Well, I say "slept", but there was little sleep to be had with Robbie snoring and snorting and tossing and turning. But he was doing it very cutely (?), so it was easy to forgive him. I think The In-Laws will be very surprised how much he has changed when they come for Thanksgiving. There's a good chance he'll be sitting by then. (He can already sortakinda sit, but he quickly folds in half.) And sitting means joining the family at the dinner table in a high chair. He's going to like that.