t & r

remember our friends tom and ruth? the ones that we immediately bonded with after moving here to california? the ones who we got together with multiple times a week? the same ones who moved to nebraska a year later to be closer to family and so that tom could begin a doctorate program in lincoln?

we decided to visit them!

as always with close friends, we picked right up where we left off and had a great time together. here are some of the highlights:

 tom and ruth hosted a murder mystery party with a napa valley theme. 

here we are in character: tiny bubbles and ralph rottengrape. 

i'm a good girl and he's a bad boy. and we're married.

it's hard to see, but ben has a cigarette behind his right ear and a skull earring dangling from his left.

tom and ruth in character: papa vito and hedy shablee. 

it's hard to see, but tom is wearing a fake beard.

we laughed a lot, ate some great food (cornish game hens, orzo, and poached pears were the highlights), and enjoyed meeting tom and ruth's friends steve and molly (pictured here as otto von schnapps and marilyn merlot).

we spent some time downtown lincoln, going out to eat, going in shops, visiting tom at school, etc. here we are at the lincoln train station posing with a caboose. 

and a locomotive.

we enjoyed indian food downtown.  

on tom's day off he showed us around the university. this is a mammoth at a museum at the school. 

the mammoth is the nebraska state fossil. do you know your state's fossil?

after seeing the museum we headed to the state capital building. when we arrived for the hourly tour there was already a group of fourth graders there. we tagged along with them and enjoyed the fourth grade version of the tour. we were very impressed by the class's knowledge of their state (could you name the month, day, and year when your state gained statehood? they could. in unison.)

at the end of the tour we got to watch the state senate in progress. 

here we are (we're the tiny people in front of the doors) outside the capital building. 

the figure on the top is the sower. he has holes in his head from lightning. 

if you went on the non-fourth grade tour you might not know that.

on wednesday both tom and ruth had to work. so we drove into omaha for the day. 

we spent the afternoon in old market going into a variety of shops and grabbing some lunch.

most of our time was spent talking, eating, and playing a variety of games (dominion, agricola, cargo noir, endeavor, forbidden island, euchre, etc.) but we don't have pictures of those activities. we (i) also spent a lot of time doing crossword puzzles. i mentioned to tom at the beginning of the week that i like to do the usa today crossword online every day. so he brought home four newspapers for me every day.

we had a great time with the clarks and are so grateful for their friendship which continues despite being four states away. thanks, t & r!