Happy New Year!

To celebrate a New Year (it is tomorrow already in Japan), we had sukiyaki for dinner tonight. Sukiyaki on New Year's Eve is Kayo's family's long tradition. This year I learned to half-freeze the beef before slicing paper thin, and the trick really worked. The meal was accompanied by warm sake (thanks to Kozue for the perfect sake set) and Joe's newly acquired bottle of "sho-chu." Good stuff!! "Kampai!"
Our New Year's Eve dinner tasted very much like at home....

Leg Lamp Cookies!!

Ever since Joe acquired his delux DVD set of our holiday season classic "A Christmas Story" with cookie cutters, he had this plan to make a bunch of leg lamp shaped cookies for his mom, who probably HATES the movie more than anyone in the world. (No one knows why.)
He carried out his rather evil plan.... Here, Joe innocently decorates some snowflake cookies.

Ta-daaa! Joe's leg lamp cookies, all frosted and decorated. If you know the movie, there're some turkeys.... ... and the "pink nightmare!"

Now, we can't wait to see Joe's mom's reaction when she sees her leg lamp shaped cookies.

Everyone! it's time to watch "A Christmas Story" again!!

Couldn't Wait....

While Joe got to assemble his new tool chest, which is temporarily a stand for the poinsettia, Kayo got a shiny 12" stainless steel frying pan for Christmas. Not much surprise for the both of us. Last night I was cooking sweet and sour pork for dinner and thought that brand-new pan would be perfect to cook in. When Joe came home from work, he was a bit disappointed that he didn't even get to put a bow on it. But I don't think he cared after tasting the sweet and sour pork. I used my mom's recipe. Yum....

Counting Down to Christmas

Snow definitely puts me into the Christmas mode. More so than the dates on the calendar. I'm finally getting around to print our greeting cards. This was actually my first time making any prints in my new studio. A snapshot of our Christmas tree with the ever growing pile of gifts... Joe's big family is the main cause.

I got Joe a much-needed tool chest this year. No surprise. We went to Sears to pick out and order a couple of weeks ago. Just today Joe got to bring it home.

Joe assembled it together in the dining room while I was cooking dinner tonight. It makes a nice stand for the poinsettia that we got for Joe's mom.

Snow Day!!

Our first snow day this year! It was our first real winter storm, too. Joe had to use his snowthrower for the first time. We have no more maintainance guys who would plow us out. It's our house. We gotta deal with it.
Here's a picture of our Subaru, buried in snow this morning. Joe snowblowing our driveway. He had to run to get more gas... that's how prepared we were for the snow! We learned.

This is no picture of a snowman! Joe just finished blowing snow, the first time today. He had to blow just as much, or more snow again this evening. Pretty crazy!!

We drove into town later on, still in the middle of blizzard, and checked out some awesome waves in Lake Superior. We weren't the only ones, but didn't see any surfers this time. Then we did a little Christmas shopping downtown and had dinner at Langiappe to celebrate our belated 5th. It was a pretty exciting snow day!

Joe's Buck

These photos will have to do for now. Like Joe says, a deer hanging in the garage doesn't make a good picture.... But I wanted to post a couple of photos of Joe's deer before it goes to get processed. Poor thing... with such pretty eyes, I know, I know.... Well, wait till you taste yummy venison sausage.

Kayo's Belated B-day Present

I finally decided what I wanted to spend my birthday money for. I had been eyeing on this lawyer's bookcase at an antique store for some time. No, it's not a real antique piece, but within my price range. I liked the design with the sliding glass covers. Perfect for Japan room.Ta-daa! It found a nice home in our Japan room.

And I put our tea cups and some souvenir from Japan in the bookcase.

Then Joe got in there with more toys and knic-knacs from Japan!

... A Lot Like Christmas...

"Happy Thanksgiving: Joe got a deer and Kayo got snow" was going to be our blog entry on Thanksgiving Day. His brother Luke took a good shot of Joe and his deer, but hasn't e-mailed us. The deer photo to be posted in the near future....
Today I had my first day off in a week, and Joe took a day off from deer hunting too. We slept in, had Joe's famous breakfast, then went out both regular and a bit of Christmas shopping. A light snow fall outside put us into the holiday mode....as you can see in the photos below!! Yes, I was decorating our tree (a potted Norfolk Island pine that we've had for three years now).

Even put up our Christmas stockings. (You know it's Joe's house. Bullets in all sizes can be found throughout the house.)

Look, our Christmas cactus has a couple of buds, too. Tomorrow is the last day of rifle deer season, the end of November... already!

After 900 Miles

To make the story of our weekend adventure short, let me just say that Joe ALMOST won a brand-new pickup truck. We had to drive 8 hours, to near Flint, MI, on Friday to find out if Joe's key would start the truck or not. Like many others before and after us, we came home with a pair of Rolex-style watches (that means 100% China made in a very nice box). It was certainly an interesting experience.
But our drive wasn't a total waste. We drove an extra hour to visit Joe's sister Anne who recently moved down there for a job.
We had good beer and burgers at Hamlin Pub. Anne was making us monkey bread for an evening snack.

We put our pj's on and had a movie night in her living room. No pillow fight this time.... Note: our air bed (right) took up more space than Anne's entire belongings and furniture (Wait, there is no furniture, Anne!!) This was funny.

Next morning we had breakfast at nearby Village Cafe and took a little stroll, checking out a neighbor Mexican grocery store, a butcher, and a farmers market. It was fun to help Anne explore her new town a bit.

As always, it was great to be home, though.

Yesterday, Sunday, I got up at 5 a.m. with Joe to sit in his deer blind from dawn till dusk. I slept, and slept. I'd say I slept 80% of the time I was in the blind. I ended up lying down on the ground with a blanket. Luckily it was not too cold out. But it must have been too warm for deer with winter coats to be active during the day. Joe only heard, but didn't see any deer. Hopefully the temperature drops like a normal deer season soon.

Happy Birthday, Yoshi!

Today, the second day of deer season, was my brother's birthday. My sweet brother usually bakes a cake for my birthday and e-mails me a picture of the cake that I can't taste. I baked a tiny cheesecake for him. We made sure to light a candle for the photo shoot. We blew out the candle and made a wish for my brother.... Wished he could have tasted the cheesecake.... Joe came home yesterday and today, saying "Didn't see anything that couldn't fly or climb a tree." That excludes deer. He's enjoying himself though. This year he only needs to work 4 days out of the 15 days of the entire season. Patience, patience....

Opening Day of Deer Season

It is the first day of deer season. Joe was up at 5 a.m. and out the door by 5:40, I think.... He won't be home till dark, probably after 6. It's also my day off, yet I couldn't sleep in, thinking all the things I wanted to do today. Mainly cleaning and organizing around the house. Here's a picture of what I've already done this morning. Look! I have a clear desk top AND a clear work table surface! I had to take this picture and post PRONTO, because I wasn't sure how long my studio will stay this way. Oh, and the wall to cover the sewer pipe is up again. Joe fought a little (only a little) and got everything back in place last night. Now I just need to touch up a little with paint.
Well, enough break and blog. Back to my day, on this sunny Sunday.

Feeling Much Better...

Our cracked sewer pipe was puttied and bandaged right away (deacon Don, a real plumber, approved), so we only had to avoid using the upstairs bathroom for a day. Although the wall hasn't been put back up, because we both got a little share of that wonderful cold. Yesterday we both were home sick, slightly feverish, achy, with mild headache and soar throat. We just received an instant streaming disc for Joe's PS3 from Netflix, which can retrieve movies online right onto our TV screen. Very cool. Our sick day was saved by Netflix movies. A combo of being a couple of couch potatoes all day and eating my homemade chicken noodle soup did a trick. We felt much better this morning. And I've been trying to ORGANIZE my studio stuff. I have stuff in boxes, scattered between my studio area and the basement. I just can't get inspired enough to create. I know, excuse, excuse..... I also admit I'm not the most organized person either. So, I had Joe's help putting up these basic wall shelves as a starter.

Now my organization skills will be put to test.

Joe the Plumber

By now, with our old house, we have a pertty good understanding that anything can go wrong at anytime. And we know to expect the worse, always. Still, when something really does go wrong, you realize you'll never be a pro to deal with it. Guess what? It's always something different and new that gives you grief.
I came home from work this evening and found Joe on the dining room floor near the kitchen. Soon I saw he was ripping out the wall. He had found a leak from the sewer pipe from upstairs, but hadn't figured where exactly it was leaking, except it wasn't visible from the top or bottom joints. Of course. So he had to rip the wall to uncover the sewer pipe until he could see where the leak was. Underneath our painted pannels were plaster and lath, assumingly from the '20s. And behind that we could see some original plaster with horse hair, from the turn of the century! Pretty cool. We don't remember if we mentioned that our house used to stand about 10 blocks away in the old mining location. The previous owner bought this house and got it moved to the current location in 1964 or 5. Since they had modernized to that wonderful late '60s, '70s decor... and that was basically the condition in which we bought the house! We joke that our funky paint color choice must shock the spirit of the previous owner, ol' Bill Taylor. This house definitely has looong history.

Joe was almost convinced that the leak was from one of the joints. Again, there's always a surprise. There was a CRACK in the cast iron sewer pipe!! A biiiiggg crack, about a foot and a half, yes, you read it right, THRU THE CAST IRON PIPE. We were simply amazed.

We're fortunate to have another bathroom w/shower downstairs, to let the crack dry a bit before Joe can seal it. And I am very lucky to have married Mr. He-Can-Fix-Anything. Thank you, Joe!!!

Gearing for the Deer Season

For about a month, Joe and his dad and brother have been getting ready for the deer season. Today is no exception. They brought their much needed heaters into their blinds, though today we actually had a heat wave of 60 degrees!! It was very pleasant to be in the woods.You can't forget a bucket full of corn and other goodies for deer. There was no corn left from the last batch. A very good deer sign.

There went our pumpkin pies... Hope Joe's deer like them.

Kayo sticking her head out of Joe's blind (basically a tent in which you sit and wait for the biggest deer to shoot!).

Happy 5th, Happy Autumn

It's my day off, and it's the 5th. We're going out for dinner tonight celebrating our 3 and a half years!! So I have a whole day to myself, except for finishing up laundry. I think I'll wrap up my brother's birthday present and mail out. I'll probably walk to the post office, too. My thing on my day off is not to drive. Our town is pretty small, so most things are within a walking distance. And why not enjoy a walk when I can. Soon we'll be buried under snow.
When I was making those pumpkin leaves for Halloween, I also made these fall leaves. Maple and oak leaves. Because I wanted to put out these mini pumpkin salt/pepper shakers as decorations, but I didn't have anything to put on. Ta-daaa.... Happy Autumn (though it's really winter for us)!

Big & Lil' Pumpkins

Ta-daaaaa! Here we were a great pumpkin and a little pumpkin for Halloween. I had to work till 6 in the evening, so Joe was home with the big bowl of candies for trick-or-treaters. Our town had set the time for kids between 4 and 8. Joe said right at 4 o'clock there was a knock on the door. After I got home from work, I got to hand out candies to a half dozen kids. We probably had a total of 30 kids all together by the time we left the house to Joe's niece's birthday dinner, around 6:30. Lucky Joe saved plenty of candies for the upcoming deer season.
And here's the rest of the great pumpkin.

The night before we had dinner guests. Bobbie and Ken-san met many many years ago in Japan and both have had their own lives separately and just several years ago got re-connected and eventually married!! They are a bit like a mirror image of us. We sure hope to be like them when we're in our 70's.

For the first time I set up the table in our dining room (aside from Kayo's studio area) with a whole new set of silverware. Well, why not use what we have?? It was fun setting up. The picture below was our appetizers: spring rolls and pot stickers. I know, I know, I'm making you very jealous. I have no picture of our main course: teriyaki chicken and grilled veggies with rice. I probably shouldn't have mention that, either. Sorry. I just wanted to show how colorful and funky our table was.

Gearing for Halloween

Last night Joe carved our pumpkin. We're certainly not going nuts over Halloween, but there are a few things we have to. Since we have a house this year, we are expecting to see some trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood. We just don't know how many. We have a big bowl full of candies ready for tomorrow (I must say Joe's been very good about staying away from the bowl). Unfortunately I have to work till 6 pm tomorrow (Halloween), so I'll miss most of the trick-or-treat actions.This pumpkin face will sit on our front porch tomorrow night, waiting for kids.

Here are our pumpkin leaves that I made (part of our costume, or all our costume). I walked around Michaels during my lunch break to get ideas and materials. Joe says the store is turning me into Martha Stewart. Funny. But I gotta admit that working at the store, I realize there're so many things you can make yourself. This is my extent of sewing. The rest of our costume will be revealed. Stay tuned.

Happy Halloween, everyone! (By the way, what is Halloween in Hawaii like?)