Joe's Birthday Dinner

Today was Joe's birthday. It's Monday... a regular work day. So we celebrated over the weekend. My usual present for Joe on his birthday is a home cooked Japanese meal. I made "tonkatsu," breaded pork cutlet, kabocha pumpkin with onion and bacon, miso soup, and white rice for dinner on Saturday. We found this Japanese beer made with red rice, that was also part of Joe's birthday dinner. Yesterday Joe cooked over 20 lb. of BBQ ribs for his own and his brother Mark's birthday. Joe got a new toy. He's currently playing with his new PS Move. It's not as exciting watching him play Bocce Ball as Gladiator Sword Fighting he tried last night. Still pretty funny.
Happy Birthday, Joe! and good night to all.
p.s. Kayo rocked at ping pong and I thought I was fun to watch.

Right Into Summer!?

This was also from yesterday, March 17th, in the UP. The temperature must have gone up to mid 80's. We took our Honda and Chevey for car washes, and Joe gave his Subaru a check-up in the sun. He was saying, "I hate to say this, but it's almost too darn hot!" Crazy, we are more used to St. Pat's Day snow storms. I'm partly disappointed that we didn't get a winter storm....
After dark Joe was out in the backyard night crawler (earth worm) hunting. There were literaly hundreds of them. We are all wondering where our spring went to, because this is more like our summer.

St. Patrick's Day!

At our non-Irish household we had a pretty tasty St. Patrick's Day feast yesterday. I decided to make corned beef and cabbage at home for the first time. When I sent Joe to our local butcher shop, he came home with two hunks of corned beef. So we invited Joe's mom and his brothers. A good excuse to have fun setting the table.

My bread turned beautifully, too, for this occasion. (Thank you, bread god!)

I must say, the corned beef and cabbage was a big success. The boys even ate the veggies without complaining!

For dessert we had Black & Tan Brownies from a recipe that was tested and approved by Judy. The upper black brownie layer has Guinness stout beer. It's gotta be good, right? I even whipped up green whipping cream. It was fun cooking all around.

Girls' Day Celebration

This morning feels a little like the movie "Groundhog Day," a repeat of yesterday. Our driveway doesn't look like Joe had blown snow at all. After snow blowing and shoveling so we could get out of the driveway to go to get a few things from a nearby grocery store (4 blocks away), we stayed in. And I tried to cook a meal for Girls' Day with much limited supplies. I was even out of "nori" seaweed for sushi. Only saved by our first asparagus of the season. Somewhere far, far away is spring, we only dream.
Joe is cooking breakfast right now, before he has to blow snow to get my car out for work.

March Snow-- Totally Normal!

On the calendar in Japan, March 3rd is a Girls' Day, celebration of peach blossoms. Well, up in the U.P. we are buried deep in the snow, in the middle of another snow storm. After hearty breakfast we went out to clear our driveway to make more room for more snow!
We assessed about a foot of fresh snow overnight, at least, and more coming. Look how tall our snow bank is, compared to Joe and his snowblower.
Big smile, frosty smile. Snow blowing #1 is complete!