Ash Wednesday & COLD

After we stuffed ourselves with a Cajun feast and drinks on Fat Tuesday, we quietly looked forward to this meatless Ash Wednesday dinner. I (Kayo) got more used to the practice of Lent and now have more cooking ideas with no meat. To kick off this season, I prepared a Japanese sushi roll meal, to enjoy a special bottle of sake (upon which God must have frowned). The bottle contains two tiny gold foil blossoms. Needless to say, we are going to enjoy tasty meatless meals on Fridays for a little while.
Then the weather got very cold again. One sub-zero temp morning two of our cars didn't want to start. We suspect tomorrow morning Joe will have to jump-start his poor old Subaru again, expecting it to drop down to twenty below tonight. Who wants to start up to go to work in the morning?? Brrrr....

P.S.
When it's this COLD, it doesn't even snow much. But our city crew recently cut back and removed some snow banks 1) so we can actually have some visibility in the street corners while driving and 2) so they have more room next time we get lots of snow.  

Valentine's Day = Snow Day

We hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. Our plan was to drive to Lake Gogebic, 2 hours west of us, to see some friends and try ice fishing. But instead, we got snowed in. Saturday all day the winter storm with gusts up to 40mph did not show any weakening, closing several major roadways around us. We kept looking out our windows, amazed, and watched a bunch of movies and shows on Netflix in our pj's. A happy and warm Valentine's Day it was.
Next day, Sunday, snow stopped finally, and it was time to clear our driveway. (These pictures are mostly for Matt in Hawaii to show how our snow banks get so high. Simply you have to keep putting snow higher and higher not to run out of space for more snow.) This time we only got about 1 to 1 1/2 ft of snow total. The worst was the blowing snow and wind.
While Joe was working, I went up the back hill and made a new sledding trail. In this  picture, you see my feet on top of the hill, looking at our house below and the street view, all covered with fresh snow.
Today is Fat Tuesday, as expected up here another cold one. We are going out to our favorite Cajun restaurant. Happy Mardi Gras to all!

On This Snowy Saturday

I had one last print making class today. As always, it was inspiring for me to see a participant explore with different colors and expressions.   
For a quick and easy dinner we had okonomiyaki-Japanese savory cabbagepancakes. Recently we bought a small electric skillet, mostly for this purpose, so we can cook and eat right at the table just like in Japan. We are practicing for another okonomiyaki party!