Though they were predicting some snow for today, we woke up to a bit of spring rain, much needed rain. Our dwarf daffodils look happy.
Yesterday Joe went to check out one of his morel mushroom hunting spots... too cold, way too dry, but he managed to find one small morel. 
We hope everyone is having a nice Easter weekend. We joined Joe's family for Easter brunch and Easter egg hunt this morning as you might have expected. But yesterday we went to see an exciting regional cage fighting/ Maui Thai event. There were a couple of TKO's, including one 2-second match. The best and most palm-sweating match was the only one female match (below). A bloody nose and everything. Crazy!!!
Four hours of not-so-Easter-like entertainment, but memorable.
This past weekend we drove down to Green Bay to see the Murphys, our belated Christmas visit finally. The main event was a tour of Lambeau Field, owned by the city and thousands of Packer fans. We are proud to be one of them! The tour took us all the way up to the sky box seats. 
And even down through the players tunnel onto the field. Now that was quite a perspective!
The empty off season field is currently undergoing another major construction. Impressive.
At last, a snapshot of all four of us at the field. We do look a bit chilly... that's Green Bay. Our Packer players are tough!!
Thank you, Murphys, for the fun weekend!
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.
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.... 
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.
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.
