Hi there friends!

I hope that all of you had a fun and productive holiday weekend. I had a really happy time relaxing with friends and family. On Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed ourselves with the Mattson family at their cabin on Lake Mille Lacs. It was awfully cold outside, but we enjoyed visiting and playing a number of board games. We got in some Risk, UNO, and a game of Monopoly. Yay!

Coming home on Sunday, we spend our Monday running errands and catching up on sumo matches that we missed over the weekend. I still have to catch the final few matches from Saturday. Two of my favorite Rikishi (Kyokushuzan and Yokozuna Asashoryu) faced each other. Apparently there is a pretty heated rivalry between the two.

The highlight of my Monday evening was watching the premiere of American Idol 3. How exciting! I really enjoyed watching that program last year. It was a major part of keeping up my morale during a tough stretch of graduate school. Now I can enjoy it in a more relaxing time of my life! I am looking forward to day two of the auditions tomorrow. I was pretty impressed with "Scooter Girl." She is trying to be this season's Rickey Smith. She seems to have a personality that she can hang her hat on at least.

Here are a few pictures that I took over the weekend. Have a happy day, and I look forward to either hearing from you, or reading your own weblogs.



Here are a few "action shots" of us playing Risk.









We were also able to spend some time playing with babies.

Here are Andy and Chialing holding Kenny.











Here's a photo of Kenny's contemporary, Bryce. He is one month old.This is John and Chunny's baby. They live in Rogers.







.

Here's what Kenny's vacation was like:












Here are a couple of pictures that we took after we got home.














We bought a new kitchen table and some chairs today. We're preparing for future dinners with baby in a high chair. Before long, we will assemble our new hutch that we'll keep by the table.







After setting up the table, I made some split pea soup. My friend Andy's mom gave me a ham bone to use in my soup. It was the first time that I had ever made split pea soup. Kazuko and I ate it while we watched American Idol. It was yummy!