Last night a snowstorm came through most of Minnesota.  We had lots of the white stuff, along with wind that made some pretty sizable drifts.  That was our first significant snowfall of the year. It was bad enough that my wife got my car stuck in the driveway as she was backing out of the garage.  We both had to shovel the car free before she could go off to work.  (She drove my car to work today because it is better in the snow.) Once my wife got home fr...

Here in Central Minnesota, we have thusfar had a pretty wimpy winter.  Not too much in the way of cold or snow. This afternoon we received enough snow to cover up everything (and shovel.)  Now the news says that the cold is coming.  Below-zero (Fahrenheit) high temperatures for the weekend.  BRRRRR! It is really cute to watch baby Kenny enjoy the snow.  He really likes crunching around in the snow, and he doesn't want any "help" getting around.  Slips and s...

So last night my wife and I were in the mood for pie.  (I especially wanted some apple pie!)  We drove to Maple Grove to visit the "Bakers Square" restaurant for dinner and pie. Now we don't go out very often on Friday or Saturday nights, so we weren't prepared for the crowd that was waiting to get a seat at Bakers Square.  (I remember trying to get into a Joe's Crab Shack a few years ago.  The wait was around two hours.  No wonder why we only go out to eat on week...

In my life I have studied a few languages.  My wife and I use Japanese at home sometimes, and I use Russian daily at work.  (I am an elementary school ESL teacher.) My exposure to Spanish comes from a year in Junior High School, and then some TV shows like "Sabado Gigante" and some lucha libre shows.  Like most Americans I have a very rudimentary grasp of Spanish.  I know some vocabulary words, I am familiar with which articles may go with certain words, and I can kind...

Today was my wife's and my fourth wedding anniversary.  We celebrated by going to a restaurant called "Sakura" in Saint Paul.  They served yummy Japanese food.  (Probably the most authentic Japanese food in the Twin Cities.  "Sakura" and "Origami" are the only two realistic Japanese places that we've found so far.) Kazuko enjoyed her food: I had a yummy lunch: Kenny really liked eating the egg (tamago) sushi.  He ate all of the rice imme...

So my wife and I were out with our son shopping today.  We had a nice time.  After lunch, my wife reported that she had a canker sore that has been KILLING her.  It was hard for her to eat and everything.  Poor Kaco...  (Canker sores are awful, aren't they?) Along the way, we decided to stop by a convenience store to pick up some chewing tobacco.  I figured that constricting the vessels around the sore (caused by the tobacco) would pinch the hole shut, a...

A few weeks ago, my mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  It took me a while to come up with something that I thought I "needed."   Eventually I remembered that my computer's printer was basically shot, so I asked for a new printer. Well I got my new printer, and I am having a lot of fun with it.  As I was playing with it, I found a port in the front. It seemed as if the port would accomodate the digital-camera memory card from my video camera.   I p...

Last weekend, our clothes dryer broke.  My wife put a load of wet clothes in there, then nothing.  How sad. Since I am incompetent at fixing basically anything, I am waiting for my dad to help me get it running again.  Let's hope that it works! In the meantime, Kazuko and I are enjoying the posh convenience of the "Monticello Laundromat."  I am not kidding either, that place is pretty nice.  The store is clean, and the machines are relatively inexpensive and effici...

I have a cold.  I have the stuffed-up nose, the sneezing, and a general ill feeling.  Not too severe to keep me home, but just bad enough to make me miserable. I suppose that as an elementary school teacher, these things are inevitable this time of year.  I hear sniffles, sneezes, and coughs all day long this time of year. (How many times per day do I have to say, "Please cover your mouth."?) So I have been taking my medicine, eating my clementines ("Mikan" in Japanese)...

I believe that people usually put up their Christmas tree and lights over the weekend after Thanksgiving.  This year we got a bit of a late start.  We finally finished everything today. I put lights in my big pine tree.  We have a lit-up snowman, some icicle lights, and colored bulbs in the front of our house.  My wife spent a lot of time on tree inside. It is pretty hard to get a picture of the big tree in our yard, but here's what the front of our house ended up l...

Hey there. Tonight my wife and I put the finishing touches on our Christmas shopping. It is nice to be done with it. One of our stops was the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Saint Cloud. The shopping was fun, but our one year-old baby went a little crazy at the store. He was running around, grabbing everything in sight, moving stuff around, greeting everybody, having a good time, and making a mess. It was really fun to watch him having so much fun there, but it was pretty rough keeping...

I knew that my old Ford Escort needed some service.  I brought it into a shop, and heard the news that I would have to pay several hundreds of dollars to get everything in order.  Wow... I was willing to pay to have my old car fixed up.  My wife, on the other hand, suggested that I get a new car.  I was a little surprised.  I really hadn't considered getting a new one.  I called the shop back (after first agreeing to have the work done) and told them NOT to bo...

Apparently on the day after Thanksgiving, stores open early and there are all sorts of bargains for the early birds.  I don't have any firsthand knowledge of this, because I am usually not a  person who is likely to be found during a busy "shopping day." Generally I like to get all of my shopping done at one place (like a Target or a K-mart) on an off-day.  Snowstorm days or weekdays are usually better than facing the weekend crush. Today was different however.&nb...

So we are beginning preparations for Thanksgiving dinner.  The first dish done was the cranberry sauce.  I bought a few bags of cranberries yesterday, grabbed the "Betty Crocker Cookbook", and had at it! (Making a double batch) I boiled 4 cups of water, and 3 cups of sugar.  Once the water was sufficiently boiling, I added 8 cups of cranberries.  Five minutes later, I ended up with some really tasty cranberry sauce.  YUM! (I hope that my guests like cran...

Hey there friends!  I hope that all of you are having a nice day/evening. Today my wife, my son, and I had a nice day.  We drove down to the Minnesota Zoo.  We wanted to take baby Kenny to see the animals.  The zoo was pretty empty because of the cold weather and the beginning of the shopping season.  It was a fantastic time to be there because it was like we had the whole place to ourselves!  (I'd have to say that mid-to-late November might be the best time o...