Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today is my Dad's 61st birthday (well it's tomorrow technically for him, but it's the 25th already here, so I'm celebrating today)! I believe my family back home got together to celebrate this weekend, and I wish I could have joined in! :(  I was there in spirit at least.

And just because it's my favorite picture of my Dad and I feel like posting it- I give you the Popeye picture (taken on our family trip to Guadalajara last year):

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Interesting

Sorry for my 3rd post of the day, but I found something interesting I just couldn't resist sharing. I got blog visitors from 5 new countries today (for that matter, 5 different continents)! Thank you to the (I'm sure) very bored people in New Zealand, Nigeria, Chile, Romania, and Mexico who took the time to read my blog! That brings the country visitor total to 15, which is strange, because I hardly know 15 PEOPLE overall, let alone 15 people in different countries. I guess strangers have yet to know that what I have to say isn't all that exciting!

P.S. I love maps! I think what makes me most excited about getting a new country visitor is that the country turns green on the map in Google Analytics!

Why did I agree to this?

After 3 years of avoidance, leaving Corey to his own geeky ways, I have agreed to attempt to play World of Warcraft tonight. What can I say, there's a blizzard out, and I'm running out of entertaining things to do indoors. So I'll "log on" and give it a shot (once he's done with his "real" game, and feels like teaching me). I would say this is going to be painful, but I'm 3 beers in, so maybe not... :)

Lots of snow!

It's coming DOWN!!

Corey just got let out of work early because of the weather. Looks like it's going to be a night spent at home! I went out to try and take some pictures, but only got to the end of the driveway before the snow had gone up my pant legs and I got worried my camera was going to be killed by snow, so I went back inside. Seriously, the snow outside of our porch would be up to my waist at least if I were standing in it.

And to think, I was just starting to thaw out and get happy just a few short days ago. 

So much for that.

New Toy

We have a bright and shiny new member of our family (which Corey possibly might be more in love with than he is with me...). Meet our new iMac:

Corey has been pushing to get this bad boy for months and months now, and I finally broke down and agreed after last week when I nearly lost half my iPhoto library in a "we need more computer power" rearrangement of files debacle. We already have 2 laptops- an iBook that is dangerously old and close to death, and a MacBook that has a serious issue or two. So I suppose this new guy will be good to have when those conk out. Corey sure is happy. He even blogged about it (his whopping 2nd post), which means he's really really excited. :) Here he is getting his new obsession set up:

Please live a long and healthy life, iMac!

Our kitchen

I love our house here. I really do. However, the kitchen perplexes me. Allow me to vent for a moment if you will...

This is our kitchen:

It's nice enough. The stainless steel counter-tops aren't the prettiest thing in the world, but I'm not very picky. We had to buy an extra rack to pile our stuff on because there wasn't enough storage space, but it works OK. It stinks not having a dishwasher, but that isn't too big of a deal.

The one thing that does truly irritate me is this: I can't reach the top cupboards! I know Americans tend to be taller than Japanese people, and this house was built for Americans to live in. I'm sure whoever designed it was trying to be helpful and mindful of the house's inhabitants. But I'm thinking they took it a bit far. I can just reach the bottom shelf if I stand on my tippy-toes and reach with all my might, but it's not very convenient when, say, trying to put the dishes away or get down a can of diced tomatoes. Corey can do a little bit better than I can, but even he is too short for these cupboards. We're in search of a step-stool to keep on hand. In the meantime, I'm getting really good at the "jump-and-grab" and climbing the counters.

At least we don't have to worry about hitting our heads on the cupboard doors...

Dinner tonight...

... was Yakisoba. It was delicious! We made enough for 6, but ate almost the whole thing (there's probably enough for us each to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow). Mmm mmm good!

Speaking of tomorrow, wish Corey luck- he has a big promotion test! He's been studying ALL.DAY.LONG. I'm proud of that guy!