Sayonara and Slainte!

Our friends, Tomoko-san and Jun-san, are moving back home to Japan tomorrow, and we will miss them.  From enjoying matcha made the proper way, to running the kiddie bases at Turner Field, to a down-home cajun meal at Ji Bou Te, we have had some fun and very special times together during their short time in the U.S.  We wish them safe travels and happy days until we go and visit them in Tokyo.

In other news, we showered Jen (and Jack too) yesterday.  There were lots and lots of people there to show their love and support, as we eagerly await the birth of Baby Jackson.  I wanted to share the otter we made for him.  It's the first toy I have ever knitted (although I've crocheted lots of them).  He is holding a clamshell, and we were trying to keep to the nautical theme of his nursery.

Last Thursday was a momentous day, as I was finally able to remove my heart monitor after twenty long (and I mean long) days and nights.  Here I am removing the darn thing.  You can kind of see in the second picture that my whole abdomen had become red.  After an allergic reaction (I'm guessing the leads were latex) during my stress test, and after replacing these non-latex leads daily for three weeks, I have developed icky sores and itchy spots, not to mention the sticky stuff I just can't seem to remove no matter how hard I scrub.  On the bright side, once I started remembering to keep the cell phone transmitter next to me at all times, I did get used to this device enough to start exercising again.

Last week, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by having dinner with our friends, the O'Days.  We had a very Irish dinner of corned beef and cabbage, with green dessert for us and green milk for the Chipster.  And of course, no Irish celebration would have been complete without the Guinness and the Jameson's.  After school and work, and before dinner, we arrived home to find that the leprechauns had visited our house and were up to their usual hijinks.  They put the kitchen table in the family room and the comfy chair in the kitchen.  At least they were kind enough to leave a bag of gold (chocolate coins) behind on the comfy chair!

February in Georgia is usually the start of hiking weather, but this year has been different.  After a 70 degree beauty of a day on Saturday, Monday the 22nd of March surprised us with a snow shower!  Snow!  At the end of March in Georgia!  Well, the kids at the bus stop were very, very excited that morning.  And honestly, so were we.