For those of you who may have been fooled into thinking that spring is on its way to Wisconsin, here are some pictures of the weather yesterday.

We got about 4 inches, for which we should be grateful, because they were predicting 6-9. Preston came over this afternoon and dug the driveway out. Here he is, hard at work:

And this is what he did after he saw me taking his picture out of the living room window:

So, spring is NOT here. Maybe it will be in a month or so, though. And I don't want to hear any snide remarks from people who live in Virginia, Utah or Tennessee--you'll have your turn at bad weather eventually!

Happy birthday surprises:

* Cards, phone calls, and emails from friends and family

* Yummy carrot cake (my favorite) made by Emily

* Only 11 candles on the cake (because Rene forgot to buy any more.)

* Nice family dinner with Rene and Emily (sorry, Preston! He was at work.)

Unhappy birthday surprises:

*Six inches of new snow and a Canadian cold wave :(

So here you go, a few pictures taken by Emily, who unerringly managed to get one of me with my eyes closed and not smiling.

Oh, yes, also a birthday shoutout to Jenny Hansen Hoover and Leanne Nixon, who are the only other people I've ever met who share a birthday with me.

About three weeks ago, Joseph posted about the Big McChicken sandwich he'd created. In his honor, I invite you to take a look at this: http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/. I'm not implying that any of you loyal readers are fat; it's just a pretty funny site.

National Pie Day

Okay, technically, National Pie Day was January 23. But on Sunday, we enjoyed having Emily and Preston over for dinner and games, especially since they brought this beautiful homemade cherry pie. It tasted just as good as it looks, too! It's always fun to have them around; we'll miss them next year when they've moved on to law school.