Victoria's sister had a baby boy on Monday morning. I gather she was in labor for over 24 hours. I don't think they've chosen the baby's name yet because the one they had in mind didn't seem to fit the baby. Victoria is hoping to find out more once her sister gets out of the hospital. We want to go visit them in Oxford sometime soon, maybe just going up and back on a Saturday since Victoria is very busy.

Today is Pancake Day in England, also known as Shrove Tuesday. I gather most people make pancakes for dessert. British pancakes are thin like crepes, and often eaten with lemon juice and sugar, though some people have syrup too. I'll have to go buy some eggs so we can have some tonight.

Friday was my birthday, so I took the day off and Victoria and I went to her parents' house for the weekend. We traveled on Thursday evening so we wouldn't have to travel on my birthday. It took about 4 hours to get to Norwich, and then her parents met us at the train station and drove us to their house.

We had a lovely time, and Joyce made us lots of desserts, including a birthday cake. There were five different desserts during our almost three day time there, so I got nice and fat.

On Friday it was cloudy so we mostly relaxed, and went to the nearby town of Holt for a little shopping, but I didn't buy anything. I spent a lot of the weekend taking pictures of the house and nearby cottages. Her parents run a bed and breakfast and rent out several holiday cottages as well. They just got a new computer, so they wanted some images to put on brochures Joyce is making. I was just happy I didn't have to go to work that day.

Saturday the weather was great, so we went for a walk through Sheringham Park, which had many visitors due to the sunny, warm day.

We came home early on Sunday because Victoria needed to do some lesson planning for the week. She got some done on the train, but her laptop battery could only last for the first 1.5 hours of the journey, so it was not as much as she wanted to. I read a book on the train and finished it. It was called Coriander. The book was more of a young adult novel, but I keep reading them because Victoria has to evaluate them for teaching purposes.

We got a Christmas present from her parents which was a hamper of gifts from Spain. It included some bottles of cava, olives, olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, and chocolates. Her parents spent nearly two months in Spain before Christmas, so it was nice that they brought some stuff back for us. We managed to pack it away in our suitcases and none of it broke, so that was good.

Last night I made blueberry muffins to take into work today. Typically you are supposed to bring some sort of snack or cake in for your birthday. Blueberry muffins are my newest baking adventure. I think carrot cake will probably be next on my list. The muffins went down very well, and I had none left at the end of the day.

I got the following curious statements from a university newsletter that went out about a festival of the Chinese New Year. It is the year of the pig coming up.

"everyone admires Pig people the most."
"Pig people are the best friend anyone can have. They are also fun loving and know how to throw a good party, but if rubbed up the wrong way they can be extremely vengeful."

It sounds a bit like they are a weird human-pig hybrid species. Certainly wouldn't want to cross paths with them.

"The Chinese spirit of the knowledgeable and admirable, fun-loving pig will embrace staff and students at the University this month, with a vibrant festival of food, dance and art celebrating Chinese New Year."

I wonder if they will serve pork at the food festival?

Today it snowed for the first time this year. Apparently in other parts of England there was thick enough snow to prevent the schools from opening, but here there was not that much. In the center of town, most of it had melted by lunchtime (despite the fact that it was continuously snowing all day). Perhaps tonight some more will stick to the roads.

It is turning out the Geoff's prediction was accurate. Since I didn't have any groundhogs available on Groundhog Day, we had a little reenactment ceremony outside of work using a stuffed anteater named Geoff and he came out of a Santa hat. Since it was a bright, sunny day he did see his shadow, and predicted six weeks of winter. No one really understood Groundhog's Day, so I thought a reenactment was the best idea. It hardly has felt like winter up until that day (which was also very warm). However this week the temperature crashed down to freezing, and now it is even snowing. Seems like Geoff has been pretty accurate for week 1 at least!

This weekend I managed to do the decathlon of household chores. I ironed, grocery shopped, swept the floor, did the dishes, loaded and ran the dishwasher, did the laundry, cleaned the bathroom, took out the trash, took the recycling, and folded all the clothes. It was a busy weekend, but I still managed to find time to make blueberry muffins. They came out pretty good for my first time. Victoria was busy all day today doing lesson plans and making materials. Tomorrow night one of her teacher friends is having a birthday get-together at a restaurant and she wanted to plan some of the lessons for Tuesday as well, so she could relax more.

For my birthday, which is also a school holiday for Victoria, we are going to her parents' house in Norfolk. I will take the day off work on my birthday, so we can go down the night before. It ends up much cheaper, and will be more relaxing.

We've also planned a trip to Paris for Easter. In the end, we computed it was actually cheaper to take the Chunnel train since we have enough time to be flexible. Normally flying on a budget airline is the cheapest option. We are leaving on a Wednesday and coming back on a Tuesday. It is exciting, as I have always wanted to take the Eurostar (the train company that runs on the Chunnel). I think it may be my first train underwater, at least for any real distance. My friend from high school, Nissim, is living out there with his girlfriend Sarah, and they have invited us to stay with them when we come, so that it will be nice to catch up with him again.

Hopefully we'll be able to figure out our China/Japan trip soon. It is dependent on what job Victoria gets, and some other factors, but we definitely want to go.

Victoria's sister is due to have her baby sometime in the next two weeks, so that is exciting as well. We'll have to find time one weekend to go visit.