We're off to New York on Monday for a week, so we are both enjoying not having to do lots of work right now. Victoria gets a two week holiday for Easter, and my classes are pretty much done as far as readings and discussion. I still have to do the two final assignments for my courses, but the day-to-day side of things has eased up some. I'm allocated some time to write papers and do independent research as part of my job. I'm using a large chunk of this time between when we come back from New York and when the final two papers are due (mid-April), so that should allow me to do the final assignments without going completely crazy. It will be nice when they have both finished completely. For my info lit course, I got back the assignment I did over my birthday. I was very happy to get a 75, which on the UK scale is pretty much out of 80. I need at least a 25 to pass my final assignment in that course, which I am sure to be able to do. Of course, I'm not shooting for the minimum.

Today we have done a big spring clean of the house, which has lasted about 4 hours actually. There is still a bit more to do tomorrow too. It coincides with Victoria's friend Sarah coming over tomorrow night, as she is going to New York with us. It's always good to clean when someone comes to stay, and to have it clean before we go away (plus when we have a bit of a break).

Last weekend we went to a tiny town near Oxford for Tom's christening. Tom is Victoria's second oldest sister's (Gillian's) baby. He is about a year old now, and very cute. At Christmas he wasn't that interested in me, but he really stared at me a lot this time. He even called me 'da da' at one point, though he did seem to call a lot of things 'da da'. The service was in a tiny church which was really cute, and full of tiny children running around during the service. The minister seemed quite nice and seemed to like the children running around the aisles. There was a reception across the street at the school that Gillian is headmistress of. We had tons of food and had a great time playing with all the children. There was a particularly long game of keep away between me, Victoria, and Richard (Victoria's brother) and Victoria's nieces. We stayed at a bed and breakfast in an old farmhouse, along with Victoria's parents and Robin and Enid (who are long time friends of Victoria's parents). I got along really well with Enid: she was really funny.