We had snow this week! Ok, so it hardly lasted any time at all, but Marc was still happy to see an inch of white powder blanketing this area on Thursday morning. By mid afternoon, it had melted away, so it hardly stuck around long enough to wreak havoc on traffic patterns.

It thus went from warm early in the week, with confused tulips trying to emerge from the ground, to below freezing later in the week. It still gets warmer during the day, but the nights now are cold enough to kill any poor tulips that might try to emerge prematurely. Shuwen rescued ours and transferred them indoors, but they surely will not do as well without the bright outdoor light.

Otherwise, we have been adapting to our new academic schedules, which thankfully are less intensely focused on classes this semester. Though Marc is TAing and taking a couple of courses (one of which may soon turn into an audit), the load feels a bit less taxing, and there is time to spend on other projects and thinking about doctoral research. We are each trying to set aside blocks of time to work on that pursuit, because otherwise it is easy to let other projects encroach since they seem more short term and urgent.

We are also spending time together cooking and cleaning, which is a nice return to normalcy after spending a month without having to think about how to feed ourselves while visiting friends and relatives. Our first attempt at roasting a duck (Chinese-style) was not bad -- though we will need to work on the chopping & serving technique. Next time we will be a little more adventurous and try the Ng family Teo-chew braised duck recipe. That will require going to the Asian market to get some special ingredients (and maybe a Chinese hacking knife). We had half a duck leftover, which we had for lunch on Saturday rolled with parsley, orange slices, and a soy sauce, honey & OJ sauce in the leftover galettes Bretonnes we had made a week earlier. Marc wants to call our fusion creation: Galette de canard a l'orange. It was great.
This evening, our friend Jon had us and another couple (Amber & Mason) over for dinner. Jon, Amber and us met during our first semester of microeconomics together. It is quite funny how the first painful class you take helps you build good friendships (and in our case, a marriage!). Anyway, it was nice to catch up with everyone again since we no longer take any classes together, though Shuwen still gets to see Amber twice a week during yoga. If you remember the sushi at our wedding reception, Amber made all of those :)

We are hoping to get some work done tomorrow while also perhaps squeezing some time to watch a movie (The King of Scotland) with friends and also part of the Bears NFC Championship game. Marc needs to prepare for his trip to Cairo, ensuring that the computer model that workshop participants will use works, and also preparing the user manual and lecture that he will give to explain the software. He leaves Friday around midday and will be gone for about a week, returning the following Saturday night.

Good night to all!