Could spring be coming?

We noticed some tulips tentatively poking their heads out of our flower bed today, after a warmer weekend. It was nice to have temperatures in the upper 50s and low 60s, although today was back to rain and the next week will be a bit cooler again.

We now have a binding contract on a house in Chapel Hill, and will have the inspection next week. There's no rush to closing since we will be traveling in mid March to a wedding in Hawaii (the big island); besides our rental agreement here in Carrboro only ends in June. But we are excited to make the move, and to start the next phase of our lives.

The Boston Marathon is now just 8 weeks away, so we have been ramping up our mileage. Marc hit 70 the last two weeks and Shuwen is over 50, and our long runs have gotten looong! We went to Umstead State Park on Saturday for some tough up and down hill running.

Meanwhile Shuwen is continuing work on a variety of projects, and Marc is trying to get some papers submitted from his dissertation work. It takes time to do all of the formatting and to go through another round of editing, not to mention collecting constructive comments and criticism from colleagues. Marc is also doing a bit of teaching as a guest lecturer for various courses at Duke as well as one at UNC.

We have been to Memorial Hall for a pair of memorable recent performances. On Saturday, we saw the acrobatic dance troupe STREB, a group from Brooklyn led by an inspired choreographer named Elizabeth Streb. There were flying metal I beams and cinder blocks for the dancers to avoid, as well as pulley systems and humongous hamster wheels for them to navigate, all set to eclectic music. On Marc's birthday, last Monday, we heard from Tinariwen, a Touareg band from Northern Mali. They were fun to hear.

Speaking of Mali, a friend sent me the following picture from West Africa which is a stark reminder of the disparities that exist in this world, even as we debate the future of our own dysfunctional health care system.