See amid the Winter's snow
The last fortnight has been very snowy indeed! Normal routines were a bit disrupted to cut down on travel, so Dan hasn't been to his dancing or swimming, and I didn't run around the Town Moor. D's ballroom competition has been postponed until next Sunday; I hope that he can make it to his rehearsals beforehand. A thaw seems to have set in, so prospects are good. Dad hasn't wanted to venture out of his cosy room, so I've been round to see him a couple of times. We've come to the conclusion that I should handle all of his finances now, and give him a regular allowance in cash; this is less stressful for all concerned. Long-term, I've been looking into annuities, which seem to be the way ahead for sorting out his financial needs.
Despite the snow, we've all been as busy as ever. I spent a really lovely evening at the opening of a colleague's solo show at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts, followed by a lively meal and chatting in a pub. There have also been a couple of Parents' Evenings, and Neuromancer has been on various courses and to evening functions as well keeping her busy lab running. I'm still cooking most evenings, although the novelty of helping has worn off for the children and I don't insist (it's meant to be fun). I had a spat with D when he refused to eat something which he's happily had many times before, and insisted that he ate half of what was on his plate. Which he did, and was right as rain and happy immediately afterwards, so I have the feeling he was just trying to wind me up..!
There's been plenty of sledging, snowman-building, and snowball fighting on Kenton Dene and the Moor; I've also managed to get lots of assorted paperwork done. My facebook page for the forthcoming book seems to have taken off nicely, with word spreading around current and former students.
We've also done character generation for the core members of Katy's RPG group; two human wizards, an elven cleric, and a dwarven fighter. (There's also someone who might make it occasionally.) Unfortunately, our schedules are so packed that it looks like regular group meetings won't start until March! Before then, we're going skiing in the Czech Republic; all the elements of the trip are now booked (the last piece of the jigsaw was the coach from Prague to Česky Krumlov) and I'm excited by the whole thing.
More immediately, Neuromancer is going away for ten days to California for conferences, from Tuesday. As we haven't overlapped a huge amount in the past couple of weeks, we've booked a babysitter (a teenaged neighbour whom our children know and like) for this afternoon and evening, and are going to watch Les Mis and then go out for dinner -- hurrah!