I just got back from seeing my brand-new baby niece for the first time. Olof’s sister and brother-in-law welcomed baby Irma in the wee hours of this morning, and were already home with her around suppertime tonight. She weighs 4100g (~9 pounds) and is 51cm (~20 inches) long. She’s a beautiful little thing — she looks a lot like her older brother and sister. Lydia and I are very jealous.

Day One of Olof’s Cancún Adventure went well, at least here on the homefront. As planned, I got a fair bit of spring cleaning done, including washing the kitchen and living room windows inside and out, and vacuuming the dust and accumulated dog hair from the spaces in the radiators (do those spaces have a name?). The kids and I walked to the kiosk here in town and bought Saturday candy (they have the freshest licorice pipes there, and Lydia likes their selection of “unusual” candy — gummy french fries and the like). While Tage took a long nap this afternoon, I finished up my feature article for the upcoming issue of Mosaic Minds and even managed to sneak a quick shower. All in all, a productive day.

As for Olof, I talked to him just after five this morning, when he was getting ready to get on the plane from Stockholm to Madrid. I haven’t talked to him otherwise, but I think he should be getting to Cancún soon. The weather’s going to be a shock to his system, but I hope he enjoys himself anyway. He’s the only person I know who wouldn’t be positively thrilled at the thought of an all-expenses-paid week in Cancún.