Above are some pictures I took today at the Tyne Rowing Club (the building, the Tyne River and a old boat planter box on the path to the club) where I have been rowing off and on since early November. On Wednesday mornings there is a learn to row course and that is what I have been going to. In November and December there were some other people who came but lately it has been just me and the coach. It has been great for learning (I can't complain about a 2 hour lesson for £2) but I hope other people start coming again because part of the reason I started rowing here was to meet more people. The other reasons were to learn more about rowing because I started last year at CSB/SJU and wanted to do it again and just to stay active. I haven't been on the water since before Christmas but let me tell you, it was tricky changing from rowing with one oar to rowing with two oars! They start everyone off here rowing with two oars where as at CSB/SJU everyone starts rowing with one oar. Hopefully it will be nice enough next Wednesday to actually go out and row instead of just having land practice on the ergs.

There is another rowing club in Tynemouth that I went to twice but the times at this one seem to work better for me. Also, they row on the sea and really only get to row during the summer months. I hope to row there some when in the summer/spring! They have evening practices and once it is spring time hopefully the water will be calmer and it will be light late enough as well! Tynemouth is a cool little city and it would be awesome to row on the sea.

It was Abby's Birthday on Monday so we had a little celebration at Kids Kabin and then had a nice dinner at home. I forgot to put toothpicks in the cake before putting tin foil over it so the letters got messed up a little bit :( Abby decided she wanted steak and potatoes for dinner so Melissa and I made steak, cheddar bacon mashed potatoes, grilled peppers and onions, spinach and a mushroom sauce. It was so good!! Of course, you can't have a cooking adventure with out the fire alarm going off. When we were cooking the steak/searing it on the stove the fire alarm went off but according to the websites Melissa and I read to learn about cooking steak it was pretty much gaurenteed it would happen. After some fanning and cross ventilation (opening the back door and front window), we were good to go and didn't have anymore fire alarm problems. Melissa's birthday isn't until May so they are nice and spread out over our 11 months here.