Can you tell my parents had just been to China? Dad‘s a faculty member at the University of Regina (he’s been the Head of the Computer Science department, off and on, for a fair majority of his term, and is currently still filling that position, for just a little while longer anyway), and our family is well connected to the Chinese community. My parents were part of a group that travelled to China in 1984 in an effort, I believe, to blossom relationships and so on (I won’t go into detail, mostly because I don’t know or remember them). Long story short, Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, is Regina’s sister city. They’ve since gone back many times over the years, Mom especially.

(BTW, if you ever bump into Dad, make sure to tell him how much he looks like the fantasy writer, George R. R. Martin. He loves hearing that…)

This picture also marks the beginning of the epic mystery of the origin of the red mark on the upper part of my right cheek. I have a theory of what caused it, and Mom has a completely different one. Regardless (or irregardless, whichever you prefer), as you’ll see over the next several days, it lasted for years.