The kids made it back Saturday. My mother-in-law praised the food I had cooked (roast turkey breast with carrots and new potatoes, and minestrone) and everyone was happy to see I’d built a fire in the fireplace.
Alpha returned home Sunday. She wasn’t quite the wreck she has been following such business trips in the past, thanks in part to using her frequent flyer miles to upgrade to business class this time, which made the trip much nicer for her. She ate none of the vegetarian lasagne I had made Sunday, because she had just flown business class for hours and hours and had been stuffed with food and movies apparently.
Gamma also ate none of it, since it contained cheese, zucchini and black olives, as well as garlic and onions. I figured, since she’s not going to eat it because it contains cheese, I might as well throw in other things I like. Beta didn’t eat it because she had a stomach ache.
We sat around being a family for a few minutes, then I drove Beta into Vienna to catch a train. Her class is going on a field trip.
I remember going on a field trip when I was in school. I think we went to the zoo once, where we no doubt looked at animals. And I recall taking a school bus with a bunch of other kids to some game preserve, where all I remember seeing was grass taller than I was, and my teacher running around with a clipboard counting children, and no wildlife whatsoever. Then we reboarded the bus and drove back to school.
Beta’s physics class is going to Hamburg to look at a particle accelerator. One friend of hers is going along, even though she is not in the physics class, because she is interested in particle accelerators.
At the train station, Beta and I went to a coffee shop where she drank some concoction, and I had hot chocolate. Then we walked around the station with our take-out cups and chatted. Then she met some other students. Then we went magazine shopping for the trip – she paid for her own magazines, with her own money. Then we went back out into the station and talked a little. Then I drove home before I got embarrassing.