AcornHusk of Ember

Well, we're home. A long process involving airplane maintenance problems and thus the need for hustling like mad from one end of the Charlotte terminal to the other. "Very well done," said the flight attendant at the desk. "You made it." We weren't quite the last to get on, but close--minutes to spare. It's good to be home, but it's not good to be away from all the people whose smiles and voices were happiness for the week. We came home a couple of days post-weekend because the airfare was a lot cheaper that way. But it was really nice because we got to wind down by seeing more of the Diva and family. They all had to go back to school and work, but we came over during the day and hung out and tried to make ourselves useful, and saw them in the evening. Today we celebrated our last day in town by hauling their three 5-gallon water jugs to Whole Foods to be refilled. It was an exciting adventure because we never did that before. Now we know how it works. While we were there, I satisfied my wish to do something for the Diva by also buying a ham, a rotisserie chicken, a couple of bags of veggie chips, more ice cream, milk, fancy grapes, and two pies. When we got home, I peeled potatoes, and the Sparrowhawk chopped half a cabbage she happened to have in the refrigerator, and he made a pot of colcannon for them, while I put the ham in the oven and sauteed some zucchini and walnuts with sesame oil and soy sauce. This is a dish that I think is tasty, and I hope they did too. While we were doing it, we saw Muffinhead and Angelbaby after school, and Kansas stopped in after work, and then the Diva had a meeting canceled and was able to come home in time to say goodbye (again). Imagining them all enjoying one more good dinner helped me not cry on the way to the airport.