My six-year-old niece, Saga, came over today and spent the afternoon with Tage and me. Aside from Asbjørn knocking out one of her front teeth and Tage hitting her repeatedly with a big stick, I think she had a fine time. I’m sure she was mightily relieved when Lydia came home from school and she had somebody besides the mean boys to play with, though.

Olof is due home from his latest business trip in an hour or so. He’s been gone only since early yesterday morning, but it feels much longer. He’s bringing me several cans of refried beans, though, so it’s worth it to me for him to have been gone this time. He’s been traveling a lot these past several months, and I don’t like it at all. I’m just not a keep the home fires burnin’ kind of gal, I guess.

I’m already looking ahead with dread to the next annual company meeting, when he’s typically gone anywhere between a week and ten days. As of now it’s scheduled for the first week in October, which means that the new baby won’t be quite new enough to serve as a good excuse for him not going, which means, further, that I’ll be home alone with three kids and two dogs. Fun for the whole family. All I can say is that there had better be a whole lot more than refried beans in his suitcase for me when he comes back from that trip. (Aside for my mother’s benefit: It’s not that I can’t handle it; it’s that I don’t want to.)