In what may have been the most frantic day in our travel history — and that’s saying something — we made all our connections and successfully entered the USA about 22 hours after leaving our apartment in Chamonix.

The rental car was returned without any outstanding parking tickets (that we know of), but a speeding ticket is not out of the question.  There was a suspicious camera flash in the early-morning darkness somewhere in the foothills of the Alps.

Incredibly, about 24 hours after touching down in Boston, we were returning to Logan Airport with Nadia for the departure of her grand ten-day field hockey tour of England.  That she got on a plane again so soon is amazing to us all.   We have gotten brief glimpses of her week through texts and FB posts from the field hockey group, and it looks like she’s having a good time.

Equally incredible: The dog agency Zoe registered us with managed to locate a non-puppy that is open to living with kids and cats (we are assuming chickens and goldfish, too).  And guess what — she’s available for us to adopt!

And so, here’s Daisy!

All the way from Arkansas

A lot of us have been able to spend time with her this week.  Nadia and Zoe, who is on a school Outing Club hike, are missing out.   Lanie got shut out of the aerial dance camp she had her eyes on — those fill up fast — so this has been “Cooking Camp” week around here.

Cooking camp

So far she’s made homemade linguini with meatballs and marinara sauce from the Cook’s Illustrated cooking school book, soft pretzels from Allrecipes, and a chocolate cake that was a hybrid of both sources.  Today will be blueberry crisp once we go pick the blueberries.  Oh, there was also a pumpkin cheesecake in there, too.

Spyfall at the camp

Meanwhile, Daisy has been getting used to the place, going for multiple walks during the day, showing a little more eagerness to meet the cats than the cats are comfortable with.  This is our post-France life, and it should remain in place until school starts, or until the paragliding kits we ordered on Amazon arrive.

Just kidding.