In which we have dinner guests

As some of you know, the reason that we are in Paris this year is so that Blaise can do research. More specifically, we are here because his dissertation advisor received a huge grant from the French government which is being used largely to (a) promote unity among the various parts of the Parisian philosophy/history of math community, (b) coordinate conferences and workshops in philosophy/history of math, and (c) provide funding for some number of graduate students and professors to spend from a month to a year doing research here and working with the extensive philosophy of math community in Paris.

Right now, there are two current Notre Dame graduate students here as part of this program. The first is here for a year, and we've had him over for dinner a couple of times before. The second arrived with his wife around the beginning of March, and will be here for only a couple of months. We thought that it would be nice to have (all of) them over for dinner while they were here, so Blaise sent the requisite invitations which were promptly accepted.

Thursday morning we brought the kids to their respective schools, and then I set to work. The house was an unholy disaster area due to an unfortunate convergence of factors.

• I'm an indifferent housekeeper under even ideal conditions.
• It's hard to keep up with housework when the kids are out of school, and they had been off for winter break the previous two weeks.
• Wednesday is also a no school day here in France.
• I spent Tuesday morning running (OK, walking) between the radiologist and the doctor's office.
• Back pain (and no, I haven't been carrying Cherry, so you don't need to lecture me!)

So, Thursday morning I cleaned (and in between cleaning I worked on translations and editing), and by the time I needed to pick Cherry up from school the kitchen counter was clean and the floors were (mostly) swept. The first load of laundry was folded and the second was in the dryer. The bathroom, well, perhaps no one would need to use it? And we could, fortunately, close the door to the part of the apartment where the bedrooms were (which was good, since they were trashed.

After I picked Cherry up, we headed to the Auchan for dinner things (and to get something for lunch, since there was nothing in the house), and then back to the apartment. After a late lunch, and a bit more cleaning, and a few books read to Cherry, and some "let's play that I'm the mommy and you're the baby," I set to work in the kitchen. The tabbouleh needed time for the flavors to blend, so I wanted to make that before we went to get Sapphire and Ezio.

We got home around 5, with half an hour until Blaise left to meet our guests at the train station. Ezio was given the job of straightening the front hallway. Cherry and Sapphire the jobs of looking for anything else that was out of place. I made hummus. Then Cherry and Blaise left to meet our guests (an experience which was evidently very traumatic for Cherry) and Sapphire peeled oranges while Ezio sectioned them and dumped them into a bowl and I chopped onion and drained olives. I mixed the dressing, dumped it on, and the orange salad was ready. By this point, everyone was back. I reheated (shh) the lentils and rice, and scooped it into a bowl. By six the table was set and we were ready to eat dinner.

We had a very pleasant dinner, finished off with black forest cake and profiteroles (I can hardly believe I asked someone to bring dessert!) provided by some of our guests, and accompanied by wine provided by another of our guests.