Wednesday dinner and Thursday breakfast

Dad: Maybe we should go... they're expecting us at 6pm.
Mom: No! Traffic is going to be awful.
Dad: Traffic is going to be awful anyway,

Later

A.: Okay, I really think we should go.
Mom: Fine, but you'll see. There will be traffic.

In the car, past the worst part of the traffic

Mom: We should have turned on the radio! It's always smart, in traffic, to turn on the radio! But we're sitting here like idiots!
Dad: Well, you're right there--you could have turned on the radio.
Mom: A. could have turned on the radio!
Dad: Well, you didn't ask her to.
Mom: You should have asked her to!
Dad: I didn't know you needed the radio.
Mom: Agh! There you are, always coming to her defense.

Dad and I just laugh.

They call, ask if we're okay. Dad tells them about the traffic.

We arrive, say hello.

Nina, aside: How's your mom?
A.: She's calmer than usual, though a bit wound up from the traffic. Yours?
Nina: They're calm, too.

Dinner

Natasha, to Nina: Have some eggplant.
Nina: Mom, you know I can't eat eggplant.
Natasha: I know now.
Nina: You ask me all the time, and I tell you all the time.
Natasha: Well, now I know.
A., to Nina: OMG, we have the what-no-sour-cream-in-your-soup conversation EVERY DAY.

Misha made lamb, Nina made Thai curry. If I remember correctly, that Betty and Jennifer article I posted the other day touched on the mainstreaming of ethnic food over the last generation. My parents, Nina's parents are a bit different, in the sense that they've always used fresh ingredients rather than jars, and that they've always taken nutrition very seriously, but some things still apply.

Misha: Nina made a Czech-Thai dish.
Nina: Very funny, dad.
Misha: What? You live in Prague and yet make Thai food.
A.: Very exciting.
Nina, to me: I'm worried--I used sesame oil and it might be overwhelming.
A.: I'm not worried. Did you use coconut milk? It probably would have covered over that flavor.
Nina: I did.

Nina talks about her work. Kira corrects her Russian, pretty haughtily. I roll my eyes.

Kira: Do you interact with any actual Czechs?
Nina: There are more Czechs at the barn than at work.
Misha: Those would be the horses.
Nina: Ha, ha, dad.

Misha, to me: How's the house coming?
A.: It's good, I've not had any major repairs done for months, apart from having a fence put up out back.
Misha: Is it hard to find good contractors in DC?
A.: It is, even now. When I was looking for fencing people many of the ones I contacted didn't even return my calls.
Kira, to Misha: She means, they didn't call her back.

I don't remember how this next conversation started.
Kira: I've heard that government people make [mid-high six figures].
Misha: That can't be right. A.?
A.: Very high level government people do. Most start at maybe a fourth of that, and the average--non-management--make a third.
Mom: How come you make slightly more?
A.: Mom!
Kira: I heard differently. I heard...
Misha: Those are just some well-known people.
A.: Right. The starting salaries, for someone with a master's degree, are mid...
Mom: How come you make more?
A.: Mom!!

I mean, could you be more tacky?

A.: This curry is excellent. I can't even taste the sesame oil.
Nina: Thank you.
Kira: What's in Thai curry?
Nina and I explain.
Misha, to me: What, you know about this, too?
A.: Of course.

There's no reason our parents should know about Thai curry. At the same time, there's no reason Nina and I wouldn't. It's become mainstream over a generation.

Mom, to Misha: Your lamb is good... but it's a bit overdone.
Dad, trying the curry: Hmmm... it needs salt.
A., to Nina: It has plenty of salt.
Nina: I know, can you believe how they oversalt everything?
A.: Dad doesn't usually even try things--he just oversalts them first.
Mom, to Misha: Your lamb is good... but it's a bit overdone.
Misha: I heard you the first time.
Mom: I thought you could handle my opinion!
Misha: In any case, I handled it the first time I heard it.

Nina, to me: I'm going to get my camera and shut them up with some photos.

Misha, to me: Would you like some of this rice?
A.: No thank you.
Mom: What, you don't eat rice any more?
A.: Mom, I've never liked rice. Except Persian rice and rice as stuffing for grape leaves...
Kira: Those are called "dolma."
A.: ...we just had this conversation two days ago.

Nina shows me some pictures on her camera, including one of a house she's fallen in love with.

Nina: We can't afford it and our rent, and we're not going to live two hours out.
A.: It's beautiful.
Mom: I fell in love with a house on a trout farm once, but it turned out the farm didn't come with the house.
Dad: Besides, you'd just be farming trout that A. wouldn't eat.
A.: I do too eat trout. Trout is one of the most sustainable fish out there.
Dad: Farmed trout?
A.: Yes, most farmed trout is fine.
Mom, to Misha: She's been dirtying our brains since she got here about sustainable aquaculture.
A.: You keep bringing it up!
Mom: This is what the Vietnamese do to their fish farms, these hormones, those antibiotics...
Nina: I agree with you, by the way.
Misha: We've had our fill of hormones and antibiotics are whole lives, and we're fine.
Mom: Exactly.
Misha: Although I'll admit that our kids turned out kind of f*ed up.
A., to Nina: So this house...
Nina: The other downside is it's right by a summer camp. That's kind of a dealbreaker.
Misha: You could always work there. Maybe they need horsebackriding people.
Nina: Ya nye pokupayu etot f*ing dom, dad! [Translation: "I'm not buying the f*ing house, dad." But it sounded funnier in Russian.]

Tea and dessert are served. We get talking about having tea in the evening.

Natasha: All but Turkish tea. That'll keep you up for days.
A.: I LOVE Turkish tea. I just ran out, need to go back to get more.
Nina: Let's go together, since we've both been to Istanbul and not beyond.
Misha: Did you go to Istanbul for work?
A.: No, for fun. A very good friend of mine whom I hadn't seen for years lives in England, and she was getting married, and suggested that instead of my spending time and money to travel to her wedding, we could both go somewhere together.
Misha: Did she bring her husband?
A.: No.
Mom; Another friend of hers had her wedding in St. Lucia. The pictures are amazing.
Natasha: I know someone who had her wedding in Las Vegas.

Pause

Kira: Is St. Lucia in the Mediterranean?
A.: No, it's in the Caribbean.
Kira: Then why is it called St. Lucia?
A.: [Shrug]

We've had tea. Everyone's happy. We get ready to go.

Nina: Stay sane!
A.: You, too!

***
This morning

Mom: After a certain age, you're just ready not to live with roommates. You're both past that age.
A.: Mom, can we just drop it? It's not about age, and in any case, it's over. Let it go.

Mom doesn't let it go.

Mom: I could tell right away he had a bubbly personality.
A.: That's not necessarily an indicator of not having a life and not understanding the concept of boundaries.
Mom: It's age.
A.: Would you like your oatmeal now?