Updates

Oops!:

Monkey Do got in trouble twice in school yesterday, earning herself not just a yellow card, but an orange card to boot. Monkeys are supposed to hand over said cards to their parents for review & signature. Good thing she waited until SweetPea was driving her to school to bring them up.

The issue? Apparently our Monkey Do was running at the mouth in class, instead of doing her work.

Now Monkey Do is in trouble not just for getting the cards, but for acting like she was trying to hide them by not telling us when she first saw us.

Monkey Do is so in the doghouse.

Volunteerism:

Monkey See's science teacher sent out a help email requesting volunteers to help with tshirt sales this month. So I replied to say that SweetPea and I would be happy to come down one day and help her out. I got a reply back saying that she didn't want anyone that had to take time off work, and that she was hoping to get people who could come each week, so that she doesn't have to explain it a bunch of times.

I totally understand where she's coming from, but I feel like everything at that school is so focused on stay at home parents. It's awesome that they have a lot of help, and lots of people that are available during the day for things. It just makes it frustrating for me, because I would love to be able to help, at least every now & again, and I can't.

His school is so frustrating! It feels so much like everyone's looking at me going "Well, I don't see your name on the list....."

The Weightlifter:

SweetPea and I went to dinner Saturday night at our nearby Chinesery. There was one family there eating when we arrived. A woman who was probably in her late 50's having dinner with her parents. As they were getting ready to go, I caught snippets of their conversation. I caught the bit where daughter was talking about her morning hike, and the part where she asked dad "you're not still doing those squats, are you?"

But the snippet that really made me smile was when she asked her dad:

"So did you lift today, or is it your day off?"

Allergy Season:

The Sacramento Bee keeps posting stories about how bad allergy season is this year, and that "allergy sufferers have noticed".

As someone who has (severe) allergies, I have to say:

Seriously? You're using Average Joe as your information source? Y'all don't have anything better to do?

I also want to say that my allergies have not been that bad, so far this year. Of course, I fully expect them to knock my ass out in the next two to three months. Right now, though? Easy, peasy.

Poor Monkey See, however, had a bit of a "reaction" on Tuesday night. We went to the park for dinner and to run Gomi around. Later on, he was getting ready for a shower, standing around in his boxers and I noticed he was covered in big old red patches where he'd been scratching. A couple of the red patches were also raised welts, including one that was about four inches wide, and probably raised up 1/16th of an inch.

Ah, grass allergies.

I remember I hated PE, because just being on the grass was torture. Just standing there. The pollen coming up off the grass was enough. My eyes would start to swell and get itchy. My nose would seal shut. My lungs would start feeling warm and heavy. My throat would start to itch. My skin would get itchy.

I got a little bit of that while I was walking around, and then realized I was going to have to stick to the concrete pathways. Hey! There are some things I'll do to avoid making my allergies worse.

Also, I want to make a mention of something that has been discussed (mostly in comments, though, I think) in the past. It was brought up recently by a new reader.

The Neti Pot.

As the WineDog can surely tell you, any conversation regarding the Neti Pot that I am involved in will contain the word "vomit". I have a serious issue with anything thick & slimy in my mouth, and, yes, it is one of the very few things that can actually induce vomitting. Now, the WineDog has mentioned something about the Neti Pot water going out your other nostril, and not your mouth (which is contradictory to everything I understood about how it worked), but I am just not interested in taking chances. Besides, once my allergies are good and going (and they will be, no matter what I use), my nasal passages pretty much close up completely, and there just wouldn't be getting any water in there at all.

Mail Call:

The prize package for ThePrincess went out on Tuesday, as well as two other packages. I'll get into details later, but I want the packages to arrive first.

I like surprises. Especially giving them.