It's a good one. Is that your doggy? (I must ask!) I just want to hug it. :)

4ofus, totally off topic, but I love your avatar.

Ooooh, poor guy. At least he made it through quite a bit. He sounds tired. Tomorrow will be a better day. (Unless he's getting sick? I hope not!) We did manage to have our bike ride here after all. And then... And then... For the grand finale: DS had his first (three) bee stings! Oh joy! So now he's Benadryled and iced, and ibuprofened, and watching TV with his hand elevated. Poor kiddo. And it's his writing hand, so I'm sure he'll milk it for all it's worth this week. :) ...I've had the epipens poised, but so far it looks like he's not allergic. Yay for that!

I think Hershey Park is a perfect Not-Back-To-School Day! Our first day went well. Except that our grand finale bike riding is a fail due to rain. Oh well. Other than that - success here. :) Now if our poetry books arrive on time ... We still have books arriving this week. Crossing fingers they're all here before we need to break them open.

I was going to suggest this. If your current car is not reliable enough to drive to your mom's, then rent a car. You have CCs, right? You could rent a car any time you need to leave town. We are a one car family, but I rent cars fairly frequently to go out of town. It's still less than buying a second car.

Off topic, but this might be good to know: in our area, the hospitals are phasing Demerol out. Some docs won't prescribe it, and one hospital doesn't stock it at all. There have been heart issues associated with it. I hope this is good for your father, and that your local hospital decides to go that route. Sadly, it's the *only* pain med to which I'm not allergic! Aaack. I've had some painful visits to the ER that doesn't stock Demerol. No pain relief at the ER is not fun. I'm allergic to all the codeines, all the narcotics, morphine derivatives, you name it. I get NSAIDS, but sometimes they are not enough. Pain med allergies are not good. And you're right, it takes a lot of advocacy on the part of the patient and their well partner in the hospital. I hope your dad doesn't need pain meds often!

Please watch her carefully today. There can be a biphasic, second reaction that is worse than the first. Did they tell you to watch for that? Just be cautious. There are many alternatives to penicillin, but make sure you learn the meds that are in the penicillin family. DS is allergic to all of them, and I think that's common. Amoxicillin is one. We don't have penicillin listed on DS's medic alert bracelet, because it's generally not one that's going to be given in an emergency (like pain meds above - I have that issue, too, and it's a mess). But the medic alert company has that info on file. If it were DS's only allergy, I would probably go ahead and get a bracelet for it, we just don't have room. But I don't think you *have* to have a bracelet, and I wouldn't stress if your DD doesn't want to wear it. I would feel confident giving the info to docs, etc. YMMV. DH has a penicillin allergy here, too, so I'm coming at it from his perspective, too. I agree that you have doublecheck every time an abx is prescribed from now on. And if there's a hospital visit, make sure they make an allergy band for your DD.

What a weiner. I'm sorry you had to deal with that. She's got issues.

Wasn't that disappointing?!

I'm happy to hear the manager stood up for your daughter. Retail is hard, and retail at WM must be the hardest of all. :grouphug:

Oh! I found it: the lagoon. http://www.liketotally80s.com/sea-wees.html

Yes!!!! Do you remember the little floating island they had, too? I loved those toys. Funny that you posted this, I was just thinking of them, wishing DD could play with them. :)

We school year round, too, but we do view the local first day of school as the start of our "new" school year. We do pics (in pajamas), and they get their new school supplies in some fun way - we've done schultutes, scavenger hunts, wrapped as gifts, all kinds of stuff. Then we do a little bit of work and go to the park. The first week of Sep is our annual Not-Back-To-School Vacation. :)

I like them on other people - I like the idea of them, if they represent something meaningful, or even if they are just beautiful art. None for me though. I change too much, and anything that permanent is hard to contemplate. Commitment-phobic, I guess. Getting married was a huge deal. :) DS has mentioned tats. He likes to look at them, too. He might want one someday. I'm fine with it, but I worry about allergies to the ink, aack, since he's got allergies to so much else. We know someone who went into anaphylactic shock getting a tat, so I fear that for DS. He'll have to tell me after the fact.

Serious overreaction. It saddened me, too. But that article gave me a great mental image of walking around with a Smiths CD stapled to one's forehead. :lol:

Interjecting to say that I just had to read this to my DH. He'd like to know when we can set up a meeting for our twins. You just described our house. Perfectly. :lol: Checking out the resources you mentioned as well. Thanks for posting them.

Espresso, black. Many cups. At some point I switch to bubbly water, and basically that's all I drink all day. Oh, there's an afternoon espresso or two as well. Slave to the bean, here.

Yes, your post really did remind me of my old boy. :) He was my doggy soulmate. And he made it to 16, which was great for him, though I'd have liked longer. Hydrogen peroxide - it's not easy to get into them, you have to pour it into your pup's mouth. It makes them throw up. And throw up. And throw up. It's awful. Doggy gate them into the kitchen or outside, or wherever you want to manage it. But you'd always want vet's advice, because some things are better just going through their systems. We only had to go do a charcoal treatment at the vet's office once. Thankfully. He had a stomach of iron. We only ever did the hydrogen peroxide when the vet suggested it. Oooooh, the butter! :lol: And the garden... He would ever so gently pick the cherry tomatoes at the height of their ripeness, and eat those, too. And I will never forget the time I came home from college classes to find my guy covered, completely covered, in flour. What was he thinking?? Dogs. Love 'em. Keep us posted on your pup.

Burned out here, too. I am trying to muster some enthusiasm, but not feeling it. I've never started a school year feeling so ... blah. Monday we start back to working on our MBtP units - which were supposed to just be for summer fun! - after a long sick break. I haven't even finished deciding on the new curriculum we start in Sep.

Coming back to say ... This probably won't help, but if it makes you feel better - our big 100 lb dog used to get into anything he could. I learned exactly how much hyrdrogen peroxide to give him to make him throw up the offending substance (always with vet's approval/advice). He once ate a quarter pound bag of chocolate covered espresso beans. :( Once we were out of the woods, I was sad to have missed out on them. :lol: We did install a lock on our trash can, though. He was amazing. He could get into *anything* until we put on the lock. I hope your doggy is okay.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

:grouphug: I would probably call the vet and ask.

Sending invisible hugs here, too.

Oh goodness, we have bins and bins of Geotrax. If you lived closer to us, I'd just give it to you. As it is, I think shipping would be a huge expense. Have you tried craigslist? Even freecycle?

Nice job! It looks lighter and airier.