"The foosa are always annoying us by trespassing, interuppting our parties, ripping our limbs off..."

No update yesterday. I hate that. But, I was busy and I know you�re dying to know what and once I tell you, you�ll be all itchy all over again.

Yup, Daisy�s lice came back. Wretched vermin. They fucking love her hair, I swear. Anyway, we thought she was done with it until she went to school Monday morning and she was friggin� crawling with them again. So, Helen has already missed like 4 or 5 days of work (she does that now, ya know, she has a jobby job and goes to work) and asked if I could watch Daisy for the day yesterday. And then, we kept her over night until later today.

Anyway, I spent roughly four fabulous hours going through her hair and I found about 20-30 eggs and nits. No bugs. But still. I can�t stop itching. Now, it�s the time of year for my scalp to start getting all itchy (one of several times of year, I�ll add), never mind that Sunday, I pulled my hair up tight while it was still damp, which is basically an easy recipe to get my scalp all irritated. I can use Head & Shoulders all day long but it takes a few days to get rid of the irritation. So, there I was picking fucking nits, and all I could think was my itchy scalp.

And who do I have around here to check me for lice? That�s kinda funny. Well, we have Hub. He�ll check for lice, but he�s not so good with the attention to detail. You really need that to look for them little bastards. Oh, and the fact that he�s half blind doesn�t help matters much. I bought one of those �Robi-comb� things (an electric comb that buzzes, stops buzzing when It gets an egg or nit or bug, and kills it. Supposedly), and Hub wanted to use that on me. Yeah. Except the Robi-comb Is a huge waste of money (okay, $22 isn�t TOO huge, but still), because I tried it on Daisy, on hairs that HAD EGGS on them, and It kept on buzzing.

Anyway, I relieved Hub of his duties and enlisted the help of Beavis. His attention to detail is better, plus he has sight in both eyes. Still. He�s a kid, and a boy, and he has that whole attention deficit thing going on. He didn�t find anything except a few flakes, so I think I�m good. I hope.

So all I have to worry about now is getting poisoned from the bedding spray that I keep spraying on the furniture. And the fact that I�m emptying the well out with all the damn laundry I�ve been doing. And today we are doing the lice killing shampoo treatment and soaking her head in vinegar for four hours. Woo frickin� hoo. Also handy is the �mayonnaise� treatment, although we�re skipping it today. The vinegar and mayo treatments have had me calling Daisy �Tater Salad Head� all day.

Enough about the damn lice. And now that you�re all itchy, I�ll throw this in: �I�m the backwards man, the backwards man, I can run back as fast as you can�. (I�m skipping the other song, as it�s finally out of my head and I�m feeling much less suicidal as a result). There. Between the itchy feeling and the annoying song, you�ll all be thinking about me all day!

Oh! My day wasn�t ONLY about lice, however. Oh no, Mickey has come down with a lovely little cold. He was coughing up a storm Monday evening. We had some Tussin whatever cold medicine, so I tried to give him that. Ha. One frickin� teaspoon took about 10 minutes to get Into him, and then he spit some out. Evidently, he�s not a big fan of the taste. And, seeing as he�s my child and giving me bad tasting medicine as a kid was a big huge dramatic scene (I can remember my mom splitting an aspirin in half, smashing it up and coating it with jelly just to get me to take it, and I�d still bitch), it has to be the same with him. That damn curse again. Anyway, then the little fucker has the nerve to tell me a little while later that the medicine doesn�t work! Actually, kid, it does IF YOU TAKE IT.

Anyway, so before Daisy was due to come yesterday morning, we headed out to the Evil Empire, aka Le Mart du Wal (stole that from Vicki ), aka Wally World, to look for a possible cough and cold tablet for kids (doesn�t exist, at least not in Walton-land) and a bunch of lice-killing/picking supplies. Maybe a few other things, too, but not much fun stuff.

Allow me to digress momentarily to bitch about that fucking store. When it was time for me to go to the register, I had 14 items. Being that it was like 8:30 am, there were only four registers with cashiers open. All of which were either 10 items or less or 12 items or less. I am one to not break that rule unless under duress. So, I went to the stupid self-checkout. I hate those damn things! You can�t just ring up your shit, it has to be bagged, and God friggin� forbid if something doesn�t ring up. Which is what happened to me. I got fed the fuck up and went to the 12 items or less register.

Back to the story. While waiting for the slow as fucking molasses cashier to finish the person In front of us, Mickey puked all over the floor. That phlegm, icky, I�ve been swallowing snot all night kinda puke. Take that, you WW bastards! Actually, I felt bad about it. It�s not like I carry paper towels on me wherever I go, so I was helpless to clean It myself. I grabbed the greeter lady and she brought over some paper towels and a little sign to cover up the vomitus. Poor Mickey, sitting there with puke all over his little face. Made me sad. But, at least he hadn�t eaten much for breakfast!

Needless to say, he spent all day resting on the couch with Tater Salad Head, watching �Madagascar�, which was one of those 14 items. We got the double disc set with �The Penguins Christmas Caper�, and I recommend that one. The Penguins made that movie. The Penguins are psychotic!

It wasn�t all bad yesterday. I got some good news in the mail.

Remember back in the spring when I entered that photo contest for the local newspaper? If not, they had a contest for amateur photographers for a calendar that they put out every November. I submitted four pictures. Well, I�d never heard anything back and the other day the calendar came out. I was disappointed that I didn�t make it, and even more disappointed when I saw some of the pictures they chose. Some of them were not nearly as good as mine, in my opinion. But, I figured, well, maybe I�m just not that great. Whatever.

Well. Yesterday I got a letter from Parenting NH , which is a published by the Telegraph, and they want to use not only one, but two of my pictures. Which ones?

First, one that I know Is a damn great shot, Colin in my front yard . I love that shot and Andrea was just so tickled that I wanted to submit it. The other is an equally great shot that I love and couldn�t believe the Telegraph had the audacity not to publish, Mickey at the beach .

Now, it�s not Life Magazine, but I�m going to be published! I�m fucking excited as all shit about that. I�m going to have to start building a portfolio or something. Honestly, if I could make a living doing this someday, it would be like a dream come true. I don�t want to be a wedding photographer or work at a studio like Olan Mills, I don�t like doing staged photos. Not that there�s anything wrong with that. But? If I could be one of the photographers that works for a newspaper and gets told, �Go here and take pictures of this�, like murder trials, accidents, events, shit going on around town, etc, that would be heaven. I�d be the happiest person in the whole world. OH! I wonder how one gets to be a crime scene photographer? That would be cool. But I�d end up freaking out about it, eventually, I think.

Anyway, again, my photos in print! Things are going to start happening to me now (that�s for you, , biodtl!!!).

This entry has far too many links in It. Sheesh.

Anyway, I�m out, yo. Have a lovely day!

Sayonara!

Listening to: Mada-fucking-Gascar. AGAIN.

Currently reading: I feel bad about this. Nothing. This must change.

Thinking about: Food. Is it wrong to want popcorn for breakfast?