After golf school this morning, Grover had a dentist appointment. As is common in most six-year-olds, she has lost one of her bottom front teeth and the one next to that was loose. The permanent tooth is already coming in, but the baby tooth hasn't come out yet so the permanent tooth is way out of alignment. The dentist recommended that she go ahead and wiggle the baby tooth out to make room for the permanent tooth. Far be it from me to disagree, so Grover got to go to the "Fun Room" where she got "happy gas". Hmmm, sounds like some of the establishments I visited in my young & single days, but I digress. So Grover came out down one baby tooth and having her first experience with the Novocain numb lip syndrome. She thought it was great fun.

My great fun for the day was lunch. What's so special about lunch, you say? Well, actually the food was mediocre at best but the scenery was very impressive. I happened to hear on the radio this morning (as I was chauffeuring Grover to golf school) that the Stanley Cup was making a stop at one of the Carolina Ale House restaurants - they host 'Canes game parties during hockey season - and it just so happened that we were going to be close by. Well, not really, but we were closer than we would have been at home so that was good enough for me. We couldn't have timed it better either. They wheeled in the familiar blue trunk as we were eating and starting letting people in just as we finished. As I had suspected, they let restaurant patrons see it first - we still waited in line for about 25 minutes. Since this was an unplanned excursion (for us, not the Cup) I had no camera, but the gentleman behind us was kind enough to take pictures and email them to me.

And no, that less-than-attractive woman in the background is NOT me! (As the saying goes, I may be fat but I can diet...) The cutest thing was when we got within sight of the trophy, Ollie exclaimed "the Stanley Cup!!" and squealed with the utter delight only a two-year-old possesses. I, on the other hand, was completely awestruck. It was definitely the coolest moment I've experienced in quite a while.

In case you've been wondering where I've been, let me tell you. Grover went to Girl Scout day camp last week. When I signed her up, I thought it would be fun for me to volunteer to be a unit leader. (Okay, so the cheapskate in me just wanted to save $35 on the fee.) I'm an idiot. It would have been worth the $35.

The camp was held at a "farm" (code for big field with a 60-year-old cement block building, a few trees and a lake) about 10 miles from our house. Last Monday was beastly, ungodly, unbearably, motherf***ing HOT. Besides being 96 degrees or so, it was oppressively humid. As in "why did I bother to shower because I'm all sweaty & gross 5 minutes after I walk out the door" humid. All activities were held outside, save the half an hour we got for lunch inside the slightly air-conditioned building. Despite drinking water all day, I left with a headache that on the drive home morphed into a killer migraine. I got home, took some Imitrex and went to bed. After an hour, my head still felt like someone had dropped a brick on it, so I got up to take some more medicine and started throwing up. The irony was that as long as I was puking, my head didn't hurt. After two Imitrex, two Maxalt and three Vicodin, I finally felt some relief and was able to sleep.

Tuesday was better. It was still hot, but this time I drank Gatorade instead of water and took two Imitrex at the first sign of a headache. We played volleyball, learned about fishing and made crafts. It was almost fun. Did I mention it was hot?

Wednesday, it finally started to cool off. However, the kids started getting tired of the activities that we were doing so they got irritable, whiny and just plain annoying. I told my co-leader that she'd better not leave me alone with them too long or I was going to kill them all and bury their bodies in the woods. Then the toilets quit working. Now, at the beginning of the week we were warned not to put too much toilet paper in the toilets or the septic system would crap out (pun intended). We were instructed to put the used TP in trash cans when we went "#1". Okay, first of all - EEEEWW! I know it's camp and all, but that's just disgusting. Second of all, apparently people didn't listen. So we had to go over by the woods to pee. After a while, some of the staff erected a crude latrine structure (picture a backyard party tent with tarps tied up on two sides) so there was some semblance of privacy.

Thursday, it cooled off considerably... and it rained cats and dogs all day. Oh yeah, and the toilets had overflowed overnight so the inside of the building was contaminated and everything that had been on the floor was ruined. No more lunch inside. And we're still going potty outside in the pouring rain. Sigh... The good news was that someone had the good sense to order porta-pottys and they showed up around noon. Never thought I'd be so happy to use a porta-potty! And the girls were enthralled with the novelty of it, so they spent half the afternoon trotting back and forth to the big blue box.

Friday, it was even cooler and no rain. We were supposed to have a soccer game between the girls and the staff, but the fear of injuries (to which group, I'm not sure) made the leaders switch to ultimate frisbee. Have you ever seen 6-to-10 year olds try to play ultimate frisbee? It's quite a sight. It looked like what I imagine nuclear fission to be like - girls going in every direction, bouncing off each other, screaming their heads off. Eventually, we gave up and I lined the girls up and taught them how to catch and throw a frisbee. They were actually having fun and NOT whining. Then we ate lunch, signed each other's t-shirts and the girls got to run around while the staff sprayed them with a hose. The girls got to leave at 2:30 but Grover, Ollie, one of Grover's friends who rode with us and I had to stick around for clean-up duty. Oh yes, Ollie was there the whole week. They had someone to watch the Tater Tots, as they called the children of the volunteer staffers. She had a wonderful time.

I think I've finally recovered. This week Grover is in golf school, which requires nothing from me but a ride. Muuuuch better....

In case you've been wondering where I've been, let me tell you. Grover went to Girl Scout day camp last week. When I signed her up, I thought it would be fun for me to volunteer to be a unit leader. (Okay, so the cheapskate in me just wanted to save $35 on the fee.) I'm an idiot. It would have been worth the $35.

The camp was held at a "farm" (code for big field with a 60-year-old cement block building, a few trees and a lake) about 10 miles from our house. Last Monday was beastly, ungodly, unbearably, motherf***ing HOT. Besides being 96 degrees or so, it was oppressively humid. As in "why did I bother to shower because I'm all sweaty & gross 5 minutes after I walk out the door" humid. All activities were held outside, save the half an hour we got for lunch inside the slightly air-conditioned building. Despite drinking water all day, I left with a headache that on the drive home morphed into a killer migraine. I got home, took some Imitrex and went to bed. After an hour, my head still felt like someone had dropped a brick on it, so I got up to take some more medicine and started throwing up. The irony was that as long as I was puking, my head didn't hurt. After two Imitrex, two Maxalt and three Vicodin, I finally felt some relief and was able to sleep.

Tuesday was better. It was still hot, but this time I drank Gatorade instead of water and took two Imitrex at the first sign of a headache. We played volleyball, learned about fishing and made crafts. It was almost fun. Did I mention it was hot?

Wednesday, it finally started to cool off. However, the kids started getting tired of the activities that we were doing so they got irritable, whiny and just plain annoying. I told my co-leader that she'd better not leave me alone with them too long or I was going to kill them all and bury their bodies in the woods. Then the toilets quit working. Now, at the beginning of the week we were warned not to put too much toilet paper in the toilets or the septic system would crap out (pun intended). We were instructed to put the used TP in trash cans when we went "#1". Okay, first of all - EEEEWW! I know it's camp and all, but that's just disgusting. Second of all, apparently people didn't listen. So we had to go over by the woods to pee. After a while, some of the staff erected a crude latrine structure (picture a backyard party tent with tarps tied up on two sides) so there was some semblance of privacy.

Thursday, it cooled off considerably... and it rained cats and dogs all day. Oh yeah, and the toilets had overflowed overnight so the inside of the building was contaminated and everything that had been on the floor was ruined. No more lunch inside. And we're still going potty outside in the pouring rain. Sigh... The good news was that someone had the good sense to order porta-pottys and they showed up around noon. Never thought I'd be so happy to use a porta-potty! And the girls were enthralled with the novelty of it, so they spent half the afternoon trotting back and forth to the big blue box.

Friday, it was even cooler and no rain. We were supposed to have a soccer game between the girls and the staff, but the fear of injuries (to which group, I'm not sure) made the leaders switch to ultimate frisbee. Have you ever seen 6-to-10 year olds try to play ultimate frisbee? It's quite a sight. It looked like what I imagine nuclear fission to be like - girls going in every direction, bouncing off each other, screaming their heads off. Eventually, we gave up and I lined the girls up and taught them how to catch and throw a frisbee. They were actually having fun and NOT whining. Then we ate lunch, signed each other's t-shirts and the girls got to run around while the staff sprayed them with a hose. The girls got to leave at 2:30 but Grover, Ollie, one of Grover's friends who rode with us and I had to stick around for clean-up duty. Oh yes, Ollie was there the whole week. They had someone to watch the Tater Tots, as they called the children of the volunteer staffers. She had a wonderful time.

I think I've finally recovered. This week Grover is in golf school, which requires nothing from me but a ride. Muuuuch better....

I had a cute Ollie story to post but it will have to wait. I'm too grossed out to even think straight anymore tonight! I just watched a video clip from some Learning Channel show that was so icky there aren't even words to describe how icky it is. And naturally, I have to share it (it's like a train wreck - you want to look away but you just have to see how it turns out!).

I'm too technologically challenged to figure out how to post the actual video here, so I'm sending you to Fishmonger's Place. Watch the video he posted today (June 29, 2006) and have a bucket handy. It makes me thankful all I have to worry about is eerie mushroom formations.

We've had a phenomenal amount of rain here lately and one result of the deluges (besides widespread flooding) is the sudden appearance of mushrooms everywhere. Okay, this is pretty normal around here after a rain, right? Well, there's this one yard down the road from where we live that has, like, a shroom crop circle type thing going on. At first, there were only a few little red-capped mushrooms (like the ones that dance in Disney's Fantasia, but that's a whole other psycho-trip!). We drove by yesterday and now there are 20 or so mushrooms growing in a perfect circle. I mean, like someone planted them that way with careful precision. It's creepy. My husband dubbed it "Shroomhenge". I'm not one for stopping on the side of the road to take pictures, but I just might have to for this!