Family Notes and Links

We decided that we just weren’t busy enough this summer, so we took a little road trip to Rochester. Actually, I caught a ride with Adrienne from Albany Kid on for a meeting on Wednesday (remember my car trouble/luck?), and then Cute W and the girls joined me on Friday. We went hither, thither, and yon and generally had an unbelievably awesome time, but I’ve still barely recovered, so stay tuned for the details over the next few days.

Hey, you know what sucks? When you’re just minding your own business writing a blog post and you realize that your Fla-Vor-Ice knock-off is leaking from the bottom all over your keyboard and thighs. But enough about me.

The family’s good.

Actually, little J isn’t feeling great. It’s either a summer cold and/or allergies. I am trying to be patient, but it is difficult when she is completely asymptomatic while at a water park or sitting in front of the tv, but when she’s supposed to eat dinner, change her clothes, or take a shower, she is suddenly Suffering Terribly. I think that she might be allergic to something at the farm, but the headache and stuffiness started last week. Again, it’s difficult because she’s a total hypochondriac, but she also tends to get all kinds of crazy ailments, like skinned knees that become infected in spite of proper first-aid care, crazy bug bites that make me fumigate my entire house, and hives. Today she took an afternoon nap, and then she and I stayed in while Cute W and M went out with friends. She and I watched the Little House on the Prairie “Sweet Sixteen” episode together while snuggling on the couch. We decided to watch this pivotal Manly-and-Laura episode because J and I really can’t get enough of “the love stuff” while M actively groans if a couple kisses.

M is loving soccer camp at Union, but she slammed into the house today, outraged because all three of the other girls in her carpool were going home together and she wasn’t invited. I listened sympathetically, and it turns out that one mom, who usually watches two of the girls, needed last-minute childcare, and that’s why they were all going. “So, it’s only for a little while,” M fumed, “But they still could have asked me!” I nodded while she kept talking. “Actually, it was Mr. [So-and-So] who dropped us off. So he probably just didn’t think about it because he’s a man and they’re not very good at that stuff. A woman wouldn’t do that because women are awesome.” I laughed and thought, I’m glad she feels that way, and I hope she doesn’t get proven wrong in middle school.

So, that’s what’s up with us. Here’s some stuff going around the wonderful world of the internet.

Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids offers us a Safety Quiz. Which you know is going to be crazy-silly. So it’s good for a chuckle, until you realize that half of them are based on actual advice, and then you weep for American Culture Today.

Have you heard about this ridiculously thoughtful graduation gift? The parents got every teacher to sign a copy of Oh, The Places You’ll Go each year all through school so that they could present it at a graduation gift? Wow. That’s thoughtful. That’s exactly the sort of thing I would try to start now, desperately working to catch up on the years I missed, and then when M or J was in 8th grade I’d spill something sticky in it, and then sometime in the summer between 10th and 11th grade I would just lose it without a trace. I’ll just give them each a check, I guess.

Jezebel has a hilarious Olympics Opening Ceremony preview that has me fairly giddy with anticipation. Here’s a piece:

Friday night’s spectacle will involve famous British literary characters kicking the everloving Olympic shit out of each other, finally culminating in an epic battle between Mary Poppins and Voldemort. Probably don’t drop acid before you watch the London opening ceremonies.

Read more here.

If anyone was considering going to the The Big Apple Circus in Lake George (through Sunday), the Free George has a review here. And Living Social’s got a deal, too.