Wednesday, May 05, 2010

The New Normal

It's been hot and humid here lately, unseasonably so. So it was a relief last night when things cooled down enough to allow me to shut off the over-achieving ceiling fan in our bedroom.

"Why'd you turn it off?" asked my beloved. "It's still hot in here."

"It's not too bad," I told him. "And this way I can sleep."

"You can't sleep with it on?"

"The way it ruffles my hair, I dream my head is itching. So I wake up and it still feels itchy and I can't get back to sleep because I'm thinking I have head lice and my heart starts pounding."

Silence. Larry still doesn't like to talk about the Year of the Head Lice. Then,

"You do know this isn't normal?" he said.

Well, no, it isn't. But I never promised him normal, did I?

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Someone named *m* left me a question in the comments yesterday about how Theo manages his dairy allergies at college. Since I can find no way to make that topic in the least way entertaining for the rest of the readers here, *m*, could you please just email me (vogelkaren@gmail.com)? I couldn't find your email address on your profile page.

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Feel free to continue placing your bets on yesterday's post - so far, there has been no breakage. As I explained in the comments, the kids are not allowed to drink out of glass receptacles here. They each have their plastic IKEA cup in their assigned color and heaven help the child who departs from this system.

Why do I feel that Amy is right now ruminating on the unfairness of my kids' being forced to dry the glasses from which they may not drink? Call it a hunch.

And I believe this is the one-year anniversary of our not having a working dishwasher. Larry had better go all out for Mother's Day, don't you think?

15 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for the email offer -- sent!

    My kids always had their own color plastic cups, for breakage reasons and also to make sure that my severely milk-allergic son didn't take a sip of his brother's drink. This past year, I decided that it was time for them to drink from glassware like adults. My bad. We now lose a glass every other week over here. Sigh.

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  2. AnonymousMay 05, 2010

    We had color-coded plastic glasses when I was growing up. Even my parents had them!
    I spent the two worst nights sleeping on TOP of my bed with the fan on high. Luckily, my dh was gone, so I didn't have anyone else's body heat to mess up my system. Last night he came back, and while I enjoy his company, I really didn't sleep very well... darn bed hog!! Plus he turned off the fans in the middle of the night. There's always one, I guess... ;)

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  3. I give the cups 2 months. Can we win a prize if we guess right? :)

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  4. Wait . . . who told Amy life was fair?!

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  5. I'm 42 and I still drink out of plastic cups. I'm classy like that.

    Ok Larry...Mother's Day, let's see what you're made of!

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  6. Wait, why am I singled out? I don't care what your kids have to wash & dry!! When I was growing up we had to grow our own cups, uphill both ways.... wait, no, that's not right. ;)

    Since it's warmed up a little I've been convinced that I have lice-infested ticks crawling all over me. And I keep waiting for the ants to invade. I don't know, maybe 7 degrees F is actually better?

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  7. We need a full report on mother's day.

    And, hey: this relationship could work our for me here. My 3 younguns have dairy allergy, too.

    I'll tag on to *m*...

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  8. Dude. We had a boil water order for two days and I nearly collapsed under the weight of no dishwasher. You are a stoic!

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  9. New to your blog, but I see we have some of the same commenters. The 'year of head lice' seems to be the true as we just had a break out this week in my first grade classroom.

    I know it's tacky to post to your own blog, but I just wrote about head lice not to long ago:

    http://theblogocheese.blogspot.com/2010/04/annual-lice-letter-from-school.html

    Love your blog. I'll be back.

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  10. We didn't have a dishwasher from November 2005 until December 2008. Actually we broke down around December 2007 and bought a PORTABLE dishwasher that made our galley kitchen into a coat closet so we rarely used it. And we added a BUILT-IN dishwasher in December 2009 to increase the likelihood of selling our home. We sold our home in two weeks but the irony is not lost on me. I heart my built-in dishwasher

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  11. Oh. My. I was just googling "appliances for mother's day" and found that IKEA is giving all moms a free breakfast on Mother's day!

    "Moms, please come and enjoy a free breakfast on Sunday, May 9, 2010. Breakfast includes scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes and a cup of coffee."

    Outta the way!!

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  12. My wife gets the creepy crawlies over ants. I've awoken to flailing legs and thrashing scratching fingers because of some ants that were in the kitchen.

    Happy Anniversary!

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  13. AnonymousMay 06, 2010

    I used to always sleep with a fan--the white noise. I NEEDED it. Then I married a man who HATED it. How I've suffered ever since..

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  14. Thing 1 won't sleep under a running ceiling fan for fear it will fall on her. I assure her that if its going to fall, it will fall whether or not it is running.

    That didn't help.

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  15. Rich (hubby) is always hot when we goes to sleep, so he must have the fan and the AC on, with the hepa filter running for good measure. He gets up at 3:40 and then turns the fan and ac off. In the hotter summer months, I wake up sweating. I should teach him how to program the timer so it will turn off around 9 am? I am usually up and dressed, plus in another room by then.

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