(no subject)

Vacation was exhausting. Well, we were exhausted going into it. Turns out the Zweeble had salmonella. Yup, that's right, salmonella. We seriously don't know where he picked it up, because nobody else got sick, but we await the health department's call eagerly.

Anyway, he was sick and in a new place. Which does not add up to restful, relaxing evenings on the deck. But he did improve a lot during that week, and he's now back to his normal self in every regard, if a touch more spoiled than usual.

But we did have a good time with the in-laws and vandriver and ... whatever the hell Tyler's old LJ handle was. Or, as Z. calls them, "the goofballs." As in we went down to the basement one morning and he looked around, then asked, "Mommy, where the goofballs go?"

Our other notable Zweeble quote from the trip: "Get me out of this freaking seatbelt."

And he seems to have learned some negotiating skills, and how to just refuse food without freaking out over it like you're planning to shove it down his little throat right then and there! Believe me, the head shake and/or "no thanks" is so much nicer.

On our trip back, the Zweeb re-skinned his knee as we loaded the truck, so I was covered in blood and had to change clothes. Then, in the Atlanta airport, his diaper leaked as I carried him, so he and I both had to change clothes--Z. pants, me a shirt. Then as we waited for our plane, he managed to faceplant on the carpet and re-skin another scabby bit on his shin, and this time it was Scott covered in blood. Scott, being manly (and afraid of missing the boarding call) refused to change his shirt.

But today we're home and unpacked, and I feel a trifle hungover. I am in dire need of a shower, as well.

(no subject)

I had this constant headache today. I kept forgetting to take anything for it, and then around 4 I remembered I could take some Advil, and I needed to shower ... and then this little voice said you know, you could be dehydrated, you spent 9 hours traveling yesterday.

One giant Busch Gardens souvenir cup of water and a shower later, and the headache is gone, no Advil needed. Yay water!

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I also have an enormous stack of unread books now, thanks to Half-Price Books in Dayton. I couldn't find anything in Barnes and Noble or Borders, but I literally had to use my book-filled hands as blinders in order to leave Half-Priced Books.

So my reading stack is ( behind the cut )

And I'm at least a month behind on comics.

I'm currently reading The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne Valente, which is probably the perfect book for me right now--absorbing when I pick it up, but with some natural pauses where I can put it down and actually sleep or do things that need doing. Page turners are over-rated, I think. People always say "I couldn't put it down!" and, yeah, that's cool. But I have a toddler, and what I really want, quite often, is a book that I can put down, somewhere, and then pick back up and be drawn into again.

And for a book with such an intricate, nested structure, I never feel lost when I start reading again. It's a really elegant piece of writing, and the author's imagination is gorgeous. I think sugarcoatedlie would like it. And jkason, possibly.