More from vacation

It's hot today. Really really really hot. Mississippi hot.

Everyone else is at the pool, baking. I'm inside because hot, this kind of hot causes extreme claustrophobia for me, especially if I'm just sitting around. So I'm at the house alone (yay--peace! yay--silence!) soaking in a/c.

The biggest news from here, besides the heat, is that six kids is sort of an exponential thing. It's not one times six; it's one to the sixth power. They all need everything at once, and two of them--at any given time--are on each others' and everyone else's nerves. Mostly it's the same two. Not always, just mostly. We could just make a recording of the adults shouting their names over and over and save some wear and tear on our voices.

At this rate, Sparky will never have children! :-)

And then there are the adults. I'm ready to pop one of the parents in the nose; in fact, last night, I actually had to leave the room in order to keep from causing physical harm. Here's a hint: I'm a little compulsive about sleep. It's probably not a good idea to disrupt the sleep of anyone in my family. It's probably a VERY BAD idea to burst into the bedroom of someone in my family at 10:30 p.m. while dealing (loudly) with your issues around your own Obnoxious Child and wake said family member up after he's been asleep for barely an hour. It will probably cause me to go ballistic. I will probably rip your arm nearly out of it's socket. Things will not be helped if you don't have a fucking clue what the sleeping arrangements for the children in question are. If, in turn, all of this freaking out causes yet another member of my family to wrench his back, I will be livid. AND, if you top the whole shebang off with an hour of mumbling to yourself while playing cards, I will not go to bed in a good mood at 2 p.m.

On the other hand, because of all the disruption, I managed to play the best sheepshead I've played in the past three or more years. Please go and at least skim the linked article. It will explain that this is the most complicated game to play, played by people living in the state with the highest beer consumption in the U.S. You simply must be a little looped to understand this game! We play four-handed, which requires more luck and somewhat less skill than three- or five-handed. My goal over the next year is to teach Sparky how to play so that the grownups can graduate to five-handed next summer.