Are you sure it wasn't a LEMUR?

This last weekend we went up to the Cincinnati Zoo to celebrate Father's Day with the Farleys. We had a grand time wandering about showing our resident turd-muffins all of the cool animals that they had only seen on television and in books before now. They were at least amused ( the kids ) and were not the least bit cranky. Keegan got to see her favorite, the crocodile, which we found quite by accident in the Manatee exhibit. Funny thing is that there were no sea cows in the exhibit - go figure.


Cherri and Cynthia did see a flock ( gaggle - peck - cluster? ) of lemurs. Now lemurs, generally speaking, don't really pop up on anyone's zoo radar but they certainly made these two folks' day. You see, there is a long running tale from an unnamed niece -TRACY- who lives in Florida and who is known to relay a funny story, the punch line of which is: Are you sure it wasn't a LEMUR?


In her honor I will post this rather poor picture of a LEMUR!



And yes we are sure that the sign said that they were lemurs.



Cute booger isn't it!





On the trip home I was dialing around the AM radio to find the news at the top of the hour when Cherri started repeating some of what was being said! She wasn't able to catch enough to make sense of what was being said but she caught lots of snippets!

She got pretty good at phone numbers and bits of the conversation. The cool thing was that, because of the type of show that we were listening to, she could not just 'figure out' what was being said. She had to take each word as an individual item which means SHE ACTUALLY HEARD !!! Love my baby, I am so proud of her!

Hear on girl!

Behold, the power of CHEESE!

Occasionally I get migraines. I can't help it because it is just the way I am wired ( or mis-wired ). Last night while at work I had one. It is usually no problem because I keep my Excedrin Migraine tablets in my lunch box.

If it is always good to be prepared then last night was not good.

While in the throes of the migraine onset, I head to my trusty pill box only to find that I precisely one half the dosage required to re-attach my head. Not good. Not good at all. The night just got much, much longer.

I take my one half dosage in the hopes that I can survive the rest of the shift.

I have long since learned what to shy away from and what to get next to while having a migraine. Unfortunately, where I am and what my needs are one hundred and eighty degrees out of phase. Life is starting to suck and suck big.

Unlike most folks that experience migraines, I crave sound to help alleviate the pain. I guess it occupies my throbbing head. The kind of music that I really, really need is not here at work. In fact at this time of night ( deep into third shift ) there is no music on the plant wide system and my contraband FM radio picks up only country and top 40 and neither of them very well.

No music means no respite from the pain until the medicine kicks in. So I decide I must walk and walk I do.

For those who do not know, I work in that little car plant on the north side of Georgetown. The biggest part of the plant is one hundred forty four acres under the one roof that covers my aching head. That is one roof and there are several roofs from which to pick. That means lots of room to walk. Walking passes the time as my head tries to decide to completely detach or just plain explode. Luckily it does neither and after a while I feel the caffeine hitting my system which means that the pain should start to subside soon.

As I walk along the pain begins to subside. Then the cravings kick in. Did I happen to mention that I also get strange food cravings when I have a migraine? They usually hit as the pain begins to pass just as they did tonight.

I finally make it to the end of the shift. I have some running to do on the way home so with my intense cravings I must exercise some restraint while walking the expansive aisles of the local Walmart. No need to buy five pounds of beef jerky and a gallon of chocolate milk if I don't really need it. I get most of the stuff on the list and head home.

One of the first things that I do when I get home is to give Joe-Dog his morning pill that I wrap in a half of a slice of American cheese. The other half comprises part of, what for me is, a midnight snack.

After giving Joey his little daily helper pill I begin to put away the fridge stuff and I spy a small portion of Monterey Jack cheese. I decide that would be a nice thing to nibble on until I stumble on something better.

In short order the groceries have been put away and my head is feeling much better but now I need something crunchy from the snack department.

Snack crackers would hit the spot and I just happen to have three boxes to choose from. The one I choose is the closest to me. I have chosen it because... well, it is the one closest to me and my body is deficient in crunch foods. As I happily munch away I happen to notice that the crackers are Mozzarella and Sun-Dried Tomato flavor. Good! I will have more cheese but with a vegetable flavor on a cracker.

In the unlikely case that you have not been keeping count, I have had three different types of cheeses within the half hour that I arrived home. Life is good. I just hope that I have some fiber pills to take before I head off to bed. Cracklin' Oat Bran cereal would be better 'cause it tastes good while keeping me regular.

I have now been sitting here at the computer for an hour updating the blog while my head gets back to mostly OK but while I also try to burn off a substantial caffeine buzz. I have my music ( Joe Satriani - Flying In A Blue Dream ) and life is much more survivable at this point. I may even be able to sleep soon.

The sun is shining into the bedroom and the weather outside is warm - perfect sleeping weather. I hope for restful sleep with good dreams that contain cheese and snappy music.