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Elle is playing hookey today and tomorrow. Lice were discovered on one of her classmates yesterday; the offending party has been kept anonymous. Hopefully it is not a close friend. I am scratching my scalp for imagined crawly things right now, as I type. How 'bout you, feeling a little itchy yet? Are cooties another reason to homeschool? You betcha. I don't have the time to deal with head bugs, especially as preschool is winding down and our schedule is cranking up.

After errands and swimming lessons, we are having dinner tonight at a friend's house.

Tomorrow we are jumping in the car and heading over to the east coast for the weekend, where I will hopefully squeeze in a quick cut with my favorite hairdresser now that my self-inflicted bangs have grown out and he is less likely to scold me, "Darlin', just who has been doin' your hair?!" in his prissy little way, before joining another set of friends for a crab boil at their house. A stop at Whole Foods is in order, where I will pick up some of their fabulous Wild Rice and Cranberry Salad to take over. And maybe a Banana Slammer smoothie too.

Saturday the girls and I are attending my niece's baby shower at a very cool hotel, where we will shower her with our favorite gifts, books. The Complete Chronicles of Narnia, The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie the Pooh, The Complete Adventures of Curious George, and Your Favorite Seuss: A Baker's Dozen by the One and Only Dr. Seuss still need to wrapped, but at least we've got them ready to go. My other niece, her sister, is also expecting and will probably end up getting the same collection in a few months. The only variation may be the addition of The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter if the sex of the child can be positively ascertained. Niece 1 is having a boy, and my husband's manly male opinion of Beatrix Potter is that, "She's kind of 'out there.'" It looks like sushi is a specialty of the house. That evening we will hit my parents' house for a cookout. They just returned from a cruise that took them from Fort Lauderdale, through the Panama Canal, and on up to San Francisco. Taken in small, infrequent doses, we will probably have a reasonable time.

Sunday morning we're going to hang out at our friend's beachfront Turkish restaurant so our kids can run around and play with theirs, and the adults have a chance to visit. And I can eat fried eggplant and baba ganoush and a shepherd salad topped with grilled chicken chunks. We must return home early Sunday evening, ...

Monday is Standardized Test Day and everybody needs to get a good night's sleep, though they certainly won't be lacking for a good meal. For three solid days they will be filling in hundreds of little answer bubbles with their trusty Number 2 pencils until they are instructed to STOP. CLOSE ANSWER BOOK.

Off to pick up the dry cleaning, wrapping paper, get Elle's hair trimmed, and pack. Pencils down, everybody.
See you next week.