More Lice!!

For the past month now there has been a lice circus going on in my classroom at work. One poor boy has been sent home no less than 6 days with lice so sever he looks like he has pepper in his platinum blond hair. We have not had a lice free classroom since before spring break. It has become such a common occurrence that I have given up on sympathy scratching. When it all first began, I couldn't hardly keep my hands out of my hair, but now I guess I am becoming immune to the ugly realities of bloodsucking pepper. Undoubtedly this problem will not be resolved unless someone else steps into the picture and forces the family to delouse their house. --And it is possible that they are so use to scratching that nothing will be done until there is no blood left for a louse to leach out of them.

As for other matters, I am reading one of the newest Robert Ludlum books out in paperback--The Bancroft Strategy. (The author wrote the Bourne Identity.) It is pretty good--lots of action and spy craft. It is, however, very long and it is hard to find the time to really get down into it. It's one of those books you can't pick up and put down and pick back up and expect to remember all the spy politics at once. Right now it is hardly a labour of love, but I must get through it. I am supposed to be reading Life of Pi for a book club I have been invited to join ( some strange story of a boy stranded in a life boat with a menagerie of circus animals--lions and monkeys and such.) Well.........we will see.

And then there is CAT--our very own diabolical feline fiend. He is always up to something, whether it is hunting us, herding us, or plotting to steal or food. Well, here is the latest. I moved a few plants around--one is a spider plant that Steven is particularly fond of ( he has about three of these at school that all survived scientific experimentation which was supposed to kill them--ie. lack of water, lack of sunlight, and being introduced to household chemicals--yes, they survived all this--but, alas ....). However, CAT has found out that this particular plant is very yummy. In no less than two days he has eaten off the tops of each and every leaf and in some places it looks like a goat had a good chomp. I have done everything I can think of to stop his munching--yelled and screamed, chased him, sicked Andrew on him (who he is deeply afraid of) but nothing stops this animal--short of confining him permanently to the garage. I have been thinking of putting him in a wire rabbit cage outside and moving him around so he can keep the grass down. Maybe he can pay Steven back a little by helping to keep the grass short. -A Thought-