Grumpy! ARGH! I hate poison ivy! I hate starlings! I hate kids who squabble just because they are bored! (OK, I don't hate the kids, I hate the behavior.) I need chocolate. Can you tell I've just gotten my period?

I actually do hate poison ivy. It's been a week since Noora and I were working in the garden, pulling weeds, and we pulled up a bunch of runners. Some of them were mint (I've pulled them in years past) and some of them apparently were poison ivy runners. I've got a rash all over the bottom half of my face, my hands, arms, and legs, and new patches are still popping up, a whole week after we were exposed. It itches like crazy. Worse than the chicken pox I got a few years back (yes, yours truly who cannot tolerate itching at all, actually got chicken pox twice -- once as a child and once as an adult, thank you very much.).

The only thing that I've found that stops the itching for more than a few minutes is scratching so vigorously that the skin is abraded away. If you don't have any skin, it can't itch. So now I have lots of scabs all over my body -- looks like chicken pox again. Of course, scabs have an itch of their own, so I'm still scratching from time to time. At least the facial rash isn't itchy -- it's hard and red and burns a bit. NOT FUN!!

Poor Noora also has a rash on her face and in spots here and there. It's humiliating that she's taking it much better than I. My only consolation is that it must not be as itchy (thank goodness, poor little dear! I hate to think of her sufferring!). Now, it turns out my huband and older daughter have gotten some too - apparently from where Noora or I touched them. I guess the oil on the roots is very tenacious!

It seems like life would be a whole lot better if poison ivy were just ivy. It's a very prolific spreader -- it's not like it needs poison to survive. My life would certainly be a whole lot better if I didn't have to try to keep it from encroaching on my lawn every year.

It's so distracting it's hard to concentrate on anything. And I've got it between my fingers, on my palms, so it's hard to type -- movement makes the stuff between the fingers itch and my palms burn. Man, you'd think a woman who gave birth naturally four times could handly a bit of discomfort, but nope, it drives me nuts...

Oh well, enough whining... but that sure did feel good. :) Nothing like a good mental scratch... except maybe a good physical one.  ¶ 8:45 PM