Girl, I am such a mess right now. You should see the bruises on my legs. If only Carharrt made bubble wrap.

The skin around the ant bites on my wrist (did I mention many of those concrete cylinders had ants on them? We were taking out a retaining wall) is red, hot and swollen. Did I mention I'm allergic? I'm afraid to take two benedryl b/c that tends to knock me out for hours.

Yikes!

Some baking soda on the bites? Or ice wrapped in a towel? Or calamine? Itchy is bad.

I left the calamine at work. Could try ice or baking soda. This site is just infested with fire ants, worst I've seen in NC outside the coastal area. Nasty little fuckers.

Ouch, smonster - that all sounds nasty. Ice is probably worth a try. There's a cream you can get for itching that numbs the area slightly - I have completely forgotten what it's called, but it worked when I was in Ireland one summer and got eaten whole by mozzies. Hope you feel better!

Much no-more-surgery-needed~ma for your mom, P-C.

When I got hella poison ivy this summer I used my mouth ulcer gel - anbesol - to soothe the worst of it when I just couldn't handle it anymore. It's 20% lidocaine.

So much is happening at the moment and most of it is awesome, but I don't have the time to sit down and type and elaborate. So I want a plug in for my brain directly to b.org, please.

In the meantime, my ~ma to those of you who need it and their families.

I'm sorry smonster. I hope you got some sleep between your last post and now.

I'm also sorry about your phone, amyth. I'm quite happy with my 3G. If you'd like to make a pilgrimage to the Store of Apple this weekend, just let me know. I'll be happy to drive. (I'll be dropping my sister off at the airport around 3ish, Saturday, but I should be free after that.)

Shir, I'm glad you have awesome things happening in your life right now, even if they make you too busy to spend a lot of time here. Good to see even a brief update from you.

smonster, I hope you got some rest. I know I got some good out of putting baking soda on scorpion stings, so I would expect it to help with the ant bites too. Oooooh, just had a thought. One of the times I got stung, my doctor told me that putting Neosporin on the site draws out the toxin - don't know if ant venom is similar enough to scorpion venom for that to work, but if you've got access to Neosporin Plus, there would at least be some numbing action.

I think there were other things I want to say, but the gronk she is mighty.

P-C, lots of hip~ma for your mom. That company is in my hometown--in fact, several of my relatives work there. Sorry it happened and she has to go through that surgery again!

See, P-C? Your white devil internet friend's relatives broke your mother! What if you had married one of them? That's why you can't be trusted to make these decisions.