Happy birthday, guys!

My family deliberately delayed telling me about my mother's cancer. Wouldn't say anything until I was at home, and that was about 8 hours between when they first called and when they told me.

It seems vague in retrospect. Like, I can't work out why they did it, and I can't work out why it annoyed me.

I hope it's absolutely *nothing* for your mom, Cashmere.

My mother's chemo is done, and she has the "more cancer?" test on the day before her birthday. My sister is freaking out, my mother is laissez faire, and I'm just avoiding reacting at all. Well, except for the part where my heart rate exploded as I typed this.

I woke up this morning with a bandanna tied around my head. Jesus. I have a vague memory of doing this in the middle of the night in order to combat my headache, but I have *never* done that for a headache before. I mean, I don't like the pressure.

So I've got no idea what that was about.

At least I have tea...

Good health wishes to Cashmere's mom and ita's mom!

OMG those sloths.

Health~ma in the direction of buffista parents.

Thanks, ita. The surgeon who did her bowl resection says he's pretty sure the mass he removed is cancerous. But we have to wait for the biopsy while Mom recovers in the hospital. She'll have a temporary colostomy and have to go to a nursing home for rehab for a few weeks as well, even if it doesn't turn out to be cancer.

If it does, she'll have to start chemo pretty quickly. Her older brother died of colon cancer a couple of years ago so we're all a bit edgy about the diagnosis.

And I hope your mom's tests come our negative, ita. No more fucking cancer, right???

This morning I was awakened by a slammed door and the angry shouts of the neighbor teenager, "Shut up! I hate you!" Ah, those halcyon days of youth.

Oh, Cash, I'm sorry. I hope your mother doesn't, in fact, have it, or if she does, it's treatable.

Tom, those are very cute sloths. How is it that sloths became so popular? And yet, so cute! Especially the babies.

Woops, and happy birthday, folks!

Baby sloths are like a soul balm.

The caption for #2 killed me.

So, Camp Mommy starts this week, and for the first theme the children have chosen Superheroes. Ideas for artistic/educational/sporty projects we can do around our theme welcomed.

Relatedly, Emmett's summer counselor job requires him to adopt a superhero guise every Tuesday. We were talking about possibilities and I noted that he already had two Lucha Libre masks.

Me: You just need an animal like Chango Loco. What's your animal spirit guide?
Emmett: The golden retriever.
Me: How do you say that in Spanish?
Emmett: Hmmm, El Perros Oro.
Me: I like it. What's your battle cry?
Emmett: El Arf!
Me: Perfect. You really gotta roll that 'R' though.