~ma for your friend, Matt.

Cass, I'm so sorry. I've been thinking of your niecephews every day. I hope you get a lead soon.

Lisah, could they be flea bites from the dog?

Aaand putting it in perspective, my beloved former neighbors were first responders (as civvies) to a drowning on Assateague. He helped carry the guy the the beach, she (cardiac nurse) performed CPR. To no avail. And the victims' family plus Tara's 11 year old daughter & a couple young friends were all witness to it.

Yeah, I had a shitty day, but nobody died.

Lisah, maybe you got the mosquito bites I Should have gotten this weekend while waving a cloud of mosquitoes away from the kittens and wearing shorts? I didn't find a single bite, which is absurd considering there were so many hovering around that I was worried about breathing them in.

How awful, sarameg.

Cass, I'm hoping for your sister's kids. May her ex come to his senses or someone spot them soon.

Got my root canal on Friday; today was part 1 of the crown. Turned kind of scary, actually: they accidentally got some of the topical numbing agent on the back of my throat, and I nearly panicked because it felt like my throat was closing up. Not a good feeling! Happily it wore off in about 20 minutes, but yikes.

Man, we can land a space-ship on an asteroid but we can't do dental work in a way that is painless or stress-free. So exhausting.

Lisah, could they be flea bites from the dog?

nah, dog's on flea medication and the cats are indoor. No fleas on them! Thank god! Fleas were terrible when I lived in SF with one tiny cat and in NC but I think the medication has gotten so much better in the last decade or so that I've not had a flea problem here at all. Knock wood. At any rate, I've had flea bites in my day and these are bigger and hivier like mosquito bites. I sprayed some benadryl spray on them and they've calmed down.

Lisah, maybe you got the mosquito bites I Should have gotten this weekend while waving a cloud of mosquitoes away from the kittens and wearing shorts?

Thanks a lot, Matt!

My sister in dental hell. I have so much work to be done. Ugh. The only good move I made is that I fired my dentist and canceled my dental insurance. I was unhappy with the last 3 dentists so I went to see my SIL's dentist because she loves her, but still just was lacking confidence. So a few of the women in the nail salon suggested I go to my former university and check out the dental school. So I did. It was a few hours, but I left with more confidence than I have had in many years. I really felt the students had only one interest and that was fixing my teeth. No financial incentive. And it is still less coin than it was with my insurance. Not as cheap as going south of the border, but much cheaper, and they were great.

While waiting for my student to come out I watched about 20-30 patients greeting their assigned students for subsequent visits. I'd say 90% of them greeted with hugs. I was waiting for emergency clinic work so I was with a higher level student but when I go back in a week or so I will have my full evaluation and get assigned my individual student who will work my whole treatment plan with I believe 1 visit a week until it is all done.

The clinic visit involved 3-1/2 hours in the chair removing 3 old fillings from my old decrepit molar. Then packing it all with a temp pending me coming back. BUT, the shots didn't hurt and they were really step by step showing me everything and discussing everything and I felt as good as a person can after several hours of torture.

Yikes, Laura.

I've been seeing my dentist for years, and he seems competent, and the staff is really nice. But between the root canal and the crown, I'm out $1100 in the last week because my insurance has a high cap and covers 100% of my regular cleanings, but only 40% or so of this work. Yikes.

In other news, the internet is losing its shit over The Vulgar Talking Yam's "speech" on immigration tonight. Apparently he's gone full Hitler.

DH is forcing me to listen to the speech. I have quite a buffer on the TV. Mostly I have just heard a bunch of shouting because I have been paying more attention to my computer. He ain't softening.

My teeth are crap. I didn't get Mom's teeth. She had 1 cavity in her 95 years. At this point my 50+ year old fillings are all falling apart. Just a long list of things to fix, but I am good with taking my time with the Dental students. I need to get one implant or bridge or something too. I had one "baby" tooth for about 60 years because there was no adult tooth under it to push it out, but it finally fell apart so that blank needs to be filled.

The families of people murdered by The Illegals are being paraded to the mic now. I really have to FF now.

I had my wisdom teeth pulled by a dental surgical intern. Turned out okay, although three teeth were impacted and I ended up with nerve damage that took a year to heal. So... not great. But it only cost $250! At the time, that was a great deal.

My mom had great teeth; my dad, not so much. I think I'm in the middle, so it could be worse.

But I dislike the cost, and the discomfort. I wish I'd made more tapioca pudding tonight.