Sangria Lament

I spent yesterday with my head pounding like 10 monkeys were playing the bongoes on it. And cursing myself for uttering the words, "We should make some sangria and take it to S~ and O~'s paella party."

See...it made perfect sense at the time. Paella calls out for sangria, doesn't it?

Yes, yes it does. And yet it is so very very mean the next morning.

I'm not a huge fan of shellfish (aside from shrimp) - but, Lana was EXTREMELY happy to see mussels and oysters in the paella. These are things we have never fed her before (um...because, I once read that Anthony Bourdain (chef/hero) said that one should never eat mussels unless A. one was sitting close enough to actually hear the ocean from which said mussels had been procrured and B. one had cooked said mussels oneself). (Also, because I think they are gross, but, the Bourdain excuse is much more sophisticated sounding than my squeegy/icky feeling about eathing things that look like snot in a shell, in my humble opinion.) But, our friends had ordered in the seafood, from a very reputable seafood market, and had carefully prepared the mussels, so, we let Lana eat what she wanted. (And I waited, expecting her to become violently ill, since I am a pessimist and of course such a thing would happen to my child). But, she was fine. She just likes steamed mussels. A lot. Enough so that she overcame her recent tendancy of "only eating things that her big brother will eat". (Yes, lately, unless Gabe puts something in his mouth FIRST, Lana will have NOTHING to do with it. But, I guess her mussel-lust overcame her desire to be just like her big brother.)

I enjoyed my paella with just shrimp and squid, free of the oysters and mussels and clams, and evidently I enjoyed my own sangria A BIT TOO MUCH.

After many aspirins, we also spent yesterday opening up our pool. Correction. Husband spent yesterday opening our pool. I spent yesterday complaining about my head. I did drive to the pool supply store to pick up pool supplies. I took a screaming Lana with me, since Husband was trying to get the filter up and running and Lana kept trying to fling herself into the water - which was help that Husband didn't really need, you know?

Lately, Lana spends a lot of time screaming when she cannot be with Husband and doing exactly whatever it is that Husband is doing. I am persona non grata once again. I assume it's just a stage. She and Gabriel are fighting like cats and dogs. I am told this is normal behavior for siblings. I am pretty sure it's illegal in this state for me to strangle them for this, so, I'll refrain. I really don't know how parents who have more than two children survive without completely going bananas!!

More later,
LM