I Pledge Allegiance...

On the way to school this morning we were listening to a news break. We heard a story of a 13 year old girl in Maryland who was in some pretty hot water over refusing to stand for the Pledge Of Allegiance. I could hear the wheels spinning inside of Miss Prima's head. I was ready for her when she turned to ask me questions about it.

"Tha's right, honey. The Constitution says that a kid doesn't have to stand for, or say the Pledge Of Allegiance if she doesn't want to. But keep in mind she goes to a public school. They can't MAKE her do it. You go to a private, Christian school."

"What's the difference?"

"Well, you're learning about the 10 Commandments right now, and one of them says to 'honor your parents' right?"

'Right."

"So, God's Commandments come before the laws of man. You have to obey God's Commandment to honor your mommy and daddy. Mommy and Daddy say you have to stand up with the rest of the class and recite the pledge."

Dejected and deflated, Miss Prima walked quietly to her classroom.

We'll see what happened today when I go pick her up. I wonder if she, as usual, has figured out another loophole.

Kids and Dogs

Our family dog, a miniature dachshund, is a real weirdo. Seriously, the has this penchant for eating the contents of waste baskets, and articles of clothing, such as sox and underwear, the dirtier the better. It utterly baffles me when I find in her various known hiding places, nothing left of a piece of underwear but the wasteband, or nothing but the top elastic band of a sock. How does any of this stuff manage to pass through such a small dog? Amazingly, it does. I guess she chews her food very well.

A few months ago she ate something that REALLY didn't agree with her, an emery board. Yes, those sandpaper coated boards made of cardboard, or in this case, even wood, used for nail filing. She got hold of one and ate most of it before I caught her and took it away. She was NOT a happy camper for a couple of days as those jagged, rough pieces worked their way through her intestines. She was skittish, shaking, timid, and obviously in terrible pain. As with most thing in life, everything comes to pass. You'd think she'd learn her lesson after a while...

Anyway, this week, it looked like she had been at it again. She showed all the same symptoms of her having eaten something she shouldn't have. We waited overnight to see if anything would "come out in the wash" so to speak. Nothing. later that next afternoon, she was still in obvious pain. I decided to turn her over, belly up, and take a closer look. I began to feel around her belly in order to locate any foreign matter underneath the skin. I immediately felt and SAW a hard spot on her abdomen, about the size of a marble, or a small coin. GREAT! What'd she swallow now?

We imediately took her to the vet. Fortunately the diagnosis showed that the lump was due to nothing that she ate. UNfortunately, she was diagnosed with a hernia. "GREAT! How much is that going to cost?" By the time we get done with the surgery, pain meds, etc., the bill will be somewhere around $400. Fantastic...

While we were all waiting in the lobby, Miss Prima, age 8, was heard to say: "I wish I was a dog... because dogs get to poop and pass gas whenever they want."