For the past few days, there's been a weird smell in the house, especially on the babies. Something like freshly cut wood, but more chemically than that. It's was starting to drive me nuts that I couldn't figure out what it was, especially since it was on my kids!

This morning, I threw in a load of laundry and realized that it's the HE detergent Bill bought for our new washer. I've got another sixty loads worth to use up before I try to convince him to never ever ever buy Gain again. And he was trying to help me out, because the only stuff I could find was Tide which I've refused to go near since I had a bloody allergic reaction to it years ago. And I can't use the stuff I do like because the new washer is finicky.

It's been one of those mornings. I woke up with the same headache I went ot bed with, then the medicine for my head made me want to puke, the carbon monoxide detector started chirping because it wants a new battery. And my knee's been throbbing because my buddy and I didn't walk this week. So I found the tire pump, got the double jog stroller set up for the first time since Heath was a baby (the tires are constantly going flat and I don't do tire pumps) and the kids and I headed up the hill.

There was a furry black and white animal chewing on something in the field by the side of the road. I thought it was a cat I hadn't seen before, but it didn't look right. So I told the kids to stay put and got close enough to see the stripes. Told the kids to be very very quiet or I would murder them and then to come over one at a time to look at the skunk.

So they're all excited about the wildlife and I'm wondering if it wasn't just pointed out to me that my kids and their clothes could smell a whole lot worse.