Last day of summer vacation and I'm sick

It's of course my daughter's last day of summer vacation. We working slobs don't get no stinking summer vacation. I'm IMing my sister right now. I think she's reading the blog as I type. She said she laughed at me singing Tori Amos. That's OK. I had wanted to do a family karaoke taping while I was home, but we never had the time so it must wait until another time, alas. I'm sick. I caught something from someone in DC. My throat hurts and I'm coughing a bit. It pretty much sucks. I forgot to mention how excited my daughter was to be home after six weeks away. She ran around the house for five minutes singing, "I'm home, I'm home." And then she asked if she could play her Gameboy. She's like her mom, not much for sentimentality, but huge on pragmatism. I asked her who she hopes is in her class tomorrow and she said, "I don't know, I just hope Gabby's not in my class." Gabby is, as my daughter calls it, her arch enemy. This title hails way back to kindergarten when my precious girl and Gabby nearly came to fisticuffs over whether or not my daughter's jigging was actually Irish dancing. I think Gabby takes lessons in the sort of dancing one sees in Riverdance, which I think of as clogging, and didn't think my daughter's attempts at jigging as she sees performed by leprechauns on television fit the bill. My daughter was, of course, outraged by Gabby's accusations and has never forgotten this huge offense to her pride. For a while I thought my daughter had gotten over it because she said that she offered a truce to Gabby and was going to put the entire thing behind her, but then first grade started and my daughter quickly abandoned the fragile peace when she realized what a "girly girl" Gabby is. I've tried to get my daughter to not pay much attention to Gabby but, unfortunately, my daughter is the type who focuses on the one person who doesn't get along with her instead of concentrating on the many number of other people who do get along with her. I figure I've just got to let things happen as they will because I'm out of clever life lessons to help her understand why it isn't worth the energy to waste time on people who don't enhance your own life. Granted, she's only seven, but I hope she gets it sooner than later.