After a couple of weeks of carefully avoiding chocolate and dairy, and not opening any more bottles of red wine when the last one was finished, we had dinner from the Olive Garden and I ate a chocolate dessert. My hands feel worse today, and I don't think it's just psychosomatic, because I'm expecting it. But this also explains a couple of things. I need to read ingredients, because though I don't eat chocolate often, I have been sometimes using a hand cream with cocoa butter. And as lovely as that feels and smells, it could be part of the problem. So I will now continue to avoid chocolate and see if things clear up. I'll read labels to be sure I'm not getting it inadvertently.

Son graduated last night, and we got smart (kind of). We had a couple of menus with us and when it looked like things were going to let out around 9:30, we gave our orders to his dad, who drove over to the restaurant and got it all to go. My dining room table was ready and we enjoyed it. When everyone piles into the 24/7 IHOP and Denny's after graduation, you wait a long time to eat. My son and I discovered that four years ago when we went out to eat after my daughter graduated. I don't remember why we weren't all together, but we weren't.

The "kind of" part came with leaving for the event. I should have KNOWN that Dylan wasn't paying attention to all of the instructions, and after dropping him off I got a call saying "I need a collared shirt and tie." I was parking, but after vainly trying to call his father before he left his house, pulled out and was ready to drive down there to ransack his closet, hopefully in time to return with the materials. His father doesn't answer the phone when he's driving, but I'd sent a text also and he saw that, so (my daughter called to tell me) he was nearing my house when he turned around and at his house grabbed his best shirt and tie and brought them back. He proceeded to go the wrong way through the crowd to try to give it to the son, and we think it was probably lost in the crowd of helpers. A t-shirt collar was in view when he went through the line and such. OH, well. Maybe the shirt will turn up at school if they gave it to the woman in charge of the event.

He later attended the all-night lock-in party, and is now sleeping at his Dad's house (a friend who lives near there dropped him off. I suggested he take that friend out for breakfast as a thank you for the rides he has gotten this year, but based on the time he returned, they probably didn't do that.)

Now to work. . .

SRS