I shouldn't blog about this

OK. First and foremost, if you visit my blog because of our delicious recipes, the beautiful pictures, and/or because you dream of Italy, then you better stop reading this post now. I mean it. NOW!

On the other hand, if I have picked your curiosity and you are dying to know what it is that I shouldn't be blogging about. I should warn you: this is not pretty! You have been warned, go ahead and read at your own risk...

We have lice people, lice! yep, lice. Those pesky insects that take over your child's head and while you work hard trying to get rid of them, they just move into a comfy new place, let's call it YOUR head.

Some will call what we are going through a rite of passage. I knew it was coming my way, I have heard the stories, I have read the school letters, I should have known. I am telling you, one is never ready for this. I was not. Now that we are victims, we hear the stories from all the other ex-pats. There is always disbelief on the American ex-pat community, sarcasm on the European side, some comfort in all fronts in knowing that we are united in our war against these invaders. We talk in muted tones, exchanging tips in how to get rid of the obnoxious pests. I have heard all about the chemicals, how inefficient and how dangerous they are. I have heard about the natural remedies, olive oil, crisco, coconut shampoo, etc. I have done my share of searching on the internet, finding a lot of discouraging info like this:

-A full-grown louse can crawl 9in in a minute and is genetically programmed to move on to new heads.
-It is a myth that nits prefer shiny clean hair. They're not picky.
-Lice have average lifespans of 30 days.
-The female louse only needs to mate once (she simply stores what she needs to make nits throughout her lifetime), but she can lay 10 eggs a day.
-A nit attached to a fallen hair will hatch and can live off the head for up to 48 hours.

Actually writing this post is helping me deal with our situation. I can see the humor in all this. I just have to remember to laugh tomorrow while combing my long hair for an hour!
If you are still reading this, I think you will enjoy a couple of links on the subject. What about it? Are you up for it? The first one is about the hair force, a little business in the UK that will take care of doing the hard work "picking" through your child's head while you read a magazine and relax. The second one is about lice as art.
Go read and scratch your head!