Circle Time // 5.14.26

Ticks galore, the news of the week to know, summer reads, and not being a nice woman.

Pardon the delayed Circle Time edition; the bulk of my week was taken up by dealing with a Lyme scare (still TBD on that) and subsequently feeling very under the weather!

Quick Ticks 101:

It’s prime tick season with record-high ER visits for tick bites and expanding areas of where ticks are (thank you, climate change!), so protect yourselves:

We spray our yard regularly (we use this cedar oil-based spray, to be friendlier to the environment— cedar oil kills ticks on contact with the right concentrations and also repels them) and also like to use this spray around our ankles (where we tuck in pants into our socks) to repel them when walking Benny and spray his harness with it. Permethrin spray is recommended and what I’d use on clothes and gear for hikes and more tick-dense areas.

Biggest other thing is to check your body and clothes fully, and pets! They love to hide in crevices like armpits, back of knees, between toes, behind ears, scalp, and belly buttons. If you find a tick on you that has bitten you, safely remove it with tweezers and put it in alcohol to kill it, and save it in a plastic bag to take to your doctor for tick-borne disease testing to determine next steps.

• Hosted a Mother’s Day brunch at my house for my family! My mom, sister and her troop, came over and it was so nice to spend time with my niece and nephew who are growing faster and faster. I don’t much like to share photos of my family on the internet these days (and definitely not of the kids), but look at these cards the kids made for me for dog moms day 🥹 and my son’s annual photo J takes of him writing me my card.

  

• Yesterday, the Senate voted against curbing President Trump's military authority in Iran with a war powers resolution for the SEVENTH time— please thank turncoat John Fetterman (/s) for voting with the Republicans to make the vote 49-50. Murkowski, Collins, and Paul, were the 3 Republicans to vote for the resolution.

  • US filings for jobless benefits hits 211,000, as the war continues.

• The redistricting race ahead of the midterms continue:

  • Here is a good overall breakdown of current happenings.

  • Georgia Governor Brian Kemp declined to redistrict this year, but has now called a special legislative session to redraw congressional lines ahead of the 2028 cycle, after the SCOTUS VRA decision.

• Hantavirus: the situation continues to evolve as the incubation period is quite long for this virus and as countries race to contact trace. Highly recommend following experts like Lauren Bristow, Jessica Malaty Rivera, and Elisabeth Marnik, PhD for timely updates.

• Asked before departing for China whether Americans’ financial struggles factoring into a push for a deal with Iran, Trump replied: “Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran is they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he added. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.”

• Alligator Alcatraz is set to close — thank goodness, the inhumane Florida detention center had to go. For all the conservatives that supported it, operating costs reached nearly $1 billion, with the state spending more than $1 million daily to manage the center while awaiting $608 million in federal reimbursements. Hating immigrants is expensive, as it turns out.

• RFK Jr. continues to MAHA by trying to approve flavored vapes! His chief HHS spokesperson just resigned as a result, because the hypocrisy apparently does have a line for some of them.

• After coming into office to be greeted with a $12 billion deficit, Mayor Mamdani has balanced the NYC budget without cutting any social services and hiking property taxes. Incredible when politicians do their jobs!