Family Parties Present a Problem

It's my problem.  It's been getting worse in the last few years.  A stress response, probably.  The problem is this:  I can't tolerate noises

To be fair, when we get the Four Families together for big parties, there are eight adults and 17 children.  This would create a noise problem for anyone, I think.  The other adults just seem to be able to tolerate it better, I guess.

This party was for the Fourth of July.  We were all here at my place.  There was a little bit of a scheduling blunder.  Probably my bad.  Stress!  Anyway, even outside, the 17 children were creating too much noise for me.  I look really dumb putting my hands over my ears and trying to carry on conversations and answer trivia questions.  Dorothy brought me this gift:  

Isn't she great?  They're noise-cancelling earmuffs.  It's Just What the Doctor Ordered. I can still hear all the people around me, mostly, but the kid-noise is just about squelched.  It's like going into the light, through a tunnel, into blissful peace.

Jodi tried them on.  You can also see the other gift I got from Dorothy.  Jason's holding it there on his head:  it's an electric bug zapper raquet.  Flies get in the house, Wib goes insane.  The old familiar story.  But not anymore.  Flies get in the house, Wib zaps them with the raquet, bugs get dead.  Awesome!

Andrew asked if we thought he should touch the raquet.  He's 14 so, yeah, we think you should.  He got a big old cracking shock.  Sucka!

Anyway, I've brought my earmuffs (earphones, I call them) to several more family parties, with great results each time.  Seth has asked me, though, not to wear them too much because it makes me look...special.

Thanks Dorothy, for helping solve my problem!