The elephant will not be getting sick this year.

Yesterday my husband and I got our yearly flu shoot at Kaiser. Even though I told him we were going that day, he completely forgot and didn't plan his clothing appropriately. He was wearing a long sleeve shirt, and he couldn't push up the sleeve to expose his upper arm for the shot.

I asked him what he had on underneath it (he usually wears something underneath his shirts for whatever reason), and he answered a tank top.

"Oh, well, I guess you're going to have to take your shirt off and scare everyone," I told him. "You didn't plan ahead!"

My husband was next in line at this point, so he had to come up with a quick decision. Either take the shirt off and scare everyone or take one arm out of a sleeve and only scare people slightly.

"I'll just take my arm out of the sleeve," he said. He started the complicated process of removing his manly arm from the skinny sleeve.

"You should have planned ahead like I did! I had it all figured out!" I like to be right.

Right then the little old man who was directing flu shot line traffic told my husband to go to the next available station. My husband quickly said, "I forgot!"

So I said, "You probably didn't even know you were coming here today, so be quiet!" The old man looked at me like I was either off my rocker or I was just mean.

I watched my husband as he was getting his shot. I guess now's a good time to explain why my husband would scare people (and fascinate small children). He's got a gazillion tattoos on his body, mostly upper torso and a lot all around his arms. By having to remove manly arm from skinny sleeve, he was showing everyone in line his "scary" tattoos, which mostly consist of elephants and angels. Oooo-- scary. Yes, I know.

The nurse said something to him right before she gave him a shot, and my husband just stared off into space. Then it was my turn, so I missed any further interaction between them.

When we left, I asked him what the nurse said to him.

"We'll give the shot right in the elephant's nose," he told me.

Oh man, I laughed at that one. Here's this "tough" guy with his "tough" tattoos getting a shot in his elephant's nose.

Now both my husband and his elephant have a fighting chance against the flu this year.