(Strip Number 4092, Original Publication Date, 10 November 1981)
Panel 1: We start off with Google-Eyed Elly™ holding the information sheet for the Peewee hockey team Mike wants to join in her tentacle fingers and bellowing "Holy COW! It's going to cost us a fortune to outfit you for hockey!" Given that John has enough money to buy stereos and indulge her delusion that she's somehow finishing her education, I don't see the problem.
Panel 2: She then walks over to John and, hoping to have backup for Operation "It's all about my needs", says "And look at your schedule!! John, look at the cost and the schedule!!" Given that she wastes her free time on pointless busy work, watching soaps and shooting off her fat trap despite being told not to violate the trust her one friend has to her other, I don't see that she has a leg to stand on when she moans about not having time to herself.
Panel 3: Be that as it may, her hopes of denying Mike are crushed by Evil, Conflict-Causing John™ sighing and saying that he played hockey as a kid too.
Panel 4: As a jubilant Mike celebrates being able to join the team, Elly thought-bubbles "Case Closed."
Summary: Remember how she ran her mouth to Anne about being a football widow and how she should take an interest in something she found boring and pointless? I'd say that Annie would find Elly's default hostility to any activity that would force her to put her children's needs ahead of her own fairly interesting. After making an arch remark about hypocrisy, though, she'd commiserate with El because of the whole "having to compromise and thus suffering the horror of being thought of as a human being instead of a demigod" thing.
ETA: By the way, have you thanked a vet today?
