but I'm not dead yet

I now have absolutely NO voice at all and am still feeling surprisingly shitty. I just can't shake this and am getting really crabby about feeling this way and not being able to talk. The animals are behaving like full-on thugs and Luciana is taking advantage however she can. Our homeschool work for today can't be done until I can talk, so all we have to do today is watch Vincent Price's "The Masque of the Red Death".

We've been talking about the bubonic plague in history, which for some twisted reason, has always infatuated me. (Maybe because it reminds me of Monty Python's Holy Grail, which always makes me lmao! ;) As a loose tie in, we read Poe's, "Masque of the Red Death", so now we're going to watch the movie and compare it to the short story.

I have a ton of material that I REALLY need to lecture on tonight in class. It's complicated, vital, and if I can't get it covered tonight, I will be forced to modify the rest of the semester to accomodate this. I'm really, really irritated about that. I just need a voice for an hour--that would get me through it.

M & L were busy last night with their traditional St. Patrick's Day preparations. They decorated the house, cranked up the Celtic music (oh yay), and got to work on making dinner. They accented their "Irish meal" with Irish soda bread that L made green, and of course, M's green beer. Due to several animal-caused disastrous messes, I spent most of the night cleaning up after them and didn't even get to eat.

After dinner, M & L started their soap carving. It was cut a little short, and they each only made one boat this year. Both boats are still floating in our bathroom sink this morning (complete with the little die-cast D & D figurines inside). After 11 or 12 years of M's traditional soap carving with our girls, we had our first injury last night. L's knife slipped and cut into the web between her thumb and finger. She cried for a little bit, but we got it cleaned up and bandaged and she returned to her carving (using a butter knife this time). I'm actually surprised it took so long to have an injury. I'm sure it would have happened years ago if I was trying to carve.

M & L went to bed a little after 9. I stayed up and hung out with Dej & Luke, who came over to watch this week's LOST. I was very happy with all of the Sawyer-licious action last night. I wasn't actually thrilled with the plot of the alt timeline. Oh, I loved that he and Miles are parters--I've enjoyed both of their wit and sometimes caustic comments through the show, and think they work well together. The plot, though...really, he's an undercover cop, in a room that's bugged with surveillance and a ton of cops outside, and he has sex with the criminal as part of the set up. Really? With the whole precinct listening? Watching? I guess that's real job commitment. My favorite line this ep was from Flocke (fake Locke) to Sawyer: "I forgive you". It made me giggle. I had to rewind it and play it again!