Discretion in Coughing and other stories

We have a working furnace! And—after all the strangers coming in and out for a week—a very paranoid cat, who is currently hiding behind the couch.

But here she is after coming out from hiding the other night.

I have a lot of post-construction dusting to do—although Hardworking Stranger was incredibly neat; I expected far more mess than he really left—and book club tonight, so I'm giving myself half an hour to post this. Usually a Friday blog takes me at least two hours, so forgive me if this comes off a little rushed.

The Today meme is hosted by Masha! Join in over at Piękno, or leave your own sensory notes in the combox...

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Today I am...

Feeling... thoroughly sick of having a cough, but otherwise pretty well. I'm looking forward to book club; also, to a week in which Lou will be home and the answer to demands from the rest of the world is pretty much No. Both of us need a little time to detox after all the busyness.

Seeing... that I need some time to play with my camera and figure out all these mysterious things like the "white balance filter" that Deborah tells me about. I am a rookie, but I'm excited about how much more information it gets into a photo than the old camera does.

Smelling... the little bit of dust-and-burnt-oil scent inherent in a new furnace.

Tasting... Ricola honey-herb cough drops. I hope it's okay to eat an entire package by oneself in four days.

Also, tea. Still. I miss coffee so much.

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Listening... to the most. helpful. website. ever: Corpus Christi Watershed's Gregorian chant resource. I'm directing a men's chant schola for a weekend of Masses in February, and the good people over at CC Watershed seriously took days off my workload. Printable chants! Printable organ accompaniment! Practice videos! YAY.

Their videos aren't embeddable, though, so instead, here's the polyphony piece I'm going to try and get the guys singing—this ought to test my conducting to its outer limits:

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Grateful... for forced air! The house is more uniformly warm, it's much drier thanks to the better ventilation, and best of all, we can get rid of the baseboards.

Reading… The Name of the Rose. And am so caught up in it that I'd like to shirk on all duties till I've finished it. I won't have it finished by book club, unfortunately, but we're just going to watch the movie. Nobody got through the whole book in time. :P

Also, I blew through Midnight Sun earlier this week and enjoyed the heck out of it. And then laughed and laughed at this Dan Brown mockery, which I think makes me a hypocrite.

Studying… pffft. I don't remember; I've been sick all week.

Working on... both books, getting caught up on emails, chant Mass prep, getting my fingers to play Hanon warmups like little robot digits instead of at a random variety of dynamics and tempos, getting them to hit notes in tune on the violin, cleaning up in preparation for Lou's week off.

Loving... my husband, who has been putting up very nicely with all my coughing and subsequent hoarse complaining about coughing.

"Don't keep coughing so, Kitty, for heaven's sake! Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces.'' 

"Kitty has no discretion in her coughs," said her father; "she times them ill." 

"I do not cough for my own amusement," replied Kitty fretfully.*

Hoping... for a restful, quiet week, especially for Lou.

Happy weekend!

* From Pride and Prejudice. Of course. :D