La grippe

Le ou La? Google says "la". Good enough for me. J'ai la grippe. Not one of those terrible stomach flus that knocks your bacteria out of whack for a month and puts you off cheese, but one of those achey feverish flus which makes your hair hurt. Plus everything else. Accompanied by alternating periods of burning up and freezing to death. I was shivering in the bed so hard last night that my teeth were knocking. And this is all after I really thought the worst was over -- spent two days home, and yesterday I really felt substantially better. (Maybe that was just because I finally found a good set of instructions for beating "Grand Theft Auto III.") We were all supposed to go off and ski today, and that's not going to happen. Damn! I even got my guns tuned yesterday. ("Guns" is how the cool skiers refer to their boards.) But, not to happen. So, Plan C, which probably involves lying around the house, making a little bit of progress on Bek's room, and sleeping.

Of all the great children's literature that is available to my children and wasn't available to me, I most wish I'd had the Lemony Snicket "A Series of Unfortunate Events." Dark, extremely witty, extremely engrossing, and terrifically well-written. I'm going through Book 10, The Slippery Slope, right now, though I confess I haven't read all of them. (That'll have to wait until I get a Veritably Free Day.) This one is fantastic, but my favorite so far was actually "Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Biography," which is stunning.

My eldest starts middle school next year. Lee got to attend the information session on it the other night, which turned out to be more of a question and answer session; the informational session will follow. That makes sense, right? (Government by amateurs . . . don't get me started.) I know that middle school is when you start to pick up an "identity" so you can fit in with a particular crowd -- jock, goth, prep, etc. I'm encouraging Hannah to start her own: Visigoth. You have to run from the Huns (I don't think we have too many of those left), but you get to overrun the Balkans.

"Achey Feverish Flu" was going to be the big comeback duet for Johnny Rivers and Billy Ray Cyrus, but it never took off.

I'm very sorry for that last one. Blame the fever.