I Can't Talk!

I am home sick with my voice completely gone. I even left Susan's Fiber Shop All Fiber Retreat early on Saturday as I felt like crap! I had ridden with Michele and Terri but Joe came and picked me up early. I just went to bed and I spent all day yesterday in bed too. I am up and doing laundry and cleaning today but still no voice! I am feeling pretty beat but resting in between loads and stuff.
Just got a phone call from school that Brian doesn't feel good and wants to come home too! We are a fine bunch. I had asked Patrick to call and make a haircut appointment for Brian as I couldn't talk on the phone-hope he can still do that!

I am starting to feel better and spun on my new wheel-Got a couple of skeins of some shetland spun up and it is really pretty. I think the schacht is the wheel for most use but this little wheel is really great to take along and will do what I want it to do!

Well, I was feeling strong enough to drive to the library and Fleet Farm and picked up some great stuff. Picked up this book:

It's hog heaven! Sendak, with his signature style, and Marshall, with his delicious wit, are the perfect pair to ham up a spoof on ballet. The scrumptious smell of pigs draws a lean and mangy wolf to the New Hamsterdam Theater where a matinee of "Swine Lake" is being performed by the Boarshoi Ballet. With opportune timing, a fat old sow offers the penniless wolf a ticket for a box seat that ideally positions him for a leap onto the stage. As the plump and juicy dancing pigs interpret the story, the wolf gets so caught up in the excitement and drama that he forgets to make his move. He returns that night, after breaking his piggy bank to buy a ticket, and is so carried away by the music that he leaps to the stage and takes over the role of the monster. The next day a newspaper review cites the special guest appearance as the highlight of the evening: "It was almost as if a real wolf had appeared on the stage." Among the visual puns of ballet and literary references, discerning eyes will notice some discordant notes: a mismatch of blockish typeface for the swirl and flourish of the illustrations, and inconsistency in the time frame. Still, the composition of the pictures seats readers front stage to relish the hijinks of this wickedly funny pig tale. The end result is swinely divine.-Julie Cummins, New York Public Library
Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

People on the fiction-l list are starting to compile best books of 2006 and this book was someone's choice of best older youth book. It is hilarious!

I also picked up Witch's Boy by Micheal Gruber-
Starred Review. Gr 6-9–
Once upon a time, in a faraway country, there was a woman who lived by herself in the middle of a great forest. Thus begins this literary fairy tale of a witch who takes into her home an ugly, abandoned infant whom she calls Lump. Wise in the ways of magic, the witch is inexpert in the ways of motherhood and so she appoints, in turn, a bear as his nursemaid and a djinni as his tutor. As predicted by her cat familiar, all does not go well and the witch is forced to give up her magic to save the boy. The adolescent Lump, far from being grateful for her sacrifice, becomes increasingly troublesome. Gruber incorporates well-known tales such as Little Red Riding Hood,Hansel and Gretel, and Rumplestiltskin into his narrative, giving readers a different, and sometimes more frightening, take on these childhood staples. The inclusion of these retellings and the elegance with which the author shapes his fable will appeal to readers who love to immerse themselves in the complex reworked fairy tales of Donna Jo Napoli. This is not a quick read, but it is an engrossing and enormously satisfying one.–Sharon Grover, Arlington County Department of Libraries, VA

I do love fairy tales! Can't wait to start reading them! I also got some nice christmas music at the library so I will read and listen to music and try to get better!
Talk to you later! I hope...
Lynda