Goodbye, Hello!

My Zumba exercise class is done. For good. The instructor cancelled the class permanently this week, due to low attendance. She persevered longer than I imagine most would have, keeping on long after the numbers were regularly too low to be at all profitable for her. But still, I will miss it! It was my regularly scheduled chance to meet with a little (too little) group of pleasant women and dance around wildly, looking silly and burning calories. Sigh. Of course, I could look around for another class, but this one was right across the street -- a class somewhere else would entail taking the car, using gas, being from home for longer, etc. So I won't. There is still the walking trail across the street, and the kids got a fun Wii dance game for Christmas, so I have no new excuse for keeping these holiday pounds I still have, but neither of those will be as exhilarating as the wild wavings, wigglings, and hoppings of Zumba.

However, I do have a new thing! Though it is not exercise (sort of the opposite, in fact), Librivox is turning out to be marvelously absorbing! I've submitted five chapters of Mr. Scarborough's Family, plus the Wesley sermon (the Official Listener was very kind in his compliments on my Greek!), and it seems to be going well! I like the reading part and the picky, tinkering editing part. It doesn't burn any calories, but it also doesn't require special shoes or supportive undergarments. But I still made an outlay. When I found out that Zumba was over, I decided to get a real microphone. I got the one that seems to be most used by the long-time readers at Librivox, though it will certainly take a few months of not doing Zumba for my hobby costs to even out! I've recorded one chapter with it so far, and it definitely gives more "warmth" and "depth" than my webcam mic. Joy!

And, my dad is Librivoxing now too! How fun is that? (Very fun!) He's doing Mr. Scarborough now too. Now I have someone real with whom to debate noise reduction, compression, etc. And, even better, I have someone I can call for advice on pronunciations who will agree with my versions, no matter what the dictionary says. After all, he is the one who taught me my eccentric pronunciations! (sorry, Daddy! You really are a good pronouncer, and I did come up with the most goofy ones on my own!)

In other news, Ed found a new neurosurgeon, thanks to a friend whose husband is a doctor, and he goes to Winston to see him on Monday. (And then back to Winston on Tuesday for another MRI for another issue. Poor fellow.) We are hoping that this doctor will be wonderful!

The kids are going along as usual, with school, drawing, videos, and plenty of teen and pre-teen drama. We read about John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. this week, as well as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis. Lots of white mobs behaving badly to civil rights protesters, and our government collaborating with the KKK. Sigh. And so I retreat to Trollope and Homer, where the issues are less immediate.