Whining Ensues

I am sick.  I have been sick for eleven days now, which means that I was sick on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, my birthday, and New Year's.  It also means that we had to cancel plans to see friends who have gone unseen (by us, anyway -- they are not otherwise invisible ) for far too long.  For most of the week, I have been bundled, pupa-like, inside our house, surrounded by new books and clothes and DVDs and chocolates and making regular but plodding progress on my time-travel book-thingy.  S...