Well, maybe not exactly nothing. I sorted through laundry and put a load in the washer (but not the dryer), washed some dishes, did some general tidying up and putting things away. I had intended to do some writing, but Elvis comandeered the internet early on, so I left him to it.

What I mostly did was recline on the sofa and watch TV. Calliope liked it, as she mainly spent the day stretched out in my lap, napping, which is one of her favorite things in the world, right next to being fed. Occasionally, my slippers and I would shuffle to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, or get a diet coke, or some juice.

It's a funny thing, sloth. It seems to grow exponentially. I had intended to trade places with Elvis after a while, let him veg in front of the TV while I wrote a bit and surfed the net, but as the day wore on I just couldn't be bothered. Also, he seemed pretty happy as things were. In fact, he's perfectly happy playing his marble solitaire game for two, twelve, twenty-two hours in a row, as long as there are cokes in the fridge, and quite often when there aren't.

I thought about going to the gym, more than once. But then I thought, hey, it's Carnival. Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday. Better to lounge around and, well, be fat. And I had home made vegetable soup and a salad for lunch. How virtuous is that? Maybe not as virtuous as if I hadn't put Roquefort in the salad and sprinkled croutons on the soup, but certainly not bad.

Needless to say, we didn't go out last night, either, Carnival or no. I had half a beer with my nachos (keeping up with the "fat" theme), but I didn't even feel like finishing it.

And now it's Lent. Ash Wednesday and I don't even know what time Mass is being held. I'm guessing around twelve, so I'll just show up at the church on my way back from Portuguese class and see what happens.

Monday I had a private language lesson, as all the other students in my class either went away for a long weekend or had small children off school for half-term break (even though it's nowhere near the halfway point of the term. Go figure.) My teacher had some material from a different book for me to read aloud and conjugate on the fly, and then we talked for half an hour. She told me that I speak very well, although it doesn't really seem that way to me. I need more vocabulary, because I'm always having to stop and think of a way to phrase things to get around not knowing or recalling the appropriate word.

Monday night, of course, we DID go out. It wasn't the raucous night of debauchery one might expect. For one thing, we were tired-- didn't even go out until eleven. Then again, that's never stopped us before and we always seem to get our second (or third) wind eventually. For another, a lot of the usual suspects were missing. Miss Kitty went out of town for a long weekend with Harold and Maude. Janet went out of town on business, although John was there. Popeye and Pooka Boy pretty much vanished. I have no idea what happened to them. Wimps. But there were still quite a few people out and about, and we had a good time.

As I expected, not many people dressed up. It's pretty much for kids, anyway. The masks were perfect, then, and they went over well. I'd forgotten just how neat they are. Sir was dressed up as a clown, which was pretty much perfect for him. Lady Jane had a mermaid sort of thing going on: very sexy. One of the SS Girls was wearing thigh-high boots, her hair in ponytails, and a plaid schoolgirl sort of outfit she was busting to get out of-- literally and on all sorts of levels.

I think of them as the SS Girls because they look and act exactly as if they ought to be hanging out behind the high school gym, skipping class and sneaking cigarettes, and flirting with the type of boys that look cool in leather jackets and always seem to have a slight whiff of marijuana smoke about them.

The Late Night Bar of Evil was Big Fun, as usual. Pretty crowded, too, although not as crowded as it can get, which was good. Weird, Grabby Guy was there, but I gave him a good old glare and he didn't try anything, just wandered off to sniff round the SS Girls.

So we danced, and talked a bit about nothing in particular and drank our beer. We sang along to American Pie, and sang and waved our sparklers to Hey, Jude. We left not too long after 4 am, and walked home in relatively straight lines.

It was a good night.