Satisne sanus es? Non sum.

"Hi. But the voice mailbox of the person you are trying to call has not been set up yet. Goodbye."

I tried to call a friend and got that error message, and it made me sad--not because the friend wasn't there, but because of the syntactic structure of the message. (Or should I say "sentence's syntactic structure?" Say THAT five times fast!) But now that I think about it, would it really be that much better to hear her say something like "We're sorry, but your call cannot be completed as dialed"? Did you ever wonder exactly who "we" is and why they're so sorry? More likely, they don't even know or care about your predicament. Ha, sucks to be you!

I got Steven talking about cars today, and he really came to life explaining about pistons and spark plugs and whatnot. I didn't understand most of what he said, even after he drew me a diagram, but it was fun watching him get so enthusiastic. Then he asked me to teach him some Latin. I tried, but it's so difficult to explain what declensions and conjugations and genders are to a teenage English speaker who's only half paying attention! If I were a teacher and could give him exercises and vocabulary to practice with, it'd be cake. I guess the same goes for his attempts to teach me mechanics. Anyway, I used the classic example of "laudo, laudas, laudat," which means "I praise, you praise, he praises," and since he thinks "Satannus" means "Satan," he now runs around saying "Laudo Satannus." Well, he did until I pointed out that "Satannus" would be the direct object, so it would probably be Satannum. I didn't tell him that Satan would probably be Diabolus, not Satannus.

I can't help but remember Nikki's favorite Latin phrase: Da mihi basia mille (Give me a thousand kisses). She used to run around saying that left and right any time she saw me studying Latin. She took Latin in high school for like three years, and apparently, that's the only phrase she remembers.

My personal favorite was "Morituri, te salutamus." (We, who are about to die, salute you.) And today, I was reviewing Wheelock's, and found a short conversation I recognized from the movie 300. "Caelum propter numerum sagittarum non videbitis." "In umbra, igitur, pugnabimus." ("You will not see the sky because of the number of arrows." "Then we will fight in the shade.")

Doing in-house today, there was one room in which a little girl followed us around calling "Housekeepiiiiiing!!! Hooooousekeeeeepiiiiing!!! Where are yooooou? Hoooousekeepiiiiiing!!!!" When we went upstairs to make the beds, she followed us and said, "Hey, hey, that one's my bed! Make my bed!"

"Okay, we'll make your--"

"No, hey, don't make my bed!"

"Okay, we won't make your--"

"Make my bed!"

"Okay, we will."

"And one more thing! Don't step on my teddy bear!"

"Okay, we won't."

"And one more thing! Don't mess up my markers!"

"Okay."

"And one more thing! Don't squish the baby!"

"Good idea."

"And one more thing! Don't move my flip-flops!"

"I promise."

"And one more thing! You have to stay upstairs!"

"For how long?"

"You can't go downstairs!"

"Okay."

"And one more thing!"

Her brother, who looked to be about a year older, so about seven(?), was making his own bed while Steven and I made hers. By the time we finished, the boy was finishing up his own. It was terribly wrinkled, and the blankets were on sideways, but I stepped back and said, "Wow, this guy's really good at making beds! We should have him come work for us!" The little boy puffed out his chest and practically started glowing! Kids are funny.

This post has been brought to you by the word laconic.