Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I don't recall having trouble understanding you, so speaking quietly but enunciating well seems to have worked. You were across from me, so I could see your face; carbonel was on my left, and we were both looking mostly across the table when not looking at our food. [I wouldn't say I lipread very well, but lipreading does seem to be part of my useful input; I discovered this a couple of decades ago, when there was a panelist who had had a tracheotomy and used a voder. I couldn't understand him unless I could see his face, and after a couple of minutes realized I was lipreading a bit.