Top 10 Things

10. (7) MOVING - I should be packing stuff into boxes, but I feel ubercrappy.
9. (na) NEW YEAR’S - I’m really looking forward to New Year’s Eve and Day events – two separate parties, two different vibes, but both will be tons of fun.
8. (2) MY LACK OF A JOB - Still important, but there isn’t much that can be done until the long weekend is over.
7. (na) TOP 10 THINGS ORDER - I am inverting the order, placing the thing most interesting to me at the bottom. Geniuses have been doing this for years. I have just figured it out.
6. (9) CRAZY JANE - Jane was kind enough to give me a book that I’m really enjoying reading. Perhaps I will post on it later.
5. (na) MY DAD’S BLOG - Tracy and I were at my Mom and Dad’s to do Christmas with them this morning. We also helped them with some computer things, including my Dad setting up a blog. It’s at latesundaynight.blogspot.com. I think it has the potential to be really great.
4. (1) UNNAMED CHURCH PROJECT - I called a lot of people yesterday and today. I should have called more, but, I get SO exhausted from using the phone. (I know that seems weird, especially from a lawyer – deal with it)
3. (8) MY GENERAL HEALTH - I continue to feel crappy, but haven’t puked since Thursday night. It was not easy to get through work on Friday.
2. (na) ELF - We watched this movie again last night. I really think it’s a modern classic. Very funny. It’s smart enough that you keep thinking that to stay funny it’s going to go blue, but it doesn’t.
10. (na) MYTHTV - It was nice to come home to recorded television again.

Ten Things of Interest to Me

Top 10 Things (numbers in parentheses are yesterday’s ranking)

1. (2) UNNAMED CHURCH PROJECT – I made some calls yesterday. I need to make many more today.

2. (1) MY LACK OF A JOB – Tracy and I talked a little bit about this yesterday, and I feel better about it today. We won’t die if (when) I’m unemployed on Tuesday.

3. (na) FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS – Boy, howdy, this is a good show. I rarely watch reruns, but NBC showed three of them last night. I watched them and DVR’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s. There is a scene in one of the episodes where a girl is being picked on by her peers because she cheated on her boyfriend, who is paralyzed. Her father (a gruff good old boy) goes to her, she explains what happened, and he says “We all make mistakes, and then we learn. But I’m your dad, and I love you no matter what.” I don’t know how many stereotypical fathers would really have said that, but watching that scene makes me hope and believe that each of them might. Just like Jed Bartlett made me hope for and believe in a great government to run our great nation. “Studio 60” was supposed to be the heir apparent to “West Wing,” but FNL is the real deal.

4. (4) SELLING THE HOUSE – I spent a LOT of time in the shower this morning thinking about what has to happen to the house to make it marketable.

5. (na) TRIVIAL PURSUIT TOTALLY 80’S EDITION – Tracy gave me this for Christmas and we played it for the first time last night. I think part of her goal was to find a trivia-based game where she could beat more frequently. She may have achieved her goal. We quit tied, before the game actually ended. The gameplay is that same as the traditional Trivial Pursuit, except that I wind up singing a lot of hair band music.

6. (na) POLENTA – I made the game bird last night, and it was fine, but I don’t need to do it again. However, I mixed up my polenta preparation and was very pleased with the results. I did it traditionally, on the stovetop, as opposed to in the oven (per Alton Brown’s recipe) and was very pleased with the different texture. I also added Cheddar instead of Parmesan and I really like the flavor and color.

7. (3) MOVING – I am still stuck in unpacking from the last move. Blech.

8. (10) MY GENERAL HEALTH – There was more coughing this morning.

9. (na) JANE – Our friend Crazy Jane is coming over to the house this afternoon (which I found out at about 1:30 this morning) and it is a mess. She won’t mind, but I feel bad.

10. (5) DINNER – We are going to a party tonight, and I don’t know if we should eat first.

Top 10 for Today

Welcome to my Top Ten Interesting Things for Tuesday, December 27.

1. MY LACK OF A JOB – First and foremost is this problem – I’m moving to be closer to my lovely wife, but have no career awaiting me. Dozens of resumes and a few interviews into the process, my last day at the court is approaching like a steam engine. Only faster. Like a Mag-rail train built big, like a steam engine. Including a cow-catcher.

2. UNNAMED CHURCH PROJECT – I need to call a lot of people to help me with a weekend project in mid-January. I have to call them within 24 hours. I hate making calls and asking for help.

3. MOVING – See above. Many boxes need to be filled. But where they are sent is contingent upon the resolution of interesting thing No. 1.

4. SELLING THE HOUSE – This is intricately related to, but different from, numbers 1 and 3.

5. DINNER – Tracy will not be home for it, so I am free to do what I want. The kitchen is cleaner that it has been in a month (thanks to Tracy), so that increases my options. I have been seriously considering a Cornish Game Hen with polenta. I really like polenta.

6. MYTHTV – This is the DVR system that I installed on an unused portion of my desktop PC, which also required the installation of Linux. I’m still pretty happy with it, now that it’s been up and running for about a week.

7. CHRISTMAS GIFTS – We returned Monday night with gifts in tow, but I have yet to take time to analyze them and have fun with them.

8. OXFORD AMERICAN – I was given a copy of this magazine for my birthday, and the more I read it the more I like it. Essentially, Southern writing. Southern Fiction mixed with Southern reporting mixed with Southern music and movies. But it’s the way it is all so well done that makes it great.

9. BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S – It’s on TV tonight. I’ve never watched it, and I sort of feel like I should. That is to say, I sort of want to.

10. MY GENERAL HEALTH – I felt miserable yesterday, which may have been a function of being worn out from job-hunting stress. Then I had a horrible cough this morning. My blood sugars have also been goofy. Most of this is interrelated. I keep thinking I’ll get a job and move and exercise and it will settle down, but that may be wishful thinking.