FAIL

* Blogging

* Reading the novels sent to me by Kim Shable and Susan

* Leaving the bar at Smartini

* Seeing Reese and Dillon

* Contact with the outside world

* House-hunting

* Being productive at work

* Writing (in a way that uses that MFA thing I've got)

* Finances - surprise - $270 for car servicing! Taxes not back yet. Yelch.

* Sending back the merchandise that Amazon sent me incorrectly

* March project for volunteer group (although, I will have to partially blame it on the rain that is falling, falling.)

* Putting a picture of The Barrister on my desk at work

* Life, generally speaking

Potpourri

*Helped Mom and Justin can six gallon-sized freezer bags of fresh tomatoes today. Dad picked up two five-gallon buckets from a friend of his on Friday night. We've had tomatoes for every meal since - including Justin's and Mom's summer marinara pasta sauce with sausage. Deeelish.

* Went to see The Dark Knight with my dear intern on Thursday night. It was delightful to go with a 21-year-old who giggled every time I mentioned how hot Christian Bale is. Oh, and the movie lives up to the hype.

* Dreamed last night that I was at a conference (in Hotel Entrapment, as fate would have it) at which I was forced to attend a Civil War reenactment.

* Due to my father's weekly watching, I'm...um...kind of beginning to like NASCAR. And, for the record, Kasey Kahne is very cute.

* The Tales of Beetle the Bard will be available from Amazon in December. I reserve judgment. It's both thrilling and...well, also potentially a recipe for extreme disappointment. I hope it takes us back to a delicious, bittersweet bit of the Potterverse...and doesn't fall flatter than an overused Fanged Frisbee.

* I wish I could resist the urge to click on the People.com link and feed the Brangelina Baby frenzy. But...I...just...couldn't...not...click.

* Hired a real dynamo at the office last week. No really. She's conversational in 13 languages. I felt my job security slipping.

* School is starting this week. It makes me want to buy pencils. And a Trapper Keeper.

* Today we made blackberry cobbler out of the last of the summer blackberries, and it was August.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

J.K. Rowling's handwritten and personally illustrated leatherbound copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard sold at auction today for $4 million, which will go to benefit charity. Initial reports were that the volume was purchased by the London art agent Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox. Later today, it was revealed that the book was actually purchased on behalf of Amazon.com. It is the only one of seven created by Rowling that was made available to the public - the other six copies were gifts to close friends. And it's gorgeous.

I have to give it to Amazon...this purchase was a smart move. Four million dollars, yes, but an alliance with its top-selling product line of all time. In fact, I just read in Real Simple today that the top three products with a five star review are Harry Potter books.

Anyway, Amazon is doing two things I heartily approve of (which may make up for the Super Saver Free Shipping debacle I had with them the other night - but that's another story). First of all, they've shared the treasure with fans by creating a separate page for the book which includes numerous photographs, description and a message board for discussion. They plan to review the book and release some of the text. Secondly, they plan to tour with The Tales of Beedle the Bard at schools and libraries. I applaud Amazon for capitalizing on this (so far) only by drawing people to the site and for sharing it immediately, rather than withholding it like a corporate game of keepaway. It's nice to think that maybe, just maybe, the magic of Harry Potter prevails again. The gesture, the tone of the site, make me feel like somebody at Amazon is just like me - just an enchanted reader who wants to keep sharing the Potterverse with the rest of us. Well done, Amazon.

The Merry Malaise

Christmas time is here. Happiness and cheer. Or not so much. I don't mean to sound so Scroogish. It's just that the holiday season is turning into the holiday sadness, such as

* Total annoyance with the Secret Santa game at work - the complex logistics, the forced clue-dropping, having to make dip for the big "reveal" party. Yelch.

* Inability to shop. At all. I finally gave in last night and dropped a load at Amazon just to get some of it done.

* Counting down the days until Christmas...is over.

* Irritation at the onslaught of Christmas commercials with the Rockwell-esque and Courier & Ives Christmas scenes that don't exist but that I somehow feel like they should.

* Repulsion over the excess...the recent tour of a very big home with very expensive furniture, art, decor...millions invested in it all...for a family of three.

* The anticipation for the childlike wonder to flicker and flare inside me somewhere...and the simultaneous knowing that I'm waiting in vain

* Telling Mom every day that I'll help her finish decorating the Christmas tree...and not doing it

* Investigating the box of goodies from FudgeyNut that Dad brought home and thinking about devouring the whole lot in a fit of depressed binge-eating

* Having to call the doctor, ask for more of The Medicine, because, well, bah humbug

I'm It

Pen tagged me because she doesn't know enough weird stuff about me, so she needs to know seven new things. Here goes:

1. I have a nearly photographic memory. In a recent meeting, I was able to recall (and name out loud to the group) the first and last names of 20 people I had just met. I used to be able to remember answers on tests by visualizing the location of the answer on the page in my notes.

2. I almost always pick a good wine from the wine list. I know almost nothing about wines, but I can usually look at the list and know which one will be good.

3. Sometimes, I find reading a book jacket as satisfying as reading the book. I love book jacket copy. I like to get on amazon.com and troll around, reading the book descriptions. It's like speed-reading.

4. For the longest time, I refused to eat olives. I swore did not like olives. Recently, I rediscovered olives. The other day, I was eating kalamatas out of a jar with a spoon.

5. When I was little, I had an imaginary friend. He looked like Johann from the Smurfs. And I'm afraid that his name was Gaddy. I have no idea why. Also, I had Holly Hobby wallpaper that I talked to - and grew so attached to, that I would not let my parents remove it, even when the glue failed and the paper would fall down on me in the night. I kept it held up with thumbtacks.

6. We have a feral cat that lives in our house. Inside our house. No one can touch her. We see her; we talk to her; we feed and water her; we love her. But, for all intents and purposes, she is like a wild animal. We never, ever pet her. (Except for occasions like the other day when we trapped her in the bathroom to cut matted hair off her back.) And her name, appropriately, is Shadow.

7. I abhor Pepsi. And Diet Pepsi. If I order Diet Coke in a restaurant and the server asks, "Is Diet Pepsi okay?", I will say no and order water. Diet Pepsi is like getting Patrick Duffy when you ordered Patrick Dempsey.

Passing on the weirdness...I'm not feelings so tag-a-licious about this. If you're jonesing to share seven oddities - you kids over there on the right, I'm talking to you - go for it.

Shine - Track Listing

The track listing for the David Gray early years album is finally up on Amazon and set for release on April 3. Unfortunately for me, there's no new material. It's a pretty good who's who of his work from early albums Flesh, A Century Ends and Sell, Sell, Sell. If you don't have those albums and are hungry for some new David Gray between albums, pick it up. 1. Shine

2. Late Night Radio

3. Coming Down

4. Birds Without Wings

5. The Light

6. Everytime

7. A Century Ends

8. Lullaby

9. Faster, Sooner, Now

10. Wisdom

11. Falling Free

12. Sell, Sell, Sell

13. Debauchery

14. Flesh

15. Hold On To Nothing UPDATE: Posting this reminded me how much I love David Gray. And that I had an as-yet unused iPod laying around. I just loaded all my David Gray into iTunes and finally got the iPod going. Now I will have plenty of David Gray to keep me company on the plane this weekend!

Gray Area

Because Justin thought that "Nightblindness" was a cover, and I was pretty certain it wasn't, I checked the good ol' Wikipedia entry for David Gray to prove myself right. Turns out that was a good move - how else would I have known that David Gray is releasing a Best of the Early Years compilation.

Unfortunately, I have no idea if he, like some artists, are including one or two new tracks on the disc, because the contents of said disc are something akin to an international secret. No mention of it on his official site. Amazon has it listed for release on April 3 but no track listing. And another search led me to his VH1 artist page, which was devoid of cover art and track listing, but had the release date for March 26.

Point is, if you like Gray and don't have his early stuff, you'll definitely want to pick this up. My guess is it'll have his acoustic masterpieces from Lost Songs and the like. Of course, you might have to give your social security number, PIN and mother's maiden name to be granted access to it.