Somewhere in the middle of the summer, probably about the time I was charging through the Harry Potter series, I was on pace for way over 60 this year, maybe over 70.

But then came the madness of Little League and the end of summer and our vacation and somewhere in there was Half-Life 2/Episode 1/Episode 2/Portal and... well, I still read too damn much. I didn't break my 2004 record of 57 books, but averaging a book a week is still pretty damn decent in, er, uh, my... well, book. Books. Bookity bookity book. Book you.

Anyway, before I go any deeper into insanity, here it is, complete with quick, gut-punch recommendations/un-recommendations.

( The 2007 book list: )

-Over last summer, took a Photoshop class that included cross-training in InDesign, throwing stars and stealth.
-Years of experience with the Ninja Gaiden series on the NES have to be worth something.
-Saw in Forbes that the ninja shortage will be a bigger crisis than the nurse shortage in a couple years.
-Since work is mostly nights and weekends, won't have to TiVO The Price Is Right any more.
-Heard the benefits package was unbeatable.
-Would finally get to avenge the death of my sensei, kick Ralph Macchio's ass.

A while back, Jen and I created a list of mash-ups of companies and band names - and a couple weeks ago, we brainstormed a new version: mash-ups of company names and movie titles. It turned out to be way harder than the bands version, but we found some good ones - ( on to the list! )

-Can institute Zero Pants Initiative at any time without feeling too much like a lazy bastard.

-Both the Strategic Cereal Reserve and Critical Toilet Paper Reserve will be increased without the fear of instant depletion.

-Centipede Alert Level lowered to Blue, unless I have a shoe handy, in which case it's still at Red and a Half.

-No fear of any kind of sanctions if I leave a jacket hanging on the back of a chair.

-Can finally develop personal nuclear arsenal without risk of her constantly blowing the whistle to the IAEA.

I got randomly thinking about Top Tens the other day, and started rolling around some random ones in my head. I couldn't come up with ten for this one, but here are ( the top five golf shots I've seen in person. )

Things I Currently Don't Give A Damn About But Can't Escape No Matter How Hard I Try:

-Suri
-Steve Irwin continuing to be dead
-Bad 9/11 fifth anniversary news packages - including NPR's brilliant idea, "What would things be like if the terrorist attacks never happened?" Damn it, NPR, I expect better from you.
-Japanese heirs
-Rosie and the View
-Pimp Benny Sixtizzle

All right, the last one's kind of amusing.

Since I'm gonna be plastered to a gym floor shooting wrestling for upwards of four hours later today, I'm doing something mindless and stupid: inspired by a post that referenced another post on dooce.com, here are my ( Five Fame Fuckers, plus some extra lists: )

All right, I give in to the latest LJ virus, but on my terms. We (read: I) present to you: ( the interests no one cares about, which is to say, all my unique interests. )

-I defeated the BIT and left work before midnight tonight - man, small victories. Really small victories. Miniscule victories. Victories so small you need a working knowlege of superstring theory to best explain them.

-Small victories, part two: the BIT games for tomorrow got cancelled because one team forfeited out of the tournament. So now I can go to work at a decent hour and maybe come home at a decent hour. Or at least not come home at freakin' midnight.

-"Mona Lisa Overdrive" is a good highway driving accompaniment, except when you're already doing 5-10 mph over the speed limit... and then the speed limit drops 10 mph, so you're definitely breaking the law.

-State cops have been extraordinarily civil and cooperative over the last six or nine months; I'm wondering if there was some media training in there, or if it's a leadership thing or what.

-One of the many things journalism school doesn't teach you is how to relate to other humans in high-emotion situations; whether a car accident or hijacking or a funeral or tonight, where I had a softball field half-full of sobbing 9-year-olds. Because I was shooting both teams, I never had time to make a teary photograph... which is sorta OK, as I know the paper never would've run it.

You thought Jen was dorky? Man, forget it. She's got nothing.

( You think you got game? Bring it, sucka. )

( Stuff I like lately: )

...and...

( Stuff I dislike lately: )

In the interest of... uh... me not wanting to edit photos right this second, we present to you:

( Really random phone numbers in my cell phonebook! )

The quick-hit MDweekendbonanza:

-Believe. In nothing in particular, necessarily, but believe already. And in giant, white-on-black fonts.
-Yeungling in cans. A new experience.
-Total mastery of Pete in Madden NFL on the Playstation, which has controls that don't even vaguely resemble the computer version. And hey, 20-mph winds, driving snow and temperatures around 0 appear to be the ideal conditions for the two quarterbacks to throw for a combined 500-ish yards and 5 touchdowns. You figure it out.
-Extreme cat comedy. Side note: if you're going to flush a cat out of hiding and it decides to pingpong about the room, you probably should've checked the windowsill for the other cat first.
-The smell of charred housing, and the sight of it from the roof. Also: drinking on the roof.
-The diner of diners, and the wait of waits. Also, a breakfast that I misread that apparently came with every breakfast meat possible, including panda.
-Boozing it up, but not falling to my death from one of the levels of the kickassedly-designed Casa de Emma and Pete. Have I mentioned I dig the hell out of the loft design of the place?
-Superhighway rest stops, may you always kick ass.
-Jen admitting she thought the "information superhighway" was referencing some massive telecommunications project that would run alongside big highways like 95.
-Random traffic on 95 coming home, which seemed to be caused by a somewhat damaged road sign. Or there was an accident on the other side of the road that we missed. Or there was just some dumbass in a big rig doing 35 mph. Oh, wait, no - that was earlier in the drive. Ugh.
-Inner Harbor wanderings that including avoiding the aquarium, which is something like $18 or a major organ to get in. What the hell, national aquarium? Those dolphins better be diamond-studded.
-No lobster paraphenilia, given the Chesapeake Bay is such a crab-obsessed place.
-Emma drives stick, which - in addition to the birthday thing - made her the coolest person of the weekend.
-Jen being vaguely concerned someone would steal her car's hubcaps, only her car has aluminum rims, so no worries there.
-Cristin's constant drunken singing.

( And did I mention how raucous the party was? )

Random sidelights from today's Ritacco Center trip:

-I knew I'd see Brian (snoophuntyhunt) at some point, but I called him in the third quarter as Sacred Heart was staking themselves to a 37-18 lead to tell him not to rush, since a giant celebration was inevitable. He got there right in time for the madness, so that was cool.
-I had the world's most uneventful ride up and down Rt. 70, unless you count the fact that our sports reporter tailed me coming back the entire way. How do I know? Because of his silhouette in my rearview mirror - it's pretty hard to miss a guy driving while wearing a big-ass floppy hat.
-Sacred Heart now moves into the Tournament of Champions, and I'm hoping I can parlay that into another day or two of not having to go into the office. We'll see. Ideally they'll win a couple games in the ToC and get to play at the Continental Airlines Arena in about two weeks - that'd be freakin' awesome.
-Quiznos/Panera Bread really need to have the decency to be open later on Saturdays for those of us who have to drive an hour and a half to cover basketball games in the evening. Sure, if I'd done 90 on 70, I probably could've caught a bite at either place... but soup & sandwiches just ain't worth that.
-Total photos from pre- to post-game: 489.

Now even larger, thanks to the efforts of Jen and I:

( This is a list of company names made infinitely more awesome by incorporating band names: )

-I used "fortnight" in a sentence - specifically, "It's just one of those fortnights."

-While driving in a quasi-whiteout, I decided to grab my camera, slap it on top of my steering wheel, and blindly blast away as I drove down the highway, a technique that actually produced the shot I wanted it to. I was moderately impressed.

-Left work at 3:30, way before the snow even thought about sticking to the roads. Congrats to all the local weather geeks who blew two forecasts in one week. That's not luck, that's talent. (Shh... I know it's going to accumulate. I'm just tired of the endless freakout of the last couple of days, warning us we'd all be frozen into our workplaces sometime around noon.)

Man, I don't know what I was complaining about yesterday - after all, I got home just after six.

GMT.

(for all of us time zone/math phobics out there, that's one in the morning, Eastern)

As I've probably said around Election Days of past, there's an up side to driving after midnight: stop signs and red lights are nonexistent. That is, there are no cops looking for speeders (or so few that your chances are excellent), so you can roll through stop signs at 10 mph, and all the lights are on sensors around here, so the light either changes as you get near it or right after you roll up.

( And the complete roundup on yesterday's insane sked: )

Since I've just had to go out and clear yet another inch of snow off everything outside, I bring to you ( Bryan's ramblings about past Winters of Doom: )