That's a lot of pages

For kicks, I decided to keep track of every book I read this year. In January, I had a goal of reading 40 books. It looks like I exceeded that goal.

In order, here's what I read in 2006:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
2. The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand
3. Hand-Me-Down by Lee Nichols
4. The Boys of Winter by Wayne Coffey
5. A Million Little Pieces by James Fray
6. Marley & Me by John Grogan
7. 1776 by David McCullough
8. Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four by John Feinstein
9. Lapham Rising by Roger Rosenblatt
10. Jemima J by Jane Green
11. Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time by Michael Perry
12. We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
13. Tell Them I Didn't Cry by Jackie Spinner
14. Engaging Men by Lynda Curnyn
15. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
16. Confessions of an Ex-Girlfriend by Lynda Curnyn
17. Bombshell by Lynda Curnyn
18. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
19. The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot
20. Looking for Mr. Goodfrog by Laurie Graff
21. Gap Creek: A Story of a Marriage by Robert Morgan
22. Love @ First Site by Jane Moore
23. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival by Louis Murphy
24. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
25. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
26. Me vs. Me by Sarah Mlynowski
27. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
28. Letters to a Young Journalist by Samuel G. Freedman
29. Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire
30. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
31. Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore
32. All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
33. To Have and to Hold by Jane Green
34. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
35. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
36. The Other Woman by Jane Green
37. My War: Killing Time in Iraq by Colby Buzzell
38. True Believer by Nicholas Sparks
39. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
40. At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks
41. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
42. Babyville by Jane Green
43. A Widow's Walk by Marian Fontana
44. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
45. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

Looking back at the list, by far my favorites that I read this year were Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Marley & Me, Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time, Tell Them I Didn't Cry and The Book Thief. I recommend them all.

I'm aiming for 40 books again in 2007. This year, I might even keep track of how many pages each book is. Just for kicks.

Let me get political for a moment

So the reports are in that Saddam Hussein has been hanged.

And while I'm not arguing that he deserved what he got for what he did, I wonder momentarily what purpose it will serve. Are the Iraqi folks just going to go, "Yeah, he's dead. Now we're safe and the Americans are wonderful" ? Are the insurgent folks going to take the opportunity to blow up more explosives and are supposed to just sit by and hope that our troops don't get caught in the crossfire? Is Saddam being dead really going to change much of what's going on over there in the big sandbox known as the Middle East?

Don't get me wrong, I support our troops whole-heartedly. I support what they do and that they're willing to put their lives on the line to keep us safe and ensure our freedoms. But there are still times, four years later, when I wonder exactly what we're doing over there and why. And I don't think I'm alone in those thoughts.

Hello, my name is Pokey and I'll be your server tonight

It must have been national Awful Service Day in restaurants across the county yesterday.

I met up with my friend Nicole for lunch yesterday in Neenah. We hadn't seen each other in a few weeks due to that whole holiday madness and we each had the afternoon off, so we decided to meet and grab a bite to eat. We went to Applebee's and were seated promptly by a not-so-very-friendly wait staff. Our waitress showed up and got our drink order and then disappeared into that place where waitresses go.

And we waited. We had only asked for a minute or two more to peruse the menu and make our decision. We should have asked for 30 seconds since that minute turned into 10. But she finally came back, took our order and disappeared again.

She brought our food, returned once with drink refills and eventually brought our check and change. The quality of her service wasn't too terrible (I've had much worse service at Applebee's in the 'burg), but I think the thing that annoyed me was her very soft voice. I mean, busy, loud restaurant and we could barely hear her. Not too good. But tolerable.

Then last night, my parents came down to see my Christmas tree and take me to dinner. We went to Fratello's, which I've heard is normally quite good.

Maybe the first problem was the time. We never even left my apartment until 7:30. And considering I usually eat dinner around 6, that's kind of late for a big meal for me. But anyway, we went, got seated, were told our waitress would be with us in a minute and once again, were left to peruse the menus.

Sure, our waitress came. About 15 minutes later. She took our drink order and disappeared into that black hole where waitresses go. It took her 20 minutes to come back with our drinks and to take our order. Then it was another 20 minutes before she came back with my mom's salad. Surprisingly, our food made it out to us in another 5 minutes.

The food? My parents said their meals were good. Me? It could have been better. My cheeseburger, which I had specifically said "charbroiled burger with cheese" initially came without the cheese. And then instead of being medium well like I had asked, it was essentially still mooing. Yeah, last time I checked, medium well meant the burger was brown inside, not pink. But fearing it would take another 20 minutes to fix the pinkness and that I would die of starvation, I sucked it up and ate the still-mooing burger.

We finished our food, dad left a fairly generous tip considering the service and I filled out the comment card. And we left.

But that still-mooing burger came back to haunt me. Not only did I attempt to go to sleep on a way too full stomach, sometime in the middle of the night I felt like I was going to throw up and I got super hot. Now, either this was a hot flash (and hello, I'm only 26, way too young to be getting hot flashes) or else this was the still-mooing burger trying to get revenge on me. The good news, I didn't throw up. The bad news, my stomach still feels a little queasy.

But yeah, really bad service at area restaurants I visited yesterday.

More laziness

My lazy afternoon continued on into the evening.

I read. I did laundry. I met my mom and niece in Appleton for dinner. I came back home. I read some more. I finished my laundry.

And then I watched three hours of Friday Night Lights, the TV show on NBC that I've been wanting to watch all season. But it was always on Tuesday and it conflicted with something else I watched. And do I have to remind you of the temperamental VCR?

But there was a marathon on tonight. So I watched it. And it was good. And it's being moved to Wednesday nights. Although Lost is also on on Wednesday nights, I might be able to find some time, or a less temperamental VCR, to watch Friday Night Lights. Because I liked it. And I don't have to worry about missing the first episodes of the season, because nice NBC has them online so I can watch them. :)

And now back to my dull, non-productive vacation day.

Vacation day ramblings

I have the day off, yet I still had to make a few calls for work. Well, OK, it was one call, but still.

It's all because the bosses let me have today and tomorrow off, yet those are the only two days this week the district attorney's office is working. And I need to talk to the DA. So I called him, got his voice mail and left a message, telling him he could call me back on my cell today or tomorrow or wait until Friday, when I'm in the office and he isn't.

I'm crossing my fingers he'll wait until Friday.

Other than that, it's been a lazy day. I started some laundry, because, hello, the last remaining pair of pants I have that aren't dirty are about 2 sizes to big, so I'm always pulling them up when I stand up.

And I made a trip to the library. I picked up The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult. Both have come highly recommended. Oh, and I grabbed Love Actually on DVD, since I have some time on my hands between now and Jan. 3.

Tagged again?

Apparently you can be tagged multiple times in this game. Because suddenly I've been tagged again. And I'm supposed to come up with 5 more things you may or may not know about me. Here were go again...

1. I can't iron. I put more wrinkles into clothes than I take out. My family thinks it might be due to the fact that I only own a small, table top ironing board that I had while I was in college. I guess that's why my sister-in-law though a great Christmas gift would be a full-sized ironing board. I'm not optimistic my ironing abilities will improve though. Maybe I'll just start buying clothes that don't require ironing. Or just wear wrinkled shirts.

2. I'm a very picky eater. Although I think I've gotten better over the past few years. I like more fruits than vegetables. And I'm quite good at picking stuff that I don't like out of or off of food.

3. I play the violin and piano, but I hate performing solo. I think it goes back to a piano recital I was in in 4th grade. I had to have my pieces memorized and the first one (I can't recall what it was) went fine. However, for my second piece, I was playing "Dixie." I was playing and it was going good. I was almost to the end. When my mind went blank four measures from the end. I remember stopping, thinking and turning around to my piano teacher and asking if I could start over. She nodded yes and the folks in the audience laughed. Not in a "ha ha ha, you suck kind of way" but more a "ha ha, isn't she cute." I started the piece over, finished it with flying colors and have hated performing solo since.

4. I spent my summers during college working at a school supply warehouse. For the first three summers, I packed orders. My last summer I was the "checker," which meant I made sure all the stuff was right in the order. If it was wrong, I got to ride a yellow three-wheeled bike around the warehouse to get the right stuff. That was the most enjoyable part of the job. It sure wasn't the fact that all of my supervisors were lesbians, together.

5. My first car was a red 1985 Chevette. It didn't like driving on the highway and the check engine light would always come on. One time, while working at The Wisconsin State Journal in college, my boss sent me out to Belmont, Wis., this itty bitty town near Iowa, for a basketball game. It took me like an hour and half to get there. I went, parked next to the school's cow barn, covered the basketball game I was at and drove back to Madison to file my story before heading out for a night game in Middleton. All the way to Middleton, my car hurked and jerked down the Beltline. I was a bit frightened. I called my dad, told him what was going on and he told me what the problem was. Apparently the Chevette ate through transmission fluid like a normal car goes through gas. And I was running with no transmission fluid. From then on, I always carried a spare bottle or two of transmission fluid in my backseat. And I wonder why my dad didn't want to keep the Chevette another two years so we could get collector plates for it.

There, that was five more things. That means over the last few days you've learned 10 things about me. I think that's enough for now. And I don't think I'm going to tag anyone either, just because.

A Christmas list

I've been tagged, so I guess I'm supposed to list some stuff you may or may not know about me. Considering it's the Friday afternoon before Christmas and I still have one and half stories to write before I go home, I'm not promising anything amazing here. But I'll try.

1. At some point in my life, I've used every imaginable form of the name Jennifer. I've been Jenny W. (that was kindergarten when there were four Jennys in my morning class and another two in the afternoon class), Jenni, Jennie, Jennifer and Jen. Even now, I go by different versions. Jennifer in my professional life, Jenny or Jen by my friends and Jennifer by my family. Like I always say, I answer to anything within reason.

2. I took ballet lessons at the YMCA when I was in kindergarten. But then I broke my wrist falling off a piece of playground equipment and my mom never signed me up for lessons again. Probably a good thing. I don't think I'm quite cut out for ballet.

3. I bleed Badger red, but for a brief period in high school I seriously considered going to Marquette University. But then I found out what kind of tuition bills I would be getting and thought better of that decision. Dad's probably glad too since the campus was in one of the worst areas of Milwaukee.

4. I lived in Indiana for exactly 365 days. I moved there on Halloween and left on Halloween. I was a sportswriter, loved my job, liked my friends and hated Indiana with a passion.

5. I'm a procrastinator. Even in school, I would wait until the last minute to start writing a big paper. I'd pass it off as "preparing for my future career that will be full of deadlines."

Yeah, that's five. If you already knew them, sorry about that. If not, that's five more things you know about me now.

I'm supposed to tag some folks now. I tag Lootsfoz and whoever else feels like participating. Because I think most of the other folks who read this have already been tagged.

Day Two: Operation wrap

I didn't tackle the filing cabinet yesterday. But I did wrap my Christmas presents. Well, most of them anyway. But I ran out of wrapping paper with one gift left. And although it's going to be a pain in the butt to wrap my nephew's gift, there's no way I'm putting it in one of those over sized gift bags because, hello, you don't do that to a 2-year-old.

So I had to make a Target run tonight after work to get wrapping paper.

And tonight, I will finally finish wrapping presents. And then Christmas can come, cause I'll be ready.