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How’s everybody doing with the book? Did those of you who’d ordered it finally get it? I’m thinking we could start the discussion properly in a week or so. Also, keep in mind that we’ll be doing The Lovely Bones next. I’ve had a request in for it at my local bookstore forever, but no luck yet. If you haven’t gotten a copy yet, start looking!

Max found a great article about the rise and fall of the Backstreet Boys. Confession: I own their “Millennium” album. Come on, “I Want It That Way” is seriously one of the best pop songs ever. It’s not high art or anything, but I think there’s merit in the fact that it embodies the genre so perfectly. It’s catchy, it’s disposable, it’s fun to sing. And Tara D does a wicked Nick Carter imitation on his solo.

When my mom’s family moved to America from Korea, my mom and her siblings were automatically U.S. citizens by virtue of their American father. My grandma, on the other hand, had to be naturalized. She had to learn all about the government and our important documents and even take a test to prove her knowledge. Think you could do the same? Check out this U.S. Citizenship Test with actual questions from the INS version. I got 11/11, but a couple of them I had to think about. (Link courtesy of Mia.)

Misery. At one point tonight, I think I felt as physically bad as I’ve ever felt in my life. I was sitting on a bench late at night and miles from home, shivering in the cold and rain, having just thrown up in a garbage can, praying that I would just open my eyes and be home in my bed. My stomach has been hurting for a few days, but I thought I was well enough today to attend a friend’s barbecue. I was wrong. But don’t worry. The Snook is taking good care of me. He got me home, and I’m so relieved to be here I could weep. I’m gonna go sleep for a long time and hopefully I’ll be in better shape next time you hear from me.

Hooray! After nine long months in the 56K wilderness… We have ADSL again! No more crappy dialup connection. Surfing the web is a joy once more – which means you can probably expect a lot more posting. 🙂

“Take heed, my friends, of this tale so thorny. / Woe is the student of Law so horny!” Best. Poem. Ever. Seriously, Claire is brilliant.

You know that episode of Friends where Monica teaches Chandler how to appreciate a bath? Well, I’ve been doing that with the Snook. Our new house has this big, deep, old-fashioned claw-footed bathtub that’s so long I can stretch my legs out fully in it. It even came with this groovy little brass shelf/basket that sits across the middle to hold your Diet Coke and chocolate. (Well, really it’s for soap, but my way is more fun.) Anyway, as you might imagine we’ve both been taking way more baths than usual since we moved in. I’m personally a big fan of the LUSH bath ballistics, which make the water all fizzy and perfumed. Some of them even have rose petals and seaweed and glitter in them! Of course, the Snook being a manly fellow, he has – up until this point – refrained from polluting his bath water with all the crap I seem to find necessary. Today that all changed, though, when I brought home a “Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds” Bubble Bar. I demonstrated to him that you just break off a chunk and throw it in the running water, and voila! You have mounds of big fluffy bubbles to play in. He didn’t realize he’d come out smelling of patchouli, though, til after he’d been soaking in it for nearly an hour. Tee hee. 🙂

How do you like your bath? Or are you a shower person?

Looking for a unique gift for that special someone? How about a Leg Lamp? Yes, seriously. You can even customize the stocking, shoe, and lampshade to complement any decor. For an extra fifteen bucks, they’ll stamp “FRA-GI-LEE” on the side of the box and enclose a “Major Award” certificate. I know what my old man’s getting for Christmas this year! 🙂

Wow, this Baby Name-O-Meter is pretty cool. Enter your name and you can see its popularity graphed over the last century. Kristine seems to have appeared out of nowhere in the 1940s, peaked in the ’70s (when it landed on me), and it’s now in decline. Now I’m totally curious about its origins. Was there some famous World War II chick named Kristine that everybody copied? (Link courtesy of Gael.)