So, this is the first weekend in forever where I didn't have the word "STELLA!!!" on my to-do list. Because yes, I turned the manuscript into my editor Wednesday night as planned. I also don't have my freshmen research papers coming in until Tuesday, and since they're starting their magazine projects this basically means I have no grading or class prep to do for another day and a half.

Now, there are still a million things I can be or should be doing: laundry, cleaning the kitchen, taking my online defensive driving course, etc. But this morning the boy and I finally had our fancy pants birthday brunch with my parents at the Mendenhall Inn, and after stuffing ourselves silly we had very little energy to do more than chill. Sometime this afternoon I looked at my actual MySpace page for the first time in forever and realized the background I'd been using had somehow disappeared, so I found a new layout and loaded it. But it ran off the browser page, and this annoyed me. Actually, MySpace annoys me to no end. But having a page is, like, mandatory in the YA Universe, so earlier this year I caved and now I have this ugly, annoying thing I have to maintain on a semi-regular basis. Anyway, I asked the boy to help me, and while he messed around with the coding (because he is the best boy in the whole wide world), I slinked off to the living room to watch MY FAIR BRADY and the mini ROCK OF LOVE 2 marathon I taped because Carlie insisted it was gold and I tend to trust Carlie's reality TV judgement.

How disappointed was I to find out that BEAUTY & THE GEEK'S Megan (of Scooter and Megan) as one of ROCK OF LOVE 2's contestants? I mean, wasn't BEAUTY & THE GEEK about dispelling the very stereotypes reinforced by ROCK OF LOVE? Didn't she learn ANYTHING?

It's going on six and the boy had to run to a meeting and won't be back until eight-ish, and I know I should be tackling some of the household chores and applying for jobs and being a productive member of society. But really, all I want to do is cuddle with my pooch and zone out in front of some of the cooking shows I DVR'd this weekend. Food porn: I'm totally addicted.

(Speaking of food porn, if you're into that sort of thing you totally need to check out Hogwash, a new blog I discovered today. It is priceless.)

(Speaking of food porn again, the boy and I have talked several times about making a YouTube video featuring clips of stars from the Food Network eating, scored to classic '70s porn music. Although I bet someone has probably done this by now, because we're not so quick with our brilliant ideas.)

Lastly, watched AMERICAN GANGSTER last night as part of my bid to see as many Oscar-nominated movies as possible before the ceremony later this month ... and managed to fall asleep through 20 crucial minutes during the second half. I'm still trying to figure out what Ruby Dee did during those 20 minutes I missed to garner an Oscar nomination, because the stuff I did see her do wasn't so very noteworthy. But who am I to judge? And oh! It looks like the Oscar question might not be a question at all soon: I hear the WGA is veryveryclose to settling their strike. Which means we may have a May Sweeps season yet!