Some other odds and ends to cover. If I hurry through this, I can get upstairs in time to … well, waste the rest of my Sunday evening, I suppose.

• I’m chickening out — I had mentioned that I would be giving away a lot of Orthodox books that I came by. I’m still going to do that, but I’ve become aware of some people at a mission church who are looking to start a library and so I’m going to box up the lot and send them off to them. Originally, I was going to blog the entire list and let everyone tell me what they wanted. But this way is much less onerous of a chore, and when you’re a lazy lout like me, that’s important. So apologies given (and prayers for my healing from laziness are welcomed).
• Jan’s got the contender for the World’s Worst New Icon contest (be prepared to be amazed - HERE) and I didn’t even know there was one. I’d like to think that this is just a little prank of The Onion Dome, but I kinda doubt it.
• Speaking of The Onion Dome, when I linked over to them, I got caught up in the latest fun, this hilarity over the parish council meeting that wouldn’t end (link HERE). (In case anyone doesn’t know, The Onion Dome’s “articles” are all spoofs, not real — just some fun about the sublime and ridiculous to be found in living Orthodox):
  

  By the time the committee heads and ministers began their reports, the meeting had gone into its third hour. [new transplant] Wentholme wanted to know if the parish stewardship committee shopped at Wal-Mart, how the parish ministry committee would handle a hypothetical situation of a pregnant abuse victim within the parish, how the choir director reached his decision about how much Byzantine chant to use in any given Sunday.

  I’m glad to say I don’t know parish council meetings like that first-hand, but I’ve heard about them. And when I got to the bottom of the article, lo and behold, it was courtesy of Ms. World of Speculation herself. Well, small world!

• Finally thought of a New Year’s Resolution, and it’s a real cliche, but what the heck. So there are boxes of NutriSystem food that I start in on tomorrow. My food choices have been so bad for so long that I’m just going to be relieved not to be making many. I’ve been on so many diets that I know exactly what stages you go through:
  Beginning — this is new, it’s interesting, I’m taking control, I’m a good person
  Anti-beginning — this isn’t new anymore, I want a fig newton, I’m not that good a person
  Recovery — hey, I made it through the fig newton crisis. Let me start reading inspirational pamphlets. I should tell other people about this nifty diet.
  Anti-recovery — hm, I’m kind of bored. It sure is great to find out that I’m doing so good on my diet that I can have half a candy bar. I think I’ll calculate how long I’ll be on this diet and put up a calendar
  Euphoria – Omigosh! I have now lost SO much weight and I am SUCH a good person. I’m going to be a spokeswoman for this diet in commercials. I am not having ANY problems losing weight and I feel GREAT. I’m going to start rehearsing my commercial right now. I am not worried in any way over the upcoming dinner out. I have calculated exactly what I’m going to eat and written it down on color-coded post-its. I am in total control and I’m a diet goddess!
  Coma — [two months gone forever from your life]
  Hangover — Where am I? Why am I wearing a beanbag chair around my waist? Wasn’t I on a diet or something? Who ate all the Magic Shell? Boy, I suck.And I’ve got it down to where I can run through the whole thing in about four days. Sooo, time to try something different. That ought to slow that wagon train down a little. If it doesn’t, I may have to throw myself under it.

I think that’s about it. I didn’t end up having much left of my Sunday evening to watch. But in the time I’ve been writing this, I have:

1. watched a little of “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” until I remembered that it’s the bleakest movie ever made
2. scanned Yahoo News to make sure the world hadn’t ended — it hadn’t, but Cindy Sheehan has gone to Cuba to try to find out where the last 12 seconds of her fifteen minutes of fame has gone.
3. watched “Napoleon Dynamite” up until the big dance scene. Made me want tater tots.

So I ended up wasting my evening AND finishing my blog post. I don’t know if that cancels out or not.