– Try out a new recipe from Cook’s Illustrated for four-cheese pasta casserole (Italian Fontina, Reggiano Parmesan, Pecorino Romano: good. Gorganzola: bad). For a first, I think we finally found something that Takaza likes that I don’t. Go fig.

– Drive Takaza into work at 7 PM so he can let the BellSouth repairman in to fix their phones. Hey, it gets me out of the house…

– Take car into dealership for two new tires courtesy of some unknown Technical Service Bulletin (“Sorry, we can’t show those to the public.” Riiiight…). This means I now have replaced all four tires on a car that is less than 19 months old. No charge for the tires, anyway. At least I got the oil changed while I was there.

– Do laundry. Strip the bed. Flip the mattress. Make the bed. See the househusky in action! yay.

– Check airfares to Chicago for our January trip (courtesy of earlier bumpings on United, we have a voucher for one free ticket and $100 off another ticket). There’s a 5:25 PM flight we could make with the comp time Takaza got from last night call-in, but it’s $40 more than the 6:50 PM flight. Nuts. Eh, we’ll take the later flight and get in at 8:10 PM. Easier to get out of O’Hare then, anyway.

– Takaza’s Holiday party, postponed from last week due to the ice storm, has been rescheduled to January 4. Damn. I was so hoping it would be on the 18th, when we’re in Chicago. Oh well. Scrap all the Christmas music we were going to play, start laying in a supply of general “winter” songs and dance music. I’ve got 8.5 Gb of MP3’s on my laptop – if they can’t find something they like in that, they need help. Guess I should pick up more 80’s stuff, though.

– Word has it they’ll have karaoke. Kill me now, please.

– Walk. Two miles around the neighborhood = 2 chapters of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Only 20 chapters to go! (Yes, I’ve read it before, but I’m listening to the audiobook this time around – I’ve forgotten enough that it’s entertaining all over again).

– Make pizza dough. Home made pizzas tonight, yum!

– Plans for the weekend? Not much. Invitation to Rob and Janet’s Sunday afternoon for gaming and socializing. Not sure if we’ll go or not, but the socializing would be nice. Oh, for those that know them: Janet announced this week that she is pregnant again. Congratulations to them! Looking further out, we’re hosting an Orphan’s Christmas on Christmas Eve. Good company, good food. We’ll have to fire up the fireplace and at least make an effort to make the place Christmas-y (or at least Solstice-y?) Maybe some pine centerpieces and stuff.

Isn’t it a good thing I’m easily amused?