Lists and Obsessions

For those of you interested in such things, I give you lists of my mental, auditory, and visual wanderings of 2006...

Books I read:
1. Light From Heaven by Jan Karon.
2. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice.
3. Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi.
4. The Truest Pleasure by Robert Morgan.
5. This Rock by Robert Morgan.
6. Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen.
7. Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard.
8. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
9. Coming Up For Air by Margaret Becker.
10. Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity by Lauren Winner.
11. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.
12. The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad.
13. Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher.
14. Queen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.
15. Florida by Christine Schutt.
16. The Maker's Diet by Jordan S. Rubin.
17. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.
18. Many Dimensions by Charles Williams.
19. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.
20. Against Gravity by Farnoosh Moshiri.
21. Won't Let You Go Until You Bless Me by Andree Seu.
22. Hope in the Dark - photography by Jeremy Cowart, text by Jena Lee.

Albums I purchased or received:
1. Takk by Sigur Ros.
2. Rabbit Fur Coat by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins.
3. Let's Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later on Tonight by Marah.
4. If You Didn't Laugh You'd Cry by Marah.
5. Speak for Yourself by Imogen Heap.
6. Furnace Room Lullaby by Neko Case.
7. Signify by Porcupine Tree (actually John's, but I liked it, too).
8. Black Cadillac by Rosanne Cash.
9. In the Reins by Iron and Wine & Calexico.
10. Syd Matters' self-titled.
11. Ballads of Living and Dying by Marissa Nadler.
12. Mockingbird by Derek Webb.
13. Under the Covers Vol. 1 by Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet.
14. Amercian V: A Hundred Highways by Johnny Cash.
15. Surprise by Paul Simon.
16. Nothing is Sound by Switchfoot.
17. A Collision or (3+4=7) by the David Crowder Band.
18. The Eraser by Thom Yorke.
19. Black Holes and Revelations by Muse.
20. Seven Swans by Sufjan Stevens.
21. Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse.
22. Bring Me the Workhorse by My Brightest Diamond.
23. A Bad Year for the Sharons by the Sad Accordions.
24. Long Island Shores by Mindy Smith.
25. Wintersong by Sarah McLachlan.
26. Honey From the Tombs by Amy Millan.
27. I Trust You to Kill Me by Rocco DeLuca and the Burden.

Movies I watched:
1. The Squid and the Whale.
2. Millions.
3. Harold and Maude.
4. V for Vendetta.
5. A History of Violence.
6. The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
7. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit.
8. Shopgirl.
9. Proof.
10. The Family Stone.
11. Capote.
12. The Hours.
13. Me and You and Everyone We Know.
14. X-Men 3.
15. Aeon Flux.
16. Superman Returns.
17. Ultraviolet.
18. Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.
19. The Producers.
20. Munich.
21. World Trade Center.
22. The Diner.
23. Breakfast at Tiffany's.
24. Thank You For Smoking.
25. The Break-Up.
26. Lucky Number Slevin.
27. Syriana.
28. The Gospel of John.
29. Pride and Prejudice.
30. Talladega Nights.

Speaking of books up there, one of my current obsessions is Shelfari. My friend Allison hipped me to these virtual bookshelves and I have been obsessively scanning books. I'm up to ten pages now! I am not finished yet. Today I finally figured out what the heck tags were and began to compulsively tag each book creating an embedded word collage below my shelves. I am not finished tagging yet either. You may see my progress by clicking the widget to the right hand side of my blog. If you are a book lover, please create your bookshelves - I want to see!

Other current obsessions:
1. Vanilla & Baking Febreze Air Effects. It is a limited edition holiday scent, so yes, I purchased four cans on sale at Target (that's all they had) for 69 cents each. Johnny has an enlightening theory about Febreze scent names which I'm sure he will be happy to share if you ask. Another scent example is Citrus & Light. Who knew light smelled so bad?
2. Aura Cacia bath salt packets. I already love Tranquility and I purchased Comforting Vanilla for my Mom. She raved about it so much that I snatched four more packets for her and one for me as well as a Comforting Clove packet.
3. Planning a return visit to Cantina Laredo. We dined there yesterday and stupidly did not order Top Shelf Guacamole which the waiter makes right on your table using a cute bowl of avocados already sitting there. What were we thinking?
4. Method candles and cleaning products. I just used Ylang-Ylang Daily Shower Spray and I'm currently burning a Peppermint Vanilla candle.
5. Ecover products such as Stain Remover, Laundry Wash, and Toilet Bowl Cleaner. The first two smell of lavender, the third of pine.
6. Nifty widgets on my new black laptop. I just press F12 and a calculator, calendar, current local weather forecast, dictionary/thesaurus, yellow Post-it note, and English to Spanish (or another language) translator appear. John informed me there are hundreds more widgets on Apple's web site. I dare not look for fear of adding to my obsessions.

Now for the love of God, dip gingersnaps into coffee! Mmmm.