Last night I had a dream that involved a lot of different people in a mansion having all kinds of individual dramas (apparently my dream script-writers are taking their cues from Aaron Spelling). At one point there was a big screaming match in the marbled front hall. Everyone came out to watch and then, when the screamers left, so did all the observers. I was left alone, standing at the top of the curving staircase and looking down on the front hall, trying to decide whether or not to descend. It was at this point that two large tumbleweeds blew through, which made me laugh so hard in my dream that I actually woke up. If my dreams are going to follow the rules of prime time dramas, at least they have a sense of humor.

A couple of weeks ago I did a meme where, among other things, I had to list the 4 websites I visited most, or something like that. I am realizing now that those have changed rather dramatically. Diaryland is still at the top of the list, but I have three new addictions. The first, The Music Genome Project, I�ve already mentioned here. I can�t seem to get enough of testing it with obscure artists and figuring out how it makes its associations. Some of them seem spot on. Both the Shins and XTC resulted in a lot of tunes I liked, including a lot of Beatles, which is as it should be. But some are totally screwy. Take Sleater-Kinney, for example. As far as I can tell, the only requirement for songs on the Sleater-Kinney channel is that they be sung by women. The first two songs up after �You�re no Rock �n� Roll Fun� were by Kelly Clarkson and Kelly Osborne. Next, please!

The second site at which I�ve visited a few too many times is websudoku.com. For this I assign the blame to two fellow bloggers. The first is onepinksock, who first mentioned her sudoku fetish several months ago. Because the NY Times is my paper and I don�t commute and I may possibly live under a rock, I had never heard of sudoku before. I made the mistake of looking it up. I should have known better. The second person responsible for my newfound sudoku addiction is my old friend Hugh, who listed this particular website in his response to the aforementioned meme. So to onepinksock and Hugh, thank you for setting me on the road to degradation.

The final site is one I discovered yesterday, but I am already hooked. I actually can�t believe I didn�t know about this one before, and I�m guessing some of you already do. It�s called Library Thing and it offers an easy way to catalog and categorize your book collection online for the low lifetime fee of $25 (or free if you only want to loG 200 books). But I warn you, once you start adding your books, you will not want to stop.

Library Thing also provides a list of other Library Thing users with overlaps to your collection. The idea is that collecting books will become a social activity. After entering one shelf-worth and the pile of books on my nightstand, one of my best friends appeared near the top of my list of overlaps (the very top was held by a couple of people with libraries so enormous that they are likely to be on just about everybody�s list) � I recognized her user name and library immediately. That seemed fitting and friendly.

And with that exciting news update, I must get to work. I�ll have to report on AJ�s first ever report card and my exciting adventures in cardiology later, or perhaps tomorrow.

[Enter tumbleweeds, stage left]

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