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Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2002 - 10:33 p.m.

House-husbandry

I have the most amazing feeling of accomplishment right now. Casey's not home, out in the city at Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme with Kerry. I could've gone, but despite Luhrmann's moving the setting to the 1950s, the damn thing's still in Italian, and I'm just not up for that much thinking. Or interpreting. I did have some interest in seeing it, but I would like to know what I'm hearing as well as what I'm seeing. I'm sure I'd pick up on the plot from the action and emotion of the actors (some guy Roger's trying to write one song, right?), but for Broadway money, I'd want a translation, thank you.

Instead, I had the house to myself tonight. I left the office at 6:15 because, with a double issue hitting the shelves on Friday, we don't have another firm deadline until the 27th. Normally it wouldn't be until the 30th, but with the New Year's holiday following so closely behind the Christmas one, we're trying to have less to do on the eves, which are work days for us. So there wasn't as much that had to move today, and the one main story I checked isn't going until tomorrow.

So I was home and eating dinner by 7 and then I played a little Nintendo before it was time to get down to business.

See, our back bedroom, the study, is the least put together room in the entire house. Casey's got her side pretty well established, with her desk in the corner and the computer on which I'm typing at this moment. She's got her rolley cart and printer next to it too.

My side's another story. There's room to get to the coat closet on the one wall, and to my desk, but the rest is boxes and piles of my shit. Photos in boxes and albums, CDs, Christmas presents, books, books, books. My desk is a pile of bills and notices and receipts and health insurance info.

Well, it was. I decided that with the place to myself tonight, I was going to have it noticably more organized by the time Casey gets home tonight, probably after midnight. Part of my procrastination was because I'm waiting for damn IKEA to get my cabinets in stock so I can construct the MARKoR unit and slide it in under the window next to the filing cabinet and organize all my photo supplies and resources neatly and discretely. But they didn't have it the last time we checked, and they didn't know when they'd be getting it. Dammit, IKEA, your furniture may not have feelings, but I do!

But even I can't live like that for long. So I stacked the plastic crates we have in the bedroom and placed my photo boxes inside them for now, along with some of the albums, so they're in some sort of order. I consolidated boxes and bags and threw out packaging and envelopes and other whatnot that could stand to go. I slid the remaining boxes against the wall beneath the window where the cabinet will someday go, and all that pretty much opened up the middle of the room. Now all my stuff is contained, for the most part, behind the imaginary line that would appear if you ran parallel from the front of my desk to the opposite wall.

As for the piles of shit on top of the desk, I went through them layer by layer, organizing bill statements and receipts, removing mailings from envelopes and tossing the latter, filing everything away. What remains is an organized, neat desktop and a full wastebasket. I discovered a bill or two that needed payment, a rebate receipt from Staples I didn't know I had that will get me $10 back in a few weeks, my November bank statement (just days before I should get the December one) which allowed me to balance my checkbook, and various health plan info from the new job. I even Swiffered� (with the Venom) the kitchen! Casey will be so proud and happy! And I did it out of the goodness of my heart! I'm not expecting anything! Not even sex! She'll be so tired tonight anyway! Take it from me kids, the secret to keeping your partner/roommate/slave master happy is to do what's expected of you ? i.e., your share ? not when it has to be done, but when he/she/sire is not even expecting it. It's the little things, people.

I've also been organizing things at work. I've been going through my various e-mail addresses, putting all my memberships into one account and cleaning out saved messages from folders. My Hotmail account sizes have dropped hundreds of Ks in two days!

The key to it all tonight was not watching Ed. I was taping it for Casey anyway, so I figured I'd use the time to get things done. Otherwise, once I sat down in front of that TV, I probably would've had another beer, then another one, then another, and not wanted to get up. I would've put in the Simpsons DVD or played more Nintendo or watched more digital cable.

Nintendo. Might be a bad thing. We only have the old-school version, the little tiny gray box with the big plastic cartridges of Super Mario Bros. and Dr. Mario and Super Mario 3 and Tecmo Super Bowl and Marble Madness and Balloon Fight and Tetris. I want to get Baseball Stars, but I don't know if it's worth the five bucks. Because I did something bad the other day. On Sunday morning, while Matt showered before we all went out to lunch, I popped EA Sports' NCAA Football 2003. It's the most recent version of the college football game for Nintendo Gamecube. Naturally, I was Notre Dame. Because it was my first time playing on that game system and I am historically horrible at new games using new controllers (I've been killed in many a sports game against Will on Sega), I picked as my opponent a program rich in history and significance in the traditions of the college gridiron yet weak enough to allow me to win: Princeton. (I'd have chosen Bucknell or, at Casey's suggestion, Franklin & Marshall, but the game does not go below Division I-AA.) While Princeton took the opening possession inside the 10 for first and goal, the Irish defense ? that is, I ? held them out of the end zone and to a field goal miss. The Tigers would make it inside the 20 once more, and miss a field goal then, too.

Meanwhile, after faking a punt and throwing incomplete and then punting the ball into the end zone, Notre Dame found its groove. Carlyle Holiday threw for 300 yards and four TDs, including an 87-yard bomb to Maurice Stovall down the sideline. Stovall beat two defenders and then ran 50 yards after the catch, pulling away from them into the end zone. I ran the option and picked up 40 yards with Holiday alone, and another 80 on the ground with Julius Jones. Arnaz Battle made the plays as he does in real life and caught a TD himself. I even got the fullback, Tom Lopienski, into the end zone on a first-and-goal from the 3. Final score: ND 35, Princeton 0.

The game is so real, though. Before kickoff, aerial views of the stadium had the ND band and student sections (designated by solid blocks of color) were in the right positions, and Touchdown Jesus and the treetops peeked over the rim of the stadium from the field-level view. As the Irish came out of the tunnel, the coach led them onto the field. "Did I just see Tyrone Willingham in the game," Casey asked as she sat down on the couch. "Yep, that's him," Matt answered. Throughout the game, the ND band played the fight song and other standard sounds of a gameday at Notre Dame Stadium.

Now I want one. And the system is only $130 on Half.com, with the game as low as $30. Those are good rates! But I'll wait a few months and see how my finances and expenses are, and by then I'm sure the novelty will have worn off. By then, I'll be deep into basketball season and watching (and attending) Irish hoops games.

Alrighty then. I need some water.

And maybe I'll go play the championship game in Tecmo Super Bowl now.

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