Approximately 3,720 to 1

It is my goal, at some point this week, to create on this blog at least one post that deals with a relative serious topic, and that mentions neither football nor the upcoming Star Wars DVD release. Sadly, this post will not fulfill those requirements.

I had lunch today at Tim Horton's for the first time ever. Not bad. I was finally able to get that tuna sandwich I wanted last week. It wasn't on toast, but the baguette they put it on served well in its place. I have just a couple of complaints. For one, they don't list their soup choices on the menu, so if you get the soup and sandwich combo, you just have to take a guess (or ask, if you want to get all picky). Secondly, if the pop machine is out of order, the person taking the orders should just say so when I order a Coke, instead of "we don't got no Coke." Grammatical issues aside, this response does not let me know if other types of pop are available, or if pop just isn't offered (despite the fact that it's listed on the menu). I ended up going with hot chocolate, which probably wasn't the best option for a fairly warm September day.

I have 162 pages left in The Winds of War, which I started nearly two months ago. It's really long, but it's an awesome book. I'm definitely going to be reading more Wouk novels after this. I haven't decided if I'm going to jump right away into War and Remembrance or if I'm going to give myself a bit of a break. I'll probably opt for a break, and spend a week or two on some lighter material.

Speaking of reading, sometime over the course of the next week I intend to finish both The Talisman and The Lando Calrissian Adventures. If you've been paying attention to The Yawp's Reading Page, you'll notice that I've been working on both of them for a while (along with My Life, which is currently on hiatus). My reading time has been kind of sketchy during that time--I'm generally a fast reader. I don't think it'll be a problem to finish both of them. I'm almost to the end of The Talisman, and about halfway through TLCA. A week from now, of course, is the release date of The Dark Tower, the culmination of all Stephen King's work, and I want to be able to devote my full attention to it.

Another release date coming shortly is for The Sims 2, which Brandi and I have been looking forward to for quite some time. It looks to be at least as addicting as the first one, and probably more so, which could be very bad news. I think it'll be a lot of fun, though.

I fell asleep on the couch last night in front of the end of Monday Night Football. I hadn't done that for a while, and it felt awesome. Brandi finally noticed I was missing and came out to drag me into bed around 3:00 a.m.

Although my mind has shifted almost completely out of baseball mode, to which it won't really return until the World Series, I still haven't completely given up hope of seeing the Reds play in person this season. It's something of a long shot, but there's a chance I could make a trip down to Great American Ballpark the first weekend in October. That's the last weekend of the season, and it would be awesome to see Barry Larkin play one last time before he rides off into the sunset.

The decision to upgrade to digital cable and a DVR, and to hopefully get our intermittent cable modem problems fixed, is almost final. Basically I just have to talk myself into it, which shouldn't be hard considering that the price increase is going to be negligible, and since the BG Falcons play on TV next Friday night at a time when I can't watch them. Then I just have to get someone in my household to call Time Warner to find a mutually agreeable time for a setup appointment. Hmm...whom should I ask?