On a random note, I tried to go to my friend's blog site, flipped two letters accidently and ended up on "A mega-site of Bible, Christian and religious information & studies". Yikes. Apparently http://ficke.blogspot.com is part of the blogging community whereas http://ficke.blogpsot.com is an ultra-religious innundation of Christian banter. I'll try not to make that mistake again! So the other day I went to the movies and saw a really bad print of "A Place in the Sun". I was disappointed and they have a better quality print playing tonight but I'm going to see O.A.R. tonight at the 930 Club. Not exactly my favorite part of D.C. but it's a great venue and I haven't seen O.A.R. in about 5 years...

bringing the office to springfield...

Golden Globe-winning comic Ricky Gervais has fulfilled his lifetime's ambition - he is writing an episode of The Simpsons. The British Office star will also voice a character in the popular animation show, which will be made next year, although he is keeping the episode's plot a secret. Gervais says, "I've got the rough idea. This is the most intimidating project of my career. The Simpsons is the greatest TV show of all time. I can only make it slightly worse. When I got into comedy my greatest ambition was to get one joke on The Simpsons. I may as well retire now."

Yatzee! That's going to be the best episode ever!

Oh yes, Merry Christmas to all!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince finally has a release date! J.K. Rowling has finished the book and the countdown begins to July 16th, 2005. At least we don't have to wait 3 years like the excruciating wait we endured for book 5!  

coffee shops, waffles, and ice cream...

Let me start off by saying the winter has definetly started over here! It's cold as hell (yea, i know) here and it snowed for a few hours the other day. I met went to Tryst for the first time last night. It's a great coffee shop with some damn good waffles! All Matt ever talks about are the waffles there and so I met him there and had some of the chocolate chip variety. After that we went with my sister and her friend to the mall, which wasn't too bad (at least I wasn't there like last week with my friend and his fiance looking at wedding rings for an hour). I bought a new belt! Also for the first time in about 5 years I saw a Dippin' Dots stand! The ice cream of the future...I just had to have some. The only times I've ever actually had it is at amusement parks but apparently they've had a stand in the mall for quite a while. I should probably go more often. Ohh, the Simpsons 5th season is out on DVD now, thank goodness. Also, I think that everyone should go see the movie "Sideways" -- it was amazing and Paul Giamatti is a great actor...anyway, I'm in quite a fix trying to get tickets for this concert in Philly in about a week...wish me luck!

Austro-Hungarian Archdukes make awesome names for bands. I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware that I absolutely love this scottish quartet. It's a guilty rock/pop pleasure but I'll definetly keep indulging. "Keane" is another very good new band from across the pond. They are a British band and their hook is that instead of using guitars the trio employee a piano. They were discovered by the same person that found Coldplay and they are very much like them in that they master catchy and heartfelt indie-pop with all its bruised verses and soaring choruses. 

Well, as expected, the Colts clinched their second straight AFC South Championship title! And Peyton Manning is two touchdowns away from tying Marino's TD record! This Sunday night: Old Baltimore vs. New Baltimore, i.e. Colts vs. Ravens! 

Celebrated in mythology, literature and art, the pomegranate has a noble history. Along with the citrus and the peach, it's one of the three blessed fruits in Buddhism. Some have suggested that it was a pomegranate, not an apple, that led to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. And in Greek mythology, Persephone was sentenced to six months a year in the underworld for eating just six pomegranate seeds. I just recently discovered POM, an incredible form of pomegranate juice overflowing with antioxidants. A glass of pomegranate juice has more antioxidants than red wine, green tea, cranberry juice and orange juice. In addition to this, the juice is a great source of potassium, vitamin C and polyphenols (which promote heart health). If you've yet to try it, I suggest you have a go, it's quite good stuff! 

Playoffs start next week in my fantasy football league...I'm going in as the number one seed and hopefully I'm going to beat everyone for the first time since I've been in the league. That's the banner I made for my team four years ago! Oh how the years go by...  

and then it snapped...

So I was at work today talking to a co-worker and suddenly and just completely out of NOWHERE my belt breaks. It just snapped and boy that's gotta be up there with the most awkward ways of ending a conversation EVER. I was like...'huh, didn't expect that to happen' and I just turned and walked away. I taped it up for the rest of the day but I can't imagine what it would've been like if I actually needed the belt (it was merely for the looks...i just bought it 3 weeks ago! and it wasn't cheap...it's a $25 Stanford belt)...I think I would've actually used some form of wire or electric cord ("dude, he's ragging on your cord")...anyway, it's raining today and incredibly gloomy.