Okay: it is 9:52 p.m., and I am now officially giving up on the illusion that I will have a 20-to-25 page paper on the Christology of H. Richard Niebuhr done by noon tomorrow, given that all I have typed so far is the (draft) title.

(This is the problem with self-imposed deadlines. They don't have the bite of knowing that your a** is really on the line. This is not to say I've gotten nowhere on it -- it's significantly further along than it would have been without the fake deadline trick. Maybe I can still finish before I head west for Christmas. Knock wood.)

So now that I'm allowing myself to sleep tonight, I can take a little time to blog. I'm going to borrow a meme from Holly's blog, since I believe that Holly loves me and might have tagged me if she had only known that I was a blogger, if for no other reason than that she doesn't know that many other bloggers. But I'm going to skip the chain letter type part where you add your blog to the bottom of the list and challenge five of your friends to keep the chain going, which probably violates the fundamental character of the exercise. So be it. If you want to waste an hour tracking back who passed this meme on to whom, you can work backward from Holly's post. If you want to waste another hour trying to beat my personal best score of 321 (feet? meters? miles? there are no units of measurement!) in the Yeti sport of penguin-swatting, click here. If you think you are starting to get some idea of why my paper isn't getting done tonight, um, well, ... no comment.

Now, for the questions....

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Stressing out about college application essays.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Stressing out about term papers and grading final exams.

Five snacks you enjoy:
1. Chocolate candy
2. Chocolate brownies
3. Chocolate cookies
4. Chocolate cake
5. Chocolate ice cream with chocolate bits and chocolate sauce

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:
1. The "Tiny Toons" theme song
2. "If I Had a Million Dollars" from Barenaked Ladies' Gordon
3. "Old Dominion" by Eddie From Ohio
4. "The StuffMart Rap" from my favorite VeggieTales episode, Madame Blueberry
5. "Sweet Violets"

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. Buy you a house
2. Buy you some furniture for that house
3. Buy you a K-car
4. Buy your love
5. Be rich

Five bad habits:
(only five?)
1. Liquefied, caffeinated sugar
2. Forgetting to eat
3. Forgetting to sleep
4. Perfectionism
5. Procrastination

Five things you like doing:
1. Treasure hunting (in libraries, in thrift stores, in my own closet...)
2. Listening to Quirks and Quarks
3. Having great conversations with my cool new roommate, Erika (or anyone else, but recently, Erika)
4. Climbing East Rock in New Haven, Connecticut
5. Walking on/in water

Five things you would never wear, buy, or get new again:
Never say never.

Five favorite toys:
1. Clive, the friendly turtle
2. My prosthetic brain
3. Harry Potter Uno
4. My mother's hot tub (six days and counting...)
5. A new fountain pen with funky-colored ink -- not the fancy, expensive kind that's just begging to get lost, but a relatively cheap one to play around with (hint, hint, hint)