Hodge Podge Post because I'm angry about the snow

I'm sure many of you, particularly those in the States, have heard about the snowstorm hitting the Northeast.  It's currently covering Boston with heavy wet snow that made my commute to work a pain in the ass.  I'm fairly certain I was mumbling curses aloud while trudging through it.  Luckily I only saw about 8 other people outside who decided to brave this weather so the number of people who thought me crazy this morning is lower than normal.  As I dripped my way into the front door of the our floor I was greeted with "Congratulations.  You're the fifth person to show up."  There are about 80 people that work in my office and most of them aren't making it in.  Lucky people who have that option. So I'm not in the happiest of spirits this morning. Also, I'm super jealous at Greg over a The New Dork Review right now, since he's avoiding this crappy weather by laying on a beach in Hawaii.  Seems like the perfect answer to this weather.

I'm telling you this because since my office moved to a new location and switched to an open concept model, my computer screen is now in a high traffic area so I tend to spend less time on my blog during the day.  But because I'm annoyed I'm here at the office while no one else from my team is showing up, I've decided this is a good enough reason to spend extra time on here today. Yes, I am spiteful like that.

Now, I don't actually have a book review to post.  I'm still reading At Home (52%!  I really do love that counter) but I do have some random things to talk about, so here goes:

1. I may have fixed, or at least improved, the commenting system I'm using.  I decided awhile back to go with Intense Debate because it was supposed to be easier for non-blogspot people to post comments.  It's given me a lot of trouble and I know at least a few people who the comment box won't even pop up for.  I have managed to get a "Comment" link to show up under the posts.  In IE and Chrome it shows up just fine, in Firefox it shows up 3 times, but all 3 of the links work.  Go figure.  Anyway, hopefully that will make commenting less of a hassle.  I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of Intense Debate but not lose all of my comments.  That's been a losing battle so far.

2. Ben over at Dead End Follies has a post about your birthday best seller list. Check out the best sellers from your birthday by going to Biblioz.com. Here's top 10 fiction

1. The Aquitaine Progression by Robert Ludlum
2. Smart Women by Judy Blume
3. Who Killed the Robyns Family created by Bill Adler (I don't know what this is...)
4. Pet Semetary by Stephen King
5. The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss.  (This one makes me extremely happy)
6. Almost Paradise by Susan Isaacs
7. Lord of the Dance by Andrew M. Greeley
8. The Danger by Dick Francis
9. Poland by James A. Michener
10. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

3. I missed yesterday's Tuesday Top Ten, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  The list asked for top ten bookish resolutions and I had a whole post about how I don't make resolutions and blah blah blah. But while I don't plan on making resolutions for my general betterment, I can think of  couple that I'd like to make in my reading and blogging world.  So they are

1. Read The Corrections at some point this year. I bought this at the airport coming back from a friend's wedding because I had run out of books to read.  I liked the little I read but got intimidated by it and have since found plenty of excuses to read other things.  I will not let this book sit on my shelf unread for an entire year.
2. Comment on blogs more.  I read a lot of blogs but I'd say at least 90% of the time I don't leave a comment.  I need to work on that.
3. Keep stats on the books I read. I really liked the end of year stats list bloggers like Brenna at Literary Musings came up with.  I want to come up with this myself for next year and see what my reading habits look like plotted out.
4. Host a giveaway.  When blogger got mad at me and deleted my blog, I made a comment on my Twitter account that if my blog came back I was going to host a giveaway.  I'd like to not make that an empty promise so I will host some sort of giveaway.
5. Expand my reading horizons.  This partially goes along with keeping stats on my books, but I know I read a lot of books by white male American authors.  I'd like to branch out a bit while still reading things I think I'll enjoy

We'll see if I can stick to these resolutions.

 These are my random I-wish-I-had-a-snow-day thoughts.  I will try to make the next post more coherent.

Updated: To include blizzard pics.