List 69

Love: My new winter coat.  Now if only Indian Summer would give way to Fall and Winter. 

 Like: The Charlie Brown holiday specials - from Halloween and Thanksgiving to Christmas to Easter. I forgot what a cool cat Snoopy is and am glad to be rewatching these (over and over again) via Stella. The Mayflower Voyages bonus feature on the Thanksgiving DVD is a nice Cliff Notes on the story behind turkey day.

Discovery: Zombies are giving vampires a run for their money as the monster du jour, and I really enjoyed Isaac Marion's smart, breezy book Warm Bodies.  It imagines a zombie named R who has a rich inner life, longs for more than an existence of shuffling around and brain-eating, and lives in an old Boeing 747, listening to Frank Sinatra records.  It's being made into a movie right now, with John Malkovich, Nicholas Hoult (from About a Boy and A Single Man) and Rob Corddry.

Obsession:  Making meatballs at home that are as tasty and amazing as Pizzaiolo's.  The Williams-Sonoma Catalog and Esquire magazine both recently published meatball recipes that look, at least, like they are in the ballpark.

Complaint: Why is it that framing a poster costs 2-3 times the poster itself?