retiring one gimmick, keeping another...

I confess....I'm retiring the "I confess" gimmick. I've been tired of it for eons but I'm beyond change averse. However, I know that's just plain silly and it's been annoying me rather than amusing me for way too long...

Of course, I am NOT retiring my love for bullet points:

• Still waiting on my CAT scan. I called a few days before X-mas to check on it and found out they mis-dated the order. The nurse seemed baffled by how it got dated March 2011, she swore it COULDN'T get backdated, but it meant it expired and never even went to the insurance company. They'd initially said to expect 2-3 weeks for approval so I checked back yesterday but have yet to get a return call.
• This one merits the confession label: Four Weddings has gone from treadmill fodder to the DVR's "record all new episodes" list (we recently got one for free for a few months as part of a new package...I'm telling myself I'll have no problem giving it up). The only other shows on the list are Once Upon a Time and How I Met Your Mother...the former since it's my fav and I don't want to deal with the On Demand hiccups and the latter because it's the only show I watch first-run that isn't offered On Demand.
• I really want to kick back up my reading. I've actually got a decent "to read" pile..not a bad thing on its own, but I want to catch up with my advance reader's reviews and feel a bit guilty being behind.  The pain is definitely a factor here....it's been pretty awful and interferes with my ability to focus as well as I'd like (and is also why I haven't kept my promise to myself to blog more, especially about things other than pain).
• Welcome to January where the holiday ads end and the ads for weight-loss, smoking cessation, and tax services begin. At least I haven't seen an ad for Valentine's Day yet....though the stores switched over on Dec 26.
• Speaking of V-Day -- I got Teddy MM (which sounds less odd when I actually use MM's name instead of his moniker) for V-Day in 2011. We'd only been dating about six weeks. I actually opened the package a few days early since I was visiting when the box showed up and it had the company name pretty prominently so it was clear it was a stuffed animal. The kinda corny, kinda sweet part: I don't think I've slept a single night without it since.
• Okay, I just realized that's not 100% true....there were a couple nights where Real MM and I'm an oddball and don't want items from someone around when I'm really upset. I may have also thrown both Teddy and Elly MM (an elephant from a crane machine) on the floor as a sign of my angry mood.
• We recently tried out an ice cream maker we got while holiday shopping (funny how things end up in one's cart that aren't actually gifts).  MM tried a dairy-free batch first and we weren't fans but we did a regular ice cream for the second batch and it ended up quite yummy.  We did, however, have to put it in the freezer to get it a better consistency since it wasn't nearly frozen enough when we first made it despite having the bowl in the freezer for more than the needed twelve hours.  Any suggestions?  It's just a small machine...the batch we made was only two servings and the included recipes seem to be between two and four servings each. 
• I've mentioned it before, but the Roomba is among the best choices we've made (I asked for it as a gift from my Mom for both of us and suggested it could count for my b-day too since it was pricey).  I can't help much with household chores and it saves MM from having to work more than full-time and come home to too many chores.  It is also more amusing than it should be to watch "the puppy" run about.