Friday Things

Things I Don't Like About Fridays

1. Getting up early.

2. Getting up early is really super hard now. (Except today, Number Two came in and said, "Aren't you getting up? It's...oh. It's only 5:40." And, of course, I was dreaming about Sam and Dean.)

3. The whole week is behind me, so I can lament all the things I didn't get done, and probably one of those is cleaning, which means I have to clean.

4. I'm almost too late to meet my weekly writing goal and have to work super hard to make it.

Things I Love About Fridays

5. It's the last day of the week! Chances are kinda good that we can sleep in at least a little tomorrow, unless there's a soccer away game that's really far. And we can definitely sleep in Sunday.

6. Better mail! Friday is the best mail day of the week, hands down.

7. Obligations are minimal.

8. Fun things are often scheduled for Friday, and if not Friday, then the weekend, family time. Whether we're hanging out in the living room reading or heading off to a movie or to the park to do some extra soccer drilling, there's always plenty of together time.

9. TV catch-up. J and I often watch our favorite "both" shows on Fridays. ("Both" shows are shows we both like to watch--there aren't many.)

10. Talking about Supernatural! Whether I'm just blogging about it or commenting on other people's blogs or exchanging e-mails with my friends who watch it, there's always plenty to talk/think about, and it makes the day something to look forward to.

Thursday Things

Things I Don't Like About Thursdays

1. Getting up early.

2. Paying bills.

3. Thursday errands take time away from whatever else I have to/want to do.

4. The day goes reeeeaaaalllllyyyyy slowwwwwllllyyyy.

Things I Love About Thursdays

5. It's always been the quietest day of the week, in any job I've ever been in. Quiet days can be boring, depending on the job, but they are usually a huge relief, and very productive.

6. Good mail! I usually get a magazine and/or Netflix disks, a little junk, and NO bills.

7. No running around at night (most weeks). Soccer practices are all done, we don't do dance class anymore...that means everything is more relaxed, from homework to dinner to bedtime to TV.

8. I actually like my Thursday errands, which are usually library, comic book store (usually nothing for me, but I like doing something that makes J smile), post office (which may have something cool in my box but usually doesn't), oh, and a café mocha at my favorite coffee place. You know, Whipped Cream Delivery System number one. :)

9. Payday! Every other week, anyway.

10. It's Thursday! Which means...duh...Supernatural is on! This time of year, it's ALWAYS new, and ALWAYS great, and ALWAYS makes me super happy.

Thursday is my favorite day of the week!

Wednesday Things

Things I Don't Like About Wednesdays

1. Getting up early.

2. Getting up early feels a lot more difficult.

3. There's nothing special about Wednesday.

Things I Love About Wednesdays

4. Tomorrow's Thursday!


I'd really have liked to have 10 things, but ref. #3.

Tuesday Things

Things I Don't Like About Tuesdays

1. Getting up early.

2. Daily chores.

3. Everyone's Monday work means lots of Tuesday work for me.

4. Trying to get into the writing after (probably) three days away from it.

Things I Love About Tuesdays

5. Neato Burrito's salsa of the day! It's a jalapeño feta with a sour cream base and lime juice, and it's wonderful. When I worked two blocks away from NB, I got a burrito-in-a-bowl on chips, no beans, no meat, no rice, regular cheese (unmelted), lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and salsa, every single Tuesday. Now I maybe do it once a month, if that. But even when I don't go, Tuesday is special because I could.

6. Both kids have soccer practice at the same time, which feels efficient.

7. New PFW in Progress and ESPN Football Today podcasts. Even when the Pats lost, I still like listening to the analysis.

8. It's only two more days until Thursday!

9. In a pay week, I have to pay bills. In a non-pay week, pay day is over a week away.

10. Even though I still have three more days of getting up early (likely four, with Saturday soccer), it feels good having most of the week still ahead of me. I have plenty of time to be productive.

Monday Things

Things I Don't Like About Mondays

1. Getting up early.

2. Post-football hangover (if they lost).

3. A full week of getting-up-early ahead of me.

4. A large to-do pile.

Things I Love About Mondays

5. I can pretend Sunday never happened (if they lost).

6. Terminator and Prison Break are new on TV.

7. I'm alone again after a full family-oriented weekend.

8. It's only three more days until Thursday!

9. It's a huge jump closer to payday, even if it's not a pay week.

10. It's a new week, and I can expect it to be better than the old one.

Dissecting 2007

I intended to do this in several different posts, and that's just not working out. I do not want to drag 2007 into 2008, so I'm dumping it all here. You may want to spread out the reading over a few sessions. :)

Recent Movies

I saw I Am Legend, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and P.S. I Love You around the holiday. I loved them all.

I Am Legend had some flaws. There was a major thread they dropped the ball on, which was really important. I didn't care for the ending, though it wasn't at all surprising, and because there was no romance involved, it didn't bother me as much. Will Smith's acting was amazing, the hints that his hold on sanity wasn't as strong as it seemed, combined with his determination and his pain. The filming was masterful, with most of the special effects and the editing done in such a seamless, taut way that tension was never lost. We learned the backstory in a clever manner, too.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets was better than the first one, I thought, and the first one was pretty darned good. I love smart writing about smart people. The humor was excellent, and Riley still rocks the theater. Some spots at the end felt a little rushed, but Ed Harris was there, so who cares!

MaryF was right about needing tissues for P.S. I Love You. I'd have liked a little advancement of the symbolic hope at the end, but otherwise I don't think I have any complaints. Complex relationships, solid acting--the fight scene at the beginning had to have been filmed late, they were so comfortable with each other--and a happy ending equal a satisfying experience.

Looking Ahead, Movie-Wise

Some of the trailers looked even better than what I just saw.

Wall*E, about a robot left on Mars for 700 years, looks adorable.

Hancock, featuring Will Smith as a dissolute, destructive superhero

Mad Money is one that can go either way, from an amusing adventure to a ridiculous disappointment, but I'm looking forward to it regardless.

There were several others, and I can't remember them or find their trailers to bump my memory. I'm very excited that Juno is finally opening locally this Friday.

2007 Top Entertainment

Top Books
I gave 14 books a perfect 10, not including those I read as critiques before they were published. These were:

Seventh Key, Evelyn Vaughn
The Medusa Prophesy, Cindy Dees
Natural Born Charmer, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Death Masks, Jim Butcher
Innocent in Death, JD Robb
Blood Rites, Jim Butcher
Coyote Dreams, CE Murphy
Dead Beat, Jim Butcher
Proven Guilty, Jim Butcher
Avalon High, Meg Cabot
White Knight, Jim Butcher
How to Lose an Extraterrestrial in 10 Days, Susan Grant
All Through the Night, Suzanne Brockmann
Creation in Death, JD Robb

Top Movies

I saw 17 movies on DVD and 30 in the theater. I know! Thirty is a lot! There would have been more DVDs if it hadn't been for the Gilmore Girls semi-marathon, as well as Dark Angel and a few other TV shows. The movies I gave 10s to are:

Eight Below
POTC: At World's End
Ocean's 13
National Treasure 2

I also gave 9s to the following:

10 Things I Hate About You
Music & Lyrics
Live Free or Die Hard
Hairspray
Bourne Ultimatum
Stardust
I Am Legend
PS I Love You

See a theme? I like comedy, I like adventure, I like hot actors. LOL

Top Television

This includes those I saw on DVD as well as live. The 10s are:

Kitchen Confidential
Gilmore Girls, seasons 1 and 4
Supernatural, season 2 (three was an 8, but after the last ep I’ll bump it to 9)
Jake 2.0
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Lost, seasons 2 and 3 of Gilmore Girls, the fall season of Numb3rs, and the end of season 2 of Prison Break got 9s. I'm dying for Lost to start again, and I don't miss Prison Break anymore.

That Goals Thing

I met all my goals!

Weight

I lost 15 lbs. What? You thought I said my goal was 50? Oh, you must have misheard me. I said fifTEEN. That sounds a lot like fifTY.

Dining Room

We have a few little things left to do, but the transformation is technically complete.

Exercise

I exercised 301 days this year, one more than my goal. I only skipped more than two days in a row once, and that was my birthday/Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.

Books

This one's a little trickier. I read, in their entirety, 107 books. I also read parts of 56 books, with a total page count of 2471, which is a little over 7 books at of 350 pages. (I went as high as page 139 before stopping, and as low as the first page. The most common reason for stopping was boredom.)

So that's only 114, right? And my goal was 115. But I also critiqued 12 full books, all of which are either published, sold, or submitted. That right there would be enough, but I also critiqued 21 other chapters (mostly in partials) and read 10 short stories, some in an anthology, some for a contest, plus 6 Golden Heart entries, plus75 magazines. I think I overwhelmingly met my goal here.

Writing

Officially, I wrote 302,546 words, of which 25,182 were nonfiction (paid work). That falls 47,454 words short of my goal. But I think between the GabWagon and here, I've probably written three times that, and since the GabWagon is 100% related to writing, if I add that with what I've written here about writing, I'm sure I'm well over 350,000 words. Plus business e-mails and IMs could count, too. Since there is no "prize" for achievement, I'm just going to say I did it and leave it at that. :)

What DID I Do in 2007?

I started doing freelance nonfiction and editing/proofreading early in the year. I'm not going to add up the number of projects I did--it's several books edited/proofed, several articles written, lots of bios written, many more advertising pieces proofed.

For fiction, this is what I did:

• Finished writing Unbreakable
• Edited Under the Moon
• Wrote Rebuilding Forever (published in July)
• Revised Unbreakable
• Wrote Hummingbird
• Revised Color of Courage
• Wrote More Than You Know

Pretty good year, I think.

2008 Planning

I'm not setting goals this year. I do, however, have plans.

I will continue exercising, and will exercise 2.5 hours a week. I need to increase my intensity and time for each. I think doing a 45-minute workout three times a week will be more effective, for example, than walking for 15 minutes twice and using hand weights for five minutes three times.

I will continue to track my weight, and hopefully lose more, but I know if I put too much focus on it, it will backfire. So I plan to make small changes in an ongoing, long-term effort.

I will keep a list of the books I read, movies I see, and TV shows I watch, but I'm not compiling all the info I did in 2007, with notes on what I thought about them and such.

And I'll keep track of my writing, both nonfiction and fiction, but since I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen tomorrow, never mind the rest of the year, I don't want to set full goals. Some of the things I plan to do, in the absence of outside influence (like contracts):

• Revise Behind the Scenes
• Revise Hummingbird
• Revise More Than You Know
• Write sequel to The Color of Courage
• Write sequel to Under the Moon
• Start first book of Victory series

So there you have it. Everything you didn't care about regarding my 2007 and 2008. :)

How did you do? What are your plans? Share!

Book List 2006—The Tens

The difference between a 9 and a 10 is not always definable. I can finish a book, love it, think about the score—and just not be able to give it the top. There’s an element that’s ephemeral, and very personal, but somehow, a 10 transcends even excellence and touches me somehow. I’m sorry the book is over.

That was the case with all of these:

The Comeback Kiss
Lani Diane Rich

I got several of her books at signings at RWA National in July. Two were okay. Her book previous to this one, Maybe Baby, got a 9. This one went over the top because of the hero. I love good men who try to convince everyone else they’re not. I have to wait until next FALL for the next one, according to the excerpt at the back. Luckily, she has another from another publisher sooner. But you’d never know it from her web site, which hasn’t been updated since April. Very annoying. She didn’t e-mail me back when I e-mailed her to “complain” (i.e. gush all over her about how wonderful this book is). Maybe because I’d also seen some things on her group author blog that made me gush about “how much we’re alike, like, ohmigod!” I probably scared her.

Storm Force
Meredith Fletcher

This was a near-flawless book. The hero revealed his secret too soon, I thought, and some backstory got dumped in the beginning, but the action and tension were so taught, from page one, I never wanted to put it down. I guess sometimes a book can totally transcend its flaws.

Missing Incorporated
Tess Pendergrass

This one kept me guessing with questions about the murderer, the hirer of the assassin, where the son went, and who the hero would be. I would love to read more by this author, but more like THIS. She has cozy mysteries (too tame for me most of the time) and Five Star books (wayyyy too expensive for me) so I’ll be on the lookout for her future stuff.

Born in Death
JD Robb

What I love about these books is that the author is so true to the characters’ voices and personalities, and that she incrementally grows them so they are never stagnant, never stale. I don’t read her Nora Roberts books anymore, but I can’t get enough of these.

Haunted in Death
JD Robb

A lead novella in the anthology “Bump in the Night,” this is the weakest of JD Robb’s offerings only because it’s very difficult to accept Eve Dallas going along with the whole haunting thing. If you love paranormal (and I do), it’s easy to get over. (Okay, it's also "weakest" because it's short.)

Summer Knight
Jim Butcher

I don’t know why I liked this one best of the first four. I don’t know why I like these books at all, actually. I find that urban fantasy really appeals to me, and I love Harry Dresden, but I don’t generally like “dark” worlds, and this is the darkest of the ones I've read. Somehow, though, it gripped me and wouldn’t let me go. It will be interesting to see how he ups the stakes from “end of the world” in the next books.

California Demon
Julie Kenner

This book and the next one are why authors MUST keep their web sites up to date. I couldn’t put this down. The subtitle (the secret life of a demon-hunting soccer mom) says it all. This is what they mean by “chick lit.” It’s funny, exciting, adventurous, and we can identify with the heroine despite the paranormal world she lives in. I wasn’t entirely happy with the choice she made at the end, but it was the only one she COULD make and it made me ravenous for the next book. Of which there was no mention on JK’s web site. Drove me insane. Luckily, she e-mailed me back when I wrote to her. I only have to wait until July. :)

Don't Look Down
Crusie/Mayer

First book of a collaboration. I always loved Jennie Crusie’s writing, if not her writing philosophies (I scoff at “never ever ever ever on pain of being labeled A Bad Writer change point of view in a scene!” for example.) I started reading their joint blog about how they came to collaborate on this book because they are both very funny. And so is this book. More than that, it is a PERFECT example of my ideal genre: romantic adventure, as their publisher labels it.

Lost Calling
Evelyn Vaughn

Something Wicked
Evelyn Vaughn

The above two books are going to be difficult to get. These are stellar examples of what Bombshell was supposed to be, and usually was. Strong women, strong men, exciting stories, compelling worlds. It kills me that the line is gone, especially when I remember books like these, and all the ones that won’t get published.

Firefly Official Companion
Various

This is all about the first half of the series, with scripts and behind-the-scenes stuff. Awesome and necessary for any Browncoat.

Twelve Sharp
Janet Evanovich

I have enjoyed Evanovich’s new NASCAR series, but not nearly as much as her Plum books. No one tops Grandma Mazur, and Ranger is to die for. Yes, I said it. TO. DIE. FOR.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
Ally Carter

This book is the first of a series about a high school student in a private school that raises girls to be spies. They are exactly what I wish I could have been.

City of Cries
Catherine Asaro

I don’t have a link for this one. It turns out it was a Science Fiction Book Club original. It takes place in her Skolian Empire world, I think. I haven’t read her other books that weren’t Lunas.

The Gate to Eden
Cathy McDavid

I don’t usually read historicals, and because they’re not my first choice, it took me a little while to pick this up and read it. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll admit (not like you don’t already know) she’s one of my fellow authors in The Gab Wagon. I’ve known her for many years, at least since we were both newly published by Avid Press in 2000. But I have not always rated her other books a 10. :) This book had the kind of spunky-yet-not-anachronistic heroine I love, and a hero worthy of her.

Thunderbird Falls
C.E. Murphy

This is second in a series that also has a novella in an anthology. The worldbuilding in this is awesome, urban fantasy with talented heroine and intriguing potential hero. I would like more romance, but it’s the rare story that (to me)didn’t need it.

The Phoenix Law
Cate Dermody

Cate Dermody is CE Murphy. I e-mailed her to complain. if I’m about to read a CE Murphy book I know that I’m not going to do much else, and I plan accordingly. The first two books of this trilogy were good, but not as good as the CE Murphy books. This one sucked me in from the first page. I say get the whole series, but this does stand alone, and has a very satisfying resolution. Totally spy.

My YouTube Favorites 2006

MaryF inspired this one. She has some really good ones on her blog; a few of them would make this list but I don't want to copy/duplicate. So these are just the vids that went into my favorites this year. My ultimate faves bracket the series:



Cracks me up constantly. Plus there are some really hot shots in there.



One of my favorite songs, nicely timed to my favorite active TV show.



This one is amusing, but this one...



...shows how even favorites can be reduced to the ridiculous.

Ah, but this one!



This one is my all-time favorite. Sammy's bitchfaces and Dean's stoicism and mild annoyance combined with this great song can make me smile after the worst of days. The timing is superb--really listen to the lyrics while you watch. It's a masterpiece, IMO.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'll be out of town for a few days so I won't post until Sunday, likely. That one will be about football because it's the last game of the regular season. You've been warned. :)

Next week I'll be posting about my Book List 2006. For the first time in my LIFE I've kept track of every book I read this year, and all the ones I started but didn't finish. I'll analyze the data, share some ratings and some favorites, and either bore you to death or, preferably, turn you on to some great new authors you've never read before.

Like this one:

My Top TV Shows Watched in 2006

I didn't say top 10 because I can't get that high. I wasn't even going to do a list, because I talked about TV so much this fall, but it feels incomplete without it.

Again, this is MY top shows, and they might not have been aired this year.

1. Supernatural (Duh)

2. Prison Break (end of season 1 trumps beginning of season 2)

3. Veronica Mars (season 1; season 2 was okay, too; it went downhill from there)

4. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (love the dialogue, the acting, the relationships)

I think that's all I can put there. I liked Lost, Smallville, Numb3rs, The Class, and Ugly Betty, and they were appointment TV (well, TiVo appointment) but I can't put them on a best list. The rest of the shows I watched were underwelming, though Eureka made my summer a little more fun.

My Top 10 Writing Experiences in 2006

This is in random order as I thought of them. I probably have more than 10, but I'll be good. :)

10. Finishing Brianna's Navy SEAL.
I wrote the first two books several years ago, and after that shifted to writing a very different kind of book. Going back was extremely difficult, and the story gave me fits. It's a transitional story, starting out in the same "world" as the first two in the trilogy, but shifting to different kinds of conflicts and adventures. Good news--Darcy's back, being as uber-bitchy as she was in Kira's Best Friend.

9. CPRW's Third Annual All About Me Writing Retreat
There is very little in my writing life more pleasing to me than this retreat. Starting early on Friday and running through lunchtime on Sunday, I am focused 100% on my writing. I'm secluded from distractions and obligations and can write guilt-free. I can ignore my fellow retreaters if I want to, and stay in my room 'round the clock. I never want to, though. We retreat at a facility that has beautiful grounds, and with people I adore. We have huge fun playing games on Saturday night, with laughter so loud we disturb anyone else who's there (last year that was no one, luckily). And how many places does one get to make friends and then be snubbed by a mean old rooster? In 2007 we're extending the retreat by a day, which will make it perfect.

8. Agent interest
On my birthday last year, I received a revision letter from the agent I would really like to represent me. I revised the book, had a great meeting with her in Atlanta in July, and got another revision letter in November. I've sent her something new and she has the full manuscript now. The manuscript that gave me:

7. My critique partners cried
Two of them did, maybe three. One of them called to yell at me for making her cry. In fact, the emotion in the final chapters was strong enough that almost all of them overlooked my two-dimensional, motivationless villain. I fixed that in revisions. I hope.

6. Stretching myself
I figure anything you do differently is stretching yourself, right? So for a while I was concentrating on Bombshell, which meant a focus on the heroine's point of view. I wrote a book that had only her POV, then revised it to single title to add the hero's. Then I wrote another book that was only the heroine's POV, then the partial of one that had both, and in between I wrote a few short stories that had both. But for The Color of Courage, the one that induced crying, I wrote in first person. That was TOTALLY new for me. Those who read my blog regularly know I don't care to read a lot of first person, never mind write it, but it felt right for that book.

In my last two books, I have multiple potential heroes. In The Color of Courage I didn't know, right up to the end, who she'd wind up with. In Under the Moon, I knew, but it broke my heart. I have a threesome in that book, and it was sooooo satisfying to write, as a transition from her old life to her new one.

5. RWA National
What a fabulous event this year. I mean, it always is (I went in 2000, 2003, and 2004, as well). It's great to see all the people I know online and met at past events, and to meet new ones. The workshops are always educational and I always manage to make or enhance at least one professional contact, but the conversations are the best part, whether it's at a party, at a bar or restaurant, or in the lobby.

4. Critiquing
I hadn't been doing much of that in the past couple of years, but I started a goals group that morphed into a full-support group and a critique group. We're all very different writers, but all skilled enough to benefit each other. The best part has been reading material that's very good, very unique, and not available for anyone else! Bwahahahahaha.

3. Blue Silver
In a collaboration with Ellie Marvel, Megan Hart, Jacki King, and Penny Dawn, I wrote one of five intertwined stories that were unique as a collection AND as individual stories. I never saw five personalities and writing styles complement each other so well, while creating works that dealt with the same central event, writing several same scenes from different points of view, yet ending with such different stories. This will remain on my top ten for life.

2. NaNoWriMo
I never got to do National Novel Writing Month before. Timing was never right to begin a new book on November 1 and write that much, that fast. Since I'm writing full time, I set my goals higher than the 50K of the program. I reached 50K words on November 19 and finished the book (397 pages/85,658 words) on November 29. I'd never written a book that long, that quickly before. My page count per day ranged from 1 page to 33 pages and hit just about every number in between. The book needs a lot of revision, too, but I have that winner's certificate on the wall--a goal achieved, a milestone reached.

1. Under the Moon
This is my NaNo book. I took an idea I had before (goddess) and an inspiration hammering me the week before it started (the brothers from Supernatural) and just wrote. It's an action-adventure like my other books. A paranormal like half of them. A "surprise" romance in that the hero is not obvious and the story doesn't follow traditional romance conventions. It has a strong heroine who is not prickly and unable to rely (heavily at times) on those she cares about to help her. It also has two delicious men (not brothers, not demon-hunters, and not angsty and conflicted but named Dean and Sam nonetheless *g*) and a world I was excited to revisit every time I turned on my computer. I don't expect to have this experience ever again, but I'm going to savor it forever.

My Top Ten Impossible Wishes for Christmas

1. End of all U.S. involvement in war and soldiers home with their families.
Who doesn't want that? Please note this is my one nod to global needs--all the others are purely selfish; I figure it's a given I want an end to world poverty and illness and so on.

2. Sam and Dean to come to my house for a visit.
Or Jensen and Jared. I'm not picky. And they should come while the Boot Squad is here, to make everyone happy.

3. Signing with the agent I've been working with for a year and a half.
It's not that this is an impossible wish overall--but since she won't read my full until after the holidays, she won't be offering me representation for Christmas *g*

4. A nice publishing contract.
I have two manuscripts under consideration, but again, the timing...

5. A blazing-fast new computer.
My current computer gets bogged down if I try to run more than two programs, and I'm the Queen of Software Multitasking (actually, I'm the Empress of Lost Hope, but that's something else entirely).

6. A new car.
A Mustang convertible would be nice, since the 2006 model year went back to muscle-car lines. But that's not practical for a lot of reasons, so I'm gunning for a Highlander hybrid with lots of convenience features.

7. A new house.
Hey, while we're on the impossible, I'd love a bigger bedroom, an office for my husband, a place where I can put the litter boxes out of sight (and smell), and closets that don't have six-inch shelves.

8. Housekeeping.
I've adjusted fine over the last six months to not getting my bathrooms cleaned and my living/dining rooms dusted and vacuumed and my kitchen floor mopped every two weeks. Doesn't mean I like it.

9. Publishing success for all my friends.
Whatever that means to them.

10. An Alphasmart Neo.
A nod to possibility. It's on here, though, because I don't really want anything that expensive. The Supernatural DVDs are enough for me this year. :)

What's on YOUR impossible list?

My Top Ten Supernatural Moments in 2006

10. The motion-detecting screaming gravestone on my front step opened and screamed for no reason on Halloween.

Hm. I think that's my only supernatural moment in 2006. And even then, it was going off because of cars driving by.

Okay, I'll do My Top Ten Supernatural Moments, instead. Remember, I didn't watch any of the show until this fall, so even if these moments are original to 2005, they're my moments in 2006.

10. The brother fight in Sam's apartment in "Pilot." That's the moment when I was hooked on the show. In the dark, with Sam not knowing who his intruder was, he anticipated Dean's every move (and vice versa) and even got the upper hand at the end.

9. My discovery of "Ode to a Bitchface" on YouTube. A delightful, very well-timed montage that caused me to add a video to my favorites for the very first time, and also to purchase "Mardy Bum" by the Arctic Monkeys.

8. The entire episode "Faith." Sam's determination not to let his brother die was the most touching thing in the first season.

7. Every moment Sam got throttled by whatever supernatural baddie they were trying to kill, until Dean rescued him.

6. Every moment Dean comforted Sam when he was in pain from his visions, whether it was the headaches or the heartache.

5. "Planes crash!"
"And apparently, clowns kill!"

4. The moment Dean admits to Sam that his brother and father are all he has left, and he hates that they don't care if they die on their quest to kill the demon. What he's not saying is that their not caring if they die is making him feel like he doesn't matter to them. They don't wake up to it until he's dying and they have no recourse--except for one of them to sacrifice himself.

3. Sam calling "Dad!" and then yelling, desperately, "Dean!" after the crash.

2. Dean admitting to Sam that he knows their father died in his place and how can Sam possibly make him feel better about that, and that one single tear falls (and also, Dean smashing the trunk of the Impala with a crowbar after Sam tells him he's not all right).

1. The best "moment" is a series of moments in the "fall finale" on December 7:

Sam's been infected by the demon virus.
The others want to kill him, the way they've killed the other psychotic infectives.
Dean won't let them.
Sam firmly and stoically says to give him his gun, he'll do it himself.
Dean gives the Impala to strangers and sends them on their way, ignoring Sam's pleading with him to go.
Sam breaks down when he realizes his brother is going to sacrifice himself.
It gets worse when Dean says he's tired, he can't take this burden anymore.

It culminates, of course, in the later moments at the very end of the show when Dean is about to reveal the secret and they go to black.

I look forward to many, many more moments in 2007 and beyond.