Having left today's slate deliberately blank, I was at a loss about what to do, after I finally crawled out of bed at eleven o'clock. Fortunately, that didn't leave very many hours to fill anyway. I could think of all kinds of things I should have been doing, but instead I spent a good part of the day watching TV.

TiVo had shows that were almost a week old cluttering up its hard drive, which is just shameful. How shameful it is that I watch that much television is another question entirely, and one that I might pursue some day, when I feel like beating myself up over something of so little consequence.

This TV orgy (well, it wasn't quite that, technically) meant that I had to fast-forward through all those pre-election ads that appeared on last Sunday's Angel. Smack in the middle of Tuesday's Gilmore Girls, George Pataki appeared out of nowhere and gave a victory speech. And I had one last chance to review the early returns as they crawled along the bottom of Judging Amy (ewww!).

Oh, the thrill of reliving the California gubernatorial cliffhanger one! more! time! I think Simon had a slight lead when the show went off the air at ten, although it turned out Davis won by five percentage points. I hope I didn't spoil that for anyone who hasn't watched it yet.

I'm going to have to take up a hobby to keep my hands busy. I think that's the only way to avoid the mindless eating that sent the needle on my bathroom scale around twice yesterday before it landed on an obscenely large number.

Just the very fact that I've gained that much is nearly enough to drive me off compulsive snacking, but not quite. I can keep asking myself if I'm eating because I'm hungry or only because I have nothing else to do, but the answer doesn't always correspond with the correct course of action. Sometimes even when I know what's right, I do the wrong thing.

I must be the only person in the world knowingly who consistently acts against his own best interest. So, I'm thinking knitting. That's a stress-free hands-on activity, right? Plus, it makes Christmas shopping easier if everybody gets socks.

The Democrats in the House of Representatives can do anything they like, as far as I'm concerned, but I take it as a good sign that their new leader will be Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi from San Francisco. She promises to confront the Republican majority and the Bush administration, rather than rolling over for them as Democrats have been doing since last year. This should open up the political dialogue in Washington. It's a reminder that issues have more than one side and authority can be questioned. I think some of us might have forgotten that in recent months.