My own CMOAT had a birthday earlier this week, which resulted in the arrival at our apartment of three highly anticipated boxes: one containing the complete Buffy DVD set, one containing the complete Firefly DVD set, and one containing sweet, sweet cupcakes.

Unlike Chris, I’ve previously been immune to the many and varied charms of Joss Whedon, and so have sampled the delights of Buffy only briefly. But we’ve been making our way through Firefly over the course of a few evenings, and I am firmly hooked. I’m not sure how I missed this when it was on the air (although it probably had something to do with me watching very little television in that 2002-2003 year) but in some ways I’m glad I’m seeing the episodes for the first time in the order in which they were intended to be seen. I think one of the reasons I never got into Buffy was that by the time I bothered to watch an episode or two, there was too much backstory I didn’t know and I found it too confusing to hold my interest for long. It’s possible I’ll start that from the beginning too now that we have the DVD collection.

Although this is our first exposure to Firefly the series, we did rent Serenity a while back. We enjoyed it probably about as much as people who have not seen the series could have enjoyed it, but it’s already become clear that we’re going to have to see it again as soon as we’re done with the show, now that we actually know who all these people are.

So normally this is where I’d proclaim my well-rested and turkey-fed return from Massachusetts and also comment on how much I miss its quiet and calm, but I actually didn’t go home this year. It was a New York Thanksgiving, and while I did miss my family dearly I have to admit it was unbelievably luxurious to wake up late on Thursday morning and know there were no five hour train rides ahead of me. But I am looking forward to getting out of the city and seeing my family at Christmas, especially now that my shopping is essentially done. (This did not entail entering a retail establishment of any kind on Friday, however.)

Speaking of shopping, I also want to acknowledge with bewilderment and gratitude those of you who have sent along early Winter Seasonal Happy Fun Time greetings and objects. In particular, I offer thanks to Buffalo, whose bountiful box of Wii-related booty was both an unexpected and heartily welcomed pleasure at the end of a wet Monday that began with the dropping of another umbrella down my garbage chute.

In the past couple of months, Chris and I have gotten our Xbox 360 back from Microsoft and also acquired a Wii, so we’ve been doing the console gaming thing rather more frequently than usual. I though I’d mention a couple of the games we’ve been working our way through, although I’ll note that I’m aware we’re missing a lot of the recent good stuff. (There is, of course, a solution to that problem.) Note: those of you who are close friends and/or relatives who like games but do not already own these games should probably avoid buying them between now and late December. I’m just saying.

Bioshock: We’re making very slow progress with this one because we’re sharing a save file between the two of us, which means we only play when both of us are home, and not busy, and not in the mood to play or watch something else. But what we’ve seen so far is great, and absolutely lives up to the high expectations I had. I’m not a huge fan of shooters, particularly on the console, but I make exceptions for remarkable games. This is a remarkable game.

The Orange Box: Five games, of course, but worth buying for Portal alone. I can’t remember the last time I loved a game so fiercely. And Half-Life 2 is another shooter that’s so good I like it despite its format. You have heard all of this from other people long before now, but it’s all true.

Viva Piñata: For someone with my moderately obsessive tendencies, this is pretty much the perfect game. Chris finds it frustrating, but for me it was like discovering the Pokémon games all over again. Though I reached level 50 a while back, I can still frequently be found carefully nurturing improbable flowers and shouting obscenities at recalcitrant paper animals.

Beautiful Katamari: We skipped the previous two Katamari games, thanks to the untimely death of our PS2 right around the time that WoW came out. Perhaps you’ll find this one lacking in novelty if you’ve played the predecessors, but we were delighted with it. This is another one I’ll probably come back to, as we’ve completed the primary storyline but left many of the smaller objectives untouched.

Super Mario Galaxy: The sole game I brought home with our brand-new Wii, apart from the Wii Sports pack-in. We’ve only just started it, but it’s delectable. I plan to dig more seriously into it over the long weekend.

I have often in this space spoken of various subway encounters - perhaps too often. But recently I found myself in close quarters with such a unique specimen that I have been haunted with the knowledge of her mere existence ever since. An individual whose tastes reflect such a radically different set of thought-processes that she and I may as well belong to different species. Indeed, I think it only too likely that she is in fact an alien, clumsily bumbling around in her stolen skin-suit, managing to be just convincing enough to escape certain vivisection but still inspiring shock and fear in all who gaze upon her.

Picture this, then, if you dare: a female in her mid-to-late twenties, much like myself. Imagine a much-too-small pink tube top with matching pink capri pants, worn in November and crowned with perfect skunk highlights. Then add pointy shoes (pink), the inescapable Victoria’s Secret bag (also pink), and a pair of those hideous insectoid sunglasses of the sort favored wholly unappealing creatures (pink). Now, if you can manage it, insert a brown Zune - only the second I have ever spotted in the wild. And finally brown lipstick in the same repellant cat-shit shade. It’s almost like this being was specifically engineered by some sinister force to destroy my brain.

I am reminded of various Lovecraftian protagonists who, upon facing ancient and indescribable horrors, immediately went mad or killed themselves, or both. I think either would be preferable to living out my days with the knowledge that such people not only walk the earth but also take the F during rush hour.

A few weeks ago I picked up The Zombie Survival Guide for Chris, as it came highly recommended by my brother, who is at least as fond of the living dead as we are. And sure enough, we liked the book so much that I have since acquired World War Z and devoured it whole. It’s definitely one of my favorite novels of the past couple of years, and I have no idea why it took me so long to find out about it. You should buy this book, and you should read it. And Max Brooks should write something else to fill my grim heart-cavity with joy.