Time for some Top Ten fun.

Continuing one of our most popular—if oddly named—Top Ten games, I give you…

Tuesday’s Top Ten Either/Or  (Celebrity Edition)

For each celebrity, pick which role you feel is/was their best…or which is your favorite. And feel free to share your reasons why.

1.  Rob Morrow in either Northern Exposure or Numb3rs?

2. David Krumholtz in either Numb3rs or Serenity?

3.  Hugh Jackman in either X-Men or Van Helsing?

4.  Jon Cryer in either Pretty in Pink or Two and a Half Men?

5.  Charlie Sheen in either Young Guns or The Three Musketeers?

6.  Keifer Sutherland in either Young Guns or The Three Musketeers?

7. Ron Perlman in Beauty and the Beast or Hellboy?

8.  Gordon Ramsay in either Hell’s Kitchen or Kitchen Nightmares?

9.  Dwayne Johnson in Walking Tall or The Rundown?

10.  Dwayne Johnson in The Game Plan or The Tooth Fairy?

So this is the time of year when we’re all supposed to remember the things we’re thankful for, right?  Okay, good deal.  I can get on board with that.

Top Ten Thanksgiving KThxBi

10. No Swine Flu (As of this writing, I am still gloriously Swine Flu-free. (Knock on wood.) Let’s keep it that way, shall we? )

9. Healthy Bodies All Around (I am, of course, very thankful for my continued good health…& I’m talking all-around, general good health, not the the testing negative for pork germs kind.  I’ve got no aches or pains, no cuts or bruises, no tumors or growths or symptoms of any kind, & all appendages & internal organs are right where they ought to be.  I am also extremely grateful that all of my family & kiddos are currently quite happy & healthy.  I’m hoping to keep that the status quo for a nice, long while, too.)

8. Fangs for the Memories (I’m grateful that I am very nearly finished with my first vampire novel.  It’s been a lot of work, with more than a few potholes along the way.  But I’m closing in on The End, & am actually quite happy with how the stories turned out.  I’m also hoping the revision & polishing process won’t take too long so I can turn this book in before my actual deadline.  That would be soooo awesome! )

7. Black Dagger Brotherhood (Have I mentioned recently how much I am loving this series?  Or how happy I am to have started reading them just when I needed that little extra oomph to get me going with my own vampire bad boys?  Okay, so my heroes aren’t nearly as bad as Ward’s immortal warriors are, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t put me majorly in the mood for a bloody good time.   Also deserving a nod of thanks:  MaryJanice Davidson’s “Betsy, Queen of the Vampires” books.)

6.  Solitary Confinement (As much as I love my electronic links to the outside world, I am very much looking forward to Thanksgiving & the days surrounding it when there will be no phone calls & very little e-mail.  Oh, sure, I’ll probably still get on line here or there to Tweet or whatnot, but for the most part, I am really looking forward to hunkering down with nothing but my AlphaSmart, some TV specials, & a nice, tasty turkey leg.)

5.  Elf! (I love Christmas movies, I love Will Farrell, & I positively adore Elf.  So how ecstatic am I that this fabulous movie is going to be on not once, not twice, but three times over Thanksgiving?!?  I’ve already set my DVR to record it one of those times & have marked my TV guide with big red arrows to watch the other two.  (Okay, to watch all three, then save the taped version for later.   It’s my holiday, I can do whatever I want!)  Oh, & also—The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.  I’m not entirely sure this will be on over Thanksgiving, but it has been on once or twice already & I recorded it to enjoy while nibbling the other turkey leg. *g*)

4.  Work (I know these are scary times for a lot of people, which is why I’m even more grateful for all the projects I’ve currently got on my plate.  Three different contracts with three different publishers.    Are they keeping me busy?  Sure.  But better too many books to write than not enough, & I’m certainly enjoying them!)

3.  Richard & Rose & John & Charles (As always, I am supercalifragilisticexpialidocious grateful for my wonderful agent & wonderful editors.  They look out for me, they encourage me, they let me go hog wild—but not in the swine flu way!—& then pull me back just as much as needed to make my stories the very best they can be.  Thank you so much, each & every one of you! )

2.  The Dungeon (No Thanksgiving thankfulness list would be complete without mentioning how grateful I am for this place, & for all of you.  I admit, there are days when I draw a complete blank as to what I should post, but when my brain doesn’t go all slow-moving zombie on me, absolutely adore coming up with naughty, wicked, uber-fun stuff to share with you guys.  And getting the chance to chat with you about it…& everything else under the sun…is simply the icing on the cake.  So THANK YOU, my Darlings! )

1.  Thanksgiving Dinner! (I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to a nice, big, delicious meal with all the bells & whistles.  I spend so much of my time grazing, pecking around at whatever is quick & easy & handy because I’m either on deadline or too lazy to fix a nice meal—or both!—that this is going to be a true blessing.  And for once in my life, I’m actually looking forward to all the leftovers! )

So that’s my Top Ten Thanksgiving list…what’s on yours?

My Top Ten Birthday Wishes

10.  World Peace (*snork* Yeah, right.  No offense, but that would be a bit of a stretch.  The logistics alone are quite daunting to consider.  (Anybody ever see the Steve Martin SNL skit where he lists his Christmas wishes?  Put me in Steve’s place & make it a birthday wish list instead of a Christmas one & we’re pretty much on the same page. )  (Plus, if I could make birthday wishes that were actually going to come true, I’m sure I would attempt to be at least somewhat altruistic, but fall far short & go straight for the most selfish of choices. )

Real #10.  Ice Cream (I wish that I could eat my weight in ice cream every single day without gaining an ounce.  Maybe have a nice, big ice cream cake from Dairy Queen or even a regular chocolate cake with peanut butter icing for my birthday.  (I know; that’s not technically ice cream anything, but it sure does sound good.)  I love, love, love ice cream & miss it sooooo much.  Chocolate, mint chocolate chip, peanut butter cup…  (Oh, God, now I’m hungry!)

9.  Prolificity (Yeah, I know…is that even a word?  Probably not.  But I wish I were a faster writer—i.e. more prolific & productive—& could whip out these stories as quickly as the ideas pop into my head.)

8.  Kitties & Puppies & Bunnies, oh, my! (I wish every sweet little domestic animal on the planet could have a safe & loving home.  And that the wild ones could be safe & left alone in their natural habitats, too.)

7.  48 Hours in a Day (Wouldn’t that be great?  Because, let’s face it, twenty-four just isn’t enough.  I need twelve hours of sleep…I never get it, but that’s what I need…& then I could still have thirty-six more to do all the things I need to do in a day. Plus some!)

6.  Come Back, Come Back NOW! (I wish some great shows that have disappeared recently—like Flashpoint, The Eleventh Hour, & My Name is Earl would come back.  Please? )

5.  Dream House (I wish I could move into a big, beautiful new home away from…  Well, this is a public forum, so I should maybe not say much more than that.  But suffice to say, I want to move & I’m not real particular as to where!)

4.  A Million Dollars (Or, hey, ten, twenty, a hundred million would work, too.  I’m not picky.  And I don’t care how it comes to me…a lottery win, a ginormous book contract, inheriting a long lost relative’s fortune…  Whatever.  But if I had a million dollars (minimum ), I would do all the things the Barenaked Ladies say they’d do in their song “If I Had $1,000,000.”  Plus, I would buy my dream house, hire a band of mercenaries to find my darling Dwayne & bring him to me (unharmed, of course, but bound would be okay ), & build a shelter large enough to house every homeless animal on the planet—& a couple of big cat sanctuaries, to boot—& probably have some left over.)

3.  Creativity (I wish I possessed the brilliance of authors such as Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Laurell K. Hamilton, or J.R. Ward.  (Maybe the trick is to have three names, huh? *vbg*)  I read these books & love them so much, but even though I love what I write & love the ideas I come up with on my own, I know my brain will never even come close to coming up with the sort of things theirs do.  It can be downright depressing, let me tell you. )

2.  FIREFLY!!!! (I wish Firefly would come back on the air.  Not just repeats of the original episodes or Serenity, but the entire cast returning for a million more seasons of new episodes.  Is that so much to ask?  Really.  IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?!?  I think not.  Now do it, dammit!  Because if I really try, I’m betting I can kill you with my brain.)

1.  Dwayne (Do I even need to elaborate on this one?  Didn’t think so.  Although I will say that I would be willing to settle for almost anything Dwayne-related.  A birthday phone call, a pop-in, a giant diamond engagement ring slipped on my finger while he professes his undying love…  Basically any tiny crumb he’d like to toss my way.  Is that so much to ask?  Again, I think not.)

(P.S. I hope you’ll drop by Must Love Yarn today, where K.M. Daughters is guest blogging about “Knitting on a Prayer”…& giving away a free book. )

It’s been a while since we’ve played around with a Top Ten list here in The Dungeon, so let’s do a fun one, shall we?

Top Ten Things That Sound Dirty But Aren’t

(okay, 14…I thought of too many )

14.  Kagagoogoo

13.  Oingo-Boingo

12.  Velvet Underground

11.  niblick (An old-fashioned golf club with an iron head, the face of which has the greatest slope of all the irons, for hitting the ball with maximum loft; a.k.a. a nine-iron.  Geez, even the definition sounds a little dirty. )

10.  Hancock

9.  ballast

8.  coming & going

7.  Shank & Tittle (The name of a sports clothing/equipment company—seen on the side of a truck on the way to RWA in D.C.)

6.  spelunking

5.  The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

4.  cloaca  (The common cavity into which the intestinal, genital, and urinary tracts open in vertebrates such as fish, reptiles, birds, and some primitive mammals.  Okay, so by definition, that one is kind of dirty. )

3.  crank shaft

2.  Phuket, Thailand (actually pronounced Poo-ket, but I know what you were thinking. )

1.  acute angina (Why, thank you…I think.)

Can you think of any I missed?

So Mother’s Day was last week, &—confession time—I did absolutely nothing for my mother.  Yeah, yeah, I know; I’m a horrible daughter…so sue me.  But the fact is, I did something really nice & special for her last year that I knew she would like (the big, stealthy porch swing surprise , remember?) but couldn’t think of a darn thing she needed or would like this year.  And in my defense, my mother hates knick-knacks & things she can’t use, so she wouldn’t want me buying her junk just so she could have something to open, anyway.  I also didn’t offer to take her out to eat because the idea of going to an overly crowded restaurant on a holiday makes us both shudder.  I figure one of these days, she’ll see something she likes & I’ll let that be my Mother’s Day gift…or we’ll go out to eat & I’ll pick up the tab.

But what I did do…whether she’ll actually appreciate it or not … is compose a Top Ten list in her honor.  Ready for this?

Top Ten Quirky Things About My Mother

(a.k.a. Madame Mommy Dearest )

10.  My mother thinks you can make anything low fat & healthy to eat if you just “blot it with a paper towel.”

9.  My mother is a cleaning fanatic.  She moves things all the time so she can dust & vacuum around them…but then can’t remember where she put the items later.  (Which drives her nuts, & I say is merely her punishment for never being able to leave anything alone for more than five minutes.)

8.  My mother is a librarian to her core.  If she spots an item in a store that isn’t in its correct place (you know, like a package of cookies in the cereal aisle) she will stop what she’s doing & return it…or make you put it back for her.

7.  My mother hates fiction.  The only fiction she reads is mine (& I suspect she does that only under duress) & she won’t watch movies or sitcoms more than once—if at all.  But she will watch the exact same true crime shows sixty-two times.  I keep wanting to scream at her, “The guy is still dead!  He doesn’t come back, & the identity of the killer doesn’t change!”

6.  My mother loves to bake, but cannot follow a recipe.  And when I say “can’t,” I mean won’t.  She always thinks she can improve upon it or do something differently & have it turn out better.  Um, not always, Mom.   Not always.

5. My mother is a terrific baker, but—in the same vein as #6—she can never manage to make the same thing the same way twice.  If she makes a batch of cookies that are absolutely fabulous & you ask her to make them again a couple months later…they will not taste the same.  They’ll be edible & maybe even yummy, but they will not be the same as you remember them.  We call her the Hit-or-Miss Baker.

4.  My mother loves to wash dishes.  Seriously.  She won’t own a dishwasher because they waste too much water (okay, I’m totally with her on that one ) & she likes to do dishes by hand.

3.  When I turned eighteen, my mother bought me a subscription to Playgirl magazine.  (Can you say coolest mom ever?!? )

2.  Once, when we were staying in a hotel in another state, I was flipping through channels & discovered that the adult channel wasn’t blocked.   And my mother says, “You’re an adult now, I don’t mind if you watch porn.”  (Yeah, that one isn’t so much cool as creepy.    But thanks, anyway, Mom.)

1.  My mother hates black cats with pink bummie holes.  She doesn’t understand why God would do such a thing & thinks she should be allowed to take a black Sharpie marker to them to help the skin blend in.  (Note:  When I say “hate” you know I don’t mean hate-hate; she loves all kitty cats, regardless of fur or bummie-hole color…she just has feline fashion issues. )

For those of you who joined me on my Blog Tour 2009, you may have caught the interview I did for Romance Reviews Today, in which I answered questions about writing, life in general, & TANGLED UP IN LOVE specifically.  Many of those questions were compiled by our own Laura J., by the way.  (Heh.  That rhymes.)  (Okay, the Beavis & Butthead moment has passed, thank you very much. )

So, anyway, one of the questions was about guilty pleasures, & I sucked it up long enough to admit a couple of mine.  But it’s no fair being singled out.  And it’s no fun only listing two, either.  Which means you’re all going to be in the Hot Seat today.

Top Ten Guilty Pleasures

10.  As listed in the interview, I will admit to being completely hooked on courtroom television.  (Not to be confused with Court TV, although that has it’s moments, too.)  There are a lot I don’t watch, but the ones I rarely miss—even in repeats—are The People’s Court & Judge Judy.  I also occasionally enjoy Judge Joe Brown.

9.  Also admitted to during the interview…can you tell I’m easing into this? *vbg*…I love peanut butter.  Peanut butter & chocolate is a given.  I mean, duh.  But I am slightly addicted to just plain peanut butter, & I don’t know why.  To be honest, while I’ve always liked peanut butter well enough, I only formed this apparent addiction to it after my dad died.  You see, he used to sit & eat peanut butter with a spoon straight out of the container, which I thought was not only unhealthy, but completely disgusting.  Uh-huh.  Well, I’m apparently channeling my dad, & he apparently still loves his peanut butter, because now I do the exact same thing.  (Yes, I realize the level of my sickness & that I should probably seek immediate psychiatric help.  I won’t, but I probably should.)

8.  Books & reading.  This is probably another duh one for 99% of visitors to this blog, but if I could get away with it, I think I would sit & read all day, every day.  There’s nothing I love more than being alone with a really good book.

7.  Repeats.  (As in TV & movies.)  Why?  Once I’ve seen something, why do I feel compelled to watch it again?  And once I’ve seen it so many times I’ve practically got it memorized, why do I still feel compelled to watch it over & over & over?  (Another subject to be discussed with the psychiatrist assigned to my case?  Perhaps.)

6.  Eating lettuce with my fingers. Yes, it’s true.  I love sitting with a bowl, bag, or head of lettuce & eating it like potato chips.  Not the most attractive habit, to say the least, but it’s delish!  And if I’m alone or with someone I trust & no one’s looking, I’ll even do this with my salads at restaurants, eating them piece by piece with my fingers.  It just beats using a fork all to hell.

5.  Puns.  Ohmigod, I am so freaking amused by puns.  Seriously, it verges on “special”—& I know you know what I mean by that.  I could probably compile a Top Ten list of my favorite puns or jokes that contain puns, &…  Okay, I’m totally going to do that one of these days.  You’ll be sorry, but I’m gonna do it!

4.  My babies. Yes, the left side of my brain knows it’s insane to have six cats, but the right side of my brain & every other part of my body just does not care what people think or what that says about me.  (”Crazy Cat Lady” topping the list, I’m sure.)  I love my kiddos, & think they are the most fabulous thing to come along since the invention of gravity.  (Actually, they’re better than gravity, when you think about it.  I mean, who really enjoys boob saggage, falling off a ladder, or having a granite gargoyle drop on their head?  Ha! Take that, people who love gravity more than cats! )  I would have a hundred more if I had the space for them, too, so what does that say about my mental faculties? LOL

3.  “Saying” tees. You know what I’m talking about.  The t-shirts that say things like It’s not PMS, it’s Y.O.U. & I may not be Irish, but kiss me, anyway. I have roughly 2.6 million of these things & have only ever gotten around to wearing about three of them, but I cannot seem to resist.  They crack me up & just seem to be a great way to let the world know what kind of mood you’re in without ever saying a word.  And when you’re not wearing them, you can stick them in a big pile for your cat to sleep on.

2.  Bling. Yes, it’s true, I admit—I am a material girl.  I love pretty, glittery things.  My mother says that I’m part crow…not the Indian tribe, but the bird, because every time I see something sparkly, I want to bring it home to my nest.  It doesn’t even have to be the real thing; costume jewelry is fine, as long as it’s pretty & sparkly & my favorite—unique.  The irony is that I don’t actually get a chance to dress up & wear my bling very often.  And even when I do…oh, the choices.  It’s very hard to decide which jewelry to wear when I have so many options.  Sigh.

1. WIPs and Chains (a.k.a. The Dungeon). That’s right, this place.  Whether actively posting or just surfing around & lurking in the background, blogging is a lot of work & can be very time-consuming—as I’m sure you guys know.  But this place just rocks, & I have so much fun both putting together posts & viewing all the comments.  I love it, too, when you Darlings talk amongst yourselves, picking up the ball & running in all sorts of interesting directions.  (Getting to slip on the stilettos & kick some blogger butt once in a while in the guise of Mistress Heidi isn’t half bad, either. )

All right, now it’s your turn.  What are your Top Ten Guilty Pleasures?  Come on!  I confessed to mine!

Top Ten Favorite Christmas Movies or Specials

1.  Scrooged

2.  Elf

3.  National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

4.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original animated version, not the Jim Carrey movie)

5.  ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

6.  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

7.  Frosty the Snowman

8.  Shrek the Halls

9.  A Muppets’ Christmas Carol

10.  A Very Brady Christmas (Don’t judge me!)

Your turn.  What are your Top Ten Favorite Christmas movies or specials?

So I’ve been thinking.  Not always a safe pasttime, I admit, but I risked it all the same.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to start something new here in The Dungeon:  A Tuesday Top Ten.

Not every Tuesday—because that would just be insane.  Plus, I suspect we’d run out of things to list pretty darn quickly.   But maybe once a month or so, I’m going to post a Top Ten topic, along with my own list.  Then you can chime in with your Top Ten responses.

What do you think?  Wanna give it a try?

This month, since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, it seems only fitting that we should go for a gratitude list.  So here’s mine:

Top Ten Things to Be Thankful For

1.  My health, which remains in tip-top shape despite recent poking by so-called medical professionals.

2.  My loved ones—& their health, too, of course!

3.  All six (count ‘em, six) of my wonderful (if slightly too-energetic at times) babies—&, of course, their continued good health.

4.  My fabulous agent, who takes such good care of me & never refuses one of my phone calls, even if I’ve bothered him ad nauseum already that week.

5.  My fabulous editor & everyone at St. Martin’s Press who’s been so great to me this past year & a half.

6.  My ab-fab ever-growing career, including writing for SMP, the upcoming knitting trilogy, & getting to be in an anthology with Lori Freaking Foster.  I mean, holy sh*t.  (Am I allowed to say that just before Thanksgiving?  I won’t go to Hell, will I?  At least not directly? *g*)

7. Some stuff I’m working on to celebrate the release of the “Chicks with Sticks” trilogy, but can’t say much about yet.

8. The Secret

9. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. (He just makes me happy, okay?!? Don’t judge me. It’s my list, I can put anything I want on it!)

10. You guys! For making my WIPs and Chains blog so much fun & such a success! Thank you, everybody!

There are way more things I’m thankful for, believe me, but I’m just trying to get the top, most general things in there.  Otherwise, we could be here straight through Thanksgiving.

Now it’s your turn. Gimme the Top Ten things you’re most thankful for.