9:02 PM

Merrystar and Trip are spending the week down in Williamsburg at her parents, where my son is discovering the joys of ceiling fans in every room. So I’m on my own for a few days.

Pop quiz:

1) I am amusing myself by:

• A) Burritos!
• B) Blasting ABBA and Pantera!
• C) Watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The 13th Warrior, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country!
• D) Editing my photo albums!
• E) All of the above!

2) I am supposed to be:

• A) Getting some sleep.
• B) Filing old paperwork.
• C) Cleaning the house, or at least my office.
• D) Installing a new Linux distribution.
• E) Pimping my ride.

3) I miss:

• A) Merrystar.
• B) Trip.
• C) Both Merrystar and Trip.
• D) Chicken Pie.
• E) All of the above.

4) Things I really shouldn’t be considering, but am anyway:

• A) Pimping Merrystar’s ride.
• B) Converting Trip’s baby monitor into a house-wide stereo system.
• C) Dessert.
• D) Installing another Linux distro on Tsiolkovsky.
• E) Driving 4 hours “just to check in on the baby.”

Does anyone actually need an answer key for this?