Weekend in Sight

Plans and considerations for the weekend...

* Meet a friend for dinner at a fine Italian chain restaurant.

* Listen to this CD, a lot.

* Probably go here, here and here. The continued joys of home ownership.

* Perhaps take in a movie. Here are this weekend's contenders: critically acclaimed foreign film "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"; political thriller "Vantage Point" (written, as it turns out, by an old friend's husband); or another foreign entry, "The Counterfeiters."

* Watch episode eight of "The Wire," aka the finest program in the history of American television, on HBO Sunday night. All in the game, yo.

* Finally, tune in the 80th Annual Academy Awards and hopefully win an Oscar pool ... or two (a brutha's gotta make a mortage payment!).