So then, the question on your minds, clearly, based on the staggering response to Sunday's post, is whether I efficiently went to the coffee shop to prepare applications. And, well, I got there in timely fashion on Monday, and was pretty productive, and then I got there in timely fashion on Tuesday, but was less productive.

But I'm not done yet, nor that close, but, Hey, what are you gonna do?

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There's a great reason to get things done. This great reason is the Nemo Festivus Party, this weekend.

Obstacles:
1) Applications.
2) Broken Car.

1) Applications - This has been covered before.

2) Broken Car. Well, not really broken. But slightly broken. Since, say, March, my passenger's side window hasn't really rolled down much. It would get stuck. It wouldn't go back up. This is an annoyance, but not a huge problem. After all, my driver's side window works, and now it's winter. I could figure it out in the spring, perhaps.

Now, last night, I had a friend in the car. This friend hadn't been in the car before, I don't think, or at least hadn't been in the passenger seat before. I asked this friend not to roll down the window. This friend then rolled down the window, just ever-so-slightly. But it's stuck, down, ever-so-slightly. And, as a day's worth of driving can attest, this makes it cold, and perhaps getting colder. Tomorrow is not my driving day, thankfully.

So I think I'm going to try to get it fixed. The place I go is open until noon on Saturday. We'll see what happens.

(Update: Nemo has just suggested the highly-logical "Rent a Stupid Car, Stupid" solution. He has also encouraged me to think in terms of solutions, rather than obstacles. Nemo is very, very smart.)

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There's been a lot of high-fiving at work lately. I think this is a pretty good development. I like to think that I've been a big part of fostering an environment that encourages high fives. This is because I have been.

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Let's do the top...20 list for the year.

First, let's revisit the top one list, 1998-2005
1998: Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
1999: Wilco - Summer Teeth
2000: Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
2001: The Strokes - Is This It?
2002: Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2003: The Postal Service - Give Up
2004: The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free / The Arcade Fire - Funeral / The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
2005: The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday

Revisiting 2006, with ranking at the end of last year
1) The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls In America (1)
2) The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely (2)
3) Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies (3)
4) Band of Horses - Everything All the Time (8)
5) Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That (14)
6) Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (4)
7) Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor (13)
8) The Thermals - The Body The Blood The Machine (5)
9) Islands - Return To The Sea (11)
10) The Futureheads - News & Tributes (7)
11) The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (6)
12) Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming (12)
13) The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home (unowned - 2007ish release)
14) The Killers - Sam's Town (unranked)
15) Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat (9)

And now, my top 20 for 2007:
1) Okkervil River - The Stage Names
2) Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
3) The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
4) LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
5) The White Stripes - Icky Thump
6) Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
7) Kanye West - Graduation
8) Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
9) Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
10) Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
11) Band of Horses - Cease To Begin
12) Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
13) Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
14) The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
15) Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
16) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder
17) The New Pornographers - Challengers
18) Dizzee Rascal - Maths + English
19) Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
20) The Clientele - God Save The Clientele

Lupe Fiasco's album comes out Tuesday. I've got nothing more to write.