Looking forward (for just a moment)

The final few days of CFA exam prep are here. I'll be taking two more practice tests before Wednesday and brushing up on the stuff that I still don't get but haven't given up on. I'll also be on deadline until Thursday. So a busy week.

But I am allowing myself a few moments this morning to consider next week, when I will be convalescing and generally ignoring the very existence of financial markets. In that vein, here are some things to which I am looking forward.

1. The Spies of Warsaw. This comes out on Tuesday. Alan Furst's birthday present to me. I'll give a bit of a listen to some of the other Furst/George Guidall hookups to get "the voice" in my head before I start reading.

2. Barbecue. I will be doing a pork shoulder and deep-fried smoked chicken wings (probably not on the same day, since the shoulder will take at least eight hours). The wings idea we got from Guy Fieri's visit to The BBQ Shack on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

3. A whole stack of library books and unread books from my own library that need some attention, including Michael Connelly's Crime Beat, Elmore Leonard's The Hot Kid, The Obvious Diet (a diet book with a foreword by Nigella Lawson, are you kidding me?) and a couple of books on technical analysis.

4. Euro 2008. I'm pulling for Poland. Group C is the official Group of Death (with Italy and France buttressed with solid sides from Holland and Romania), but Group B is no slouch, with Germany and Croatia in the Poles' way. If nearly any other team but co-hosts Austria (who could be written off if they weren't playing in their own backyard--they're ranked 101st in the world between Algeria and Tanzania) were in here, this could well be the Group of Death. Poland are newbies to the European Championship, but they have a decent World Cup record. To advance from this group they'll at least have to beat Germany (June 8) or Croatia (June 16).

5. Get Smart and Finding Amanda.

6. Westvleteren 12.