Basketball (when my ankle cooperates). I'm rediscovering the pleasures of ping pong with my kids. Hate jogging, but slowly surrendering to the need for a treadmill. Once upon a time, I painted, mostly with watercolor. Would love to return to it someday.

The soft sounds of anything Enya and most Narada or Windham Hills piano/guitar instrumentals (everyone say it with me: 'No Yanni!')...melodramatic thunder from Queen and Meatloaf...modern rock U2, Switchfoot, Train, Cranberries, Lifehouse, Relient K, Snow Patrol, et al...older alt. rock like Toad The Wet Sprocket, The Call, Tonio K., Steve Taylor, The Choir...early CCM including Lovesong, Larry Norman and "Classic" Petra (pre-Schlitt)...the new British invasion of passionate worship music: Delerious, Matt Redman, etc....folk music Eastmountainsouth, Band of Horses, Indigo Girls, Bruce Cockburn

Favorite authors---

Fiction: Tolkien, Lewis, Patricia McKillip, Guy Gavriel Kay, Susan Cooper, Ursila K. LeGuin, Lloyd Alexander

Nonfiction: C.S. Lewis, Watchman Nee, Andrew Murray, Henri Nouwen, Frederick Buechner, Dallas Willard, J.I. Packer, Bill Johnson, Francis Frangipane.

Love...movies! The original Star Wars changed my life as a kid. The first Matrix was a gasp-inducing revelation. In between those movie bookends: Last of the Mohicans, Braveheart, A River Runs Through It, Fletch, the original Pink Panther series, Young Frankenstein, The Mission, Memento (brilliant!). And of course, the Lord of the Rings trilogy (I waited 25 years for that one to hit the silver screen, and it was worth the wait. Absolutely pitch perfect, especially the extended editions).

I don't watch much TV (remember, I have eight kids!), though I readily confess to a family weakness for American Idol. Favorites sitcoms of the past: Cheers and Frasier were more my style than Friends and Seinfeld. Current fav was Back to You until it got cancelled. Also, in spite of his tendency to get preachy, I think Aaron Sorkin's stuff is brilliantly written (just got the complete West Wing series DVD set).