The Leisure Meter: How to allocate your free time this month

1. Seeing The Number 23, a film about a man (Jim Carrey) whose growing obsession with a book that seems to mirror his life causes him to find numerical coincidences involving—not surprisingly—the number 23. (1 hour, 33 minutes)

2. Entertaining yourself with jokes about how the number 23 applies to other aspects of the film, like the number of people who might enjoy Carrey's sex scenes. (23 minutes)

3. Watching Family Ties season one on DVD, because life hasn't been quite as joyful since TV Land stopped airing reruns. (4 hours)

4. Wishing TV theme songs still ended with a perfectly simple "sha la la la." (5 minutes)

5. Arranging and rearranging these new titles on your bookshelf for optimal visibility:

-- Frederic Strauss's Almodovar on Almodovar, an analysis of the Spanish filmmaker and his films.-- Susan Sontag's At the Same Time, 16 essays and speeches written by the author in the last years of her life.-- David Mamet's Bambi vs. Godzilla, a candid look at moviemaking in Hollywood. (15 minutes)

6. Being satisfied. (2 minutes)

7. Being self-satisfied. (Much, much longer)

8. Suppressing your masculinity as you choose from the 3,300 worldwide boutique inns at bedandbreakfast.com to prove you're capable of choosing a thoughtful Valentine's Day gift. (30 minutes)

9. Regaining a little bit of that masculinity by giving her a card from oplusd.com. (15 minutes)

10. Listening to the energetic and only occasionally angsty rock album A Weekend in the City, by Bloc Party, a worthy follow-up to 2005's Silent Alarm. (1 hour, 30 minutes)

11. Attending one of the special chef presentations at the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami (February 22 to 25). (1 hour)

12. Kicking yourself if you opted to see Tyler Florence, Emeril Lagasse, or Rachael Ray over the succulent Giada De Laurentiis. (30 minutes)

13. Reading Triumph, an inspiring account of Jesse Owens's record-breaking performances at the 1936 Olympics, by Cinderella Man author Jeremy Schaap. (3 hours)

- Esquire Magazine