Okay, we all have them lurking back in the closet: the dreaded "fat jeans." Those jeans we reserve for the day after we ate three slices of cheesecake or binged with our good friends Ben and Jerry and didn't make it to kickboxing yet. Anyone who understands the concept of "fat jeans" will find these tummy tuck jeans to be pretty cool for a number of reasons. But the reason that I'm bringing them up is because they have this contest where they are giving away 30 FREE pairs.

Plus, 1$ will be donated to the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for every pair of jeans that is tried on (not even purchased, simply tried on) at Nordstrom's. Oct is Breast Cancer Awareness month ... maybe now is a good time to go jeans shopping?

Winamp launched its 10th anniversary media player on Oct. 10 (get it? the 10th anniversary on 10/10). Version 5.5 is a serious improvement over previous iterations of the software, but as Switched.com asks, what's its relevance in a space dominated by Windows Media Player and iTunes?

One big difference between 5.5 and older Winamps is that this one syncs with your iPod -- providing a viable alternative to iTunes if that's your preference. Winamp 5.5's new interface includes album art, customizable skins, and an easy way to drag-and-drop songs or videos into your library.

One of the best things about the new software is its slick integration with AOL Radio, with dozens of channels as well as 20 more from XM Satellite Radio. You don't have to be an AOL member or XM subscriber to listen, though because I happen to have XM in my car, I can vouch for the quality of the 20 stations you get.

Some of the best make the list -- XM '80s, XM 20 on 20 (top hits), XM Deep Tracks (classic rock), XM Flight 26 (current alternative rock) -- and I find that they actually load and play more quickly in Winamp than they do in the radio player built into the AOL 9.0 software. And the stations, like Winamp itself, are all free.

Check it out at http://www.winamp.com/

As evidenced in my responses to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame post, I'm not a fan of most of the popular bands out there. However, I do have a kid and someday soon that kid is going to tell me I'm out of touch and not with it because I am not familiar with the music she's listening to. I'm pretty sure MTV doesn't actually play music videos anymore and top 40 radio has too many commercials. So I downloaded this music video widget which automatically plays the top 100 AOL music videos on my desktop. Now, without any effort on my part, I can be spoon-fed what's hot in the music world, and while I still may not like the songs, at least I can say I know what they are.

At the mall on Friday night, I was stopped dead in my tracks upon seeing a fully decorated and lit Christmas tree. I had to do a quick calculation... the last holiday-type thing that we celebrated was my birthday, in late September. I suffered no recent head-trauma that would have left me in a coma-like state for six weeks, passing over Halloween and Thanksgiving, which leads me to the conclusion that Halloween and Thanksgiving have not yet occurred. So why are there Christmas trees in the mall already?

Honestly, AOL isn't any different. We're already featuring a sneak peek at the hottest toys of the upcoming season. You can even shop by age. And while on the one hand, I'm a little peeved we haven't even gotten our Halloween costumes yet, carved, or even bought pumpkins, and it's still 80 freakin' degrees outside which puts me in anything but the holiday spirit, I totally admit, I started looking. It's hard not to get swept up in the frenzy. You want to stay ahead of the game because once they start publicizing the *Super-Hot-Every-Kid-Must-Have-Or-You-Suck-As-A-Parent* toy of the year, you know they will be sold-out within a week.

So those folks over at Cinematical are giving away a TRIP TO INDIA for the winner of the latest Insert the Caption contest. Since their prizes are usually DVDs or things like underwear, this is kind of a big deal. Being an AOL employee, I can't enter, so I live vicariously through you! Go forth and caption!

Styledash is having an interesting conversation about their favorite discontinued items, which made me think of some of my favorites. Diet Vanilla Coke, how I miss you. Vanilla Coke Zero is good, but not the same. I also miss the heck out of Wendy's Garden Wraps from about 10 years ago. That was by far the best vegetarian fast food option I've ever had. Is there a petition somewhere I can sign to get those brought back?

Some of the folks on that blog were able to suggest places that sell retro and hard-to-find items to others who were missing specific things so I thought maybe I'd bring it up over here too and see if anyone has anything they miss or suggestions on where they might be able to find them.

I've been a DirecTV subscriber since around 1997, which, you may recall, was a few years before the ubiquitous satellite dishes started popping up on people's roofs. An an early adopter I'm a big believer in DirecTV's value, even though the signal goes out in heavy thunderstorms, even though I can't get the local forecast on the Weather Channel, even though the HD offering is well behind the curve. Well, until now.

After months of promises, the boys at DirecTV have finally gotten with the program, so to speak. Twenty-one new HD channels just launched, with more on the way, all part of a program to have 100 HD channels by the end of the year.

I've been resisting the move to HD because to this point I couldn't justify $2,000 for a TV that picks up 9 HD channels. Today, all that would keep me from making the move is the need for a new dish (necessitating a service call to get it on my roof, and thus an afternoon spent "working from home") and giving up my superior TiVo box in favor of DirecTV's proprietary DVR, a less intuitive interface.

Time to make the move? Could be ... could be.

Ahhh lists. I love lists. In celebration of October and Halloween, Moviefone is counting down the 31 best horror movies over the next thirty days. We start today with 'The Ring' (which I completely agree should be on the list) and they have hints about the rest of the list which will be revealed every day through the rest of the month. I'm not a horror buff by any means, but I thought I had enough random movie and pop-culture knowledge that I'd be able to figure my way around most of the hints... I was wrong.

I'm taking predictions for what *should* make it, or guesses as to what the upcoming days will be based on the hints. Give yourself a point for each one you guess that actually shows up. I'm going to come back here every couple days and comment on the newest reveals and will keep a running tally.

I'm sure the final list will have the usual contenders – 'Halloween,' 'Friday the 13^th,' 'The Shining,' 'Poltergeist,' 'The Exorcist' etc. Those were classically good; especially the originals of each, but my favorite horror movies are more like "fusion" horror – a horror basis with absurdist humor or an artsy touch to them. Likely, most of them won't make the Moviefone list, so I'll include some of them here.

• 'The Evil Dead 2' and/or 'Army of Darkness'

• 'Spoorloos'

• 'Dawn of the Dead' (Zack Snyder version also)

• 'Blair Witch Project'

• 'The Lost Boys'

• 'Shaun of the Dead'

• ' Battle Royale'

• 'Man Bites Dog'

• 'Jacob's Ladder'

• 'Scream'

It's a big night for TV. You got premieres left and right and there are a lot of good shows facing off. 'CSI' and 'Grey's Anatomy' both should have interesting plot twists tonight, given the rumors that major characters will be written off. But how do you decide what to tune into? Well, if you already set the Tivo to record 'The Office,' rest assured you don't have to miss out on one of the other two. You can catch it online tomorrow while you're at work ... oh, um, on your lunch break of course! You can see last night's ABC shows or CBS shows the day after they air for free.

So here are my questions of the day: is this the wave of the television future –T.V.ideo? Shows on demand, on your computer, whenever you want them? Do you see this as a potential medium for other media? For example, could the DVD box sets of TV shows start getting released on your computer instead of going out to purchase them? Will we get to the point where new-release movies are available for (legitimate) download at the same time they hit the theaters?

Honestly, the top 11 secrets most men keep wasn't terribly enlightening. I like that they appended it with "most" men, because those secrets definitely don't apply to apply to all men. My husband, for example, is utterly delighted when I drive. He doesn't play golf (video games, however, is another story) and he might wish he was 25 again, but I'm pretty sure he does so also wishing he can keep the knowledge and experience he's gained since he was 25. But overall, it was a disappointing list. I was hoping for a little more insight. The top 11 secrets most women keep, while more accurate in my opinion, was equally superficial and most of the things on it, I'm sure my husband would say are not "secrets."

So from a woman's point of view, I'll expand on a couple of these "secrets." Yes, it's likely the items we bought probably did cost 20% more than what we told you, but it's also likely they cost 30% less than what we told our girlfriends. Yes, we do notice and appreciate the chores you do but we worry if we make a big deal of it, you'll realize you're doing something out of the ordinary that is not expected and you'll stop. We are absolutely scared we'll turn into our mothers but most of the time we don't notice when we do the same things they do that irritate us. So, yes, the most hurtful thing you can say is "You're acting just like your mother" but at the same time, letting us know (in a kind way) that we are doing the same things we complain about helps us avoid those things in the future.

Now that I've opened up a bit with my secrets, play fair. Provide some more insight and perspective on these lists from either point of view.

Remember the olden days when only the rebellious rock stars used to party hard, do drugs, and drink themselves stupid? It was all part of the show back then, so much so that when they were rushed to the hospital for an OD or crashed while driving drunk, no one was really surprised. Now it seems to be the trend for all kinds of celebrities. Spinner takes a walk down memory lane, counting down the worst "party" offenders in the music business. At first I thought they were sticking to hardcore rockers, but they included Britney. So where is Elvis on the list? Was his drug and alcohol use just "classier" than the rest? Who else are they missing?

One NFL player went into this past weekend with more to prove than anyone. That was Donovan McNabb. There was chatter that if McNabb had a bad game, it was time for him to get out of Philly. This, of course, was on the heels of controversial remarks he made on HBO's Real Sports.

If you didn't see what he said, check it out.

So, what does McNabb do? He goes out and plays what may have been the best game of his career. He threw for 381 yards, four touchdowns and had a perfect passer rating. For a guy not known to come through under pressure, that was pretty impressive.

What was more impressive, was that he was able to perform like that playing in "those" uniforms. I'm a fan of the throwbacks, but clearly, the Eagles don't wear yellow for a reason. Perhaps the Lions were so distracted that it got them off their game? You be the judge.