Welcome, 2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! New Years is a great holiday because it brings with it such optimism! Everyone sees the new year as a renaissance, a time of revivification. Even the government takes the day off to enjoy a milkshake and a hot bath. 2009 promises many great things across the span of the globe, including New Zealand, where the sales of incandescent lightbulbs will cease in 2009, and in Western Australia where the hot topic of Daylight Savings Time will be bantered with. Western Australia has been in a three year 'trial' period with the whole daylight savings time thing, and in 2009 those Aussies will head to the polls and give their opinion. Man, so much to look forward to in 2009! The Romans would have called this year MMIX, or the year of Mix. Yes, all you people who have been holding off burning that special mix tape, now is your year! For all those chefs saving that unique pomegranate and cheese pancake mix, now is your year for baking! And for all the travellers, mix it up with a new destination, like Northern Alaska or Afghanistan. The Chinese call this the Year of the Ox. It was supposed to be the Year of the Man-Eating Siberian Snow Leapord with Wings, but I guess they couldn't fit all that onto eye-glasses so they just made it the Year of the Ox.

My resolutions for 2009 are not few in number. When you have as many peccadillos as me, setting goals for improvement is not difficult. For example:

1. Literacy: Get through at least one Berentstein Bears Book (by myself)


2. Hygeine: Remember to put on deodorant four times a week


3. Physical: Grow a tail


4. Mental: Memorize my 1's multiplication tables (at least 1x1 through 1x9)

Sure they won't be easy, but then again, neither will deciding on Daylight Savings Time or Just Saying No to incandescent lightbulbs.