It’s the beginning of 2010, and I’ve gotta set my goals! Last year I gave up buying plastic water bottles, and it worked! I recommend it to everyone. We saved lots of money, and got attached to our water bottles and filtering system. It works just fine, and now we’ve got more room in the refrigerator for BEER! ☺

So here are the resolutions:

• More writing: journal every day, on paper. Some stuff didn’t get recorded last year because I didn’t want to share it with the world. So I need to organize my thoughts on paper first.
• More exercise: get in that gym, at least twice a week.
• More travel: including within DC. There are some great exhibits and museums that I need to see. Concerts and shows, too!
• Home improvement: continue to green my lifestyle, purge the junk and organize the good stuff.
• Taco night on Mondays: to simplify menu planning and because we like tacos. ☺

Wish me luck, and I wish you luck with your resolutions… if you’ve made them? If you haven’t yet, I hereby give you til the end of January to come up with some. We’ve got 11 months to go, folks. That’s a lot of time to pick something to improve on or have fun with.

Most importantly,

★  ♪ ♫   Happy New Year! ♪ ♫ ♪ ★

I have had so much fun writing for you this year, I wanted to get you a little something. It’s not much. Just a couple of podcasts I think you’ll really like. (It’s hard to send anything really big through the Internet.) So here you go, I hope you’ll love them as much as I do.

• The Bugle – a satirical news show featuring John Oliver of the Daily Show with his friend Andy Zaltzman. Andy operates from the U.K., which adds a nice international flair to the weekly podcast. They have me in stitches on a regular basis. I hope you’ll join us. There’s also a blog.
• Risk! – a collection of truth-telling that will make you laugh, snort, gasp and/or cry, depending on the people you know and how you normally spend your time. Kevin Allison, who I know of from The State, is in charge of this operation and narrates the podcast. I became a fan quickly.

That’s it! They are both free (at this time) on iTunes, so download to your heart’s content and donate to the creators if you love them. I hope they make you smile. Happy holidays!

Here are a few cool places to find unique presents, which I’ve dutifully bookmarked over the year. Just in case you’re shopping for someone like me.

• Daytrip Society: for the traveler/nature fiend
• English Retreads: fashionable environmentally conscious bags
• Yogitoes: yoga supplies
• PalmerCash: cool vintage-style T-shirts
• Underground Signs: create your own subway stop
• Survival of the Hippest.com: bling your twitter address
• BigCartel: from the artist direct to you – i.e.,  Sandra Juto or Bakers Dozen
• WWF: Adopt a species and help protect their habitat
• Still stumped? try Neatorama for that weirdo cousin of yours.

And don’t forget these very very important Christmas Cheat Sheets. FABULOUS! From Cookie, an awesome designer.

Thanks to @smashadv at Obsessed With Conformity for the WWF idea.

The first year I had my own apartment, I cooked a turkey for my family. It was a moment of pride and bonding. Since then, I became a vegetarian, (okay, a pescetarian) and Thanksgiving Day is still a bonding day for my family, but the menu is always a bit of a struggle.

My sister has married and has two children. Her husband has his own traditions — from another continent — and their children, still under five years old, are as picky as kids will be. I married a vegetarian, and the only meat I eat is fish. But to us the most important part of the Thanksgiving tradition is togetherness, so we’ve worked out ways to let everyone eat at the same table and be fed well. Our typical menu includes:

• turkey for 4-6 with brown gravy
• meatless turkey with vegetarian brown gravy
• 2 dishes of bread stuffing: one made with turkey juices, one made meat-free with vegetable broth
• 2 types of cranberry sauce: one with berries, one just jellied
• candied sweet potatoes: now sans marshmallows, (they contain gelatin, which isn’t vegetarian)
• green-bean casserole
• rolls
• home-made apple pie for dessert

I am in charge of the vegetarian dishes, although Mom has gotten lots better at these. And outside of this meal, of course, we have to come up with vegetarian and carnivore-friendly meals for the rest of the time everyone is together.

Some of the big hits have been:

• top-your-own baked potatoes with broccoli, cheese, sour cream and vegetarian Bac-os and/or vegetarian chili
• BLTs with vegetarian and regular bacon varieties available
• ravioli stuffed with butternut squash, spinach or mushrooms
• homemade pizza
• bagels, waffles, pancakes

See, it’s easy to get along with everyone at Thanksgiving. You just might need a bigger table. If you’ve had some other shared successes with your family of mixed lifestyles, please share your ideas in the comments. And Happy Thanksgiving!

I may not strike you as the most patriotic type, but truth be told, I am proud to work in my nation’s capital.

This weekend, in Arlington, my house will shake as Rolling Thunder starts to arrive on Friday night. These are motorcycles carrying veterans traveling to gather on Sunday at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in honor of POWs and soldiers Missing in Action. I have always loved this annual tribute, a real reminder that Americans will never forget their soldiers. Here in DC, it’s hard to forget the military, but Rolling Thunder puts a different face on who a soldier is, and really shows you what dedication to a cause means. Some of these people come across the country every year. And they have been since the sixties.

Our country counts on dedicated men and women who have put their lives on the line for the rest of us. That is what Memorial Day is about. I salute each and every soldier, National Guard, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines that has stood between my freedom and whatever other alternative lurks beyond. Thank you. And thanks to your families. Happy Memorial Day.

If you want to help out,  visit:

• Rolling Thunder
• Soldiers’ Angels
• Tweet to ReMIND

Related:

• Huffington Post – Bob Woodruff: Waging the Battle at Home

Do they count if they aren’t public? I guess so, but it seems that they will have more meaning if I proclaim them out loud, so here goes:

1. I resolve to be a kinder, gentler person. I hope to stop my habit of correcting errors unnecessarily.
2. I resolve to ban the bottle. The water bottle, that is. I’ll drink from reusable bottles, glasses and cups in an effort to reduce waste. This goes along with my public transport and reusable bag plans, already in motion.
3. I resolve to clear clutter from my personal space. I hope to share my extra belongings with those who can make better use of them, and save myself some money.
4. I resolve to live within my budget.
5. I resolve to eat more healthfully and exercise more.
6. I resolve to blog & tweet with my readers in mind.

Yup, one for you in there, too! So, to keep you in mind even here, I’ve already started doing some research and these are some helpful sites to keep us all on task with our resolutions this year:

www.livestrong.com/

www.realsimple.com/

www.mint.com/

www.operationnice.com/

I have an uncle who refuses to celebrate New Year’s Eve. It’s just another night, he says, so why make such a fuss?

I say, why not look for any little reason to celebrate?

Calendar Day was a holiday I celebrated with a friend of mine who shared an office with me. It was the first day of the month, every month, and we simply looked forward to flipping the pages on the collection of calendars we had on our walls. Years after our job together ended we would still occasionally call or write and wish each other a happy Calendar Day. Why not? By my calculations, New Year’s Day is the the king of all Calendar Days.

It’s also a chance to choose a new perspective. That’s what resolutions are all about. Will you look at the world through a more earth-friendly lens this year? Or as a new parent? Or in a more healthy way? Or with an eye towards your budget? Or maybe with a new color palette?

Don’t miss this chance, even if it’s just a reason to buy the cats a new litter box and clean out your shoe closet. Turn a page somewhere in your life, and you may find a surprising new chapter.

For me, that’s what this blog is all about. I hope you enjoy reading it.