Kris and I met up with the Smiths for lunch today. Though Meter was wary of Kris-Stranger-Danger, she cuddled up to me, which made me very very happy. Yes, having lunch with two little girls who have a balloon and a tiara between the two of them, is a fabulous way to start a new year.

Yeah, and, about that tiara, I couldn't resist.

Well, it's the new year, and that means a new set of resolutions. This year, I have three resolutions, one of which is is a goal, one of which is a resolution, and one of which is a vague sort of an idea, but not really.

The first one is a goal: to discard one item every day for a year. "Discard" in this sentence doesn't mean throw away into the garbage so much as remove an item from my house. I have termed this resolution Days of Gone and added a link there up in the navigation menu. My description of this resolution and ground rules on my tracking pages are:

I've been working intensely on my project, with the intent of releasing it to the world before I go to bed on Sunday night, and that's releasing it in whatever state it's in at that moment. No, THAT'S not going to be a scary moment.

While working on this project, I've been stalled by worry, just before I've pushed through the moment and continued. I can only hope the end might be somewhat worth it. Fate seems to be willing to give me a slight nod of encouragement:

I interpret the traveling to be my going to various conferences to demo my product. The fortune, well, that's success coming my way.

Let's compare and contrast, shall we? In particular, the results of the the beers around the world celebration of the New Year.

Kris, asleep until 4pm.

Andy, awake and productive at 8am.

Given a choice, I'll vote for Andy's liver.

Kris and Andy decided some time in the last few weeks that the best way to celebrate the changing of the new year and new decade (yeah, yeah, don't tell me 2010 isn't the new decade because there was no year 0 - there was no year 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or a whole bunch of other years, either. 2001 represents the END of the FIRST year, so yeah, there was a year zero and 2010 is the END of the first 10 years and January 1st 2010 is, therefore, the start of the new decade) is to celebrate the new year in each timezone as the day progresses. And what better way to celebrate each of these new years than by toasting, and drinking, a beer made in each of those time zones.