Happy New Year! What did you do on the first day of 2008?

I woke up early, a bit disoriented. What day is it? Oh yes — the first day of a brand spanking new year. And I had plans… big plans.

I was going to get to the gym by 9am, then jump in a Zipcar and buy groceries, budget for 2008, replace the black gloves and scarf I left in Massachusetts over Christmas, do five loads of laundry, clean the kitchen, set up a blog for my brother, and read through all my email.

But one look outside and I decided to burrow into my white down comforter and read one more chapter of The Third Secret. Ten chapters later, I put on the tea kettle and after a quick scan of the cupboards, convinced myself to put off that trip to social Safeway.

Naughty girl that I am, I almost talked myself out of doing laundry too. But three loads later, I was still reclined on the couch reading Steve Berry’s thriller.

I phoned some friends, left messages with family, and finally let go of my well laid plans and vegged out to the last six episodes of Battlestar Galactica Season3.

In all, a most comfortable start to the new year.

Congressman Jose E. Serrano of New York inserted language into the spending bill to provide quarters for the District, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The local government will design the flip side of the quarter.

If it were up to me, I’d have Tai Shan yank one of the fingers of The Awakening hand while surrounded by cherry blossoms.

How would you design DC’s new quarter?

When it comes to Christmas stockings, I tend to give practical gifts that are needed than clever, but useless, trinkets. This year I’ve stocked up on:

5. candy canes

4. AA batteries

3. penlights

2. SD cards

1. flash drives

What did you buy in bulk this year?

Ding-a-ling-aling Dingaling … Ding-a-ling-aling Dingaling …. I’ve been listening to iTunes’s holiday radio station for the last month. Here is my list of favorite songs based on how high my happiness level jumps when one of the following songs comes on.

6. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause - Jimmy Boyd

5. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley

4. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer - Dean Martin

3. Last Christmas - WHAM!

2. It’s Gonna be a Cold Cold Christmas - Dana

1. All I Want for Christmas (Is You) - Mariah Carey

And though I have yet to hear it on iTunes radio, I need to mention The Twelve Days of Christmas because it’s on constant replay through my mind.

What have you been listening to?

Tis the season for drinking hot cider, eating chocolate marshmallow Santas and sucking on candy canes while watching Christmas classics. When I take a break from decorating the tree or stringing up blinking lights, I watch:

7. The Family Man

6. Love Actually

5. Frosty the Snowman

4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

3. Yogi’s First Christmas

2. Home Alone

1. It’s a Wonderful Life

Which flicks put you in the holiday spirit?

I tried to describe what snow smells like and came up with nothing useful. That’s not the same as saying I wouldn’t recognize the smell if I came across it.

Snow is wet and clean and sharply cold.

For me, the smell of snow is usually mingled with the smell of gasoline (of the school bus idling as we all tramp through the snow and up the three steps to our seats) or smoke (sitting in front of the wood stove after being outside in the snow for a few hours).

What does snow smell like to you?

There are some scents that not only bring back memories but can wholly transport me back to a specific moment.

8. snow

7. smoke from the wood stove (or a fireplace)

6. plastic tape

5. Old Spice

4. Nivea hand lotion

3. pumpkin and pie crust

2. cinnamon

1. pine

Which smells cause you to travel back to a specific holiday memory?

Happy October — or not so happy depending on your perspective. I want to know what happened to September.

I’ve got about 15 draft posts to finish editing and publish to this site. So I’ll be publishing in reverse as I complete them.

Where does all my time go?

• visited the Encompassing the Globe exhibit at the Sackler Gallery. I am enamored with armillary spheres and astrolabes.
• went to a lecture on Portugal’s Golden Age
• learned about Malta’s prehistoric temples
• spent time at the Portuguese American Leadership Council annual meeting and attended a reception at the ambassador’s residence
• visited my ancient globes, maps, armillary spheres and compasses everyday for three days before the exhibit closed (yes, I can get obsessive)
• christened the back bar of James Hoban’s on Dupont Circle with a glass of scotch
• listened to four White House press secretaries reminisce about their jobs
• learned about Timbuktu
• watched Knocked Up
• traveled to Philadelphia for the first time
• went through the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute
• walked through the Amarna exhibit at the U Penn Museum
• watched The Kingdom
• stalked some of my favorite authors at the National Book Festival
• went on a diet

So how was your September in a nutshell?

I’m off to Philadelphia with John to see the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute. I am enamored with all things Egyptian.

And it’ll be my first visit to Philly. Amazing right? Considering it’s really not far from DC. I’ve driven through it, but have never stayed.

I’m so excited!

I’d like to share a cup of coffee with the brainiac who came up with the subscription concept.

“Let’s put all of our editorials and news columnists behind a wall and force webusers to pay to view content.”

Helloooo… do you USE the internet? I’m not going to pay for something I can read for free with a clever search string. Or I’ll just click on over to the Washington Post and read their columnists instead.

I know traditional newspaper companies are struggling to find a business model that works, but so far I haven’t seen any newspaper sites break out with anything worth paying for.