"Russians don't take a dump, son, without a plan."

Now that the holidays are behind us I think that it's high time we discussed the plan for 2009. For starters my primary goal, besides wealth and fame, is to expand agricultural operations in the respect of "What can I get away with in suburbia". Years ago when I lived in an apartment I dabbled in back porch gardening. I was somewhat successful and I expect that I can expand upon that with yard.

The problems are numerous including finding space, conditioning the soil and raising multiple batches of "heritage" plants which may or may not tolerate the season here in North Carolina. Still in spite of the challenges and hard work involved, the gardening project is the cheapest hobby I can muster during these lean times. Here are a few of my ideas so far:

Several tomato varieties including pink, green and purple varieties. Breeds for taste and natural disease resistance.

A common variety sweet corn. Nothing outlandish but supposed to taste better

Purple pumpkins. A bit strange but these will make excellent and scary jack-o-lanterns.

While jumbo limas. My last batch of Ford Hook were good but not perfect. Will probably plant a test patch of these.

As our children grow older I find myself looking for tips about how to keep them calm on long car rides. While we don't fly very much we occasionally make the 4 1/2 hour trip to the beach which can be stressful. I found the following article on Kiplinger.Com which contains many hints for parents with small children who'll find themselves traveling this holiday season.

Today marked the official deep-six of social blogging site Pownce and as such I downloaded my entries and comments for storage. In the recent weeks I've begun to acclimate myself with Tumblr, a suitable replacement, and to continue my brief Twitter updates My only fear now is that given the current market and finance conditions either Tumblr or Twitter meet a similar fate as Pownce, gobbled up and shut down.

Across town in our little electronic village my friend Jason is undergoing gastric bypass surgery. I know that his wife is nervous, justifiably so, but she's still found time to write about the experience. I hope everything goes well with the surgery and he makes a speedy recovery.

Little did I know but after the surgery you can't chew gum. With that in mind I think Jason should start using a new trademark line such as: "Its time to kick ass and chew bubble gum I don't chew gum." Duke Nukem would be proud.