Happy New Year!

Since we are in the time zone nearest to the
International Dateline, we will be amongst the
first to celebrate the New Year. I'm at work
so it won't be much of a celebration for me,
although it's always worth looking ahead to a
new year, hopefully better than the old one.

A family tradition that I won't be able to
participate in this year is eating Kielbasa and
Sauerkraut on New Year's Eve. Supposedly, if you
have sauerkraut on New Year's, it is good luck
and you will make lots of money in the coming
year. Something similar is the tradition of
eating black eyed peas in the South. Eating
sauerkraut has never has seemed to make me wealthy
in the past. Maybe I'd be even more broke if I
hadn't eaten any. In fact, one year it even cost
me money. The first year Lynn and I lived in
Estes Park, Colorado I explained the tradition to
her and we went out to buy our sauerkraut at the
local Safeway. Neither of us like the stuff, but
we had our obligatory forkful. After gagging it
down, we threw the rest down the garbage disposal.
Wrong move. The sauerkraut wrapped itself around
the disposal mechanism and clogged our sink,
causing us to call a plumber on January 2nd, which
of course was not cheap. We enjoyed the kielbasa
of course but have regularly not endulged in
sauerkraut since.

So on this New Year, I wish everyone a happy one,
and the piece of advice to eat your forkful of
sauerkraut, but throw the leftovers in the trash!