First and foremost, Happy New Year.  Your Beer Commissioner has spent the past few days trying to figure out what he is going to resolve to do in this New Year. 

I'm not going to make any of those stupid resolutions either.  I'm not dieting. I'm probably not going to exercise, except for the 12 oz. curls. (Although, I need to do something to get ready for that Mt. Fuji climb in April. Mrs. Commissioner is getting up everyday, at Oh My God -thirty and is doing these crazy work out classes at the gym).  I went to the dentist right before New Year's (no cavities-yay!), and I'm proud to say, I still have all my hair, and my slim, girlish figure from my college days, so not alot of physical, self-improvement things on the agenda.

I read through all of my blogs of the past year, and tried to see if I could find a theme, and areas where your Beer Commissioner needs improvement. 

First, I blog an awful lot about my wife's cat.  I really do hate the feral beast. I have taught the deputy to refer to the cat as the feral beast.  Now, granted, the cat did jinx my football team.  The cat has still not used the Christmas present I bought him from a couple of years ago, but Mrs. Commissioner does like the cat, and I'm going to resolve to not be so hateful to the cat this year. Mainly, in hope that this is the year, that he does die, I want what are hopefully his last few days on earth to be free of my gleeful yearning for his death.

Second, I remember the disastrous day I had on the golf course back in August, where you recall, my neighbor, golfing for the first time EVER, beat me by 20 shots or so.  Seeing as I do live on a golf course, and I do own a golf cart, you'd think I could improve my game.  However, I'm not going to!  I resolve to write a self-help book. It is a work in progress, but right now the title is "How to Line up Your 4th Putt". I'm hoping that will be on the store shelves in time for next Christmas.

Third, I'm going to resolve to blog at least once a week, and at least once a month, blog about, well....Beer.  Your Commissioner just basically goes stream of consciousness, and seldom blogs about beer.  Well this year, I'm going to blog more about beer.  The purpose is 2 fold.  One, I am the Beer Commissioner, you'd think I ought to talk about beer, and 2, my accountant tells me just because I declared myself the Beer Commissioner, doesn't necessarily mean I get to write off every bar-tab on Bourbon Street on my taxes.

Fourth, I'm going to pray more.  I got a great book about the Vatican for Christmas.  I also got a book about Dali's etchings based upon Dante's writings.  The entire concept of purgatory really has me pumped up.  New Orleans has possibly the worst interstate system in the known universe.  There is one particular exit that backs up traffic for miles and miles and miles.  This particular exit basically converges 6 lanes of traffic, coming from 3 different directions, into one lane, for no particular purpose.  One of the great travesties of Hurricane Katrina, is that this exit was not destroyed.  Anyway, I'm going to pray to every Sainted Pope to intercede on my behalf to God, to make the inventor of this exit, have to wait in his created traffic mess for all of eternity.  It is the least I can do.

Fifth, and finally, I promised Mrs. Commissioner I would give up deep-fried ribs.  One of my favorite watering holes in New Orleans serves up deep-fried ribs.  I kid you not. I don't know who came up with the idea of taking a perfectly good slab of ribs, covering them in batter and frying them, but God bless that person.  (See #4 above, while I'm praying to all the Sainted Popes, I'm going to ask that this guy get to ride the Express to Heaven).  I'm trading in my deep-fried ribs for the Jager Haus, which is a relatively new restaurant in the French Quarter.  Wienerschnitzel and German beer for me!

Prost! and Happy New Year