A couple of items I've been meaning to mention but hadn't gotten around to:

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report come back on January 7, but if you've been missing intelligent analysis and mockery of current events, why wait? Check out "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" on MSNBC. I landed on it entirely by accident, perhaps as much as a year ago now, and it quickly merited a slot on my DVR's automatic recordings list. Olbermann is brilliant, he is angry about what has happened to this country, and he keeps being overlooked by the articles mourning the absence of Stewart's and Colbert's effects on campaign coverage.

I have a solar PV array, and until this last cursed heavy snowstorm series sporked my generation by blocking my panels for over a week (only 67 KWh for December!), I had hopes of level-generating on a yearly basis. That hope is now gone, but I still love my array. Not everyone has the necessary exposure, of course; but Massachusetts residents who do have substantial rooftop solar exposure now have new options. Massachusetts has been trying to encourage renewable-energy installations for years, and this year they've revamped the system to make it much simpler. Under Commonwealth Solar, residents simply install a (qualified) solar or wind system and apply for a rebate. Other Massachusetts energy savings programs can be found at MassSave.