Want to celebrate the Inauguration of new President Barack Obama, but can't or don't want to make the trip to Washington? I understand, I'd love to go but can you imagine how crazy it's going to be in the capital? So for most of us, we'll be staying home and celebrating locally. Here's what's happening in Minneapolis and St. Paul on Inauguration day, Tuesday 20 January.

Live Screening of the Inauguration at the Riverview Theatre

The classic Minneapolis movie theater is showing the Presidential inauguration ceremonies live on Tuesday January 20. Doors open at 9.30 a.m. until approximatly 12 noon. The event is free and open to all.

Riverview Theatre, 3800 42nd South Avenue, Minneapolis.

The Main Street Inaugural Ball, the Hopkins Center for the Arts

Or perhaps you'd like something more grand? Out in the western suburb of Hopkins, you can attend a gala evening at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, with guest speakers, music, food, and highlights from the inauguration ceremony. Tickets are needed for this event, but children under 10 are free.

The Hopkins Center for the Arts, 1111 Mainstreet, Hopkins.

Inauguration Celebration at Epic

A glamorous evening celebration at Epic nightclub in Minneapolis with special guests and Obama's speech re-broadcast at 8 p.m. on 35 televisions. Attendees are requested to "dress to impress". There's an admission charge, and advance tickets are available at Epic's website.

Epic, 110 North Fifth Street, Minneapolis.

The Inaugural Inauguration Night, Lee's Liquor Lounge

A free event for over 21's at Lee's with live music, podcast, and the inauguration shown on their big television.

Lee's Liquor Lounge, 101 Glenwood Avenue, Minneapolis

Kids Inauguration Party, Borders in St. Paul

The St. Paul Borders, on University Avenue, hosts a Inaguration party for children on the Saturday before. The store will be celebrating America, democracy, and new beginnings with a scavenger hunt, games, art activities, and an official oath ceremony. The program starts at 2 p.m. and events are free.

Borders, 1390 West University Avenue, St. Paul.

We'll have a new President on January 20, but do you think Minnesota will have a Senator by then? As the Norm Coleman-Al Franken battle drags on and on, I'm not holding my breath....

Ice Boats are seemingly regular sailing boats, but fitted with metal blades to travel on ice. The boats attain speeds of up to 60 mph and will be racing at St. Paul's Lake Phalen as part of the upcoming Winter Carnival events. In a typical race, four to six ice boats race around a 400 yard track with twists and turns. We've all seen regular boat racing, this is the land of ten thousand lakes after all, but this sounds like an exciting new winter sport to come to the Twin Cities.

Qualifying races are on Saturday, January 31 and Sunday, February 1, with the finals also on February 1, all at Lake Phalen.

More information on the St. Paul ice boat races at the National Ice Racing Circuits Website

Brave? I have to say yes. Smart? Maybe not so much. A daredevil who parachuted from the observation deck of the Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis at lunchtime on new year's eve is currently in police custody after he and his partners in crime returned to the scene, the bar at the W Hotel at the Foshay, and were arrested. Allegedly they bought a laptop with images of the jump and were showing them to other patrons, which drew the attention of hotel security, who called the police.

Apparently, David Juntunen and some friends bought tickets for the observation deck, removed safety railings with a wrench, he climbed up, jumped, deployed his red parachute, and landed safely in a bus lane in the street, with friends photographing and videoing the jump.

Juntunen is currently being held without bail by Minneapolis police. The others arrested have been released on bail. BASE jumping itself, the extreme sport of parachuting off buildings, cliffs, bridges and other objects, is not illegal. But BASE jumpers can be charged with vandalism, trespassing, reckless endangerment, and other offenses which may have been committed while performing the jump.

While I think that adults should be able to strap on a parachute and plunge off a tall object if that's what they desire, endangering other people while doing so isn't right. BASE jumping is one of the most dangerous sports with over a hundred fatalities in recent years, and in a city center, there's the added risk of the jumper hitting other buildings, and worse, hitting other people on the ground. We'll have to see what becomes of the daring parachutist when his day in court comes.

Photographs of the BASE Jump from the Foshay Tower

Congratulations to two sets of parents who welcomed the Twin Cities' newest arrivals!

The Metro area's first baby of 2009 was born at one second past midnight at St. John's Hospital in Maplewood. Baby girl Jordyn Huber weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and joins three older brothers, two of whom were both born on December 28. Mom Jill Macioch and father Jim Huber are the parents of the first 2009 baby in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, and probably the first 2009 baby in the whole of the Central time zone. I can imagine that Christmas and New Year is one big celebration in the Huber-Macioch home!

And following Jordyn into the world came three more special new year's babies. Less than two hours after midnight, Jodi and Chris Main became parents of triplets at United Hospital in St. Paul. Babies Jackson, Kylie, and Austin weighed in under 3 pounds each, and are reportedly doing well. The babies will stay in the hospital until they can eat and breath on their own, then will be able to go home with their parents.

I hope you had a fun New Year's Eve, and wishing you a happy 2009.

Did you make any resolutions yet? My first resolution is to keep my resolutions. I won't reveal any more...maybe if I actually manage to keep any I will!

If you resolve to get fit, loose weight, quit smoking, spend more time with your family, or volunteer to help others, there's lots of resources in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the Twin Cities to help you keep your resolutions.

Here's a guide of help, ideas and resources for keeping your new year's resolutions.

Happy New Year!

Here's where to take your Christmas tree for recycling in the Twin Cities metro area.

In St. Paul and Ramsey County, three Ramsey County compost sites are open and will take trees for free, if you have proof of Ramsey County residence. The sites are open on January 10 and 11.

The Eastside site is at the intersection of Frank Street and Sims Avenue in St. Paul.
The Midway site is at Pierce Butler Route and Prior Avenue in St. Paul.
Shoreview/White Bear Township site is at County Road J and Sherwood Road in Shoreview.

Vadnais Heights Christmas Tree Recycling Christmas trees will be picked up by your hauler at no additional charge on the first and second Wednesday following New Year’s Day. On other than the designated dates, a charge will apply for this service.

Minneapolis and Hennepin County residents Two sites in Hennepin County, one in Minneapolis and one in Shakopee, take Christmas trees. There is no charge for Hennepin County residents and a $1.50 charge per tree for everyone else.

Anoka County Operates the Bunker Hills Compost Site, which will be open for two weekends in January to receive Christmas trees and evergreen garlands. The site is open January 3 and 4, and 10 and 11.

Washington County operates six sites. Most are take trees from any Washington County resident. There's a site in the following cities: Bayport, Cottage Grove, Forest Lake (open to Forest Lake residents only), Oakdale (open to Oakdale residents only), Stillwater and Woodbury.

Hundreds of people do this on the New York subway, and it's spread to cities across America and around the world. On a January day, so-called agents show up in normal clothes minus pants, and ride the subway train as if nothing was wrong. It's very popular in Washington D.C, San Francisco, Chicago and Portland too, with around 2,000 pantless participants taking part across the nation last year.

The bizarre idea comes from Improv Everywhere, a New York based group who say their mission is to "cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places". They've been riding the subways annually without pants for seven years and from the reports on their website, it looks everyone is having a fun time.

Men and women participate, wearing all varieties of underwear, frilly bloomers, polka dot boxer shorts and tighty whities. It's not about nudity - underwear is mandatory and thongs are prohibited - it's about the prank. The joke is that everyone pretends that they just forgot their pants, and pretend to be unaware of the other riders without pants. There's video of past events on Improv Everywhere's website, and some of the reactions of the other people on the trains are priceless.

Are they insane? Or are they fun loving individuals and you want to join in? Local improv organization Plan B Minnesota are hoping you will, and come and ride the light rail with no pants on Saturday January 10.

• Mission Report from No Pants! 2008, New York
• Plan B Minnesota: connect with other people who want to ride the light rail with no pants either.

Talk about being a victim of your own success. Minnesota law changes at the end of the year and it means that local brewery Surly can't sell any more growlers from their Brooklyn Center brewery. Growlers are half-gallon beer bottles filled at the brewery and the Surly growlers, usually filled with Surly Bender or Surly Furious are a local favorite. Because Surly has sold more in 2008 than a limit imposed in a new Minnesota law, they can't get a license to sell any more growlers in 2009.

Surly has brewed a special beer, 16 Grit, for the occasion, and will be filling growlers at the brewery on four of the last days of 2008, or until they run out. And from the buzz I've been hearing from local beer lovers, they are almost certain to sell out before the four days are up. They start filling growlers with 16 Grit at noon on December 27, then December 29, 30 and 31.

More information at Surly Brewing's Website

It doesn't look like it. The US State Senate recount drags on and on. During the three-week-long hand recount that ended on December 5, thousands of ballots were challenged by either the Norm Coleman or Al Franken campaign. In the past few weeks, over a thousand ballots a week have been examined by the State Canvassing Board, who decided which campaign to award each ballot to, or to reject the ballots. A voter who wrote "Brett Favre" for President has their ballot counted; a voter who wanted "Lizard People" in the Senate had their ballot rejected.

All through the re-count, Norm Coleman has been in the lead, but in the last couple of days Al Franken's fortunes have reversed and as of today, Franken is in the lead by 47 votes. But there are 1,600 mistakenly rejected absentee ballots that have yet to be counted which could give either candidate the win.

The Canvassing Board has scheduled a January 5 meeting to decide what to do with the absentee ballots. Both campaigns can object to the absentee ballots, there are still disputes over alleged twice-counted ballots, which may require every single vote re-counted again to make sure the same number of votes are recorded as there are ballots. So the final result is unlikely to be even that soon.

The next Congress convenes January 6 and as yet there is no plan as to what to do if Minnesota doesn't have anyone to send to join Amy Klobuchar in the Senate.

So the race is truly anyones for the taking, and it seems that it will come down to which side has the luck to challenge the right kind of votes that will give them the crucial few votes for the eventual win.

• View and decide on the disputed ballots for yourself at the Star Tribune website

The original plan was to see the Holidazzle parade finale tonight, but was it was canceled due to the cold, we did the quintessential winter activity today: took the kids and went sledding. Never mind the cold and the windchill, dragging a two and a five year old up a hill on a sled keeps you plenty warm.

The hill? Battle Creek Regional Park on the St. Paul/Maplewood border.
The sleds? a couple of saucers and a mean, purple, streamlined speed machine.
The wipeouts? many, many, many. And that's why we love it.
The afterparty? hot cocoa with marshmallows for the kids and real hot chocolate for the adults.

Where is your favorite sledding hill in the Twin Cities? One of these, or somewhere else?

The weather is forecast to get a little warmer this week and I think we'll be hitting the hills again soon, if we can manage it this hectic holiday season.

• Sledding Hills in Minneapolis, St. Paul and around the Twin Cities
• Hot Chocolate Recipes