Flashback to New Year's Eve, 2004: We're on the couch in our drab living room, watching something on the Tivo, sharing a bottle of cheap champagne and listening to the soothing pops-n-bangs of gunfire from down the street.

We vowed this year would be different.

This year, we made the rounds with friends, hitting all the high notes: Trivial Pursuit followed by sushi, followed by a lavish rooftop party where we didn't know anyone but talked to everyone anyway. We upgraded from the Brand X sparkling wine to a bottle of Gruet's 2000 Blanc de Blancs, which was nice and yeasty. We spent the early hours of 2006 drinking cosmopolitains and yelling increasingly stupid answers at the DVD trivia game. I laughed so hard, I gave myself a headache. We woke up in two different beds before the night was officially over. We stumbled home just before the sun cleared the mountains, doing a double walk-of-shame for the bennefit of the neighbors and proceeded to sleep until noon.

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope it's a good one.