Liz Lambert, proprietress extraordinaire of the ultra-hip Hotel San Jose, place-to-be-seen Jo's Coffee and various other Austin businesses, recently opened the boutique Hotel Saint Cecilia in the very same hot SoCo neighborhood.

They've teamed up with Dai Due, a supper club focused on locally farmed food, for a great evening at a great price!  Dinner will be a local Central Texas extravaganza (although, veggies beware!!) -- wild boar, rabbit, venison, antelope and fish from Broken Arrow Ranch.  And don't worry about mom... you'll eat your local seasonal vegetables and grains too - from Boggy Creek Farm.

Dinner is supposedly sold out - but I'll let you Golightly Girls in on a secret.  If you book a room at the Hotel Saint Cecilia, you're a VIP and those rules just don't apply to you.  (Isn't that just the way life SHOULD be?)  Plus, you'll get a 25% discount on the room, and the fabulous dinner spread for only $75 per person.

When does this action go down?  THIS Sunday - Feb 1 at 7pm.  So grab your girls, hit up the music in Austin on Saturday night -- and stay for the gourmet grub on Sunday night!  After dinner, you can hit up local alternative video store Vulcan Video for the documentary "Last Days of the San Jose" to watch Liz Lambert turn a former flophouse into every musician's landing pad of choice in the Music Capital of the USA.  And, hey, while you're there, wander across the street to knock on the door of Holiday Golightly founder Kerry Rupp.

Photo credit: Dallasnews.com

TO BOOK A ROOM: Call Hotel Saint Cecilia GM Michael Nestor at 512.852.2424.  Or click here and let us plan a whole weekend for you.

Oh, yeah, I've heard.  We're supposed to be calling them "goals" now -- not "resolutions".  Whatever.  "Goals" doesn't work as a verb.

Whatever you call them, there's pressure to make some changes at this time of year.  And most of us (admit it!) have fitness or weight loss goals on that list.  And I know we all have "make the world a better place" on there too, right?  (You know - just like we wish for world peace whenever we blow out our birthday candles?)

Well, hey, we're all busy people!  How do we achieve those, do our jobs, be good daughters/moms/partners/friends, AND floss our teeth? 

Double up!  Make your workouts HELP others, by choosing an event which donates proceeds to charity and you'll be able to cross two things off your list at once.  And you be less likely to slack, because you won't just be letting yourself down - you'd be letting others down.  (I know, I know ... Oprah says we shouldn't treat ourselves like that ... we're working on that one too.  But having others rely on me does make me more reliable!)

And while we're at it, let's triple up!  Or, heck, we're overacheivers, quadruple up ... or, well, however many you want to.  I can't really count in "-ples" after four...

Use this as an opportunity to see those girlfriends you miss, and sign up as a team!  You can even make a girlfriend getaway weekend out of it by scheduling it in some new city you've been meaning to discover.  Let us help!

Our first recommendation is Cycle for Survival, a team cycling event that benefits lifesaving cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  The event, founded by our girlfriend Jen Goodman Linn, raises funds for so-called "orphan cancers", that don't get the same attention or funding as the bigger well-known cancers do.

• Sign up to join the event live in New York at Equinox on January 25th, 2009.
• Or create a satellite team and cycle simultaneously with people around the country that day.
• Or, if you can't join the cycling, consider donating.  (At least you can cross one thing off your list!)

And hey ... if you're lucky, maybe you'll end up with some of these guys in your room. 

Did I remember to put THAT on my list?...

Looking for a way to laze away your New Year's holidays before starting your new, healthy, productive 2009?  I know I am...

Browse the fun blogs of 2008 by choosing a category or tag from the pull-downs on the right!  Or remember the year chronologically by reviewing the newsletters (click the plus sign in the left blue navigation bar). 

Look out for more fun stuff in 2009!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!