Resolved: To Enjoy San Francisco

NOVEMBER: Explore the noirish haunts of SF's favorite sleuth-turned-scribe on Don Herron's Dashiell Hammett Tour. Light a candle, think of your dearly departed, and join the Noche de los Muertos processional through the Mission. Polish off a dozen oysters at Swan, then head next door to See's for dessert. Heighten your senses on an illuminating crawl through the Exploratorium's Tactile Dome.

DECEMBER: Take the edge off the chill with a steaming cauldron of fondue at the Matterhorn. Contemplate this, that, and the other in the sepulchral recesses of Grace Cathedral. Partake of a most elegant high tea at the Ritz, harpist included. Then cap off the year with a jaunt to Union Square to check out the Christmas lights and the shop windows, the gingerbread houses in the hotel lobbies, and all those little cable cars climbing halfway to the stars.