Time On Your Hands

Good morning. You're late.

At least, you are if you haven't moved your clock forward one hour to kick off daylight saving time.

Starting today, you have an extra hour of sunlight to enjoy. Because wasting even a minute of it would be a shame, we offer a week's worth of ideas for making the most of these lengthening days.

* Throw a One More Hour of Sunlight Party. Serve screwdrivers -- the orange juice represents Sol's citrusy goodness -- and grill Burgers a la Daylight Saving Time (just increase the cooking time by 1/24th). Save 30 minutes for the pizza delivery guy -- or the fire department.

* Play with the kids. Take a page from Norman Rockwell and spend an hour tossing a baseball, sharing an ice-cream cone or staging a shadow puppet production of "The Cat in the Hat" on the garage door. One hour to create one long-lasting childhood memory? Good trade-off.

* Visit the zoo. But be careful near the mountain lions and other wild cats who are adjusting to a new breakfast schedule.

* Drive to Hoover Dam. Not only will you have time to reconnect with friends and family while backed up in traffic, you can admire the cooperation between states as the Nevada and Arizona clocks on the dam read the same. (Actually, Arizona doesn't mess with its clocks, so now we're the same, but in November, Nevada will be an hour behind again.)

* Take care of pesky DST logistics. Move the hands forward on the kitchen clock. Reset the oven timer. And the bedroom alarm clock. The iPod. The answering machine. The lawn sprinkler timer. Your watch. Your other watch. The clock in your car. The VCR in the kids' playroom. My, where did that hour go?

* Whistle while you work on outdoor chores. Cut the lawn (after raking the leaves from last fall, of course). Prune the bushes. Dust the cactuses. Feel smug all summer.

* Ponder time. As the sunlight fades, sit on the patio and think about the consequences of fooling with our clocks twice a year. Does it really save energy? Some studies are doubtful. Could it actually endanger your life? A Swedish study linked springing forward with heart attacks. Whatever. Take a nap. Life is short, no matter what the clock says. Enjoy the ride.