This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Just about everyone has wished for an extra hour to take the kids to the park, clean up clutter or just get a little more sleep.

Wednesday — aka leap day — offers us not one, but 24 extra hours to do whatever we want. Booyah! (OK, that's probably too enthusiastic since most of us still have to go to work or school.)

Still, The Tribune entertainment staff considers it a bonus day that beckons us to do something extraordinary — or at least something we can talk about tomorrow, when time will once again be short.

Here's our official leap day list of 24 suggestions for not wasting another minute.

1. Sleep in.

2. Turn off your smartphone for one hour. (See if you can stand it.)

3. Clean the bathroom really well.

4. Spend an hour with that big book you've always yearned to crack, such as Moby-Dick or War and Peace. A hour will about do it.

5. Drive to Saltair to throw a rock in the Great Salt Lake, make plans to return in the summer to float, then drive home.

6. Play Scrabble with friends — the board game, not the digital version.

7. Find your leg warmers from 1982 and wear them to Zumba class.

8. Plant an indoor herb garden.

9. Climb Ensign Peak.

10. Call your mom and let her talk about your life for one hour without interrupting sarcastically.

11. Listen to music from a genre that's always baffled you, such as Mozart or Buck Owens.

12. Watch the extended versions of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy or the first three "Star Wars" movies. (Trust us, you can skip the prequels.)

13. Take your unused gift cards and donate them to the YWCA Women's shelter (322 E. 300 South, Salt Lake City; 801-537-8604).

14. Walk through the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (410 Campus Center Drive, University of Utah campus, Salt Lake City), and really look at the works. Or take a first visit to the new digs of the Natural History Museum of Utah (310 Wakara Way, U. campus, Salt Lake City).

15. Practice nonviolence by meeting Arun Gandhi, the grandson of spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi. He'll be at Salt Lake Community College Taylorsville/Redwood Campus at noon (Markosian Library, Second Floor, 4600 S. Redwood Road, Salt Lake City) or at the Salt Lake Main Library (200 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City), at 7 p.m.

16. Cook something you've never attempted.

17. Take that short story (or résumé) to a community writing center and let a trained coach help you polish it. (Centers are located at 210 E. 400 South, Suite 8, Library Square, Salt Lake City; 801-957-2192; or at the Orem Public Library, 58 North State Street.)

18. It's karaoke night at Carol's Cove II­ — belt out your best rendition of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" (3424 S. State, Salt Lake City). Or check our recent report about the local karaoke scene at bit.ly/osn4d0.

19. Go to the Sadie Hawkins dinner and dance at Log Haven (6451 East Millcreek Canyon Road, Salt Lake City).

20. Support a local band. There are three playing Wednesday at Urban Lounge (241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City).

21. Sip two exclusive wines — not available in the Utah state stores — during a wine dinner at Lugano (3364 S. 2300 East, Salt Lake City).

22. Gather your smartest beer-drinking friends and enter a team in the Geeks Who Drink trivia contest at Piper Down (1492 South State Street, Salt Lake City).

23. Rent a copy of the 2010 chick flick "Leap Year." Better yet, follow the Irish tradition and ask that guy of your dreams to marry you.

24. Go to bed early.