Peter has posted a year-end wrapup on tikkabik.com. It’s a good idea, so here goes mine:
The Democrats, having, once again, nominated the wrong person for the job, lost the Presidential election to the Republicans, thus providing all of us with 4 more years of deep misery as opposed to tolerable distaste.
My friend the PI located my last half-brother, and I’ve been corresponding with his wife, a fine woman with genuine family values and a great heart.
The consulting gig became full-time, and we hope the company will do well enough in 2005 to keep us all – but a back-up plan is not a bad idea, and I’m working on it.
CapeCoder.com celebrated its fifth anniversary on December 3, an event which I neglected to note. I did at least remember to renew it.
In the category of “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, a colleague reported this week that someone absconded with the domain CapeCoders.com. May the emails and calls I get for CapecoDDer hotel reservations and newspaper renewals be routed to them.
The Subaru is still more or less intact after 217,000+ miles. This year, it got new brakes, a new muffler, and (recently) a strategic weld between the converter and the rear exhaust. Long may it reign.
We in the “it never snows here” Cape got walloped by an 18-inch monster the day after Christmas.
Summer traffic wasn’t especially bad, and I got to enjoy the Hyannis street fairs several times, as well as the usual warm weather events at the Fairgrounds.
One again, I “owe” Bob a trip to the Vineyard.
One of my friends and I spent a day in Newport, enjoying the holiday decorations in the mansions, and a trip over the bridge to Jamestown. We observed the solemn traditions of a ride along Ocean Drive and the consumption of Awful Awfuls at Newport Creamery.
There were also several trips with different friends to Sid Wainert in New Bedford, the pantheon of gourmet food stores in Southeastern Mass. Rendered guilty by our gorging ourselves on their abundant free samples, we repaid Sid’s generously with our purchases of numerous succulents.
My beloved Compass Bank changed hands, and I switched to Bank of America, which bought Fleet, aka Bank of Boston, aka BayBank.
In the category of “the more things change, the more they stay the same”: a person with whom I haven’t spoken for 3 years sent me a note, claiming I owe her $2,500. When I mailed her copies of the cancelled checks, she followed up with a phonecall claiming I owe her yet another $1,100.
Spent most Saturdays between March and end of July in Dennisport, doing computer stuff and chambermaiding at a timeshare resort.
In the merry months of May and June, I had my first – and, mercifully, last – experience with online matchmaking.
Got to see Peter win an award at Macworld/Boston for his participation in the game show-type MacBrainiac challenge.
Frequented the Shaughnessy Theater for political films on a regular basis.
Lest this sound insufferably highfalutin’, I also saw the SpongeBob movie with my grands and the latest Harry Potter film with my next door neighbors’ oldest boy.
Got a hug from Daniel Ellsberg (yes, THE Pentagon Papers Ellsberg).
On another literary note, heard author/sword boat captain Linda Greenlaw speak at Border’s. Her answer to a question about her competence based on gender – “I’m as good as any man!” – still resonates.
Spent quality time with the fabulous grands, including the Mashpee Fourth of July Fireworks and the winter Holiday Village across the street.
Our outdoor activities were modest but memorable: Emme and I did our second annual walk around the pond at Green Briar, and the boys and I hiked one of the trails at the Wellfleet Bay Audubon sanctuary.
Got to skip the misery of the annual sleepover at the Sheraton, a horrible, raucous event, poorly timed in terms of work responsibilities. Plus, I have my annual holiday cold, which arrived late this year.
James achieved a couple of growing-up milestones, for which he was rewarded with his first solo overnight at Grandma’s AND a set of Spider Man bed linens.
Was tapped to be the clean-up crew team leader for the Falmouth “Pops Goes the Summer” on Labor Day weekend. And another legacy volunteer event, the annual clean-up around the starting line of the Falmouth Road Race, netted James’ pre-school some needed funds.
Gave presentations at the first annual Business Showcase at Bridgewater State, the Cape Tech fair at 4C’s and at the Falmouth High School Junior Career Day.
If you’ve concluded from the last three entries that Falmouth has an active, civic-minded community, and Mashpee really doesn’t – you’d be right.
Still, there was the Mashpee Night at the Pops, a splendid Summer event at the Commons, and I did hold a sign for my state Rep at the polls (he won).
Attended Grandparents Day with Emmeline at her school, an old Mashpee tradition that includes workbook exercises, readings and treats. The Krispy Kremes I brought with guilt because they weren’t home-made, were a smash.
The Red Sox won the World Series in a stunning, unprecedented, 8-game streak. This, plus the elections, meant weeks of semi-consciousness in the office and elsewhere.
Several colleagues and I happily experienced Microsoft’s second Code Camp, and our presence was memorialized on a video which (so it is rumored) is on a website, somewhere.
I gave up the User Group and am hoping someone else picks up the ball and runs with it.
Finally, I kept not a single New Year’s resolution, not one: didn’t buy a notebook (not for lack of trying, I’ve been tracking Dell coupons and eBay for months), didn’t pass even one MCSD exam, didn’t complete an Open Source project.
Oh, well. Happy 2005.