Happy New Year!

It's 2:47 AM and I can't sleep, so I decided to post my reflections on the year that was, and my New Year's Resolutions.

2004 was quite a year. Not surprisingly, it went by very quickly, due to the fact that we were quite busy from start to finish. Cliff Notes:

January: Normal life.

February: Normal life, but with one big event, the significance of which was not known at the time.

March: Find out that the one big event resulted in a baby girl, due in November. Begin house-hunting.

April: Scrap all the previous plans for fancy landscaping; instead, get the yard into selling condition ASAP.

May: Decide (ok, dragooned by wife) on new house site, start process. Reluctantly put up "For Sale By Owner" sign in yard. Immediately inundated by calls from hungry realtors, eager to sell our house "in two months or less!!"

June: Find out that baby will have increased risk for Down's syndrome and some other German Doctor's Name Syndrome. Hole dug for house.

July: Foundation completed on house. Went on great vacation to Mount St. Helens with son.

August: Paid realtor to get house put on computer listing. House frame goes up.

September: Just hours after terminating our computer listing and hiring a new realtor, we get an offer from someone who found our house on the computer. Sigh.

October: Didn't go antelope hunting as planned. Instead, the month is a blur of packing, closing on our house sale, closing on our house purchase, and then moving before the end of the month. Luckily, my back held out, because my son and I had to do most of the moving by ourselves.

November: Finally in house. Daughter born healthy on 11 November. C-section sidelines the wife for several weeks. Father dies on 20 November. Funeral over Thanksgiving weekend.

December: Mother moves into house on 2nd. Christmas comes and goes without much fanfare.

Thank goodness that's all behind us.

For 2005, I resolve to:

Bag at least 3 peaks
Hike at least once a month
Fish at least once a month
Go shooting at least once a month
Play hockey for at least 12 weeks
Go on a nice winter vacation with wife
Go on a nice anniversary getaway with wife
Take my wife out once a month
Go deer hunting with my son
Have a family activity at least once a month
Go to the Grand Canyon for the family vacation
Exercise more regularly
Keep within our budget

Oh, yes, and try to blog at least once a week.

I feel pretty confident about all of those, especially since I've already scheduled alot of them. It will help that I will have 8 years at my job and will begin getting 4 more hours of vacation a month. I plan on using it all by year's end.

What I resolve NOT to do is sell my house and move. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.