Welcome to 2006!

Justin: So welcome everyone to 2006! I hope it finds everyone in joyful spirits and surrounded by loved ones. My personal feeling towards this year is one of "calm accomplishment", much different then the anticipation I had for 2005. The ending of 2004 left me chomping at the bit for what was to come and, looking back, for good reason. During the 365.25 days that made up last year I moved into my first house, made a positive job change, paid off a substantial loan, made some new friends, rediscovered some old ones, gained a breathing foot warmer for a dog, saw my lil sissy be happy, saw my nephew continue to be happy, and what else... oh yeah, I met a wonderful woman who continues to amaze me.

So this year has much more of a "nesting" or "settling" feel to it. I expect to continue to work on the house some, focus on a little personal development, and basically be low key with a small spike here and there. I already have a winter camp planned for Feb and Stace and I are looking at flights to MO for her brother's wedding in June. I would like to sneak in a trip to WI to visit a dear friend of mine here soon, however I'm not so sure that will happen. Drat.

As for Stace, I see this to be a continuation of personal triumph for her in big ways. She already started her new job today and we are talking about her possibly going back to school in the next several months, and working on tidying up some loose ends.

Now if I could only get her hooked on World of Warcraft along with me... Or maybe get her several very long and very interesting books so she won't notice I'm playing... Any ideas?

We recently celebrated our 11th month anniversary at our favorite vietnamese restaraunt. It has been several months since we last went and as we walked in our favorite server spotted us, startling those around her with a loud, broken english "WEH HAV YOO BEHN??"
Its good to be loved.

So yes, its 11 months now and rest assured I have no plans of playing "toddler sizing" with our further progress. After the 12th month we move on to "a year and a month" not "13 months", or "24 months". No, the kid is TWO years old. TWO. Move along. I'm not sure the monthly anniversaries will continue - after the 12th one we pretty much get the point, but I hope we try to sneak in something special as being as busy as we are it would be a small but nice reminder to not take things for granted.

Lets see.. what else is there to share? As usual I will recommend several shows to catch: "Family Guy", "Arrested Development", "Nip/Tuck" and "Lost". Music wise we are listening to the not so usual assortment - Michael Buble, System of a Down, Josh Groban, and The Black Eyed Peas seem to be haunting Winamp recently.
Oh! The Daily webcomic list: www.dilbert.com; www.pvponline.com; and http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/.

A belated Happy New Year to everyone and best wishes!