Wow, what another roller coaster year. Highs, lows, excitement, disappointment, joy, sorrow, laughter, and pain. Things I regret, things I wish I did, things I wish I didn’t do. Lots of potential, lots of opportunity. And if nothing else, a validation that I do finally seem to understand the job I have and how to do it. It ain’t perfect but at least it’s a start.
So on with the recap of 2006:
- Was disappointed that the Tories came back into power, but so far have been impressed that they haven’t rolled back the clock 30 years … yet
- Took this website back from a WordPress blog to a hand-coded blog … then started the switch back when I couldn’t keep up with the work
- Got really pissed off when Starbucks canned the Chantico
- Attended my first CMMY (and got an iPod!)
- Ranted. A lot.
- Picked up our new kitty, Asia, from the SPCA and have had fuzzy therapy every day since
- Bade farewell to far too many good friends
- Listened to the VP of Marketing for Google Canada, and lamented that the engineers do better presentations
- Went to Honolulu, HI
- Saw where WWII began in the Pacific
- Went to (and all the way around) Kauai, HI
- Went on a cruise and saw whales
- Experienced my first and second luaus
- Went to Maple Ridge, BC several times
- Went to Montreal, QC
- Experienced Earth Day on an apple farm in southern Quebec
- Went to London, UK
- Saw Buckingham Palace
- Went to York, UK
- Visited the National Railway Museum in only 30 minutes (far too quickly!)
- Went to Glasgow, UK
- Went to Ayr, UK
- Went to Edinburgh, UK
- Froze on Calton Hill during a festival
- Went to Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Drove around Northern Ireland in a car too large for most of the roads
- Walked the Giant’s Causeway and Carrick-a-Rede bridge
- Went to Castleblaney, Ireland
- Went to Newtownards, Northern Ireland
- Went to Dublin, Ireland
- Drank Guinness from its home town
- Visited the Guinness Brewery … sort of
- Stayed at a castle
- Drove from the east to west coast of Ireland and back in two days, visiting: - Tara Hill
- Trim
- Clonmacnoise
- Shannonbridge
- The Burren (and the Poulnabrone Dolmen)
- Doolin
- Cliffs of Moher
- Newmarket-on-Fergus (and the wonderful Kells B&B)
- Bunratty Castle
- Limerick (well, through Limerick)
- Cashel (and the Rock of Cashel)
- Carrick on Suir
- Ballyhale (and really bad pizza)
- Went to Bow Lake and Num-Ti-Jah Lodge
- Went to Revelstoke and Three Valley Gap
- Went to Paris (on business, but did get to see a fair bit despite exhaustion)
- Went to Edmonton, AB (on business)
- Went to Banff, AB several times
- Went to London, ON
- Went to Oakville, ON
- Went to St. Thomas, ON
- Moved my desk to the best spot in the building (lucky me!)
- Saw Stuart McLean twice, though only once in concert (front row at the Banff Centre)
- Met my niece for the first time
- Ripped the deck out of the backyard and laid down grass
- Repaired the hot tub (again) — what a money pit!
- Stopped driving to work and biked
- Stopped biking to work (when it got too dark and nearly got creamed by a car) and took the bus
- Stopped taking the bus when I realized Calgary Transit sucks and went back to driving
- Did an article for the CBC on my experiences on the CBC TV 50th Anniversary VIA Rail train
- Was paid a visit by Chris and Kaz
- Had the first game night with the Asian Brother Crew since Chris left
- Started using video conferencing extensively, and really marveling at what the technology can do
- Saw Cirque du Soliel’s Delirium
- Unclogged a sink without losing my pants
- Realized I can still tell when a hard drive is about to fail
Worked way too hard for my own good
But that’s to be expected, non? There’s one other thing that’s not on this list. But I can’t let that cat outta the bag just yet…
