2009 -- Year in Review

While I'll never be able to put together as amazing a "Year In Review" as my comedy-writing hero does every year, I thought I'd list some high points in the year for your enjoyment.

• I went down to Kansas to watch my cousin Kyle drag race.  It was a great weekend, even though I only saw him take one trip down the track.
  
• I got to watch one of my high school classmates, Luke Hochevar, pitch for the Triple-A Omaha Royals and Kansas City Royals baseball teams.  I watched more baseball games this summer than I have my entire life.  What a great experience.
  
• My wife and I paid a $269 electric bill at our first rental-house in Omaha last February and had our Jeep broken into so that the perp could walk away with a radio face-plate and some change from the center-console.  Needless to say, we hightailed it out of that neighborhood as soon as possible.
  
• Which lead to my wife's brother traveling to Omaha on one day's notice to help us move into our new house.  It would be one of three trips for him to come see us this year.  He is such a trooper and an all around great guy.
  
• We also had my little sister spend the summer with us in Omaha while she interned at the Bemis Art Center.  Having her out here encouraged the rest of my family to come visit multiple times.  Together, we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo, to Schramm State Park, down to KC for a couple Royals games, spent time at the roulette tables, and took in some great concerts (O.A.R. w/ Brett Dennen; Mat Kearney; and The Script).
  
• GOLF
• My cousins from Denver came out for a weekend of fun.  We played golf at three different courses, went over to the casinos, and drove out to Des Moines to see the Dave Matthews Band.  We had general admission tickets that allowed us early admission, so we ended up center stage and 5 standing rows back.  It was a great experience and great to spend quality time with the cousins. 
• Back in January, I submitted a picture my wife took to the "View from Your Window" feature on Daily Dish blog, which is run by Andrew Sullivan.  On January 19th, it was published on the blog's front page.  Then, we discovered that Andrew was going to be publishing a "View from Your Window" book that would be a collection of all the entries over the past few years.  We couldn't be happier that her picture made it into the book.  It is so much fun opening up a professionally published book and seeing a picture taken by my wife.  It will forever remind us of our time out in Omaha.  (You can see her picture in book form HERE.  Her picture is on page 195, which you can find on the scroll bar at the bottom of the page.)
  
• This year was also a major milestone year, as my wife and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.  When planning a trip to celebrate, we noticed that my parents would be celebrating their 30th year of marriage and my wife's mom and husband would also be celebrating their 5th year being married.  So we decided to go on a cruise together.  The six of us set sail with Carnival Cruise from San Diego, stopped for a day at Catalina Island, and spent another day on the Baja Peninsula of Mexico, before returning to San Diego.  It was a great trip and a great way to spend a weekend with our parents.
  
• Since we'd missed their 25th wedding anniversary, my siblings, my wife, and I decided to plan a surprise weekend getaway to Estes Park over the Labor Day weekend, where all of us kids would entertain our parents in a cabin.  Estes Park was where they went for their honeymoon, so we thought it would be fun for them to return 30 years later.  It was a great weekend. 
• I once again participated in Movember, which is a month-long mustache-growing fund-/awareness-raising event. 
• And, 2009 was the year I re-started blogging here at 87MurphySquirrels.  I had initially started this blog a couple of years ago while I was a budding teacher.  I've been able to put up 75+ posts in the past 5 months, and I've developed a nice readership.  And for that, I'd like to thank you, dear reader, for stopping by.

I can hardly wait to see what 2010 has in store for me, my wife, my dog, and my family and friends.

So, Happy New Year and may your 87 Squirrels be Murphy!  I know mine will be.