2011 in review

Wow, what a year 2011 was. It was such a blur that I needed to look back through my various social networking sites to jog my memory. I won't bore you (and honestly, bore myself trying to write it) with all the details. But here's a list of highlights:

-January saw the return of Dana and Jon to Washington for a week. Dana came out to take care of some wedding planning, and Jon came because the flight was cheap and Dana was coming. The Group got together to hang out, catch up, celebrate January birthdays, and generally be awesome. 

-In April, Katie and I went to various places in Colorado. We went to Denver, Colorado Springs, and Boulder. All these places are places I could see myself living. Except for Colorado Springs: people get around from place to place there by running!

-Two of my best friends got married: Toby in April, then Dana in September. Both ceremonies were beautiful. I had the privilege of being a part of both of their bachelor parties: Toby's was up at our mutual friend Walker's family cabin in Roslyn, and Dana's I totally took over and made everyone go to the Penny Arcade Expo. Welcome to the club, guys.

-I took up two old hobbies that had long laid dormant. First was playing trumpet, which lasted about a month before it fell to the wayside. The second was playing Magic, which I've embarrassingly discussed here way too much. How can you tell if a post is authored by Katie or I? Does it mention Magic?

-We went to Sunriver, OR, with Katie's folks the last week of June. This was a trip they did pretty much every year when Katie was a kid, so seeing this place I've heard so much about was really fun.

-In late September, Katie and I took an impromptu road trip down to The Dalles, OR, to see Counting Crows play at Maryhill Winery. Not too impromptu, as she bought tickets a month or so before. But impromptu for me, since I forgot about it. Along the way, we stopped at Powell's in Portland, because That's What You Do When You Drive Through Portland. While at Powell's, I went off on my own to try and find something for myself. Five minutes later, I returned to Katie to find this. Now the reason why I parked in a 1 hour spot on the street became crystal clear.

I'm sure I missed a few things here and there, but so much happened that even stuff that happened last week feels like ages ago.

And what good is a year-in-review post without some forward-looking statements? Here are some of my personal goals for 2012. Call them resolutions if you want. Or "action-items," if you are in to corporate-speak.
-Lose some weight. It's not a New Year's Action Items list without it.
-Stay focused on whatever it is I'm doing. I switched browser tabs at least 100 times while writing this post alone
-Play more board games more often. I've played Catan and Pandemic dozens of times. It's time to dust off all those other games in my closet I've neglected.
-Participate in or run a tabletop game. This is in the same vein as the one above, but it's different enough to get it's own bullet point. I went to Crazy Town almost two years ago and got a bunch of D&D 4e materials and a pound of dice. Then to top it all off, I received the Pathfinder Beginner Box from this past Christmas. It's time to crack that nut.
-Be a more patient driver. I can be aggressive at times trying to get out of downtown. Katie would probably strike "at times" and replace it with "all the times."
-Be more patient in general. The last few months I've put on my grumpy pants a few too many times than I would care to admit. I can trace this to things going not-exactly-to-my-specifications. And it's not even stuff that anyone should get mad about ("What do you mean we are getting whole wheat bread?!"), it's just me being dumb.