Happy freakin' New Year!

And that's what I have to say about that. We just got back from a dinner out at our favorite Italian place (within seconds of our arrival, they had a bowl of ziti ready for a hungry David), and David just took a pre-bedtime bath. 2004 will be the third calendar year that we've been lucky enough to have him around.

To review the past year:

-The world is still hopelessly screwed up.
-So is our government.
-Our son is now 19+ months old, and this year he learned to stand, walk, talk (some) and read (a few words). He uses a fork some, too - until he runs out of patience and digs in with his hands. We even took him out of the country for the first time, and he took to it pretty well. He's awesome.
-The 160+ year-old company I spent over five years working for got new management, and promptly set into place plans to tear it all down and start over. I was one of the first gone of what will amount to over half the company's workers cut loose. And that assumes they pull out of the death spiral the management has put them in. I'm not counting on it. The plus was that even though the company may be fading away, I got enough money from them in my package that I've enjoyed the time away, watching my son grow up.
-We took a serious run at moving, after ten years in our house. It didn't work out.
-After that failed, we wound up re-doing a couple of rooms here, and they look great.
-I joined the ranks of minivan owners. It wasn't as bad as I feared.

Next year, I plan to work again, maybe for someone else, maybe for myself. I'm giving serious thought to the latter. If I go off on my own, I believe I could earn a decent living as a geek for hire. That'd be good if I can - I'm pretty sure I'd be better to work for than my last employer was. I've also lost a lot of weight since mid-year, and I intend to try and keep that going a while longer.

Other than that, I want to be the best father I can be, and the best husband I can be. If I can do those well, everything else should flow from it accordingly.