The year in review

Our son grew up a lot. He also became a charming, energetic pain in the ass with a definite tendency towards pushing the limits until they break. He learned to be kind of nasty to his parents. On the other hand, he managed to potty train himself, developed some skill at drawing, and sticks up for his friends at school, even when other kids try and pick on them. He's one of the more popular boys in his pre-k classroom, and he does have an outsized personality to match. He grew - a lot - 5T clothes are often too short for him now.

My wife got her job well under control for the most part, putting up upper-tier numbers while still managing to be there for us.

My business has grown to the point where I no longer doubt my chances of a long-term career. I am paying myself a decent salary, have hired one full-time employee, recently added a part-timer, and hope to put on another full-time (specializing in the Windows side) come springtime. I plan to continue managing conservatively, paying myself modestly, and working my butt off to try and make the customers happy in 2007.

Life as a one-cat household suits us fine (Danny was dispatched in 2005). David would like us to add a dog because "Gracie would be friends with a dog", but that's not gonna happen.

Gadget lust in our household has slowed down a lot - the only gadget of note this past year (for the house) was a TiVo Series 3 that Jane and I jointly bought as our holiday gift to ourselves. We've had it for a day. It rocks. It would rock more if we could do multiroom transfers to it from the old one, though.

I did buy a pair of Intel Macs this year, though. Both were for work - not home (even though I'm typing this on one). I started out with a 15" MacBook Pro, then when I hired Joey I gave that one to her and bought a 17". Nice (though not a Core 2 Duo model).

We also finally erased the biggest error that loomed over my history of decision-making - I got rid of the minivan. Never should have bought it in the first place (I overestimated how long we would have to drive around with all the Baby Crap in the car, and I thought at the time it was likely we'd follow up David with an encore). The Kia Sorento we bought in its place is a nice small SUV with AWD that gets about the same mileage and is much nicer to drive (and can go on the beach when we go to Martha's Vineyard).

In related vein, we started taking family vacations again this year. I hope to continue the trend.

And we weaseled one final year out of our house's paint job. But that goes come springtime.

Of course there were a lot more things that happened to us, good and bad, and I've opined many an entry about the other things that have happened in life and the world, but that's a nice, stranger-friendly way to put my version of the "friends & family" letter that a lot of families now include in their holiday cards out for your reading enjoyment. If you're one of our friends reading this, I hope you're enjoying the sanitized update. If you're one of my customers - I hope you keep employing my firm to handle your work as we grow. We won't let you down (unless you're one of the deadbeats - you know who you are and in at least one case I won't forget the $200 you've owed us since February! - in that case please send the check and then lose our number). And if you're one of the total strangers who stumbles upon my blogsite, well, hope you enjoyed what you read, but not enough to stalk us. Happy New Year, and have a great 2007!