Time to Catch Up

I had grand plans at the end of 2007 to do a year-end wrap-up, together with the events of the holidays. I should have heard the alarm bells... too much... you'll never get around to it. But, obviously I didn't. So here it is nearly May and I haven't put anything up here in months. Time to catch up as briefly as I can.

December - Spent Christmas at home. The whole month was very busy as Lucy appeared in the Olney Ballet Theatre production of the The Nutcracker (as little mouse and big mouse). The show also gave dad a chance to get back on the stage, though only to build and work the scenery). The family present for Christmas this year was a Yamaha grand piano, which will be put to good use for Liam and Lucy's piano practice, even Nancy has started playing again now that we have a decent piano. For New Years we traveled to Ohio where we also celebrated the birthday of our oldest family member, Louise. This event included visitors from Scotland and nearly all of the Blum family (John came only after we all left, clever fellow that he is). While there, we also saw cousin Todd play with his band Eclectic Vision at the Barking Spider.

January - Skiing season started late this year and we went farther afield than we usually do. We spent a weekend at Canaan Valley in West Virginia. The first day of skiing was the coldest of the year. The ski patrol advised us to cover every bit of skin we could because it was -40 at the summit. We had a great time anyway, though we discovered right before the trip that all our ski equipment had been stolen from our garage--an expense we hadn't expected.

February - We made several more ski trips this month, including my annual outing with colleagues from work. Only Liam went with me this time, though. Nancy and Lucy went to visit Louise again instead. Also this month, I made my debut as a stand-up comic. I did a set of Unitarian Universalist jokes for the annual fundraising dinner at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville. You can find the text on my other blog, A Laugh on Me (look for the "UU joke routine" entry).

March - We returned to Ohio for Easter. This time John apparently decided he could endure the rest of us, so we had the whole family together at a grand dinner hosted by Bob and Christa. Also this month, Nancy celebrated a birthday (which one is irrelevant). Liam had a big triumph when he tried out for his high school tennis team and made the cut, though he had to beat several friends in the process.

April - Spring arrived with the cherry blossoms and daffodils. The neighborhood, as aways, was stunning beautiful. We celebrated Nancy's birthday a month late with a full-moon hike through the National Arboretum (we had been bumped from the March event). The weather was perfect and much was in bloom--the scent of the trees, shrubs, and flowers at night was especially noticeable. The next day Bill competed in the World Bank Auto Club Kart Race and this year took first place over his former boss, who just beat him last year.