2008: Our Year in Review

2008 held a lot of exciting activities and changes for us! Much of the year we stayed busy, with Sherree working full-time and going to school, and me working full-time at the day-job and almost-full-time for our business. But late in the year that changed!

January primarily left me frustrated with my camera, a Canon 20D — it wasn’t working, and all of my Christmas-related photos were lost. Happily, Sherree took a few photos so we’ll have a few memories. Sherree began student teaching, and had her first snow day!

One February morning I awoke to something moving on our bed — Goober the Hamster escaped! I finally admitted defeat with my camera’s photos, and Sherree posted some of hers from Christmas. I also began posting a new kind of entry on danandsherree.com: recently-saved links (this is actually built with the Action Streams plugin for Movable Type).

In March Goober escaped again and again (though she has not escaped since then). I sent my camera into Canon service and was left wondering how to proceed. Sherree finished student teaching, too.

uiNNOVATIONS celebrated its one-year anniversary in April. I replaced my camera with a Nikon D300 (and therefore switched systems from Canon back to Nikon). We went to the first of many Eagle Scout Courts of Honor this year for Peter.

In May we went on vacation! My parents, Sherree, and I all spent a week at Walt Disney World. Sherree and I have been married for seven years! We went to the movies quite a bit this year! (Previous years we’ve gone once or maybe twice.) This month I saw Ironman with a friend, and Sherree and I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The movie-going continued in June with Kung-Fu Panda and WALL-E. We attended Drew’s Eagle Court.

Sherree found a teaching job in July! After my Ford Explorer bit the dust, we bought a Ford Edge. I released a new plugin for Movable Type: Poll Position. Immediately popular, it was made a Featured Plugin on the Plugin Directory! We attended Tyler’s Eagle Court.

Another movie in August: The Dark Knight! After Sherree left her day care job (and before she began teaching), we both took a small vacation! One of the things we did was make a visit to the Hill-Stead Museum. We attended both Nick and Drew’s Eagle Courts this month.

In September I realized that I’ve been involved with Scouts for 25 years. I gave my notice of resignation at my day job, then left about a week later to devote myself full-time to uiNNOVATIONS! I wrote about my first day and my first week. We also had a party to celebrate Sherree completing school and finding a teaching job, and me leaving the day job for something I love.

In Scouts, we elected new leaders and came up with some new requirements for them, which I shared in October. Sherree and I, along with some Scouts, went to the Foster Farm Corn Maze for some fun. Along with another leader, I volunteered to run the Troop’s November campout again, so had to start planning. Sherree and I also spent a long weekend in Vermont. I offered some followup thoughts on the Nikon D300, having used it for several months.

More movies in November: we saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Bolt. The Troop’s November Campout — a Skills Weekend — went off well (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, photos). We attended Tyler’s Eagle Court — that’s six in 2008!

In December, I realized that I’ve been working for myself for three months. We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and did a whole lot of Christmas stuff.

Phew!