Best of 2010

The year of 2010 started with an arrival and then a goodbye. From the start this year was full of adventure, and twists and turns. 

The first part of the year was loaded with anxious and  frustrating moments. From the early weeks of our seperation, to Valentine's Day, to Father's Day.

We filled our nights and weekends with Skype calls and once-a-month reunions -- in January, February, March, April when Phoebe turned 2, in May for the wedding of the year and again the next weekend, though it took somewhat of a miracle.

In the meantime, apartment living wasn't bad. ... But the winter was worse than any I'd experienced in Wisconsin.

Kates landed a teaching job in April, but our house hunting troubles were just beginning.

By June, we were settling into a duplex and Phoebe was settling into a new room with a big bed. We did a lot of reflecting on the last five years. We closed on our house in K-Town. On my birthday, we made the long haul to The 'Ville.

Phoebe grew up from a toddler just learning her ABCs to a delightful, babbling little girl. She had her first meeting with Santa ... and I guess we could say she found Jesus. ... But our summer will be remembered most for one thing: The surgery. Ah, the joys of parenthood.

During the fall, we took in fireworks and football. And football. Thanksgiving in Branson. And football. And football.

It was a year of adjustments.

* * *

In sports ...

Mark McGwire finally came clean. Hockey was the extent of my Olympics experience -- but it was so worth it.

The NCAA tournament was as thrilling and depressing as ever -- from the maddening good first round to Kansas' stunning loss to Northern Iowa to an epic K-State-Xavier game. And then there was Monday. We said goodbye to John Wooden, too.

When baseball season arrived, I kept up with following my old teams and got reaquainted with the Royals, especially when Ned Yost took over. There was that near-perfect game in Detroit. There was that glorious Sunday night in sports. The National League won an all-star game and the Cubs seemed to lose more than games.

In August, I picked the Rangers and Phillies as my World Series favorites. Instead we got the Rangers-Giants and the Giants won it -- with Edgar Renteria's help, no less. ... I took in a glorious doubleheader in Kansas City. I could only hope the Royals have a future as glorious as their past. Then they went and handed Zack Greinke to the Brewers.

The Blackhawks took the Stanley Cup. LeBron went to South Beach. We said goodbye to Ron Santo.

* * *

In music ...

The Grammy's dazzled and frustrated me as usual -- and delivered an unforgettable Pink performance. ... "Fireflies" left me mesmerized. ... As did Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn, and Neko Case.
Songs of the year go to One Republic and OK Go, Sara Bareilles, and Bruno Mars,

The music I love also caused some slight depression -- which I dubbed my "Summertime Blues." We missed The Weepies, among several other favorites. ... But, I did make my annual pilgrimmage to Summerfest and The Weepies blessed us with another wonderful album. I also got to see The Hunts.

* * *

In entertainment ...

We had to adjust to life without DVR, and there was the late night TV fracas. Betty White hosted SNL. We said goodbye to 'My Boys.' SNL and Katy Perry parodied Sesamegate.

Lost. The final season blew my mind from beginning to middle to end. And afterward.

Inception did the same. For weeks afteward.

Our TV blew up. But we were captivated by "The Sing-Off."

I found a workplace that embraced social media and fell deeper in love with it along the way.

* * *

Through it all, we found inspiration in the highs and lows, and we dug in. And to paraphrase The Weepies singing one of our all-time favorite lyrics and melodies: The world spun madly on.

Best viral videos of 2009

... So I'm in the midst of my first snow day as a professional, and I've spent most of it clicking through weeks worth of e-mails that stacked up in my inbox during my transition the last two to three weeks ...

One pleasant surprise -- and a good break from all the hard news I was reading -- was EW's 10 best viral videos of 2009.

Every one of these is worth watching ... But I highly recommend "Autotune the News" and "Web Site Story."

After watching "David After the Dentist," I also stumbled upon a spoof of the same video featuring Darth Vadar -- which I think is funnier than the original.



And, c'mon, I also can't forget the wedding dance and the "12 Days of Christmas" on my own list of the greatest viral videos of the year.

Have fun.

Summing up 2008

Looking back on my favorite memories and posts of 2008 ...

It's safe to say most of them can be summed up with one word: Phoebe. ... Nearly every thought, every action, every conversation leading up to and after her April arrival occurred with her on our minds ...

We bought a new car. We re-did rooms and made treks to IKEA. We played the names game, while secretly hoping for a daughter. And had conversations with the baby before she was born.

There was an early hospital run in February ...

But when she finally arrived, with some frustrating complications, our lives were injected with a whimsy of love and laughter we'd never known before ...

We developed nicknames for her. We got to know her tendencies, and giggled when she showed her tough love, or fell into milk comas. We got hit with exploding poop and she covered herself in poop. We danced to rock n' roll music and rocked her to sleep with some favorite lullabies.

We got a good start on introducing her to our world. We took her to a Harley parade. We camped in Minnesota and took her to her first baseball game. We drove to Kansas City. We spent an afternoon at Wrigley Field. And then a day touring Chicago. We took in the beauty of The Farm. And headed back home once more, by plane, to Lawrence, Kan.

But having to take her to daycare, we thought, was just unfair.

And as the year closed, she was hitting a new milestone every time we turned around.

* * *

I had some other cool, lucky moments and days, too ...

I got to fly in a KC-135 Stratotanker. Tour Chicago's Smart Home. Tour the new Harley-Davidson Museum. And I got to interact with art ...

And in July, I got to spend a weekend with some of the real-life All-American Girls.

* * *

There was the weather ...

We had tornadoes in January that provided some unforgettable images and entertaining soundbites.

By the time winter was finished, we'd had a record amount of snowfall dumped on us, including a one-day storm that gave us 22 inches. A winter so historic, we almost didn't want it to end.

We survived flooding, too ...

* * *

There was a historic presidential campaign that had us getting up-close with Hillary Clinton ...

Mourning Tim Russert ...

Laughing at John McCain ...

And finally reveling in the change for which we'd hoped ...

* * *

Our favorite movies of the year included "Juno" and "Once" ... And a high-speed chase nearly kept us from seeing "WALL-E."

* * *

There was the music that filled our year ...

The Weepies, Ingrid Michaelson and Mates of State got a lot of play in our stereo ...

As for the year in concerts, I missed Matchbox Twenty ... But I managed to catch Counting Crows less than 24 hours after Phoebe's birth.

I made it to see Stevie Wonder, Dashboard Confessional, Polyphonic Spree, Gin Blossoms, OAR, Ingrid Michaelson, Jason Mraz, The Hush Sound, Spill Canvas and OneRepublic and Death Cab For Cutie, too.

* * *

On TV ...

American Idol ruled our spring and gave us personalities like Alexandrea Lushington and Danny Noriega, Jason Castro and David Archuleta, and Chikezie. In the end though, it was David Cook.

Kates got me into "The Next Food Network Star" ...

And "Saturday Night Live" tickled us with appearances by Steve Carrell, Tina Fey, and Sarah Palin. Fred Armisen did his best Obama, and we said good-bye to Amy Poehler ...

Once in awhile, we caught some good commercials, too.

* * *

In sports ...

The Summer Olympics dazzled us ...

The Packers fell just short of the Super Bowl, which turned out to be one of the greatest Super Bowls in memory -- David Letterman loved it, too. ... Then Brett Favre retired -- and un-retired.

The Mitchell Report was the lightning bolt felt throughout baseball ... which also had one of its greatest games in memory.

I saw my first White Sox game at Comiskey Park and CC Sabathia pitch for the Milwaukee Brewers ... Then we watched CC pitch the Brewers into the playoffs, and Carlos Zambrano pitched a no-hitter to help the Cubs win their division ... Although neither of them made it far enough to that quirky World Series, which happened after I slept through one of the greatest games of the postseason.

And then there was that memorable April night that I cried happy tears -- not because of Phoebe. ... The tournament that started with me submitting a bracket in the baby's honor, the tournament that had me hiding under blankets, and then relishing one of the greatest college basketball games ever and its aftermath.

Best of all, the world didn't end.

The Best of 2007

I'm finding it hard to fathom that another year is about to pass. Perhaps it's because 2007 has been such a memorable one, full of life experiences that extended from euphoric, glorious and hilarious to plain scary and rotten ...

So let's do it. Presenting some of my favorite posts, the best of 2007 ...

The year started with Brett Favre dazzling us. And here he is doing it again as the year closes.

But Brett's name wasn't the only "B" word making headlines on this blog in 2007. Yep, Kates and I can't look back on the year without discussing the impending birth of our first child. We have been delighted and awed and humbled by every aspect of this new phase in our lives, even amid the hormones. Though we also recognize we've still got a lot to learn.

By day, Kates entered her seventh year of elementary school teaching and I recently passed the five-year mark at my office ... Meanwhile, on the homefront, our year was dotted with the joys of a new vacuum, complaining about the weather and listing our dreams. We also started redoing our bathroom a little earlier than we'd planned but it turned out pretty swell seven months later.

I said good-bye to my M.U.S.C.L.E.S. ... Paris Hilton said hello to prison. We joined the High School Musical craze. The Jayhawks broke my heart again, and so did the Bearcats.

And those weren't the only things that consumed us ...

How about the TV, for instance ... And a little talent show called American Idol. From the first episode we'd ever watched to Jordin's crowning finale, and some worthy auditions in between, we got to watch Sanjaya's rise and fall. We fell hard for talents like Chris Sligh and Gina Glocksen. And I even got to chat with an almost-Idol.

At other points, there were only glimmers of compelling TV. ... We thoroughly enjoyed The Class before CBS dismissed it. And we stayed with Grey's Anatomy, even if the idea of Meredith drowning was a bad one. We indulged in guilty pleasures like You're the One That I Want and The Apprentice and other spring leftovers. We celebrated the return of My Boys, discovered Meerkat Manor, laughed with Brian Williams and embraced some great episodes of Lost (Shambala!), including its finale.

The music, on the other hand, was always good, and overflowing. While the Grammys were a night to remember, 2007 gave us great stuff from Avril Lavigne, The Shins, and Regina Spektor. It also was a year of excellent indies like Mates of State, Feist, Belle & Sebastian and The Weepies. ... Mute Math wowed me. The Shins nearly had me in tears. ... And my lust for the Rumours album continued.

But none of that matched the pure joy of five nights of Summerfest. Or chatting with Peter Noone, who we saw not once, but twice -- and with Barry Williams.

We laughed with Frank Caliendo, too.

As the summer came and went, we had a Fourth of July beach party. We played games and watched sunrises and sunsets on Lake Michigan. Harry Potter flew into our house one last time. And we went back in time at the Renaissance Faire.

... We made two trips to Kansas City. In August, we were there for the much anticipated 10-year high school reunion, which proved to be a special weekend of reuniting with old classmates and seeing how much “the old neighborhood” had changed. And in September we were there to celebrate a close friend’s wedding.

... In October, to celebrate our wedding anniversary, we spent a long peaceful weekend at Kati's parents' farm.

Suffice to say, though, the year might be best remembered by, well ... baseball. It all started once again with a day in February to get Cubs tickets. And it culminated with one of the most exciting season's in recent memory not to mention a Red Sox championship and a free taco ... even if seeing Barry Bonds hit No. 756 almost made me sick.

But, hey, let's keep with the good stuff -- like a gripping pennant race that included the Chicago Cubs and the Milwaukee Brewers.

We attended a record number of games -- highlighted by a game played in snow, a brawl game at Wrigley, a near-no-hitter in Kansas City, a celebration of legends, and one amazing Friday in August -- and I rarely got tired of it.

And let's not forget I played some good, fun ball too ... and even got in a little fall ball.

Looking back at '06

Man, it's always fun to look back at old posts on this blog ...

Simply put 2006 was the best of times and it was the worst of times.

It all started barely a week into the new year when I arrived home from work one afternoon to find our house had been broken into and burglarized. The suspects busted a basement window, just outside a room where I keep some of my most treasured memorabilia. They scooped up all they could fit in a duffle bag, we guessed, before ripping our DVD player from an outlet and leaving out our front door. It still hurts ...

Rough mornings. A lost cell phone. Problems with our roof repair. Costly car repairs. A lost camera. And hassles with our lawn mower repair didn't make the year any easier. At times it seemed like the whole world was ending.

It also was the year of Dick Cheney, TomKat and Katie Couric ...

But hey, let's talk about the fun stuff ... Like the Sunday night Chinese, our anniversary weekend, the Tigers or the awe and wonder that was the blizzard of 2006.

It also was a great year for TV. We said good-bye to Will & Grace, and we were forced to say good-bye to Love Monkey, Sons & Daughters and Invasion before we even got a chance to know them ...But we also welcomed My Boys.

Kates began her sixth year of teaching fourth grade and, as I write this, she's reached the halfway mark to completing her Masters degree in reading instruction. And though things haven't always been peachy keen for her, she continues to amaze me ...

For me 2006 was the year I got to see Washington, D.C., in a way I hadn't before. I got back to playing baseball. I got to watch blind people drive racecars. I got to go kayaking on Lake Michigan. I rode my bike in a virtual marathon and still played baseball that afternoon. And I got to watch Superman on my birthday. And I made a return to St. Louis ...

And oh, the concerts and theater! Kates and I saw "Annie,". And I traveled back in time with the River Root Band. O.A.R. won me over. Imogen Heap dazzled me in May. Summerfest left me feeling as alive and exhausted as ever in July. The Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows rained on us in August. Seeing James Taylor in Chicago was sweet. And I met James Blunt in Milwaukee ...

I got to meet Elvis' best friend, Mo Rocca and Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell ...

Strangely though, for all the new things, excitement and experiences that defined the year for Kates and I, 2006 might be best remembered by me for something I've known all my life. 2006 was the year I fell all over again for vinyl records ...

The Best of 2005

Some of my favorites pics and posts of the year ...

An early winter morning at the Kenosha harbor ...

An April morning on Kansas City's Plaza ...

It doesn't get much better than this: June at Wrigley Field, watching the Cubs and Red Sox from behind home plate with tickets we bought from a scalper for $35 each, and then hearing the guys sitting directly behind us talk about buying their tickets for $100 each.

.....7.04.05 -- Summerfest: Night I.....

.....7.05.05 -- Summerfest: Night II.....

.....7.06.05 -- Summerfest: Night III.....

.....7.25.05 -- Vacation 2005!.....

.....7.29.05 -- It's 'Wicked' baby: The other side of Oz.....

.....8.19.05 -- From Tornado Alley to 'Suicide Alley': A night with Shawn Colvin.....

.....8.28.05 -- A weekend on the farm.....

.....8.29.05 -- No Clowning Around: One of the most memorable stories I've ever done.....

.....8.31.05 -- Ben Folds & me.....

One of many, many Brewers games we made it to this this year ...

.....10.03.05 -- All I needed was baseball .....

.....10.12.05 -- Movin' Out: Where Billy Joel and ballet collide.....

A fall sunset at the Kenosha harbor

.....10.23.05 -- Going home: My return to Northwest.....

.....11.11.05 -- The best kept secret in pop music: A night with Toby Lightman.....

.....11.23.05 -- 'Rent' is due and paid for .....

.....12.04.05 -- In the Christmas spirit .....

.....12.16.05 -- the Miracle on State Street.....