12.31.2008

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.

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