2007: The Year in Review

2007 was a pretty good year for us. The good outweighed the bad by a longshot. The kids continue to grow in so many ways. They also seem a lot smarter than I was at their age. A. and I are coming up on 15 years of marriage in March. I feel like a truly lucky guy.

Here are a few highlights of the year as I go back through the last 12 month's blog entries.

January: The year didn't start out so well, as I came down with a bug on New Year's Eve and was in bed by 9:15 while the family went to a party. January is always my busiest month of the year at work, so not a lot happened on a personal level. The big sports highlight of the month was the Patriots loss to the Colts in the AFC championship game. The Sox signed J.D. Drew during the month as well, a transaction that remained inexpicable for much of the season.

February: The Celtics established a franchise record for most consecutive losses during the month. Things sure have changed quite a bit in the last 10 months, haven't they? Spring training started; little did we know that we would be celebrating a World Series championship eight months later.

March: Matsuzaka mania hit hard, as I recorded Daisuke's first start against Boston College. Captain America died and Curt Schilling joined the blogosphere. We saw the Globetrotters at the Dunkin Donuts Center, which was a lot of fun. Near the end of the month on my birthday, I took a tour of the Samuel Adams brewery in Jamaica Plain. How can you beat free beer on your birthday?

April: The month started with my annual baseball predictions. I hit on the AL East and West champions (Boston and L.A), but totally missed on all the other on all the other picks - Detroit in the Central and the White Sox for the Wild Card. I picked the Braves, Brewers and Dodgers as divisional champs in the NL, with the Mets taking the wild card. I did pick the Sox to beat the Dodgers in the World Series. I'm sure the Rockies never even crossed my mind as a possibility. For the major awards, I had David Ortiz and Andruw Jones as MVP's, while I thought Jeremy Bonderman and Ben Sheets would take the Cy Young awards. It's a good thing I don't bet on sports results for a living.

Otherwise, the baseball season started. The Indians got snowed out of a series in Cleveland and then had to play some "home" games in Milwaukee. I took J. on his first trip to Cooperstown and we had a great time. The Vintage Base Ball Federation announced the first Vintage Base Ball World Series, which was held in August in Westfield, MA.

The biggest news event of the month was the Virginia Tech massacre. The tragedy presented an additional wrinkle for our family, as the shooter was of Korean descent and we had to explain that to the kids.

May: We visited Canobie Lake Park during the month and had a great time riding the rides. Roger Clemens signed with the Yankees for $28 million prorated dollars. The Yanks got six whole wins for their money. The Sox built up their lead over the Yankees to as much as 13.5 games during the month.

June: June started off with our visit to the Jewish Multiracial Network's annual retreat in the Berkshires. We'll be attending again in 2008. Curt Schilling no-hit the A's for 8 2/3 innings until Shannon Steward broke it up. R. passed her yellow belt test in Tae Kwon Do. The Massachusetts Legislature voted not to send the constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage to be voted on by the people, a result I wholeheartedly support. Oh, and a little gadget called the iPhone came out.

We'll do the rest of 2007 tomorrow night.