2008 Favorites

It's a little late, but here are some of my favorite things, events or people from 2008:

San Francisco - I didn't blog about it, but P and I took a trip to San Francisco in mid-November. He was out there training for his new job, and I joined him at the end of the week so we could celebrate our 5th anniversary together. We did all the touristy stuff, ate ridiculous amounts of food and had the best time together. In fact, it was so good that I let P talk me into going to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum on our last night. If you know us, you know that Ripley's is probably on P's top 3 favorite things about the trip and I haven't thought about it since we left.

Facebook - For the past few years, I've had some weird hesitation about joining a social networking site like Facebook or Myspace. From the outside, it seemed highly narcissistic (of course, so would blogging). But after signing up for a work-related project, I found it to be a great way to keep in touch, re-establish relationships and get to know people a little better. It also helps me to be the best stalker I can be. Kidding, of course. Kind of.

I'll Bag You Like Some Groceries - This is a line from Usher's song Love In This Club, which was released in February. I actually like the song (God help me), but just crack up every time I hear this line in the rap by Young Jeezy. Hmm. I'll bag you like some groceries. How do you bag your groceries, Young Jeezy? Forcefully? Tenderly? With proper weight distribution? Dare I ask if you, ah hem, double bag? It's so ridiculous that I love it.

By the way, most of the above information I had to look up on Wikipedia. Young Jeezy? Come on, I wouldn't know that guy without using a tool like Wikipedia. I live in an area small enough that it's called a village.

Tennessee - It was another great year for fun and fellowship in Tennessee. Camping, boating, friends, family, cards and the addition of the Cabana Islander. Oh, and I got up on slalom twice! Darn it that it's only January! For some pictures, click here. For videos, click here.

Chris Cooley - In case you don't know who Cooley is, this is all you need to know: he's a tight end for the Washington Redskins, he has awesome hair and he maintains a highly entertaining blog called The Cooley Zone. I first came across Cooley a few years ago while searching for a tight end in my fantasy league after some lightweight (probably Todd Heap) got hurt. This is the head shot Yahoo Sports had on file for him:

As most anyone would do after seeing that hair, I picked him up immediately. This year, I was all set to draft him, but the other lady in the league got him (friggin' Carrie) and I was stuck with my old nemesis (friggin' Heap). Anyhow, I found out he had a blog after he had a somewhat unfortunate incident involving his, um, grocery bagger (see Love In This Club). Really, I could care less, but I'm glad it happened because I wouldn't have heard about his blog otherwise. The Cooley Zone gives the everyday person a peek into the NFL, which I find endlessly fascinating. It's funny, honest and entertaining. Perhaps I'm projecting, but it seems like Cooley's the type of guy who has fun with life and realizes how darn cool it is to be an NFL player. And I dig that.

Fantasy Football - Speaking of the NFL, Lionel Richie Fan Club took home the silver this year! And $150! And bragging rights after beating all the guys but one! Really, I shouldn't be using all these exclamation points though. It's not a terribly surprising victory--I'm a top notch GM. And I'm going to bring it in '09 too.

Scripps National Spelling Bee/Numnah - Meet Sameer Mishra, an 8th grader from Indiana. While participating in this nationally televised spelling bee, he ran across an interesting word. Check it out:

Not only does this clip crack me up every time I see it, but I'm always amazed by his composure. Cool as a cucumber. By the way, Sameer went on to win the competition. Quite an accomplishment.

Kid Rock/All Summer Long - I love Kid Rock and I love this song. It's a great mashup of Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama, and talks about summertime in northern Michigan. I know all about summertime in northern Michigan! I grew up in Toledo and spent many summers there. Could this possibly mean that Kid Rock and I are soulmates?!

Mayonnaise - Nothing in particular happened. It just continued to rock my world in '08.

This Blog - One of my resolutions for 2008 was to start writing more. With this blog, I've been able to do that fairly easily, and SN is quite possibly the first resolution I've ever been successful at carrying out. So it's depressing and momentous at the same time! I started writing just for myself, with no intention of any type of readership. But there are a few of you out there and I just wanted to say thanks!

It's only two days into the new year and I already have a few candidates for the 2009 list: the Four Acres bowling team (consisting of me, P, P's dad and best friend) and our new Wii. Can't wait to see how this year plays out!

Here's to a happy and healthy 2009!