2016
I wrote a recap about 2016 at my company, and enjoyed that process so much that I wanted to do a personal recap. Here’s a bunch of stuff that happened in 2016*!
I started running, and ran 1000km over the whole year. This was a long slog, but fun. I tried not to talk about it because listening to others talk about their exercise habits is booooooring.
I got funding to go to another meeting of the Charles Williams Society in Oxford. I tacked on a few days in London beforehand, then went overland (and water) to Dover, Calais, and Paris for a few extra days.
I secured some funding from the Society to reissue a book of Charles Williams’. I’ve always wanted to make a book, and so I spent the first half of the year negotiating the rights to the work, designing it, and creating marketing materials. It was a huge effort, but very fun.
We hosted another David Bazan house concert. I’m still a fanboy.
I went to a three-day stone carving workshop, which was fun. Add one more item to the list of my embarrassing hobbies.
Speaking of dumb hobbies: Cuneiform orders continued thru 2016. After the big launch in fall 2015, the orders slowed down, with some bumps around end-of-semesters and Christmas.
I saw Car Seat Headrest live, which I loved.
Felix and I went to STL for a Cardinals game with my parents. Felix’s first MLB game! (Thanks Mom and Dad!)
Erika and I celebrated our 13th(!) anniversary, and snuck to Kansas City for a weekend by ourselves (Thanks to Irene for keeping F&T)
On a whim, we drove up to South Dakota and saw Badlands National Park and Mt. Rushmore. I highly recommend the Badlands.
I had some meetings in New York, and caught up with friends and family that live there. Highlights: trying on an $11M watch, hanging out at a baijiu bar.
We bought a new roof for our house, which was an unqualified clusterfuck. It is boring (for others) to talk about, but still makes my heart race to think about and still gives me nightmares. Actual literal nightmares.
Felix finished up his kindergarten year. We started the kids at a new school in the fall. Felix started 1st grade, Trudy started kindergarten. They like it so much they wish they could go on the weekends.
Both played soccer in the spring. We remain ambivalent about team sports.
Over the summer, Erika and I went to LA & SF. I was working and Erika got to hang out on the west coast and catch up with people. (Thanks to DNA for keeping F&T)
We continued hosting the college group from our church, and met a new crop of students in the fall. They’re all great.
One of those students lived with us for six weeks, while she was between apartments. Roommates with full-time jobs are awesome.
An elderly neighbor of ours had a fall, and needed some neighborly help while she recovers. We’ve really enjoyed getting to know her better.
I brewed some kvass. It was weird but … kind of delicious?
Erika started volunteering at a local organization (the Social Service League - they run a thrift store and do other charitable things in town). She’s now on the board. They love her (of course).
We went to STL for Pie Night and Thanksgiving, then up to Chicago to hang out with friends afterwards. I added to my Baijiu collection. Then I went from there to LA for some meetings, while Erika drove all the way home herself.
We hosted 20 people for Christmas! Jolly times were had by all.
And those were the highlights! It seemed like a quiet year during the time, but written up like this it seems full of goodness. Not bad, 2016.
* This seems weird to write a cheery endcap when it feels like our democracy is falling apart. But nobody reads this and it’s really just for my memory. So.