Spent part of this evening watching Ken Burns’ The Dust Bowl. No dust bowl in my apartment, though. Only a food bowl… or perhaps a feather bowl. I guess Bertie thinks his feather toy is food?

I noticed that the zippers on my work laptop’s bag were broken. A quick fix with a paperclip and I had a working pull-tab. A later fix with a more substantial paperclip and a pair of pliers worked even better.

Just like how James Bond gets his gadgets from Q Branch, on 007 day I received a work laptop from my new job. First time I’ve had a work laptop!

In what’s turning into an annual tradition, here’s last year in review:

January

• I had my first Jumbo Slice. Yes, that slice of pizza is as big as your head.

  

• I visited the Skydome Lounge bar in Crystal City, VA, with a few friends. First time I’d been to a spinny bar!

February

• My MINI Cooper was hit by a shipping pallet that flew off of a delivery truck, scratching my car’s roof, and it amazingly did not cause any other significant damage.
• I met the producer of the Swedish version of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” at a Q&A session at the Embassy of Sweden.
• I helped fund the ‘Manos’ in HD Kickstarter campaign to create a high-definition edition of what some people consider to be the worst film ever made.
• I went to an event for DC fashion bloggers called “Cocktails, Fancy Skirts & Fitted Shirts” held at Hugh & Crye. (Perhaps you’ve seen this commercial?)

  Yes, my sartorial skills aren’t always what they ought to be, but I’m working on it. :P

March

• I helped fund a Kickstarter campaign to release ebooks and source material for the online webcomic Diesel Sweeties.
• I ran the Marine Corps’ Irish Sprint 10K. It was the first time I had participated in a trail race, and because I finished, I was guaranteed a registration spot in the Marine Corps Marathon.

  

• My grandmother passed away after a short and sudden illness. :(
• I saw Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of TV’s “MythBusters” in a live stage show.

  

April

• I adopted a cat from the Washington Animal Rescue League during their “Mega Match-A-Thon”. His shelter name was “Lion”, but I renamed him “Bertie” after P.G. Wodehouse’s character Bertie Wooster.

  

  He was about 1 year 7 months old when I adopted him, and not only is he the best cat ever, he is also quite the troublemaker (hating my glasses, for example!):

  

• My friends Melanie and Melissa visited from Louisiana.
• I saw the awesome video exhibit “SONG1″ at the Hirshhorn:

• I drove up to Boston to visit my cousin Danny and to explore the MIT Flea Market, and to visit with my friend Susan.
• I joined DC Road Runners to help me train for the Marine Corps Marathon in October.
• I visited the US Science & Engineering Expo in DC where I caught a glimpse of another MythBusters stage show,

  
  saw a presentation by actress and scientist Dr. Mayim Bialik from TV’s “The Big Bang Theory”,

  and a glimpse of Bill Nye the Science Guy as he roamed the halls.

May

• I drove to Tennessee to visit my sister Kelly and her husband Jamie, to see their new house, and to explore Nashville. We saw a show at the Grand Ol’ Opry, and I bought my first (and, so far, only) pair of cowboy boots.

  

• Some friends of mine and I held a picnic at Gravelly Point park for Memorial Day.

June

• For some reason, Tawny Kitaen decided to follow me on Twitter.

  

  She doesn’t follow me any more; I suppose you could say here I go again on my own…

• I went with my Mom and my sister Anne to the 930 Club to see Queen Extravaganza, a Queen tribute show produced by drummer Roger Taylor.

• I ran in the DC Road Runners’ “Run After The Women 5K” and posted a time of 26:35.
• I went to my first professional basketball game when my friend Caryn received tickets to a Washington Mystics game from a coworker.

July

• MINI Takes The States, a cross-country road trip organized by MINI USA, began with a drive from New York to Washington, DC. Dad and I picked up our registration packets on the 4th of July, and that evening I joined an event hosted by MINI where we were able to view the fireworks from a vantage point on the roof of the Newseum.
• My family celebrated Grandaddy’s 90th birthday.
• From July 8 through July 15, Dad and I drove along with MINI Takes The States from Chicago to Los Angeles, and from July 15 through July 22 we drove back home from Los Angeles. On the way westward we stopped in Milwaukee; visited our old house in Waukesha, Wisconsin;

  
  went to see the Field of Dreams field in Iowa;

  went to the All-Star Game FanFest in Kansas City; and made scheduled stops in Des Moines, Lincoln, Boulder, Albuquerque, and Phoenix.

  
  I met the president of MINI USA, Jim McDowell (and his squirt-gun).

  MINI surprised us with visits to a zoo, the Kool-Aid Museum, the University of Nebraska, the Olympic training facility in Colorado Springs (later I ran a 5K with Olympic paratriathlete hopeful Michael Johnston), a barbecue in Albuquerque, a party in Phoenix, and an end-of-trip celebration at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. We also had the opportunity to drive on an autocross track at the Rose Bowl.

  
  On our way back home we went camping at the Grand Canyon;

  
  I saw the Milky Way for the first time at Mexican Hat, Utah;

  
  and visited various national parks and monuments throughout Arizona, Colorado, and Kansas.

  We went to a baseball game in Kansas City, saw the St. Louis Arch, and visited the Air Force Museum in Ohio.

August

• I celebrated my 30th birthday!
• I ran twice in one day; first, a long run as part of my marathon training, and then a 3-mile run as part of the DC Road Runners’ summer pool party. I posted a time of 31 minutes.

September

• I saw a few friends and bought plenty of comic books at Small Press Expo.
• I went to Opera In The Outfield, where an opera performance at the Kennedy Center is simulcast over the display at Nationals Park for free, and saw “Don Giovanni”.

October

• I finally completed a marathon! I finished the Marine Corps Marathon in 5 hours 21 minutes 16 seconds, all while hurricane Sandy was bearing down on the east coast. I was on pace to finish in about 4 hours 30 minutes, but around mile 18 I started getting more and more cramps and had to take more and more breaks to walk or stop to massage my legs, but for my first marathon ever, I’m happy that I finished.

  

• I saw a screening of the film “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”, another movie toward my goal of seeing as many new-to-me films as I could in 2012.

November

• I registered for the DC Road Runners’ spring marathon training program. I hope to run the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in DC in March, but so far with sickness and winter weather and other obligations I haven’t been able to stick to my training regimen as much as I would prefer. I still need to register for the marathon itself, too.
• I saw the film “The Master” in 50mm, another movie toward my goal.
• I drove as part of MINIs Take The Beltway, an event hosted by my club DC Metro MINIs, where we circle the DC beltway for charity.
• I saw The Who perform in concert.

December

• I interviewed for a new job a month or two previous, and though I didn’t get the job, I stayed in touch with the recruiter. The recruiter called me on a Monday at the beginning of December with a new opening that might suit me, scheduled me for some in-person interviews and a phone interview that Friday, and by the following Monday I was offered the job! I’m excited since it sounds like there will be a lot of room for growth, it’ll be in a location much closer than my current job (I could probably even bike to work if I wanted), and it’s an increase in salary. I’m nervous since I’ve been with my current company for the past 10 years, and while the change will be nice, it feels weird to be starting a new career.
• I saw my friend Elissa and the National Philharmonic perform Handel’s “Messiah”.
• My friends Susan, Betsy and Jay came to visit and we enjoyed dinner at Founding Farmers.
• While I didn’t make my high goal of seeing 300 new-to-me films in 2012, I did average 1 new film per week for 52 new-to-me films over the course of the year.

I spent the day before starting my new job filling out paperwork. So many forms to fill: letters to sign, health plans to select, taxes to withhold, etc., etc. Eventually I made time to play with Bertie since he was looking rather bored.