2008 Year in Review

What a year the past 12 months were… first the big stuff. Like many of you know, at the end of April, Jen and I got married in Fort Lauderdale. We had a great weekend, filled with family, friends, fun, and fantastic festivities, and are thankful that many of you were able to make the journey from near (Jen’s mom, blocks away) and far (Avi, Jeanie, Goldi, Seemi, and Meredith from CA; special mention to Jim Zechinati who came all the way from business in Austria!). It was a great weekend and we were so lucky to have all of you there. From Pier 66, it was off to Tahiti for 11 days – a night in Papeete, followed by 5 days each in Moorea and Bora Bora. For all the details, check the blog (link above – go to April/May posts), but in a few words or less, it was freaking unbelievable. Fantastic food, amazing views, some incredible scuba diving (Jen got certified), and just the time of our lives.

Well, after the honeymoon was over, we bought a house – and then the honeymoon was REALLY over!! OK, maybe not really, but a Tahitian overwater bungalow was slightly more romantic than paint brushes and faux fireplaces and ripping out 1970’s wood paneling. Still, we have our little slice – on a small canal up the south fork of the New River, 20 minutes by boat to downtown Fort Lauderdale, another 20 out to the Atlantic (in Fred’s boat of course, since we don’t actually have one). A 3/2, with PLENTY of opportunity for us to exercise our limited house renovation abilities. It’s going a bit slow, but thanks to a lot of help from Lukes’ Landscaping, the outside looks a heck of a lot better, and the inside is getting there. So that means we have plenty of room for all our friends here to crash late night and out of town guests to stay weekends.

So that’s been the majority of our 2008 – but not the whole thing, of course. Jen had a couple of showers, here and up in NJ. I had a couple of bachelor parties; in NJ it was roller hockey and Sambuca and plenty of fun, especially with Lehman’s cell phone. Great job by Jay and Erik putting it all together, and thanks to all you guys for turning Mom and Dad’s house into the Cherry Hill Beta Shady Palace Bulldog Cranberry Bog. While the shenanigans were going on, Jen had a mini-Bachelorette Party of her own, with some of the Sharpe gals and a Masseuse on the Loose (ask Jen). Part II of the Bachelor Party sent a motley crew down to Key West for a long weekend while Jen and the gals headed to NYC for the St. Patrick’s Bachelorette party. To top things off, Goldi combined his bachelor party in there too, so the adventure was doubled. Too many adventures to list here, but we weekend provided plenty of fun, memories, a little trouble with the Kon Tiki, and plenty of getting into trouble on Duval St. Oh yea, apologies to Caniz, McManus, Rogish, Pitts, Lefever, Daur, Martin, Legates, Freed, and Makovsky – passing out your cell phone numbers to spring breakers was my, er, Lehman’s best idea all year. Sunday ended up being quite a day as Ray, Cody, Pfeif and I made the most of our 8+ year reunion of the Irish Kevin’s millennium, and only Mark biting the bullet got us back to Broward County in one piece – thanks Mark!

April was wedding month, but not just for Jen and I. First, we journeyed down to Baja California Sur for Matt Facarazzo’s wedding. Matt and Kelly had a beautiful beachfront ceremony at Dreams in Cabo, and we had a great time being a part of their special weekend. It was a ton of fun, even if Kelly’s sister in law gave birth while Kelly’s brother Michael, the rest of the Weavers, and Jen’s family were toasting the new couple on the Sea of Cortez. The week after, I journeyed out to Orange County for Goldi and Seema’s wedding, where I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend (it’s not often you see Ray in traditional Indian dress) while Jen did the last minute wedding prep. Two weeks later, it was our turn!

Since then it’s been a lot of house stuff, but we have found time to have a little fun here and there (a lot of it’s on the blog). We got to head to the Shore for the 4th, getting to see plenty of friends, chowing down some White House, watching fireworks from the tiki bar, and hanging with PFC Caniz. We got to head to out to with the flotilla to Lake Boca for Kim’s birthday, to the G Love concert in Pompano for Jen’s birthday (even though Rafal and I were the only ones who knew any G Love), and got to take in a dozen or so lobsters during the first day of mini-season with Fred, then made it to work by 10am. We also headed down to Key West with Abbye, Brandon, and his cousins, and got to head out to a remote Key with no name on Erica and Randy’s boat, then have a Sunday Funday at the Rum Barrel and another long drive home, this time by Jen.

Labor Day weekend tried to get Jen to Key West for Sari’s bachelor party, but Tropical Storm Hanna relocated them to South Beach while I headed to the Gulf Coast for some Jim Morris and a butchered round of golf. The following weekend, Guido and I went to Cleveland to watch a Cowboys whupping of the Browns, preceded by a heck of a tailgate on Lake Erie. Somehow, we didn’t get booted out with a large Pac Man sign, and I didn’t go for a swim. The fall brought a lot of travel for work, as well as a couple weekend trips, first to Bimini, then to Tybee Beach, GA. Bimini with Fred and Doreen and Justin and Maura was a lot of fun, even for those of us who decided to drink a weekend’s worth of rum on Friday night. We got to spend a lot of time in Tybee with Carolyn and the rest of the Williams clan, even if the weather was decidedly un-beach like.

The end of October brought one thing – the Phillies run to being World Champions – “World F***ing Champions” in the words of Chase Utley. Five games – but six nights – at the Parrot resulted in one wild celebration (which resulted in one banged up cell phone) and I’m still annoying half of South Florida with my World Series stuff. We also had a PSU-OSU game thrown in with Game three there, even if Iowa screwed the master plan up a couple of weeks later (be thankful Florida fans, or else it’d be PSU-Oklahoma in a rematch from the ’86 Orange Bowl). November brought some more work travel for me, sandwiching a trip to Philly for a Friday night out with the guys and a great wedding Saturday for Corey and Eric. We hosted our very first holiday here, Thanksgiving, and Jen made an impressive turkey dinner for us, after the Shady Banks Turkey Bowl. We also had Sari’s wedding at the Ritz that weekend, which was a great time. And we hit the home stretch of 2008 getting ready to head to NJ for Christmas.

All in all, I’d say that was a pretty fantastic year. Here’s hoping 2009 is filled with plenty more great memories! And now, it’s time to send this, sign off, go to bed, and wait for the Autoresponses and Undeliverable to come back en masse.