2007 in Review

It’s been a long year. I don’t know that I have ever worked this hard day in and day out to make it through a year. But at the same time, I gave me the opportunity to do a lot of great things. Among the highlights:

• I started a new job at MBC, which became DigitasHealth, and really liked it. Great people and a job voted one of the best places to work in the Philadelphia area. Plus, I got to actually make a difference, something that was agonizingly rare at my previous positions.
• Went from a 1.5 – 4.5 hour a day hellish driving commute to a 1-hour a day commute on the train. More convenient, I didn’t have to drive, saved a ton of money on gas and could actually relax and do things on the train every day. I don’t know that I can ever go back to commuting in a car again…
• I celebrated my 5th anniversary with my wife in Cape May – and we had a great trip.
• We got a new addition to the menagerie: Jazz, our crazy fat cat
• Got to do some traveling again – a trip to Texas, and a trip to Vancouver, BC. Both trips were great – and I want to go back to both places.
• I had a good year of nature watching: we made our extended trips, as well as our many trips to Barnegat (4), Forsythe (8), Palmyra Cove (8), FDR Park (5) and Tinicum (5). My different lists also got larger:
  • Birds: 239 species, 60 new in 2007
  • Butterflies: 69 species (25 new)
  • Dragonflies: 32 species (16 new)
  • Damselflies: 16 species (10 new)
• Got to meet 3 of the fellow Flickr people that I communicate with: Hearman, Sylpics and Greg7.
• Joined the ranks of the MRSA‘d after an infected spider bite.
• Saw 3 of my projects from GSI go live, and completed 2 side projects for the University of Pennsylvania.
• Did my first stint of jury duty.
• Created a couple new designs for my CafePress store (IA, Jersey Birder) – which to this point has sold nada.
• Finished my softball season – my first real athletic endeavor in years – with a .556 BA, 2R, 3RBI. Alex Rodriguez, I’m not.

Here are some of my best shots from 2007: