2016: The High Points

[Eliahad]

2016 sucked donkey balls. It sucked them hard, it spat them back out and then it sucked on them again. I'm going to be glad when 2016 is gone and I desperately hope that, on the whole, 2017 is a much, much better year.

Good, now that that's out of the way. I want to hear the good stuff. The cool things. The stuff that made it alright.

Here's mine:

GENCON 2016. I don't think this needs explanation.

I became involved with a kick-ass band that's creating some of the most artistically satisfying music I've ever been a part of. We create collaboratively, we've got each other's backs, we say, "and?" We became a 'family' and it's been an incredibly healthy journey for me...

...and my best friend plays in the band, and our relationship growing got both of us through this year.

[Ronster]

My eldest daughter graduated Ga Tech and was married this year. We went to California and saw he Redwood forest. Middle daughter is working at Home Depot and a full time college student with 2 As 2 Bs and 1 C. Youngest daughter became a Varsity Cross country runner in 9th grade, had a great marching band season, and was in District Honor band as the 1st chair Sax. I went to DragonCon again and did a passing cosplay of Rimmer from Red Dwarf. I built a new chicken pen and hen house. I learned to enjoy dayshift life even though I never get enough rest compare to working 2nd shift.

[Mike]

Aidan graduated high school
Awesome Western Nebraska summer vacation
GenCon 2016
Celebrated 23 years of marriage
Secret Hitler
My love affair with Kickstarter
Norfolk Community Game Night
Pathfinder
Paranoia
My second full year of podcasting in a row
Nerd Pride Network
New forums
Ending the year with my entire family home for the holidays
A healthy family... this is the first year in a loooooong time (knock on wood) that we haven't had someone requiring major testing or minor surgery or some other thing that tacks another $2K onto our hospital bill. In fact, (knock on wood again) the hospital's been completely paid off for a few months now. That also hasn't happened in a long time.

[Mrs.Darcs]

GenCon 2016, finally meeting Mike (and Nelly), and we always love hanging out with Dave. Such an amazing time, cant wait til next year! First trip with both of us away from the children.

Disney Vacation of our dreams

Renfest fun

Evangeline And Desmond are healthy (well, as healthy as 6 and 2 year oldso are)

Having a full lab

Getting another paper published

Paranoia.

The Pathfinder game.

Getting to know y'all better.

[Zen]

Got to see Hamilton and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time with my daughter. (The second was just this past weekend.)

Published my first novel.

Celebrated my 28th wedding anniversary.

Had a great time gaming with a great group of people, which I haven't been able to do on a regular basis for far too long.

Worked with a great group of people translating a fun webcomic from Spanish to English, despite the fact that I only know a small amount of Spanish.

GenCon

Tried a gluten free diet and it seems to actually be helping my IBS symptoms somewhat. (And I've lost a lot of weight... I might need to start eating more if I don't stop losing weight...)