Yearly Roundup!

The newsstands are heaving with End-of-Year Double Issues, every TV station has its 2007 countdown... so it must be time for the Planet Wulfagar Yearly Round-Up!

Considering we saw in 2007 with the local police, detailing our New Year’s Eve burglary, the year could only get better from there . And better it did get:
One wedding (participatory), two weddings (attendatory), two new jobs, three babies-of-friends, three tennis tournaments (well, only one of us got to all 3, Mr Cincinnati), one 5k personal best, Britney shaved her head, jail beckoned for Paris while Lindsay escaped with rehab, er – sorry, slipped into the HeatWorld recap there for a minute.
So congratulations to Pete & Carmen (wedding attendance #1) and Ben & Anita (wedding #2).

And to Duncan & Sabine (baby Lilya); Andy & Sam (baby Charlie); and Anna & Jules (baby Imogen).

And of course to Ichiro, for hit number 200, a home run off of Roger Clemens at Yankee Stadium, providing Ashley with his number 1 moment of 2007. (Well – maybe his 2nd favourite moment...)

Seeing the Mariners beat the Yankees in New York was definitely a highlight of the year, however, coming as it did in the middle of a fabulous NYC-DC visit. We were lucky enough to add a few more cities to the list this year, including 2 new countries (Sweden and Morocco, if you’re counting for the next Planet Wulfagar quiz).

I never got around to posting about our most recent trip, Venice, so I’ll sum up in three words: Lots of walking.

Closer to home, we added a new honorary citizen to Planet Wulfagar: Mr Toots, the friendly neighbourhood cat. And I do mean friendly – I’ve never seen a friendlier feline. So we have a semi-pet, which is great, as we have neither time nor space nor lease conditions that allow a full-time pet, but this way we get some animal cuddling time in, always helpful to keep stress levels down.

On the career front, Ashley moved closer to home, leaving Contemporary for a more senior role working directly for Seapine. I moved even closer to home for a time, leaving LBi for a role doing eating bon bons and watching soaps. Fortunately, however, I’ve more recently started as a 'digital client partner' (all together now, 'oooh') at agency TMW. It’s only a week so far, but looking good.

In addition to all the soaps and sweets, time at home meant Crafty-Girl time – 2 cross-stitch pieces, 1 needlepoint, tens of holiday cards, and 1 Empire State Building. I’m especially proud of the Building, as it required quite meticulous work, though I would’ve been prouder if it had won me the trip the New York!

My real highlight of 2007? The time we spent with friends and family, whenever and wherever possible – and we’re looking forward to more of that in 2008, so hope to see you soon!!

Feeeeed the Wo-oo-oorld

NPR just reported on FreeRice.com -- which I've neglected after the initial buzz. So in this holiday season, give some holiday cheer and rice by testing your vocabulary at FreeRice.com (and Dad -- they're adding in some tougher words for those you word-iacs who make it to level 50...)

Just heard on NPR about this fascinating sounding book: Cartographia -- a collection of maps by Vincent Virga, which illustrates how maps "reveal as much about the society that created them as they do about the geography of the places they describe."

I think my favourite example he draws is of North by Northwest, where there's a scene in an office in DC, which places the Capitol outside the window, which would imply the office itself was on the Mall -- an impossibility. But rather than sneer at the stupidity of Hitchcock, Virga points out that this 'remapping' if you will, is a plot point, to show the looming presence of the government in this scene. (confession: though of course I have seen North by Northwest, I cannot remember this scene for the life of me, so take his word for it. When I think of NbN, I only see crop dusters and Mt Rushmore...)