I thought I'd put some comments down as to what the past year meant to me. Some items are purely personal, others are varying degrees of global.

• The first probably has to be my marraige to my wife, Karen Purcell. Life will never be the same!
  
• Another has to be the beautiful house we purchased. Complete with an indoor pool, we have a home - an unbelievable difference from the third floor apartment. Of course, this also brings yard work into the picture!
  
• Our honeymoon, to Orlando (Epcot, Sea World, and Splendid China in particular) and the Bahamas. Petting the dolphins at Sea World!
  
• Two more ferrets were added to our lives, Nosy and Conan. Conan is quite a playful fellow, and changed my perception of these little varmints.
  
• Another year at my new job brought some stability and quite a bit of exposure to new technologies (and other technologies that were new to me), like Firewalls, 3D video, some of the more arcane SCSI technologies, Recordable CD-ROM drives, some substantial work with (against) computer viruses, and the writing and maintanance of 1MB of help files.
• I got to the Fleet Center for the first time, to see the Bruins. My classmate, Adam Oates, scored a game winner in OT!
• As for concerts, I got to see the October Project twice and my beloved Cowboy Junkies! Happy Denis.
• Baseball brought a labor agreement, although I can't say I still care as much as I used to. However, baseball also brought Eddie Murray's 500th home run and Cal Ripken's breaking of Lou Gehrig's record. There will always be the delight of watching the kids, such as Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. I also got to see a Lowell Spinners game, as well as Boston, Providence, and Rochester games.
  Regrets for Kirby Puckett retiring due to eye troubles, and Roger Clemens leaving Boston.
• Politics? More of the same. Conservatives scaring the rest of the country into keeping someone the polls say no-one trusts as president. Peace and fighting and troubles in Russia, Bosnia, and more, excitement with the Israelis and the Palestinians. People forced into bad positions in Korea, China, Taiwan, and Washington.
• A not-so-clever ploy in Hong Kong, creating a legistlature one year before reverting to China, then trying to insist the Chinese not take this right away from the people.
• The world will miss a number of people, including (in no particular order), Richard Condon, Jackie O, Ella, Roger Tory Petersen, and many more.