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.

• I am still at the brokerage/investment firm in Boston. Needless to say, being a computer guy, any advice I might be construed to give about investments should be completely ignored, as it certainly wouldn't be that of the more knowledgeable people I work for/with. I'm working the night shift (7-7:30), and so far I like it (although it can be a bit boring at times). I've been here more than 2 years so far.
• Karen is still working at Wholepet Health Center (formerly Dr Dan's Vet Clinic) in Everett.
• We lost one of our ferrets, Magic, to cancer. He was Dozer's best buddy (and cousin).
• We adopted another ferret (back to four), Tikka. She is a smaller girl, and is slowly working her way into the household. [note from later in the year - she has blended in very nicely. She loves to kiss and to be cuddled, and might be found snuggled with any of the other ferrets]
• Sadly, we then lost Paco, my all-time favorite ferret. Personable, huggable (sp?), scritchable, friends with any person or animal (that wasn't trying to swallow him...), his death was a true blow. [ferret count down to 3]
• Health-wise speaking, my summer trip to GenCon (and to visit my cousin Julie, Paul, Connor (3) and Mackenzie (1) was interrupted with the shingles (adult recurrence of chicken pox). Fortunately, I managed not to pass it to the kids. Thanks to Julie for taking the additional burden of a sick cousin for a few days. (Oh, yeah, when your wife says, "Maybe you should see a [doctor]" just before you leave for vacation, you should listen to her. Or at least, I should.)
• Lets see, as for media stuff, I've been watching the following tv shows: Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dark Angel, Andromeda, Farscape, Invisible Man, Charmed, 24, and to a lesser degree Beastmaster, Earth Final Conflict, and Stargate SG:1 (in syndication).
  Movies? The movies worth mentioning are Lord of the Rings (Fellowship), Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, Memento, Tailor of Panama, and Building a House, all wonderful movies.
  Books? I started reading Eric Flint (SF), with 1632 (a West Virginian current-day coal mining town gets plopped into the middle of the Hundred-Year War Germany) and Demon Queen. I reread LoTR (I really love the texture of these books). I found a very interested Nisei mystery writer, Dale Furatani, and read all 3 of his books. Mom got me reading Tony Hillerman. I finally read a couple of the SF (alt-history) standards, Man in the High Castle and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I started reading Sue Henry's Alaskan mysteries (the first two I read were based on sled races like the Iditarod). Lots of other stuff, including Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and my favorite, Harry Turtledove, but you get the idea.
• Lets see...the memorial section should start with Mir perhaps, the Russian space station that crashed and burned (under control) on March 23. Hank Ketchum (Dennis the Menace). William Hanna (of Hanna and Barbera - George Jetson, Yogi Bear, etc.), George Harrison of the Travelling Wilburies, Roger Caras, the voice of the Westminster. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Eddie Matthews. Willie Stargell, heart of the Pirates. Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau. Former MVP Hank Sauer. Miracle Met Tommy Agee. Oriole outfielder Curt Blefary. "Crash" Davis (the guy the character in Bull Durham was based on). Former pitcher Bo Belinsky. Ex-Cowboy Harvey Martin. Lorenzo Music, voice of Garfield (and "This is Carlton, your doorman"). Jack Lemmon (of the original Odd Couple). Carrol O'Connor (Archie Bunker, etc.). Gloria Foster (The Oracle, in The Matrix). Ray Walston (Damned Yankees, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, My Favorite Martian, Picket Fences, South Pacific). Cajun chef Justin Wilson ("needs more waaahhhn, I guar-on-teee!", "add a dash of hot sauces (when it comes to hot sauce, I am a dashing man!)". Douglas Adams (Science Fiction writer of The Life, The Universe, and Everything, etc.), Joey "I Want to Be Sedated" Ramone. NASCAR King Dale Earnhardt. Troy Donahue. Pro Bowler Earl Anthony. Sports broadcasters Al Maguire and Marty Glickman (who popularized the term "swish"). Perry Como. Dale Evans. Imogene Coca. Anthony Quinn. Jason Robards (A Boy and His Dog). Whitman Mayo (Grady from Sanford and Sons). Albert Hague (Mr Sharofsky on Fame, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!)
  Of course, any memorial must include the 9/11 tragedy and those lost in the response against the terrorists. I won't try to duplicate any of the wonderful tributes that are already out there, although I will mention the billboard (huge!!) outside Fenway Park, along the Mass Pike, which has a wall not unlike the Vietnam War Memorial, and the text "9/11/01....And the flag was still there" I have always thought that the Star Spangled Banner was tremendously applicable to the American reaction to this event, and the resultant wave of patriotism couldn't be what the terrorists had hoped to achieve.