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.

• There was the space shuttle tragedy. I have mixed feelings here. Of course it is very sad, but the reality here is that space is a dangerous place, even though people don't think much about that anymore, and so much of the shuttle is 30 year-old technology. People will die in space as long as we venture there, and they should all be remembered with honor and respect they deserve.
• Interestingly, Japan and China both pushed there space programs further. Japan had some troubles, but China has shown promise for making some really exciting things happen, and I wish them luck!
• Personally, the year included a number of big events. We moved from southern MA to southern NH (ironically, we are slightly closer to downtown Boston than before). We live in Londonderry NH now, which is off exit 4 of I-93, if that helps any.
• Karen broke her wrist. She was pruning a tree in our front yard, and the ladder decided it wanted to become helical. She avoided falling on the clippers, but still took about a month to rid herself of the cast.
• Karen left her job and went back to relief work (varying hours at varying hospitals). See here for her current schedule of times and places
• My beloved dog, Pandora, died a month short of her 14th birthday. She was an important part of my life, and she was and will be dearly missed.
• More recently, we adopted Ulysses, a 5 year old golden retreiver/chow mix, according to Peppertree Rescues. From the streest of NYC, he as adapting well into our household (and growing his fur back).
• Tikka passed away too (old age), leaving us with only one ferret (Calypso).
• Memorials: Claude Perkins, a friend who will long be missed; Hal Clement, a great science fiction writer who devoted many years to supporting science fiction fans and budding authors; Space Shuttle astronauts: shuttle commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, payload commander Michael Anderson, payload specialist Ilan Ramon, an Israeli Air Force colonel, payload specialist Dr. Laurel Clark, payload specialist Dr. David Brown and payload specialist Kalpana Chawla; The Jones's dog Cash (Silver C's Milyun Dollar Duck); Fred (Mr.) Rogers; Katherine Hepburn (Philadelphia Story, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, among many, many amazing movies); Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan; Baseball great Bobby Bonds; Hall of Fame Warren Spahn ("Spahn and Sain and pray for rain"); Dave Debusschere, NY Knicks star (and former pitcher for the Chicago White Sox); Larry Doby, the first black player in the American League; Ken Brett (the youngest World Series pitcher ever!); anchorman David Brinkley; actor and dancer Gregory Hines (if you haven't, watch Running Scared); Football legend Otto Graham - Hall of Fame QB, and the first pro player to wear a facemask; Football legend Sid Gillman; Ivan Calderon, a former Red Sox, Expo and White Sox outfielder; MLB umpire Stump Merrill; Dernell Stinson (baseball player, and former Red Sox); Herb Brooks, who played on a US Olympic Hockey team and then coached the 1980 US team to the gold medal; Boston Globe sport columnist Will McDonough; "comedian" John Ritter (yes, I watched Three's Company as a kid, and he was good in an early episode of Buffy); actor Gregory Peck; actor Charles Bronson; actor Richard Crenna (Marathon Man); singer/actress Nell Carter; actor Robert Stack; Buddy Ebsen (Jed Clampett); actor Anthony Caruso (Bela Oxmyx from Star Trek's "A Piece of the Action" episode); cartoonish Al Hischfeld; guitarist Robert Palmer (remember the video); former Red Sox owner/GM Haywood Sullivan; Gordon Jump (WKRP, the Maytag Repair Man, etc.); Warren Zevon ("Werewolves of London"); Johnny Cash; Art Carney; Larry Hovis (Hogan's Heroes); Virginia Heinlein (Robert Heinlein's widow, and a model for several of characters); Paul Monash (who produced Big Trouble in Little China, Slaughterhouse-Five, Carrie, and many others, and wrote quite a bit for television, including adaption Nero Wolfe's Golden Spiders for A&E); pop-culture icon George Plimpton; Former Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Patrick Dalzel-Job, who Ian Fleming claimed was the model for James Bond; Ron Ziegler, the former press secretary to President Nixon who famously called the Watergate break-in a "third-rate burglary"; country singer Johnny Paycheck ("Take This Job and Shove It"); Elia Kazan (Director of "On The Waterfront", Broadway's "Streetcar Named Desire", etc.) Althea Gibson (a remarkable woman whose many accomplishments included being the first black to play in Wimbleton and the US Open, being a professional golfer as well as a professional tennis player, and appeared in movies); Lloyd Arthur Eshbach - early sf writer, and the original publisher of most (if not all) of the Lensman series, as well as many other classic works; Little Eva (signer of "The Loco-Motion"); Charles Douglas (who invented "canned laughter") ; Kathie Browne McGavin (among many roles, Star Trek's Queen Deela ("Wink of an Eye"), and wife of Darren McGavin) ; Gene Anthony Ray (one of the dancers in Fame); Margaret Armen (sriptwriter for several Star Trek and animated Star Trek episodes, including The Gamesters of Triskelion); Penny Singleton (voice of Jane Jetson, acted in The Thin Man, and played Blondie in a 28 movies; George Wyle (writer of "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island"!! - and some others, like "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year"); Walter Scharf (composer of the Hawaii Five-0 theme); David O'Conner ("Singing in the Rain"); Joan Kroc (former owner of the San Diego Padres); Ron Burton, the (then Boston) Patriots' first ever draft pick; Hockey player Dan Snyder (Atlanta Thrashers); Charlie Douglass (who invented the laugh track); Fred Berry (Rerun on What's Happening); Rod Roddy (the voice of Price Is Right "Come on down!"); Jonathan Brandis (Seaquest DSV); Dr. Atkins (of the diet fame)