It started with a huge down. My family pretty much spent the first two and a half months caring for my mother, who had lung cancer. Then, Mom died, and a huge door shut forever, becoming only a window on the past.

However, the closing of that door, opened the door that led to the Castle relocation, and the establishment of the Castle Argghhh! Range Complex, Animal Husbandry Center and Nature Preserve.

The blog brought me into national politics, at a policy level (in small ways, no play-maker here!)

Then came the Milblogger Conference, where I found out I have fans, even if they never comment or email... and discovered that we really *do* get read by the people we want to read us. But the gurls!

The year's shocker - I got invited, with a buncha other cool people... to meet the President.

Some people were not impressed, however. I think they just had blogger-envy.

Meanwhile, SWWBO got ANSWER'd! That was fun, mostly. The Gathering of Eagles rally was definitely fun.

A downer was when SWWBO got canned from Cerner. Ironically, she was let go two days after the quarterly meeting where she was recognized as being one of the people who had 100% satisfaction ratings from Cerner clients... but none of the people who are in her group, and still have jobs, made the cut. Seems she didn't fit well with the group. Heh. Oddly enough, she was also the oldest member of her group (though not the most highly compensated) and when she was going through the fruitless search for another job within Cerner, *every* interview had a question about how she felt about working with younger people and did she think she'd fit in... She won't sue. Too bad. I think we'd get a pretty penny for the Cerner Campus in North Kansas City. It would make a fine place for a museum of Stoopid Corporate Cultures. I can say this now, after having sat silent for years as Cerner fumbled it's way along, jumping from this HR fad to another as they cycled through upper level management... they produce a pretty good product, and they are the giant of their market - but they make money because they don't have any serious competition. If anyone poses a serious challenge, they are such a internal culture nightmare, they'll implode. It would be good for them. They need the kick in the butt.

Then, Blogworld Expo, out in Las Vegas. Where I met Kos himself, and found out I've got fans on the west coast... and that most of the people at the Expo don't pay any attention to the polibloggers or the milbloggers... they were there to learn how to make money on their blogs. Those were the well-attended seminars! But it was fun to move among the big names of the 'sphere and find out they know my name (though I doubt they're avid consumers of Castle content...).

Yeah, it's been a year of ups and down, but the ups helped counter the downs. The family is closer, you guys still show up, and more of you than before, pushing on to 3 million uniques (well, that's what Sitemeter says, anyway - the server logs say closer to 5).

What's not to like? The collection migrated from the old demesne to the new. I misunderestimated the rack space for the Arms Room, meaning I'm short on rack space... The Arms Room went from this, to this, and this...

I (and other people) can shoot from under cover off the back deck...

Life is good. Ups and downs. Like that whole "living in a world lit only by fire thing..." In truth, that was as much fun as PITA.

But Dad and Sis and her family are doing well. Prodigal Son Andy and his Significant Other Ashes are doing well. August graduated from college... SWWBO and I are feeling the mileage, but hey, who isn't, at this point in the Skein of Life?

Thanks for stopping by all these years. Or today, if this is your first visit.

Since I can't name you all, I won't name anyone so there are no hurt feelings (or they are at least evenly distributed). I read every email you send, and I manage to answer most of them. One plus side of not being a Really Big Blogger.

You make it worth the effort. More of you should comment, though. That's what makes it fun!

The Master and Mistress Argghhh!

[and those pesky fubar'd links are fixed]