An Amazing 2008

2008 was an amazing year for me. I can't believe how fortunate I am.

Shelley and I spent a month in Ecuador and Galapagos - a fantastic trip.

The WestJet in-flight magazine published an article about adventurous couples that included Shelley and I.

I spent a week in San Diego at ETech and then three weeks in Baja Mexico in Loreto. Shelley joined me for the first week in Mexico. I got my advanced open water diving certification while I was there. Just living in a different place (albeit only for three weeks) was a first for me.

Shelley overcame her fear of the water and got her scuba diving certification. If you'd seen how nervous she was around water only a few years ago you'd know how impressive this is!

We spent a week in and around Portland, Oregon in conjunction with RailsConf, another computer conference.

I organized the Prairie Pitch Adventure Race for the third year, including five trips to the race area totaling 14 days.

We spent a month in Australia, a new country for me, and another wonderful trip. Shelley and I did our first scuba dives together.

We made our annual pilgrimage to the Banff Mountain Film Festival.

We spent a week diving in Cuba (another new country) bringing me to a total of 45 dives. I no longer feel quite so much like a beginner.

Adding up all the travel gives roughly 17 weeks or about 4 months! Wow, I knew I'd traveled a lot, but I didn't realize how much it added up to. Like I said, I'm amazingly fortunate. Here's a map.


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I bought my first digital SLR at the end of 2007 and took roughly 15,000 photographs in 2008. I even think a few of them are half decent.

I wrote 75 posts on this blog and another 110 on my computer blog.

I read about 140 books, coincidentally, the same number as my sister Penny. At first I thought I had read less (eek!), but then I realized I wasn't counting the computer books.

Quite a year.