How strange that you, of all of us, would prove to be the most hopeful.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome today’s Guest Host, Big!

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
Had a second child. Margaret Rebecca, born 5/17/07.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No. Reached at least 354 pounds, maybe more. A dubious Personal Best. The 2008 resolution is 23 pounds underway.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Well, does my wife count? Also, former blog-mate Dave and famous blogger Becky added onto their lovely family. Also, several friends-of-friends and inactive acquaintances welcomed bundles of joy. And poop. Bundles of joy and poop and crying.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What would you like to have in the coming year that you lacked in the previous year?
Smaller pants.

6. What countries did you visit?
Germany, for the first time. Of course, it was for a plastics show, so I mostly saw the inside of exhibit halls. But the sausage and the beer – I’m considering adding Cologne to my “retirement locale” list. Current No. 1 – Hawaii. No. 2 – Southern Japan.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why:
Dates have never etched themselves on my memory, not in history classes when it would have been useful, nor now. However, I will always remember Leadership Boot Camp in April, when I learned to be okay with myself. And the day the pediatric cardiologist told the Beloved and I that the murmur in Margaret’s heart was absolutely nothing to worry about.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Learning to be okay with myself. It is a freeing thing, to understand who you truly are and how that affects everything you do, and that it’s okay to not be perfect, or even “normal.”

9. What was your biggest failure?
Letting my weight get so out of control.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Aside from general portliness, screaming tension headaches and a minor sinus infection, no. That’s an A+ year in a house with kids.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My new TV doesn’t count – that was technically 2008. Perhaps the deck on our house – it’s B-E-A-yootiful.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The beloved. Having Margaret naturally without drugs (not the plan, by the way) has inspired her sense of “can-do” to the point that she now says things like, “I’m signing up for a triathlon!”

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Every presidential candidate.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Married, two kids. Guess.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Margaret’s arrival. And winning one of my fantasy football leagues.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
Tie: “Rockstar” by Nickelback. I’m not typically a fan, but not since Neil Young’s “This Note’s for You” has a song so snarkily captured something about our society – in this case, the entitlement of celebrity. Also, “My Ding-a-Ling” by Chuck Berry. I just discovered this gem in 2007. Chuck must have sprained his eyelid and thrown out his elbow with all the “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” this song requires.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Much happier.
ii. thinner or fatter?Fatter, but actively working on it.
iii. richer or poorer? Richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Being honest with people. Most fun you can have with your clothes on.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Being dishonest with myself.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Christmas went well. Operation Assert Ourselves As a Family is complete and totally successful.

There was no #21. Never has been. I was going to break the cycle and invent a #21, and Aunt Becky beat me to it. And I liked her idea so much I’m grabbing it:

21. I have failed at maintaining a blog three times now. Thanks to Al for the guest spot. Those of you who are keeping up either an interesting or well-maintained (or both) blog, how do you do it? E-mail me at jtower42 – at – yahoo – dot – com.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
With Margaret for the first time, with Kate again, and with the Beloved for the fifth year in a row.

23. How many one-night stands?
None with other people.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Chuck. Honorable mention to Journeyman (sadly cancelled.)

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don’t HATE anyone. However, I’ve “mentally fired” many, many people. A highlight of 2007 is that I’ve confronted those people and learned to “rehire” them.

26. What was the best book you read?
Too many to name. “Into the Wild,” “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” “First Among Sequels,” “Devil in the White City.” I know I’m forgetting some.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
iTunes’ “Essentials” section. Best way to invoke the “I remember THAT song” response.

28. What did you want and get?
A healthy daughter and self-awareness. Good year.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Hmm…Didn’t see many movies again this year. Saw the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice with the beloved. I enjoyed that much more than I thought I would.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you (optional)?
Twenty-nine. I don’t recall what I did, though I probably should. March is very hard to remember the following January.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Smaller pants.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
“Jesus, why are these pants so tight?”

34. What kept you sane?
The Beloved. I realized this year just how much she is my sanity touchstone.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Brett Favre. Serious man-crush.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The lack of anyone qualified and/or honest to run our country.

37. Whom did you miss?
I never see everybody as much as I’d like, but 2007 was a good year for seeing most friends.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Margaret.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
I’m wacked, but it’s okay that I am.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
If you were a wink, I’d be a nod
If you were a seed, well I’d be a pod.
If you were the floor, I’d wanna be the rug
And if you were a kiss, I know I’d be a hug

“All I Want is You,” Barry Louis Polisar, from the Juno soundtrack. Dedicated to all three of my girls.

–Big

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