How'd it get to be January 3rd already (okay, I admit it, I had to check the date just now)? 2007 was pretty much a blur, with a lot of work with the previous day job, along with some really great highs and a few pretty sharp lows.

One entry I feel deserves linking back to is this one, written just after a friend's untimely death: Things to do. It's not my typical To-Do list (I live by those, every day more or less), but some suggestions I need to take more often.

The biggest high, of course, was our son Mitch's arrival in the world. I still can't get over how fast it all happened, and not just the c-section. While it did seem (at times) that Lizzie was pregnant all year long, when Mitch did get here in November, it was still surprising, as if we weren't prepared.

I blame that on the crazy-ness of the rest of the year; we've caught up quite nicely, and worked Mr. Mitch into our lives quite well. Now we just need to get his reflux and ear infections cleared up... Ugh.

Elizabeth and I watch Drew grow and grow this year, becoming even more compassionate and funny than ever. He showed some signs of terrible two-ness, but those were thankfully short-lived. And just like Lizzie has been a wonderful mother to both Drew and Mitch, Drew has been an awesome big brother to his new little bro.

On the negative side, my job at the startup software company didn't work out, something I think I knew by about April or May, so it was a huge relief to get my current job in August. Especially when the startup closed up shop for good in October. It's just sort of sad and a little frustrating that all that hard work went nowhere. Though you can't beat that experience, and I ended up getting paid exactly the same as what I was making at the startup, before my promotion-of-three-months to Support and Quality Manager (shudder) right before I left...

All that day job work meant I did very little writing. I'm pleased to see, though, that when I did do some fiction work, I was working on the Sixteen Miles novel, which was accepted for publication in December (yay!). And that work led to some more good news I plan on announcing soon (double yay!).

I did some promotion stuff for the upcoming (in just over two weeks) publication of my Wannoshay novel. I hate doing that stuff -- the time it takes makes me a little crazy. But I did do a press release and sent that out along with a lot of ARCs of the book. And I enjoyed getting back the reviews thus far. Only one bad one in the lot!

I also worked a good bit on the baseball novel, had a couple agents looking at the whole manuscript, but no takers yet. I may go back to that book later, we'll see. Maybe when the pain of those rejections dwindles... ;)

I saw three stories get published: "A Miracle in Shreveport," "Drinker," and "Tiny Disaster." I wrote exactly one new story. Sheesh!

Elizabeth and I got to see two shows this year in downtown Raleigh -- "The Full Monty" and "Cinderella," both of which were a ton of fun. It's always nice to get out -- we saw exactly one new movie at the theater (the latest Harry Potter flick). And we watched all sixteen episodes of the incredible, awesome "Freaks and Geeks" on DVD, and I'm sad just thinking about that show's untimely end. It was great while it lasted, though.

And now, it's the New Year, with all the resolutions and plans that brings. I'm already working on a new novel (more on that later!), I'm watching what I eat, getting more exercise (all four of us went on a great New Year's Day hike in the woods!), and I'm looking forward to 2008. Oh, yeah -- it's already underway! Who knew? Happy New Year, y'all! Later.