I, Shane › Shane Adams’ personal weblog

I thought a Year in Review might be fun, since a lot has happened this year that’s worth mentioning. I did something similar last year…thought it might be a good way to start the year off right.

Got the year started by watching the Chiefs lay another playoff egg in Indianapolis. I don’t care that Manning and the Colts went on to win the Super Bowl…the Chiefs plain sucked in that game. I considered going Martha Stewart on my home office, but decided against it, having the gift my parents gave me for Christmas 2006 (a custom California Closets desk) installed. Alli spent a lot of time in January in Ohio with her mom and her ailing grandma. We spent 11 days apart, the longest since we’ve been married.

February was Oscar month. Scorsese finally won his Oscar, which was awesome. I also spent some time in the ER because of chest pains that fortunately turned out only to be Costochondritis. Phew. Alli and I both visited the hospital that month. I struggled to read much of anything early in the year because Kyle Smith’s awful Love Monkey kept me down.

March had both sad and happy moments. Alli’s grandma passed away and we visited Ohio for the funeral. Jake and Kelly got engaged early in the month. I considered getting braces. I professed my newfound coffee love.

April contained a lot of posting on the blog because a lot went on. Alli and I took the church Senior High group to Branson for Young Christians’ Weekend, the Jayhawks lost in the tournament again, the Chiefs made a great first-round draft pick (who I met in December), Alli and I finalized our Italy plans, and the producers of American Idol raised over $70 million for the ONE Campaign. We also made another hospital trip in perhaps one of the scarier days of my life.

May happened.

June did too. Alli had an art show at Starbucks. I went to Atlanta for the HOW Design Conference and saw a 7-foot, 9-inch tall man. We left for our 3-week trip to Paris and Italy, which also took up over half of July. It was the best trip I’ve ever taken. For a review, read this post.

I spent much of August reviewing our trip on the blog. Alli turned the big 30. She dealt with it much better than me. I predicted a Larry-Johnson-less Chiefs to go 5-11. Not a bad prediction. They showed how awful they were going to be by going 0-4 in the pre-season and gave us a glimpse of how dysfunctional they were through Hard Knocks. I finally got around to reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I loved every moment of it. Alli and I also got totally addicted to Big Love on HBO.

September marked the arrival of my first niece, Ireland. The Fall TV season started up with some good new shows that will ultimately be cancelled. I worked a shift at the Cowboy Boot Carnival. Apple, as they do, released another wave of ipods. This post was my favorite of the year.

October is usually a great month, but it was marred by awful Chiefs play. Helping to raise my spirits was Alli’s second art show of the year, this time at Terrace on the Green. I went pink for October on the blog and saw a couple of excellent movies. The Sprint Center opened and we got to check it out for the So You Think You Can Dance show. I also helped Luke announce the launch of his KCDiningSpecials.com website.

I returned to Atlanta for about 36 hours in November for a brief industry conference. I also discovered an absolutely brilliant comic website, The Superest. I railed on the Chiefs quite a bit in November. Who would have known that they wouldn’t win again during the whole season? I visited Allen Field House for the first time in my life. The Slap Countdown timer expired. KU lost a close one to Missouri at Arrowhead. I initiated the first annual ‘Complete this Sentence‘ project. I was thankful.

December is my favorite month of the year. Especially when it snows. The Chiefs continued the longest losing streak in team history. We launched some awesome new technology at work. I turned 31 and got 15 comments on my birthday post (a new personal best!) and saw some movies. I tried to fix my back problems. We rang in the New Year with Jake and Kelly.

As for my favorites of the year, I’ll try to be brief:

• Favorite Movie: Across the Universe (not even a contest)
• Favorite Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Favorite New TV Show: The Big Bang Theory
• Favorite Reality TV Show: Top Chef
• Favorite Existing TV Show: Either Lost or The Office
• Favorite Album: Either the Across the Universe Soundtrack, Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, or OneRepublic’s Dreamin’ Out Loud
• Favorite Event: The birth of my niece
• Favorite Trip: No contest here…it was obviously France/Italy 2007
• Favorite Restaurant: Caffe Leonardo in Rome

Overall, it was perhaps my best year yet. Hope yours was great as well. Here’s to an even better 2008.