I told Meagan that one of the best practices I’ve done online is these lists of rapid-fire memories. But I missed this past year.
Until now.
Here’s the list of what I’ve done or remember from 2016:
- Flying in a helicopter for the first time in Gatlinburg, TN
- Listening/Watching Leah McHenry webinar about building super fans online
- Reading Kevin Kelly’s revised “1,000 True Fans” in Tim Ferriss’s new book, Tools for Titans
- Getting coffee with Luke Lyons at Heine Bros.
- Chatting with Adam Watts for the first time with Hunchback Whale
- Meeting Darren of Orphan Care Alliance (OCA)
- Meeting Sarah of OCA and attending the class with her
- Driving to meet and pick up a child for OCA Families and Sarah telling us it wasn’t going to work out
- Going to the OCA Families meeting with everyone
- Giving my Ice Breaker speech at Toastmasters
- Winning the first round of the Humorous Speech contest
- Giving my first speech that didn’t get “Best Speaker” Award at Toastmasters
- Asking the first round of friends on Facebook to join the Hunchback Whale newsletter
- Visiting the Outlet Mall to exchange my slippers
- Going to the Silver Spoons EP release show
- Filming Ted jumping into the pool, fully clothed
- Picking out Lyndon, our new cat
- Trying to adopt a cat for Meagan’s birthday but getting rejected because I checked “inside/outside”
- Building the first version of the Hunchback Whale website
- Talking for hours on the phone with Ted about the “four pack” album
- Writing the new email for the newsletter
- Camping in Pennsylvania
- Going through Hershey Park
- Building a fire in the backyard
- Throwing way too much wood into the fire the second time we used it in the backyard with Zach
- Going to the hospital and then holding baby Elsie for the first time
- Recording the first test run of the podcast on MarshallJonesJr.com
- Recording a conversation with Gage for our first podcast together
- Hanging a tire swing in our yard
- Buying a bicycle from the Goodwill
- Riding my bicycle to work
- Mowing the lawn with the monster truck ear protectors over my ear buds so I can listen to a podcast
- Winning mini BopIt
- “Working” at Heine Bros. Coffee on Saturday morning
- Turning off my alarm clock and walking up for work on my own
- Trying to grow grass from grass seed grown in our yard
- Finding out MailChimp doesn’t offer free auto-responders anymore
- Setting up the email popup on MarshallJonesJr.com
- Hosting Thanksgiving at our house
- Losing my wedding ring in the waterpark at Hershey Park (and then the diving girl finding it)
- Visiting Delaware for the first time
- Playing Spike Ball the day after Christmas outside in flip flops
- Hearing that Gage was asked to join the advanced class at school
- Watching Gage get a distinguished award at school
- Winning tickets for The Pass concert at Headliners
- Winning tickets for The Yaesayers at Headliners
- Winning tickets for the Tiki Surf Show at Headliners
- Visiting the prison where they filmed The Shawshank Redemption
- Visiting Clevaland in February for our first wedding anniversary
- Touring the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum
- Eating in a train car diner on the way back from Cleveland
- Touring the National History Museum in Cleveland
- Visiting Clarksville, TN and seeing Meagan’s Grandpa’s house where she spent summers
- Getting my hair cut at Smart Style by Meagan
- See how exited Gage got about his new haircut
- Driving through the mud at the maple syrup farm
- Listening to the girl play guitar at the maple syrup farm and remember when we played there years ago
- Visiting the Robert’s Family Farm
- Camping at Taylorsville Lake
- Chatting with the guy who drove down from up north to see the Kentucky Derby
- Rushing to pack up the camping gear at Taylorsville Lake as a storm hit
- Joining Toastmasters
- Attending the Toastmasters speech competition
- Going to Main Event with Sonitrol
- Going to Main Event later with all the tickets we received on the cards
- Running the 5k Jingle Bell Run for arthritis
- Winning the costume contest at the Jingle Bell Run
- Going to a Bats game with OCA Families
- Touring Indiana Caverns for Valentine’s Day
- Attending the SNDA (Sonitrol) conference
- Eating at Elmo’s in Indianapolis, IN
- Taking Meagan to the Spaghetti Factory for the first time
- Going over to Ken’s pool party
- Getting my eyebrows waxed
- Looking for Lincoln
- Touring the aquarium in Gatlinburg
- Visiting Calvary Chapel Cleveland, OH
- Visiting Calvary Chapel Harrisburg, PA
- Visiting Calvary Chapel Knoxville, TN
- Discovering Gilberto’s
- Getting our car towed at the state fair
- Driving around Gettysburg with the CD tour
- Climbing the lookout tower at Gettysburg
- Trying to find a restroom in the town at Gettysburg and buying ice cream at the place that let us use theirs
- Buying a better litter box for our cats
- Going to the Parklands water park
- Going to the Kentucky state fair
- Getting all the tools from Grandpa
- Working on the backsplash (but not finishing it)
- Getting wine from a Sonitrol customer for $2 per bottle
- Finding the old coffee in the coffee pot from a the year before… then making coffee
- Going over to Jacki and Jeremy’s house for Christmas Eve
- Going over to Poppy and Momma’s house for Christmas with everyone there
- Forgetting to sign the table cloth for Christmas
- Setting up a YouTube account for Hunchback Whale
- Killing our weed eater because I put the wrong type of gas in it (the mower gas, the kind without oil)
- Going to the Middletown Festival and sleeping on the sidewalk because I was so tired
- Going to the Middletown Christmas Festival and listening to music in the church
- Getting a flat tire on my bike riding to work
- Discovering the CD Baby, DIY Musician podcast
- Grilling out in the backyard
- Going to Gage’s birthday party at House Of Boom
- Going to the church Christmas party that ended up in the dining area at Fazoli’s
- Playing guitar at church
- Playing drums at church while Will was out after Elsie was born
- Playing drums for the song “I Shall See God”
- Creating the Action Security logo
- Creating the KYESA logos
- Making web ads for Sonitrol
- Building the side “content” website for Sonitrol
- Going to Gage’s school to build stuff with the Father/Son Club
- Going to Gage’s Fall Festival at school
- Recording keypad tutorials for Sonitrol
- Creating the Hunchback Whale logo on a napkin, then through Fiverr, then on my own
- Crossing the new I-65 bridge downtown with Eric
- Crossing the new East End bridge with Meagan on our circle around Louisville before the tolls began
Happy New Year!