Remember 2008? Here's A Reminder...

We did not mail out Christmas cards this year. Had we done so, I would have been obligated to share a note about the past year, mostly to answer the question: "Whatever happened to the Sweetwoods?"

Well...

The year fondly recalled as "2008" started out great as Mary and I partied our way into the new year at Old Town In Kissimmee, Fl. We were still Florida residents at that point.



That seems like so long ago...

Within a few days I had made a clandestine trip to Youngstown, Ohio to interview for the managing editor's job. And a week after that, my grandma, Ann Kuglich, passed away and back north we trekked as the family gathered for the funeral.

Counting the November 2007 birthday parties of my sister Karen and friend Brad, I had flown north three times in a couple of months. I think fate was telling me something ...

Also in January, we attended wrestling in Melbourne and my iconic picture of the Honky Tonk Man getting his throat stepped on is soon one of the most googled images of the Honky Tonk Man on the Internet.



Check it for yourself:

Google Honky Tonk Man

February made me shiver, with every newspaper I edited to be delivered. Mostly, what made me shiver was the prospect of leaving the warmth of Florida to return north to accept a job offer in Ohio. In February. Timing is everything in life.

I made the announcement right here on Feb. 6:

The Sweetwoods Head to the Land of Thurber

On on Feb. 22, I left Mary to finish packing the condo and loaded up the Kia Sportage to head north. My first day of work was Feb. 25, which was also my birthday...

March featured mostly me getting accustomed to new surroundings, searching for a new place to live and fighting with the Resident Inn's horrible Internet company. I flew back late in the month to help finish packing and after the movers left the Florida condo, we headed north, this time in the Chevy Cavalier with two cats, Louie and Clyde, in the backseat.

April saw us moving into our new home, affectionately known as the Sweetwood's Brady Bunch home.



In May, we continued to get used to our new surroundings and my parents visited My Dad took this great shot at Mill Creek Park:



And I was THISCLOSE to middleweight champsion Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik:



Looking back, June was hectic. Work continued and we spent some time playing in our new surroundings (and kept up on home projects). We saw the Cleveland Indians play, became regulars for the Mahoning Valley Thunder arena football team and my niece Angela and her husband Fred welcomed young Kaleb into the world.



July was a busy month, too. Mary's Mom visited...



... and we staged a backyard fireworks spectacular for the Fourth of July.

We hit Cleveland again and took in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and another Indians game (they always won when we went, by the way). The month ended as we learned how South Shore Drive got it's name: There used to be a small lake where the backyard is and if you get like six inches of rain in an hour, this will happen...



August was a blur of activity mostly punctuated by our ill-fated vacation to Florida which coincided with the travel plans of Tropical Storm/Hurricane/Tropical Storm Fay. This lead to one of the most popular months ever on Mark's World as we provided full coverage including one memorable, spittle-filled video:

Mark Takes On More Hot Air

But we got to see old friends and make new ones, especially during The Great Tropical Storm Fay Bar Rebellion. As the month ended, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and their wives stopped by for breakfast at the Yankee Kitchen Family restaurant about a mile from our home. Ohio actually got tired of all of the presidential candidates by the end of the campaign. We still can't get Joe Biden out of our house.

The election is over, Joe! Please leave! No, we don't want you to do the dishes again! Yes, we agree, Sarah Palin is a nutjob! You already got our votes! Leave! Sheesh...

Anyway, September saw us all filled with hope at the prospects of a great Chicago Bears season. How sad...

It was a busy month that saw everything from a massive windstorm caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ike, of all things, and the new addition to our family, Sammy!



Mark's World set all new records for site traffic in October when brother Eric and friend Brad arrived for Bat Week which saw us attend the Screaming Tiki Comic and Pop Culture Convention in nearby Niles. Mary's photos were fantastic:







November saw the election finally come to an end (OK, Joe? It's over!!) and also saw me call for Rex Grossman to leave the Bears. I even started a site (click the image below):



My sister turned 51 (!) and Mary and I drove to Ottawa for a pre-Thanksgiving visit that also saw my parents fly up from Florida. We finally got to meet Kaleb in person!





It struck us that we can be anyplace we want pretty easily from here. The Pittsburgh airport is less than an hour away and we can hit Illinois in a matter of hours. In fact, Chicago will host the Browns next year and Soldier Field is five hours away ...

Mary's Mom Grace came to visit for Thanksgiving and she helped me decorate the house:



Sammy continued to grow as December came around ...



... and my parents showed up for an early Christmas!



However, tragedy struck once again when, on Christmas morning, I dumped the contents of my Christmas cranberry juice into my laptop. But, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, after drying out for a little more than a week, it's as good as ever!

In fact, I am using it right now to both thank you visiting Mark's World in the past year and to wish nothing but the best to you and everyone you care about in 2009.

More later,


Mark