The Year in Review

It’s that time of year when all of those annoying lists come out – Best Dressed (didn’t make that one), Worst Dressed (made a couple of those), Sexiest Men (DEFINITELY did not make that one…), etc.

Twenty-eleven was a good year at Casa del Rogue, so, without further delay, here is the Suburban Rogue Year in Review:

January began with Mrs. Rogue on crutches for the second year in a row, after having about $30k of hardware removed from her foot. 

The longest of those 3 plates is about 1-inch... 

Daughter R, who missed being a Leap Baby by about 21 hours, celebrated her birthday in February.  It was a prime number birthday for you math dorks out there.

Son Rogue traveled to Egypt in March, shortly after their government was overthrown.  He reports that it was a tremendous experience, to be there as a nation was being reborn.

Also in March, Mrs. R and I joined some friends in Puerto Vallarta and spent a week living the life of beach bums.  Don’t be fooled, there is a lot of pressure that comes with that lifestyle - making sure you have enough sunscreen, stocking the cooler, figuring out who  is going to make the lunch run, etc.  It’s really quite demanding…

In April Mrs. R celebrated a milestone birthday and I was arrested for being married to a teenager…

May was a very big month. Mrs. R and I celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary with a romantic getaway weekend in Breckenridge.

Gosh, what a cute couple!

May also marked 35 years since I graduated high school, and 30 years since I graduated college.  In case you haven’t figured it out, I crammed four years of college into five…

In June, Daughter Rogue embarked on a solo, cross country excursion leaving Denver for points east, including Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington D.C., and Nashville; then points west including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego; before returning home.  Her trips were mishap free, except for the part where she accidentally dropped her camera off of a pier and into the Atlantic Ocean…

My high school reunion was scheduled for the first Saturday in July.  I had organized a service project and a group of classmates and I spent part of that day sprucing up the ol’ alma mater.  We believe it was the first time that alumni from our school had made a service project part of the reunion weekend.  Here is a photo of that that hardworking group:

Later that evening at the reunion dinner, I was asked to give a brief presentation about the service project.  So I got up in front of the group, and gave my talk.  My knees were wobbling, my voice was cracking, and I pitted out my both shirt and sportcoat.  I made it through, but it sure felt like I was back in high school…

In late August a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near Mineral, Virginia, about 80 miles southwest of Washington D.C.  Some of the monuments on the National Mall were damaged and I, along with another engineer from my office, joined a team of seismic experts from San Francisco to assess the damage.  Few professions thrive on disaster more than structural engineers…

In September, we held a small party at Casa del Rogue for the CU vs. CSU game.  We had a great time, the Buffs won, and I eventually got a free lunch from a colleague who happens to be a CSU alum…

In October we met some friends for a long weekend in Steamboat Springs.  Steamboat is a very cool place. We had a wonderful time, laughing and joking for three solid days. This was the view from our incredible condo:

 

Mrs. R, Son R and I traveled to southern California in November to watch the Buffs play UCLA at the Rose Bowl stadium.   You may have read about it here: It's an LA Thing

After all of us had visited doctors in December for various check-ups, procedures, etc., we put the brakes on to rest up for twenty-twelve.

Happy New Year Rogue Readers!