The 2010's

All you need to know about the 2000's is that the Y2K bug didn't come around as expected and following that disappointment it was kind of just a string of one let-down after another. I did start the decade in pre-Gilets-Jaunes-Paris which was kind of nice; but then I also spent nearly an entire year living in the North of England so... I met my future wife and eventually got married, embarking on a future with my life-long love at my side, but in addition to that I not only spent 3 years in law school but also threw away almost an entire year working as a corporate IP lawyer in downtown Toronto. Yuck. I guess ultimately the decade just had a way of balancing itself out. The 2010's on the other hand, for the most part they were not all bad.

Oh wait. I just remembered that on March 22nd, 2006, our McGill Intramural Hockey team won the championships and I scored the game-winning goal. So the 2000's were actually amazing. But now on to the 2010's...

We started the decade off at a rustic resort in Algonquin Park which would have required us to re-mortgage our home if we had one to afford our two-night stay (instead we just extended Sandi's line-of-credit), but we were just setting the tone for the years ahead. Just five days into the decade, we really started our triathlon careers off in earnest when we attended our first ever (and of many) Guelph Triathlon Club workouts, having joined our erstwhile club some days prior. I got a Ph.D. We went snowboarding and attended at least one Guelph Storm game. One of which I remember quite clearly came soon after Canada had won Olympic Hockey Gold in Vancouver against the US with Crosby's overtime goal (that was another great 2010's moment -- but back to the Storm). It was quite surreal; the family that had billeted Drew Doughty when he played for the Storm was at the game and got a standing ovation. Weird stuff.

We went to Sudbury for a wedding (ok, so the 2010's weren't all good). Our friend Gustavo came to Canada and we spent a lot of time at the cottage. We did a lot of triathlons. We went to Vancouver which was great except that we both got food poisoning eating raw oysters and the sickness really asserted itself and came into its own on the plane ride back home; fun stuff! We attended a Darling Family Reunion. We did a portion of a bike trip that went around Lake Ontario. Sandi and I won best new triathletes of the year. We did the Niagara Falls Marathon. We did Around The Bay and I beat everyone in our family. Boo-yaa. Catherine had an ugly Christmas sweater party (and we attended). I took the iPhone gaming world by storm with the creation of the inimitable Yummy Bugs.

The Watson Jeopardy! game happened. I went to Dublin and got to hang out with Roger. Sandi and I went to Newfoundland which was pretty rad. I went to Portland, of all places. Thony came to Canada and we did the Peterborough Half Ironman race. Dad turned 60 (and a bunch of other ages over those 10 years). I went to Grenoble and then accepted a job there. So, naturally, we moved to Grenoble. Went to Annecy, Montpellier, Avignon, Marseille, Nice, Roanne, Antibes, and a bunch of other great places in France. We went to Sweden and did Ironman Kalmar with Thony. Then five years later we went to Copenhagen and did another Ironman with him. I went to Bern and to Brussels. Neither were that exciting (Delft was even worse).

We went to Barcelona and that was great. In fact, I'm surprised a whole decade went by and we only went there once. Kevin and Jillian visited us in Grenoble and didn't even bring any kids. Then several years later they visited us in Munich and brought a kid. We moved to Munich! Jesse also visited us in Europe in both France and Germany. We saw Ben Harper at the Nice Jazz Festival with him and then Sandi and I saw Ben Harper in all kinds of other European cities for the next several years (Hannah even saw him in Italy). We went to Paris with Linda and Sarah. We went to Prague. We went to Oktoberfest about 50 times.

We went to London. I went to Cambridge. That wasn't even so bad. We flew to Amsterdam for my birthday way back in 2014. We must have had soooooo much time because we didn't have any kids! We had kids. Two of them. Both in this decade. But not at the same time, thank God. We went to Lanzarote, also pre-kids. Phew. We went to Sweden a couple more times. I did a bike race. That was kind of dumb, though. Dumb of me to do it, I mean. We did a lot of holidays in Austria. Hannah loved each one more than the last. We did the Florence marathon. Then I ate the biggest steak anyone has ever seen and I drank a lot of really really really really really good wine. At least it tasted really really really really really good at the time. And it probably was really really really really really good too.

We flew to Canada probably 15 times. Oh! We went to Greece. And it snowed -- in April! We went back to Florence again. And it was super hot -- in May! We went to Nice to watch Thony in the Ironman France. It was even hotter -- in June! We went to a wedding in Romania. And it was hotter again -- above 40 -- in July! We went to Canada for one of those times in the summer and it wasn't all that hot but we went to Kit's wedding. Good times. And then they came to Munich for their honeymoon. And it was kind of cold. But also kind of rad.

We got a Smart Trainer and it was great in our old place when we had room to set it up. Now it's not so great sitting in the basement in a box. I went to China. Not all things in the 2010's were good. We bought an apartment for some reason. Tom came to visit and we climbed some mountains. Sandi, Hannah, and I went to Cinque Terre. We found out that Hannah loves boats. We went to Thony's wedding in Sweden and Sarah came too. We stayed at a Swedish cottage. We ate pickled herring for goodness sake. I went to Redmond. We went to Switzerland for Easter. And another time to Sicily. Both were good. Oh! The best: we drove all the way to Piemonte. We went to Barolo and Asti and all those good places. We had a small child but at least there was never a dull moment. At least I don't think there was. Sleep deprivation has destroyed almost all of my memory cells. We met Kit and Tim on the Mont Blanc.

We went to Berlin. Sarah came to visit. Hannah started French Kindergarten. I went back to Grenoble. Over the course of seven years I learned 3% of the German language (rounding up). We attended the ballet. Sandi ran a trail running race through the Alps. I got a new job. Actually I guess several new jobs over the course of the 2010's. I went to California finally. Multiple times.

And most importantly of all, to end the decade, Sandi got one bitchin' watch. Let's hope the 2020's bring just as much (or even more -- if that's possible [the watch is more than just bitchin']) good.