1. What new pet(s) did we get?
   1. A box of one dozen starving-crazed weasels
   2. A purple gecko named Steve
   3. An eight-year-old husky named Malish
   4. An African Grey parrot named Sven that says “quivering” a lot
2. What is the name of the new church we began attending?
   1. Seed
   2. Mushroom
   3. First Baptist Church of the Totally Awesome
   4. Warm Fuzzies Chapel
3. What two cities did Tim visit on business with Genie?
   1. Bellevue, WA and Kirkland, WA
   2. Reykjavik, Iceland and Cairo, Egypt
   3. Hobbitton and Mordor
   4. Atlanta, GA and Chicago, IL
4. Which of the following accurately describes our first road trip of the year?
   1. Down the Oregon and Northern California coast to visit family in San Francisco and Tim’s old professor from SPU, now at California Baptist University
   2. North into Canada, seeking fame and riches in remote frozen towns, working our way across the countryside by selling novelty toothbrushes
   3. East through Idaho and Montana into the hinterland of North Dakota on a quest for the seven sacred stones of Crackerton, which combined form the key to unlock the gate of Suruth, entrance to the ancient tomb of the music-warrior Jorash, whose legendary flute was able to tame even the wildest beast
   4. To the grocery store for milk
5. What did we spend most of our free time doing in the summer?
   1. Inventing a new type of egg-beater, the yolk-o-tastic XR9742
   2. Writing a book: “How to break your spouse’s spirit in ten easy steps”
   3. Stealing flowers, bushes, ferns, and berry vines from the abandoned property next door
   4. Taking classes in acting, ju-jitsu, flower arrangement, and hostile takeovers
6. Which of the following was not part of our trip to the Olympic National Park with Joy, Heather, and Sam?
   1. Visiting a natural hot springs (very natural, if you get my drift)
   2. Hiking through the woods in the rain
   3. Staring down a deer in the middle of the road
   4. Five-hour campsite pillow-fight, followed by a flaming marshmallow-eating contest
7. What did we do for our five-year wedding anniversary?
   1. Stayed a night in a fancy lodge, hiked to a remote mining ghost town, and went for a relaxing drive through some small towns in east King County
   2. Planted a tree
   3. Visited a zoo populated entirely by monkeys
   4. Got into a screaming match and broke all our dishes
8. What was the purpose of Jeni’s visit to Dallas?
   1. To scout out Woot.com headquarters for Tim’s upcoming master heist
   2. To find out first hand whether or not you can, in fact, mess with Texas
   3. To eat a 72oz steak in one sitting
   4. To visit with her best friend Heather, her sister Rebekah, and her friend Debbie
9. Describe Rachel & Adam’s visit to Seattle.
   1. Jeni & Rachel got Rachel some new clothes and a new hairstyle, while Tim & Adam bonded over Xbox 360 and Wii
   2. Jeni & Rachel joined a belly-dancing troupe while Tim & Adam hunted cougar in the mountains, armed only with butter knives and slingshots
   3. The four of us began work on a massive underground fortress to house our secret mission control center
   4. Lots and lots of awkward silence
10. Who did we spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with?
    1. Thanksgiving with the Amish in Pennsylvania, Christmas with astronauts on the space station
    2. Thanksgiving with Australian troops in Uzbekistan, Christmas with a family of bears in Alaska
    3. Thanksgiving with Tim’s family in Vancouver, Christmas with Jeni’s family in Rosamond
    4. Nobody – we stayed home and slept all day for both holidays
11. Which of the following did we experience in the last week of 2007?
    1. Driving from Seattle to California then to Southern Florida with Rebekah
    2. Ringing in the new year on a crowded Gulf Coast island beach town
    3. Preparing for the island wedding of Jeni’s best friend Heather
    4. Having the car break down on the island beach town on New Years Eve, the day before the wedding
    5. All of the above

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all it has is a sunroof

I gave notice at Valberg and now I’m starting a new job at Genie with more responsibility and more stress and when I went to look at electric bicycles for my commute I wrecked my car and the police gave me a ticket and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

At court I contested the ticket and three people before me got their tickets thrown out but the judge didn’t care and I had to pay a hundred dollars. We went looking for a new car and I said I wanted a brand-new car with leather seats and tinted windows and cruise control and a sunroof. We got a 2001 Saturn and all it has is a sunroof. I think I’ll move to Australia.

Who needs dancing?

Jeni got her interior design diploma from the Art Institute and I had to go to her portfolio day and set up and fetch lunch and just sit in the corner all day. I said I was going to play my DS. I said, if I don’t get to play DS I am going to be really bored. No one even answered. I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

In June Jeni’s sister Rachel got married to Adam and Jeni was in the wedding and all I got to do was open the door for people when they showed up. During the ceremony I had to sit in the front row and I couldn’t even play DS. At the reception there was dancing, but I don’t know how to dance. Who needs dancing? I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

we could barely see the mountain

I could tell because we went to Mount St. Helens in August and there was so much smoke from fires that we could barely see the mountain and then we went to Ape Cave and it was just cold and wet and dark. The next day we went to Beacon Rock and Multnomah Falls and I had to walk all the way to the top of both of them. I got really tired having to walk that high up. I think I could see Australia.

We took swing dance lessons and Jeni stepped on my foot and our instructor played music from those dumb Eharmony commercials. We went horseback riding in Leavenworth for our anniversary and our guide had a horse with a cool black tail and Jeni got to ride a white horse. Guess whose horse was plain old boring brown? It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

Guess whose horse was plain old boring brown?

That’s what it was, because after horseback riding we went into downtown Leavenworth and the restaurant I wanted to eat at was too crowded. Come back next week and we’ll be practically empty, they said. Next week, I said, I’m going to Australia.

While working on the still-unfinished top-secret website project J.R. made me work on messy code and then when I started crying because of the code Pete said I was a crybaby and while I was punching Pete for saying crybaby Jeni came home and scolded me for having messy code and fighting. I am having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year, I told everybody. No one even answered.

I had to set the table.

So then we decided to build a new living room and bedroom in our garage. Jeni chose the layout of the rooms. Jeni chose the color of the walls and the lighting. I chose to hire someone to do the construction for us but then our bank account said we can’t afford that. My friends made me do all the construction work with them, but they can’t make me enjoy it.

When my parents and brothers and Rachel and Adam and Joy and Heather all came over for Thanksgiving the remodel wasn’t totally done. I had to spend Thanksgiving morning installing the new projector and surround sound system. I showed everyone the unfinished closet. I showed them where a shelf would be if we were finished and I showed them where our new painting would go if we had time to hang it up. We were going to eat at one o’clock but my parents were late and the food took forever to cook and instead of playing DS while I waited for the food I had to set the table. Everyone said they had a good time, but I think they wished they were in Australia. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

wished they were in Australia.

My Seattle Bubble website only got over a thousand hits a day. I lost four times in a row at my new train board game. We went to my parents’ for Christmas and I put too much oil in the truck. Jeni quit her job but we still had to go to their boring Christmas party, where I couldn’t even play DS and her boss didn’t give her a bonus like everyone else. I hope you sit on a tack, I said to her boss. I hope the next time you get a double-decker strawberry ice-cream cone the ice cream part falls off the cone part and lands in Australia.

It has been a terrible, horrible, no good very bad year. Jeni says some years are like that. Even in Australia.

Inspired by the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.