Pete's Log: 2023

Entry #2467, (Books, Writing, n such, Life in General, Meta)
(posted when I was 45 years old.)

When I posted on January 1, I noticed that it was the first time in the history of Pete's Log that I had posted on the first of the year. Meaning an opportunity presented itself to post each day of the year for the first time ever. By coincidence, the math also worked out that if I posted every day, I would hit entry 2500 two days short of the 25 year anniversary, bringing the annual average back above 100 entries just in time. So I had to try.

It didn't work out, but I did make it to May 4 before I missed a day. In all, I'll hit 300 entries for 2023. Which is a lot. I think trying to post every day definitely impacted quality. But I did manage to post on three days which I'd never posted on before: Jan 1, Jan 5 and Dec 30. That leaves February 29 and August 17 as the only days of the year with no log entries. Next year being a leap year, my goal is to knock out February 29. And keep output above 100 entries a year.

2023 was also an occasion to celebrate multiples of 5:

  • 5 years of being married to Jamie!
  • 10 years since moving to the US and meeting Jamie
  • 25 years of Pete's Log
  • 30 years since moving to the US the first time
  • 45 years since being born

I read 29 books in 2023. I haven't kept good count of that in the past, but I'm pretty sure that's way above my average. A breakdown of those books:

  • 24 fiction, 5 non-fiction
  • 27 paper, 2 audio
  • 29 in English
  • Over 11,000 pages, not counting the couple books I DNF’d

Jamie’s book count is more than double mine, but she’s a reading machine. Hopefully I can keep the reading momentum going in 2024.

Esgerbeastie continued trying to factor Pete's Number. We've made it past 12 trillion in this futile search.

Jamie, JB and I flew this year for the first time since 2019. In fact we had three trips by air: Florida Keys, New York City and Crested Butte. NYC was particularly exciting because we made JB officially Belgian.

We also had a good number of visitors this year:

I'm ending 2023 on a 113 day Wordle streak.

The low point of 2023 was losing Boogie. We still miss her every day.

It’s cooled off enough that it’s snowing today, but not enough for the snow to stick. Bubbles has upped her backyard mud game.

Bubbles sitting in the kitchen, covered in mud

Happy New Year, dear readers. Wishing you all the best for 2024. JB helped us put coins on our windowsills. I think we’re ready.