Gonna jump on a little flight over to Minneapolis in a couple hours. Sad to be leaving, but excited to get back home.

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Our annual, “end of the year” wrap up:

TRAVEL: NYC new year’s day, San Diego Nixon action, Veg-ass SIA tradeshow hi-jinx (…left that dump with 1400 bucks, I’ll be a motherfucker!), Pacific Beach blowout with Nixon, Traverse City Parent Mission #1, Chicago weekend, Minneapolis layover hooky, Seattle client missions, Fort Collins wedding, Vermont wedding, NYC two-fer, San Diego ASR Tradeshow humdrum, 50 Days on the Road Fall Tour bad-ass-ness, Traverse City Parent Mission #3, Italy! Ciao! and Traverse City Parent Mission #3 for the holi-daze.

Many, many, many thanks to the pilots, stewards, travel agents and mechanics for the somewhat smooth flights. Thank you.

REAL ESTATE: Bought a house on 67th Ave. Much love is felt for him. A dream “come true.”

A COOL BREEZE IN THE SUMMER NIGHT: I love my Portland summer nights. Big hot sun, do yer settin’ and let the cool temps surround me.

HEARTSTRINGS: Spent the year trying to forget about a girl, and met a new one; pretty Whitney. Thank you for so much.

JUSTICE: Got rattled in Jury Duty, downtown.

STRENGTH: Fought like hell to stay strong. Various struggles. Daily.

ELECTION SADNESS: Got my heart broken when that farce of a leader (yet again) stole the reigns. America, get that fucker out of there. What a shame, what a shame.

LIBERATION: After 28 months on the clock for CINCO, I hit the road. Very lucky to have completed a trillion projects for Nixon and Gravis, and to have met such an amazing crew of colleagues. Thank you for the good work and opportunity.

TRUE LOVE ALWAYS: Happiness, Doves, health, smiles, little babies, riches, jewels and love type stuff to all the wonderful unions I got to witness (All legal, mind you.) over the course of the year: Rod + Katie Snell (You better be good to him, girl! You hit the jackpot.), Matt + Leigh Capozzi (A beautiful ordeal, all of it, goddamn.), Ben + Julie Munson (That Portland rain let up and we were all going, “Whoa, spooky. Maybe this thing is meant to be?” Call it a hunch, but the DDC thinks you two are really “on to something” with the new bond.), and finally, Lance + Vanessa Violette (“Vanessa Violette” has one hell of a ring to it. Sounds sort of clandestine, or, Willy Wonka-ish, or something.)

THIS JUST IN: One last addition to the “permanent ball and chain” section of this post: Unca Kev and Auntie Kim tied the knot towards the end of the summer on the water, with family and friends present, witnessing the vows of marital dedication. I was busy with projects (Yeah right, asshole.), and couldn’t swing the trip, and will forever have a hole in my heart for missing their big day. And, I’ll forever be reminded by everyone who did go that I didn’t make it back home for it, the dickhead I am. You guys deserve the best. Congratulations!

The DDC proudly sanctions these transactions.

INDEPENDENCE: We’re on our own. Open for business. Firm handshakes. Long list of services. Proud. Busy as shit. Thankful to a list of clients for keeping me outta the food stamps line: Brad Sheuffele of Coal headwear, Matt Kass of Grenade gloves, George Kleckner of the Union Binding Co., Mark, Liz and Baker of Snowboard magazine, Styk + Fank of Ride Snowboards, the fucks at The Program in sunny Irvine, Eric Campbell of Eric Campbell Design, Cameron Barrett of camworld.org and bloglabs.com.

Thank you, for good work, and big-ass opportunity.

FISCAL RADNESS: Our biggest year to date. Shit, we pay double now, just because we can.

SPORT: Watched those Pistons kick the living tar outta those goddamn Lakers. The Midwest versus Los Angeles Bedlam. Beautiful.

ADVENTURE: 50 Days On The Road with the DDC. 14,000 miles. September the 20th through November the 10th, or so. 39 of 50 states. A couple provinces. Smooth sailing. Friends, colleagues, family and a couple enemies. Dastardly deeds. Lot lizards. Shady sleeping arrangements in shady reststops and parking lots. Big city “being lost”-ness. Scare. Hope. Big mountains. Lonely highways. Colorful characters. One nice cop who let me off for some stupid ass Barney Fife infraction (Burnt out taillight.) The glory of Big S performing so well ( A n undisputed, triumphant, well-oiled, confident, slick, spacious King of the Road, goddamn.)

Route 66 with dad was fucking amazing. I’ll never forget it. Which route is next, I ask?!

SADNESS: Goodbye and thank you to Ray Charles, Bob the dog of J Mascis fame, Guided By Voices and Uncle Jess.

BOSUM BUDDIES: Thanks to Zimmerman for being a good roommate.

EQUIPMENT UPGRADES: With tax time a couple months away as the year rounds out, we’ve made some big-ass upgrades to the factory floor: new 23” flat screen, Epson 13x19 color printer for mag spreads, new 40gb iPodder, new Road Rig 14” iBook, Pantone Survival kit, flat files bliss, software purchases and a G5 iMac for the parental compound, so mom can be that much more connected to us out in the big west.

We so as much spit, we write it off.

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THANK YOU: It was a great year. Our best, we’d say. Thank you to what ever “universal order” or “celestial something” or “plain, dumb luck” or “ancient native wind” or “dry, sobering speculation that we are just mere coincidental particle combinations, that after a sad, lonely death are, well, just that: dead matter, displaced back into the ever-collapsing outer-spaced nothingness around us, engulfing us, boggling our small minds that we call the universe” that looked over me and kept things cool, again.

Much appreciation is felt.

Thanks to the family, the friends, the colleagues, the clients, the neighbors, the fellow Portlanders, the citizens of the United States and well, human kind.

Our hats are tipped to 2004, with big hopes for 2005.