2006: it mostly sucked. Or at least it mostly sucked for me. While there were plenty of low points, that's not to say the year didn't have its moments. Here's a look back...

Click here to read about how Oregonian columnist Margie Boule used her awesome media powers to coax PPD into removing an abandoned vehicle from the hill overlooking my house.

This here blog also received a mention in the paper's "Pop Talk" column in March.

A group of readers and I put together a list of "50 Things Every Portlander MUST Do (Whether They Want To Or Not)" in response to a Portland Monthly cover story. Click here for that.

Click here to read my investigation into the contents of an MRE.

I smoked my first hootkah, drank my first Russian beer, attended my first indoor lacrosse game and visited a house "made" of candy, all in Portland.

I spent two days at the Gorge Amphitheater watching the Flaming Lips, Beck, The Decemberists and...a bunch of other bands

I spoke with Rick Adelman and ran into Indiana Jones at the Burlingame Fred Meyers.

I purchased a "quality, used vehicle" and asked the internet what I should do with my old Toyota Van. Instead, like a negligent parent that would rather watch football than keep their kids away from matches, I did nothing and the city van-napped the old bucket of bolts.

In May, I went to Salem and tried to dig around in Governor Ted Kulongoski's desk. I failed.

On a road trip with a sibling in August, I visited the top toxic tourist attractions in Idaho and Montana, spent the night in a rental car during a freezing night in Bozeman, came close to running over a variety of flora and fauna in Yellowstone, hung out with Russian teenagers at a rural burger stand, spent a weird afternoon at Temple Square and attended a Star Trek convention with an Ewok.

I also spent two days in Manning and learned a good deal about stock cars, chickens, septic tanks, honky-tonk saloons and really old rifles.

I fought My Space and I won.

I attended one of Sleater Kinney's last performances at the Crystal Ballroom.

I spent the night at a haunted hotel in North Portland, where I was "attacked" by the ghost of either a prostitute or a bouncer. No, seriously.

And, finally, I spent another Halloween in Tiller, Oregon among friends, "Jack O' Logs" and drunks running amuck with chainsaws.

Here's hoping that 2007 is filled with an equal or greater amount of stupid fun along these lines and less of the hassles and setbacks that made 2006 such a drag.