Top 3 (2024)

Last year I used this format instead of a long-form recap of the year, and I liked it, so I did it again this year. The categories changed slightly, and I have some notes as to why on the bottom.

Happy New Year!

Books

The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

New blog follows

The Feather Bender

A fantastic fly tying blog by Barry Ord Clarke. I’ve learned so much from his videos!

Tenkara Talk

Getting into both tenkara and fly tying this year, I’ve had to read and learn a lot. Jason’s blog is a go-to resource for me with a big archive of useful stuff.

Ephemeral New York

Glimpses at different points of time of an ever changing city, meticulously researched. I look forward to the posts each Monday.

Meals

The Oklahoma Onion Burger at Hamburger America. The best burger I’ve had this year.

The Butcher at Benny’s Brown Bag. Turkey, Havarti, Dill, chips. So good.

Chipotle’s quesadilla kids meal with sides of pork, white rice, and cheese. This is Charlie’s favorite takeout meal, and we know he’ll eat a filling, nutritious meal whenever we get it. So it makes my top list because it is clutch.

Places

The newly rebuilt Fleischmann Pier in Peekskill. Charlie and I walk there regularly and it is always great.

Groton Long Point, CT

We vacationed here with the Wasmers this summer, and it was a beautiful, vibrant little summer community where everyone walked and kids had a ton of autonomy to ride their bike to various activities. The July 4 parade was a lot of fun!

Amawalk Outlet

I sought out some local streams since getting back into fly fishing this year. The Amawalk Outlet (Muscoot River) is my favorite spot so far. Wild brown trout fishery that is secluded and serene. Natural beauty nestled between a couple large towns, but feels like it is in the mountains.

Cocktails (at home)

Sherry Cobbler

low abv, uses seasonal fruit, very refreshing.

Elusive Dreams

Used our homemade banana liqueur for this. Very tasty.

Carbonated mai tai

Learning how to carbonate things from a CO2 tank was pretty cool, and carbonated mai tais are very tasty.

Purchases

Leatherman Skeletool

I’ve used this almost every day since buying it. Has pliers, a knife, a screwdriver, and a bottle opener, yet is slim. I like the CX version, the one with a straight blade (no serrations).

Dragontail Mizuchi Tenkara rod

I got into Tenkara-style fly fishing in the latter half of the year, and am enjoying learning to use this rod effectively. I like the different zoom lengths.

Pro-Grind lathe tool grinding jig

This seriously upped my lathe tool sharpening game. I should have gotten one five years ago.

Honorable mention: HOTO Precision Screwdriver Pen. Beautiful and self-containing.

Memories

Rowing on the Hudson with Charlie, from Verplank to Stony Point and back.

The period of twilight during the total eclipse.

Wading in the creek in the woods by our house with Charlie.

Things I’ve made

Tenkara spool

Rosin

Fly tying tool caddy

The theme here is that I love making stuff that I use.

Accomplishments

Helping Charlie become potty trained. We are so proud of him for figuring it out and becoming more independent, and proud of ourselves for patiently supporting him through it.

Rebuilding my shop, making it a space where I can go out and make real progress instead of spending the first 30 minutes cleaning, moving stuff, and finding the tools I need.

Learning how to turn wooden bowls – a goal of mine for the past five years!

What I left out:

I left shows and music off the list this year. I didn’t really listen to or watch anything new worth mentioning.

I also left Software off the list because I’m using pretty much all the same software tools as last year.

Sadly, I left out Articles because, even after going through my Likes and Bookmarks, nothing incredible sticks out to me this year. I just didn’t read that much good stuff online, which I am going to try to remedy in 2025.