2002

That was the year of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, when I got kicked out of the dorms and went to Canada for the first time (my wife's from Vancouver), saw my first NHL game, had English high tea for the first time (and at Victoria's Empress Hotel no less), and then went to Las Vegas for the first time on Labor Day weekend. In Vegas, we walked The Strip from Mandalay Bay to The Stratosphere and back, with a few tram rides, peeking into every casino along the way. It took twelve hours and I am sore to this day.

The most sentimental movies released: some of the best sci-fi of the decade - Minority Report (6/21), Reign of Fire (7/12), Signs (8/2), and I even liked the invisible car in Die Another Day (11/22); The Ring (10/18) turned out to be a lot more than I expected and it still haunts my wife; as for "Mormon movies" - my pick for 2002 is my personal favorite of them all - The Singles Ward (2/8)

Music artists I discovered or got back into: Weezer - Maladroit (5/14) and The Used - The Used (6/25)

Books I read: my roommate's new hardcover Shadow Puppets, by Orson Scott Card, along with Ender's Game and all of the Ender's Shadow series up to that point; finally getting my childhood dream of the first Marvel Masterworks Spider-Man is what started me back into comics

Restaurants I discovered: Lugano (for Italian) and Market Street Broiler (for steak and seafood)