The year was 1997.

Bill Clinton began his second term as President of the United States.

Tony Blair was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

IBM’s Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, the first time a computer beat a chess World champion in a match.

Timothy McVeigh was convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and received a death penalty sentence.

The first book in the award winning Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling is published. (The last will be published this year)

NASA’s Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.

Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in a Paris tunnel.

Scotland voted to create its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England.

The domain “Google” was registered.

Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule

The Florida Marlins won Game 7 of the 1997 World Series against the Cleveland Indians 3-2 in 11 innings.

The Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl XXXI, defeating the New England Patriots 35 to 21 on January 26th in New Orleans’ Superdome. (Sorry Jason)

The term “weblog” (later shortened to “blog”) is coined.

The late Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker passed away, as did poet Allen Ginsberg, magician Harry Blackstone, Jr., French explorer Jacques Cousteau, American actors Robert Mitchum, Burgess Meredith, Chris Farley, Denver Pyle and James Stewart, American television reporter Charles Kuralt, Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, United States Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, American comedian Red Skelton, professional wrestler Brian Pilman and American musician John Denver, among others.

And while celebrities such as Woody Allen and his adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn were getting married, an obscure man and woman (to everyone but each other) in Orlando, Florida were married in the beautiful backyard garden of the bride’s parents, writing their own vows, choosing their own music and surrounded by family and friends.

As I told my children shortly before the ceremony; outside of the days they were born, this was the happiest day of my life.

It still is.

Happy Anniversary, Blog Girl. Thank you for the 10 happiest years of my life. And thank you for loving the man behind the mask.

They’re mean and they’re green. They’re also number one at the box office this week.

Last Friday, after work, I took Mikey to see the movie TMNT or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This was the first time that Mikey and I have gone to a movie by ourselves and we had a good time. We shared a box of popcorn and a cold drink and watched Turtle Power on the big screen. In all honesty, I didn’t think the movie would be all that great and, the $25 million opening weekend aside, it really wasn’t. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. The appeal to me was getting to take Mikey to his first comic book-based movie with granddad.

23 years ago, when I sat in my office at the in-house advertising agency I was managing and opened the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (self-published by it’s creators and printed in black and white), I never imagined that almost a quarter-century in the future I would be taking my grandson to see a movie about them.

After the movie we went to CiCi’s Pizza, at Mikey’s request, for dinner. We sat, eating pizza and talking, laughing and enjoying ourselves for quite a while.

Next month, on the last Saturday before Blog Girl and I leave for France, we’re taking Mikey to Universal Studios for the day and we’re both looking forward to that time with him before leaving the country.

Cowabunga, Dude!

Man, here I’ve been busting my butt trying to learn to speak French so that I don’t order squid testicles for dinner some night and all I really need to do is learn how to cop the Parisian Attitude! Do I have to have a cigarette dangling out of the corner of my mouth, or would that be over the top?

I keep telling Vanna White that I’m a happily married Masked Blogger, but she just keeps on flirting with me. It’s sad, really.

Late last year the United States Postal Service issued a sheet of 20 stamps honoring the DC Comics line of superheroes and featuring 10 of those superheroes, such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash. I bought 2 sheets of them at the time, one for myself and one for Mikey (which I haven’t given him yet because I want to place it in a protective cover for him). The art for each character on the stamps is usually by an artist that is most associated with that particular character. For instance, Curt Swan’s Superman, Neal Adams’ Batman and Green Lantern and Carmine Infantino’s The Flash. In addition, on the back of each stamp, there is a very brief biography of the character and a rundown of their powers. The remaining 10 stamps on each sheet are comprised of important covers from each hero’s history including Batman #1 by Batman creator Bob Kane, Green Lantern #4 by Gil Kane and Wonder Woman #22 by George Perez.

Later this year the USPS will release a sheet honoring the Marvel Comics line of superheroes which will showcase characters such as Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Wolverine and The Silver Surfer. This upcoming sheet will follow the example of the DC sheet, with the most associated artist portrait shots, small bios provided and classic covers with each character.. I’ll be picking up those for Mikey and myself as soon as they are available. No release date has been set at this point, other than sometime in 2007.

Two months from tonight Blog Girl and I will be sleeping in “The City of Light”, Paris, France. I’m finally starting to get excited.

I don’t know why, but this is the way it always is…I don’t get completely involved in a trip or outing until it is relatively close to the departure time. We’ve been planning this trip since our return from Scotland last May, but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve begun to really get ebullient about the trip to one of two places I’ve always wanted to visit (I’ll take your guesses as to the other locale in the comment section; here’s a hint- it’s a large city) outside the U.S.

But, that’s why Blog Girl and I make such a good team. She takes the early lead on gathering information, making reservations, and all the really hard work, then I come in and handle the easy stuff, lol.

Anyway, we’re getting things prepared and nailed down and the excitement level is building for both of us. Like last year’s Scotland trip, there will be a blog posted for those who are interested. I’ll be sending details and the link out to family and friends before departure. I’m hoping this year to be able to add some video uploads as well as the usual photos.