Today we ripped off a blogger named Becky and her blog Am I Half Dead or Am I Doing Fine. She doesn’t say where she stole it. But, it was probably stolen there as well. So, of course, that will be as far as we go. Tracing back our theft’s thieves might take some time. Take the time to comment on other player’s posts. It’s a great way to make new friends! Link back to us at Sunday Stealing!

Cheers to all of us thieves!

Jack’s Answers

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Visited a sex club.  Got naked on a clothing-optional beach.  Threw a birthday party for my child.  Joined Twitter and didn’t hate it.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? 
Probably not.  Truth be told, I don’t even remember what my resolutions were, or whether I actually made any.  I’m not sure that I will make any this year, but if I do they’ll probably be quickly forgotten.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? 
My sister-in-law had a baby girl last week.

4. Did anyone close to you die? 
No.  I hope the trend continues through 2012.

5. What countries did you visit? 
Canada is the only foreign country in which I set foot in 2011.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? 
I’m going to sound like a greedy asshole, but I’m going with more sex.  I could probably have it daily and still want more.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 
On August 13th, we had a threesome.  Those don’t happen very often, and when they do I’m unlikely to forget the date.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? 
I’m going to go with blogging.  Since returning to it in August, we really threw ourselves into it in a way that we never actually did in its early days.  Since August 18, 2011, we posted 118 entries.  By comparison, between September 18, 2008 and August 17, 2011, we only posted 124.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I’d love to be able to sit for hours and try and think of a huge personal failure of mine from 2011, but I’m going to cut my losses after five minutes and say that either I had no big failures, or else I just can’t think of one.  In that case, it’s my memory that failed.  Either way, consider this one answered.

10. What was the best thing you bought? 
A new car.

11. Whose behavior merited celebration? 
Certainly not my kid, who has demonstrated a fierce independent streak, as well as attitude to spare.  Then again, these things probably are meritorious.  She’s my kid for sure.

12. Whose behavior made you appalled and disgusted? 
Rick Perry.  Look, if you don’t want to read about politics please feel free to skip this answer.  But the guy is a total embarrassment.  Between his reprehensible social views and his tendency to make the most spectacular factual errors at the G.O.P. debates and blame them on external factors like the debate process itself, he is a clown.

13. What song will always remind you of 2011? 
The Dora the Explorer theme song.  My daughter is nuts for this chick and her insipid cartoon show.  You know what?  My resolution for 2012 is to jam foreign objects into my ears whenever the Dora the Explorer theme song plays.

14. What do you wish you’d done more of? 
I wish I’d have set aside a little more time for non-blog writing.  For the fourth straight year I participated in NaNoWriMo this past November, and I wrote fewer words than I ever have before.  This was to be expected considering that our November blog activity includes thirty-one entries – more than one per day – most of which i wrote, and all of which I edited and posted.

15. What do you wish you’d done less of? 
I almost want to say that I wish I’d blogged less.  I don’t wish that, of course; I’m very proud of our output this year, especially considering that our 118 entries were posted over the course of just under four and a half months.  We’re very prolific!  We’re almost too prolific.

16. Did you fall in love in 2011? 
No.  I was already in love.

17. What was your favorite new TV program? 
I don’t really watch much television.  The shows I do watch have been on the air for years, or in the case of Beavis and Butt-Head, which I loved (don’t judge me!), have returned after a fourteen-year hiatus.  So I’ve got nothing for this one.

18. What was the best book you read? 
Sex at Dawn.  Technically I didn’t read it; we listened to the audio book during a road trip last summer.

19. What one thing would have made your year measurably more satisfying? 
I wish we had been blogging and tweeting at the beginning of the year.  The amount of gratification that I have gotten from these two aspects of my life has been considerable, and that’s just since summer.

20. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Whatever I can snatch from an unattended dryer at the laundromat becomes my “look”.

21. What kept you sane? 
Sane?  Well, if you say I am.  The things that kept me sane included my wife and child (technically people, not things), sex, masturbation, unhealthy food, and alcohol.  Blogging and tweeting were also helpful, though these things only came about during the second half of the year.

22. Who did you miss? 
No one.  I’m a remarkably accurate shot.

23. Who was the best new person you met? 
I didn’t actually meet them physically, but I’ll go with the many new online friends that I know through blogging and Twitter.  It’s an honor to interact with you, and I am glad to call you all friends.

24. Tell us a valuable lesson you learned in 2011? 
Sometimes you have to remove negative influences from your life, even if they are long-standing acquaintances or family members.  Without cutting the negativity from your life, you risk running out of room for the truly positive and worthy.

25. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. 
“…there’s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last,” from A Long December, by The Counting Crows.  The song is sung from the perspective of a man who has had a challenging year and hopes for better after the new year.  Although this past month has been anything but long, the lyric is particularly resonant for me.  Our 2011 was challenging, but it’s been extremely rewarding, and unlike the year spoken of in the song, my 2011 will be a tough act to follow.

Jill’s Answers

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
We went to a sex club, and we got naked on a beach.  In fact, a picture of me sunning myself there was our final official HNT.  If you haven’t seen it already, you should do so right now, since I froze my butt off.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? 
No, I didn’t.  I resolved to exercise four days a week, every single week, and I didn’t.  It was a lot easier in the spring and summer than it was in the fall and winter, although I did manage to exercise at least twice most weeks.  This year I hope to spend more time with my family and less time working.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? 
My sister had a baby girl.

4. Did anyone close to you die? 
A friend of my family committed suicide.  It was a profound shock because his family and mine are very close.  Both of our families are also very similar.  Tight-knit, raised Catholic, lots of siblings.  Given these similarities, it occurred to me that it could easily have been one of my brothers or sisters

5. What countries did you visit? 
Just Canada.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? 
Definitely more sleep!  And more money is always nice.  I’d love to have a little more financial breathing room.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 
On February 22, our daughter walked for the first time.  On July 16, we left for a cruise, and it was one of the best trips we’ve ever taken.  And while my birthday is always memorable, this year Jack threw the greatest surprise party in honor of my 40th.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? 
I was given tenure at my current school district this past August.  I had tenure at a previous school district where I taught, but after switching school districts you have to start all over again.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I don’t really feel like I’ve failed at anything this year.  Maybe I failed in keeping my New Year’s resolution, but that’s the only thing that comes to mind.

10. What was the best thing you bought? 
My fuck me boots.  And a new car.

11. Whose behavior merited celebration? 
My daughter.  In 2011, she started walking, began speaking full sentences, and reached so many other milestones.  We are very proud of her.

12. Whose behavior made you appalled and disgusted? 
Everyone involved in the Penn State sex abuse scandal and coverup.  Fuck anyone who hurts a child, or allows one to be hurt in so deplorable a fashion.

13. What song will always remind you of 2011? 
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  It’s the first song our daughter learned, and she sings it all the time.  We are hoping we can teach her a new song for 2012.

14. What do you wish you’d done more of? 
Sleep.  I almost said sex, but we had a ton of it.  In fact, I sacrificed a hell of a lot of sleep to maintain our sex life.  So I’ll go with sleep.  For the rest of my life, I think I will be relatively sleep-deprived.

15. What do you wish you’d done less of? 
I tend to bring home a lot of my work, so in addition to physically being at my job for eight hours, I find that I end up working ten or twelve hour days.  So I’ll say that I wish I worked less last year.

16. Did you fall in love in 2011? 
No, I’ve been in love with the people I love before since 2011.

17. What was your favorite new TV program? 
Well, it isn’t a new show, exactly, but Jack and I loved MTV’s relaunch of Beavis and Butt-Head.

18. What was the best book you read? 
Sex at Dawn was the most enlightening book I have ever read.  It really challenged my preconceived notions about sexuality and monogamy.

19. What one thing would have made your year measurably more satisfying? 
Sleep.  Sorry for repeating my answer from #6 and #14, but it’s true.  The only thing lacking in my life is sleep.  Everything else is excellent.

20. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
I don’t even know how to answer this one.  I’m a teacher, but I try not to wear “teacher clothes”.  I tend to wear jeans or skirts with blouses and cleavage-revealing tops.

21. What kept you sane? 
More than anyone or anything, Jack kept me sane.  To use a cliché, he is my rock.

22. Who did you miss? 
My grandmother.  I always miss her.

23. Who was the best new person you met? 
I can’t pick just one, but I consider myself very lucky to have met (online only so far) the wonderful people who we have gotten to know through Twitter and our blog.

24. Tell us a valuable lesson you learned in 2011? 
My daughter has shown me how to truly enjoy life.  She finds wonder and excitement in almost everything she encounters.

25. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. 
“They showed you a statue, told you to pray/They built you a temple and locked you away/But they never told you the price that you pay”, from Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel.  This song sums up the conflict I have between my Catholic upbringing and my own feelings about my sexuality and sexual agency.  Although I still believe in some of the tenets of Catholicism I find it easier lately to compartmentalize much of what I’ve been taught that is contrary to my current feelings.