It oughta be safe in here from that ball drop tomorrow!

And so another year has come and gone…. or almost gone anyway.  It’s close enough for government work, and for blog work as well.  I’ve been at this for eleven full calendar years now, and since that very first outing in 2012 I’ve always provided a year end review of what went down at The Nest.  2022 will be no different, other than the fact that there’s so very little to talk about compared to past years.  So let’s see how long I can expound on 365 364 days of nothing…

The Endddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

In a departure from past Best Ofs (Best Oves?), I may as well start with the regular features, as they were about all I was offering up for a good chunk of the year.  Muzak Mondays brought us nine months of the Dusty Vinyl Archive, a month of Mecca Muzak Mondays in August, as well as the conclusion of my Shelf Critter Request countdown that ended in February and seems like such a long, distant memory at this point.  But through all the tumbleweeds that blew past my blog this year, my questionable taste in music continued to be one constant…

Much to your chagrin…

The Nest also concluded its fourth full year of participating in the Share Your World challenge on Thursdays.  This year I turned my SYW intros into quirky and insightful This Day In History blurbs, hitting every Thursday date in 2022, and planning to hit all 366 calendar dates by the end of 2028.  I can only imagine how dreary The Nest will be in six years time….

Lifted from Melanie’s winning 2019 Contest of Whatever entry. We will all miss her.

And Saturday has always been about the squirrels, and 2022 offered me plenty of great pics to share with you all each weekend.  In fact, with Saturday Squirrel turning 20 years old this October, I launched a countdown of my Top 50 favorite Saturday Squirrels which I’ve been running every Tuesday since late September, and which will continue on well into 2023…. so there is something you can definitely look forward to at The Nest next year!

What do you mean I’m not eligible since I came after the countdown started?

One feature that was still going relatively strong coming into 2022 was my Weekend Threesome I began last year featuring three random tidbits I felt like sharing every Sunday.  That series came about due to an alteration in my work schedule last March giving me a three day weekend, and thus more free time… and when my schedule reverted back to usual this June, the Threesome predictably died with it.

Aw, I hate to ruin such a fun threesome…

A dying feature did get two appearances this past Spring, and that’s Random Image Inspiration.  Between flaky Google results and wanting to spend my Wednesday mornings on other things, the RII ship seems to have sailed…. though both posts this year resulted in stories I like.

And the Shelf critters…. yeesh!  After their invasion of Muzak Mondays concluded early in the year, they made very few new appearances here.  How few?  I only churned out three new episodes of SCT this year, and the most recent story was on the first day of July!  At least they came roaring back for my yearly Advent calendar feature, whose theme this year was a Secret Santa exchange.  High quality entertainment that was witnessed by very few as audience participation hit a staggering nadir almost as soon as December began…

No doubt Vegemite slathered Mitzi drove everyone away…

And as always, there was the Contest of Whatever in February.  My ninth annual edition put forth the challenge of bringing to life a random unused critter from my shelf.  Namely, this one…

Moo?

It took a last minute rush of entries to get to even seven participants, the fewest in Contest history… but one of those just happened to be my favorite non-physical creation in all nine years with Mandy’s excellent Moofoo post!  As for what to expect for next February’s landmark 10th annual Contest of Whatever….. I haven’t given it much thought yet.  But whatever it is, we need some peeps to play this time!

And that’s…….. about it.  Hardly our finest hour, but hey, we’re still around and in business after 11 years!  That counts for something, right?  Tune in tomorrow as I end the year with a VERY SPECIAL Saturday Squirrel you won’t want to miss (now that’s marketing!)… and here’s hoping everyone has a wonderful new year, and that 2023 will bring more good, or even meh things to The Nest!

We’re going for the spray painted gold in 2023!