It took nearly seven years, but during the trading day on Sept. 28, the Dow Jones industrial average briefly reached a new high of 11,725, surpassing the prior peak close of 11,723 set on Jan. 23, 2000.

Remember those days? That was during the height of the dot-com boom, when the economy was speeding ahead and technology shares were all the rage. My brother-in-law was holding CMGI, hoping for "one more double" and I was begging him to sell half and buy oil stocks instead (if only you'd listened, Bob!). I was very pregnant with my first child -- now a first grader. Time does fly.

Stocks fell for three painful years, first as the dot-com bubble burst, then Sept. 11 terrorist attacks pounded the economy, and finally, as corporate scandals like Enron and Worldcom gripped the nation. The Dow hit a low of 7,286 on Oct. 9, 2002. (a 38% decline from high).

Then, surprise, surprise, 2003 was a boom year for equities. But after that, the charts look kind of flat and bumpy on the road to Dow 11,000. I remember wondering in 2004 and 2005, would we ever get past that level? And this year, could we stay above it? Since August, however, stocks have had a very nice run up to today's close of 11,718.

What is fueling the stock buying now, my colleague Sarah Gilbert asked recently. It's certainly not obvious.

After all, the economy is slowing. The latest reading on gross domestic product came in even lower than thought. Today the Commerce Dept reported 2.6% growth in April-June, when 2.9% growth was reported as a preliminary figure a month ago. Growth in the first quarter was 5.6%.