Having recently made a list of computers I've owned over the last 20 years, I decided to make a list of photography equipment I've owned. This list goes back to the first film camera I can recall buying for myself, around 1997. In that time, I've bought 7 cameras and 11 major accessories. Of those, I still own and use one of those cameras and six of those accessories.

Cameras
DateWhatResolutionNotes
1997?P&S Camera (Olympus?) 35mm film And in my semester abroad I shot an unprecedented number of rolls of film—over a dozen! Imagine the expense of those nearly 300 prints. It's no wonder that I couldn't afford duplicates. I envied the fellow student with a digital camera and a laptop. Envied him so much.
1999Olympus fixed lens (possibly D-340R) 1280x960 A digital camera for only a few hundred dollars? I couldn't say no!
2001Olympus C2100UZ1600x1200 After living without any zoom, the loss of the previous camera permitted me to upgrade to one with a *lot* of zoom. Very early EVF camera, by the way. "Many people can forgive the C-2100UZ for only having 2 megapixels in the age of 3 megapixel'ers because of this big lens."
2002Nikon 57002560x1920 Purchased out of megapixel envy, I think. Another EVF camera.
2004 Canon Digital Rebel 300D3072x2048 A digital SLR for under a thousand bucks? I couldn't say no! By being first at this price point, Canon certainly captured me. Ultimately traded in for a rebate against the purchase of the 7D.
2009Canon Digital Rebel XSi (EOS 450D)4242x2848 The original Digital Rebel didn't have any sort of dust removal system. I badly botched my attempted manual cleaning of the sensor, which led to the purchase of the 450D right before leaving on a trip.
2011 Canon EOS 7D5184x3456 Feature envy, ISO envy. Also, I learned about the Canon Loyalty program and got a heck of a deal. The feature I told myself I had to have was focus microadjustment. Now I also couldn't live without the 19 AF points and other advanced focus features.
Lenses & Major Accessories
2004 Sigma 18-50 and 55-200mm
2005? Canon 75-300mm IS
2006 Ring Flash 100mm f/3.5 Macro
2009 Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro Canon 18-50mm IS (kit lens with 450D)
2011 Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro Canon 300mm f/4L IS
Canon 430EX II Speedlight Canon 50mm f/1.8
bold denotes an item I still own and have used in the last year
What I have to show for it
Approximately 110,000 photos in 200 gigabytes Various prints around the house and office
Dozens of blog entries Years of gifts in prints, calendars, cards, etc

What have I learned? 2011 was a year of excess in photography purchases, that's for sure. Lenses are durable, and so are the cameras (unles you follow instructions on the internet on how to clean the DSLR sensor with a wire brush.) (no, I'm not quite serious about that last fact. Just uncomfortably close.) On the other hand, there's always another lens to drool over.

Luckily for me, I spend a lot of time wishing for more magnification, and there's not a lot of room to go "up" in EOS bodies without switching to a full-frame sensor and losing 1.6x of maginification. On the other hand, I could go spend a few thousand on lenses without any great difficulty, at least if somebody's buying.