My August is going to be interesting. Here’s what it’s looking like.

• Vegas, baby…Vegas. 10 days. And then if I make it back home from Vegas
• My parents are coming to town, yay! Part of the reason is the
• Arthur Murray Summer Showcase
• RNast comes to town and we both attempt to summit Mt. Rainier

That being said, if you’ll be in Vegas for either Black Hat or DefCon let me know as you should stop by the booth and say hi and pick up an invite for the Saturday night party.

Also, if anybody else wants to come visit me in lovely Sea-town you better hurry as the summer is almost over!

Hello from the MLS All-Star game in Denver, CO! I was in the right Irish pub at the right time!

Update to the story. I went out and grabbed a drink last night at a local Irish pub in Denver. While sitting there with my co-worker, we noticed somebody behind us who happened to have some tickets for sale to the MLS All-Stars vs Celtic FC soccer game that night, which was a pretty big game. The last time I saw a live MLS game was way back in 2001 when I saw the Chicago Fire play. While I was up grabbing a hot dog, I also nearly bumped into David Beckham…or at least the security staff that surrounded him. I didn’t quite know what was going on when one of his staff asked me to stay back and then I saw the swarms of girls surrounding the blond-headed Beckham. I had my phone on me, but couldn’t really get a good picture. I did hold a little kid up to see him and got a great picture with somebody else’s phone, though!

Being the busy guy that I am, Sunday is the one day of the week when I get a little down time.  I’ve usually got something to keep me occupied during the day, but Sunday nights are when I allow myself to slow down.  I go to Whole Foods and pick up a fresh steak or pork chop.  I used to cook it in my oven, but lately I’ve been using my fancy new grill.  Does this not look like the best meal ever?!

Well it was - my neighbors probably thought I had a girl over from the noises I was making, but no…the steak was just that good (I could pull the meat off the bone with my fork!) and the corn on the cob was absolutely delicious!

I’ve got another busy few weeks coming up.  I’ll be in Denver later this week, then I’ll be in Vegas at the end of the month for a stretch and then the ‘rents are coming to town!

Sometimes I forget how much we take our freedom for granted in this country. In light of our recent celebration of independence, I was in a local coffee shop this morning when I saw the two glaringly different front pages below. This really made me stop and realize just how lucky we are to live in this country. While I definitely don’t agree with some of the measures that have been put into place since 2001 and we have our fair share of challenges, we are still somehow able to maintain a mostly safe and peaceful manner of living. Thanks to those that make that possible.

It’s 11pm on Sunday night and I’m finally winding down my weekend. And the weekend began with the 4th of July on Wednesday! I had a few people over, barbequed, and then walked down to GasWorks Park, one of the most popular places to watch fireworks in Seattle. A couple people were stuck at my place afterwards, so after a couple games of pool we moved on a game of Scrabble that lasted until the wee hours of the morning.

I got a call from all my old friends back in Chicago that were having a little reunion of people from where we all first worked and met. It was great to hear them all and I wish could have been there. I definitely miss them all like crazy. I relaxed Friday night (oh wait, no I didn’t…hehe) and woke up early Friday morning for a hike down to Reflection Lake by Mt. Rainier. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining bright except for a brief moment when we passed through Tacoma and the sky turned grey…weird. It was a great hike, a total of 8.12 miles, which you can see below:

Upon returning to Seattle, we promptly cleaned up and went and got some spicy tots(!) at a local dive bar. We tried to wind down the night by watching a movie but I’m pretty sure we all passed out on the couch after ten(?) minutes. I can’t say for sure because I was toast after five, hehe.

Sunday was another great day, but I had to spend most of it reorganizing my computers in the basement. Unfortunately, one of them died during the move. Bummer. I also wandered around the Fremont Sunday Market for a good couple hours. It was such a nice day, I just didn’t want to go back to the basement…but it had to be done.

Finally, I ended my weekend with a soccer game. I played goalie tonight since our normal one couldn’t make it. I only let in two goals and our team tooke care of the rest scoring four to give us the win!

And now, a few things left to do (like shower!) before I crash and start a new week.