Global Schadenfreude

Very interesting op/ed essay in the latest issue of Foreign Policy (article link here).

Daily Mantra

Just two more days until my Wells group retreat at the Ritz-Carlton Resort & Spa in Half Moon Bay (link here)... just two more days until my Wells group retreat at the Ritz-Carlton Resort & Spa in Half Moon Bay... just two more days until my Wells group retreat at the Ritz-Carlton Resort & Spa in Half Moon Bay. Repeat mantra until the pain is alleviated.

Time is Flying By... at Gale Force

Thought it appropriate with the recent spate of catastrophic hurricanes battering the Southeast that my own schedule has seemed like a plus-150 mph, category 5 windstorm. Wedding planning, honeymoon planning, preparing for my second year of the MBA program, preparing for the move from Burlingame to San Mateo, not to mention the typical demands from work, family, and friends, make Hurricane Ivan look like a minor gust of wind during a typical Chicago day. In the past week, I must have driven what is the equivalent of three laps around the entire Bay Area running errands, visiting with family, meeting with friends, shopping for gifts, searching for furniture, ad infinitem. Thankfully, we have enjoyed and made the most of what little downtime we do have. On Saturday evening, after watching the Cal football team (now ranked tenth in the nation by both AP and ESPN) demolish their second opponent, hapless New Mexico State, we met up with Wag Boy down in Palo Alto and had a hearty dinner at Gordon Biersch off University. The coupling of their seasonal hefeweizen with a basket of their tasty garlic fries rocks. It was a great late summer evening down on "the Farm". And before we knew it, the streets were flooded with inebriated and obnoxious Stanford football fans celebrating their team's drubbing of BYU at neighboring Stanford Stadium. Read later that the Athletic Director had to write a formal letter of apology to BYU for the Stanford Band's halftime show in which they poked fun at BYU's Mormon heritage by depicting a polygamous BYU student with his four wives. Typical. The Stanford Band is notorious for their game-time antics. Most Cal fans will never forget the Band's arrogance when they marched prematurely onto the field during the 1982 Big Game; and will never forget the humiliation the Band suffered seconds later (see photo) at the end of what is now known simply as "the Big Play". They will never learn.