It blows me away how much has changed since Ian was born. When he was born, we were in temporary housing not more than 4 miles from here. I had just returned to Microsoft 7 months earlier after my startup debacle in North Carolina and we had no idea that we were in the early phase of the roughest patch in our lives. But I digress. Today is about Ian and what a day it was!

We let the boys have a b-day party every other year (worked great alternating between the two, but will be interesting now that Cole is in the picture). This year, Ian wanted a Monster/Dragon party. As usual, Erin went above and beyond, staying up late most of the week preparing games and confections. She made eye balls that stick to the window and a large paper monster which she taped to one side of the patio door and had the kids play pin the eyeball on the monster. They had eyeball monster juice with dry ice and a bunch of other activities that were a hit with the kids.

It’s also hard to believe that it is back to school for the kids in two weeks. Nathan will be entering 1st grade and Ian will be attending half day pre-school.

Also want to apologize for the fact I haven’t blogged in a while. It’s been a crappy few weeks. We’ve had illness as well as a death in the family and it has put my mind in other places. Sorry for the vagueness too, but I’m not all that comfortable going into detail about that kind of stuff on a public website.

Hope you are all enjoying the summer and we hope to see/talk to you soon.

-David

Last month Kate and I went to see the Foo Fighters at the Berkeley Community Theater. I wasn’t sure what to expect because they decided to make this an acoustic tour, reflecting the music found on half of their “In Your Honor” CDs . I love acoustic sets, but I have to say that one of the things that draws me to the Foo Fighters is the raw energy of the band that is created from the huge multi-layered sounds that emit from the guitars, bass, drums and Grohl’s belting. It only took a couple of mintues into the show for me to realize that this would shape up to be my favorite show of all time.

It also re-inforced to me that Dave Grohl is one of (if not the best) rock musician out there. Towards the end of the show, he came out for an encore by himself and sang “Best of You” a cappella and then added only his acoustic guitar. If you are familiar with the song, you’d remember that it is a pretty heavy song, yet he carried it without any bass, drums or backup vocals. Okay, he didn’t carry it, he nailed it….gave me the chills. Was over the top incredible. The entire show was unbelievable. There aren’t many shows left and many are sold out, but if you can catch it, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Here’s the set list (Thanks Kate!):

1. Razor – (just David Grohl – later joined by rest of band)
2. Still
3. On the Mend
4. Walking After You
5. Over and Out
6. Next Year
7. Another Round
8. Ain’t It the Life
9. See You
10. Floaty (sung by Petra Haden)
11. Virginia Moon
12. Cold Day in the Sun (sung by Taylor Hawkens)
13. Miracle
14. February Stars
15. Times Like These

ENCORE
1. Friend of a Friend (just David Grohl)
2. Best of You (just David Grohl)
3. Everlong (just David Grohl and later joined by the rest of the band)

And did I mention that Dave broke his own rule and played a Nirvana tune? Not only that but he preceded “Friend of a Friend” with an awesome story about his days in Nirvana….

We’re having another gorgeous weekend here in the NW. Today we took an impromptu trip to West Seattle and hung out at Alki beach for a few hours. The kids had a good time playing in the sand, but were pretty disappointed when they realized that they couldn’t go swimming (the water was less than 50 degrees and the seaweed was so thick that the waves were green).

But I was happy because I just got my new 70-200mm lens! I eBay’d my 80-200 and sold the Nikon D70, and replaced them with the 70-200 which includes vibration reduction. It makes it much easier to shoot long focal lengths without a tripod and the results so far are awesome!

Click on the picture of Cole above to visit the gallery of pics that I took at the beach.