A posthaven for Eric…

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

I am very behind with photo sharing. Here are the pictures I took during our trip to Seattle the last weekend of August.

No surprise, Seattle was beautiful in August. What was surprising is that in 2011, I waited until August to make my first trip of the year. That is my latest Seattle visit in all the years since I first went up for interviews at Microsoft February 2005. I guess I have just been too busy this year. Sorry Seattle, it won't happen again.

The wedding was really well done. We all had a ball. I got to hang out with the old roommates the day before and see the Gentlemen Buckhunters play in hippie Fremont the day after. All in all, great trip. We will be back in November for Thanksgiving and Will &Hilary's wedding.

The last Sunday of MCV was pretty similar to the final day of all of the Mancations to come before it - get up exhausted and hungover, pack into a car and drive somewhere for the final evening.  That Sunday we had just two real goals: get from Austin to Arlington and make use of our spectacular tickets at that night's Rangers game.

We started the left Austin, hit up Waffle House.  MG drove Josh back to Austin for his medicine and upon their return, we finished a fairly terrible breakfast served by some fairly sad waitresses.  A couple hours into our drive to Dallas, Colin says there is something wrong with the car, indeed there is, we have a flat and in 100 degree heat, we proceed to change that sucker.  Unfortunately, the bolts the lug nuts were screwed around had expanded in the heat and it took MG and I a solid 40 minutes plus a few burns to get the flat off and the spare on. Worst part was we stopped the car about fifty feet from the shade of an overpass.  Very dumb.

In Dallas, we swapped out that car for a new rental and made it to Rangers Ballpark just in time for the national anthem.  Our seats were probably the best in Mancation history, right by the Rangers dugout, on the right field line.  The game was great, even historical as Michael Young joined the 2000 hit club that night, helping the Rangers sluggers overcome a 4-0 deficit in the 8th.     

All in all, this was a solid Mancation.  I'd probably rank it tied for 3rd with MCIII behind MCII and MCIV but ahead of MCI where we didn't really know what we were doing yet.  Where are we doing MCVI?  Not sure yet.  MG still needs to hit up KC, St Louis and Cinci, so maybe we could do a Midwest Mancation?  Or we could do Toronto with a road trip to Montreal, i.e. Canadian Mancation.  It will really come down to the MLB schedule.

On Saturday of MCV, we got up hungover and got the f* out of Houston, stopping at Denny's a few miles outside that sprawling wasteland.  We drove to Austin, checked into our hotel and then checked out the Bastrop Rodeo a few miles away. 

People often say "This ain't my first rodeo" but actually, this was our first rodeo and what a killer rodeo at that.  Lots of stars from the CPRA were competing in bare bronc riding, barrel racing, bull riding, calf roping, saddle bronc and steer wrestling.  The rodeo and its adjoining carnival was also the final event of the Bastrop High School Homecoming so pretty much the whole town of Bastrop made an appearance.

Back in Austin, Manish's buddy from MIT, Marcus took us out for more partying on and around Austin's infamous Sixth Street starting with live music at Club de Ville.  Going out in Sixth Street is really quite crazy with so many bars on one street and just thousands of kids stumbling around through them.  One club we stopped in had a pretty dope dubstep show happening but it was too loud for our crew so we left and called it a night  ...but not before a couple drunk chicks hated on MG and Marcus.  Not sure what that was about, but definitely very disrespectful and deserving of slaps, Rick James style.

This August, the Mancation crew (sadly minus Rick) flawlessly executed the fifth Mancation, Deep In The Heart of Texas.

The annual road trip took us from Houston to Austin and from Austin to Dallas in order to help Manish cross off Minute Maid Park and Rangers Ballpark from his "30 under 30" baseball odyssey. Here are the long awaited pics, beginning with Friday.

We started the day off right with Pappas BBQ, then shot a glock a bunch of times at the range before catching the Astros game with MG's cousin, Karuna, and my friend Ryan and his lady. After the game, Karuna took us out to a real honky-tonk where we line-danced and rode the mechanical bull and then to another bar for a few games of cornhole. The night ended with a bunch of drive thru mexican food in the lobby of our hotel.

With Garvo...

Sent from my iPhone

One of my favorite electronic groups is doing the Treasure Island Music Festival in October... when I am going to be all the way out in Zanzibar.

I have been waiting nine months for this stat to show up on Bloomberg.  Far more than Real GDP, I think that Real Median Income is the quintessential barometer of the economic success of our democracy.  By this measure, the American economy is miserably failing to increase the standard of living of most Americans.   I doubt it is a coincidence that this began deteriorating shortly after China joined the WTO.  Hopefully, this has troughed.  More than ever, America needs an employment plan for the millions of low skilled workers displaced by globalization.

Somehow my brother got Topper Dandy from Three Sheets to the Wind to send me a band t-shirt.  So rad.