...was one of the many places I've been other than home recently. (more on this below...)

I've been running around so much that it's nice to finally be home and catching up on stuff. It's been an incredibly busy few months.

Based on curiosity more than anything, I interviewed for two jobs. Both places made me really nice [and multiple] offers in an attempt to hire me, but I decided against both. The interviews gave me a pretty good opportunity to figure out what I want to do with myself and I've started to further execute that plan. It's not much different then what I've been doing for the last few years, but it's includes more structure, milestones/goals, as well as a more of a mapped out future. I'm pretty excited and as it gets further along, I'll post more.

I've been traveling a lot. I've had a bunch of client projects out of town. Most recently, I just got back from Boston on Wednesday. I've been up there so much the last few months, it's becoming a second home. I try to mix some fun into my trips and the most notable was a recent visit to Milwaukee and Chicago. In Milwaukee I got a chance to check out their annual Summerfest Music Festival. There weren't any good artists performing when I was there, but it was a cool event and I was disappointed I couldn't stay around long. To give you an idea, here's some of the artists that performed  there this year over a 11 day period on the many, many different stages: John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, The Black Crowes, Santana, Stevie Nicks, The Allman Brothers Band, Journey, Pixies, Weezer, Wallflowers, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, James Taylor, Ben Folds, David Lee Roth, Death Cab For Cutie, Gavin DeGraw, Gin Blossoms (they are still around?!? why?), Howie Day, Isaac Hayes, Lewis Black, Moby, Rachael Yamagata, Styx, Vanessa Carlton, and the Violent Femmes. That's just a small sampling. Pretty incredible.

On the evening before the Fourth of July (July 3rd of those of you that aren't good with math or using a calendar), I went to my friend's friend's boyfriend's friend's (yes, that's a vague description, but it keeps with my theme of being vague; because I'm in a silly mood, I've included a picture for those of you who might be confused by that description:


) where was I… oh, yeah, right…  house that was in Chicago, but outside of downtown Chicago for a Canadian Independence Day party (the person throwing the party was Canadian). We were able to watch the fireworks in downtown Chicago as well as surrounding areas in an awesome 360 degree display from the roof. (The fireworks weren't for Canadian Independence Day, rather for the American Independence Day, just a day early; it being Canadian Independence Day was just a coincidence. Any one confused yet?) Everywhere I looked there were fireworks. It was very cool.

On the Fourth, I took in the Taste of Chicago festival in Grant Park with my friend which included a free concert. One of the artists was Stereophonics, which we saw and very much enjoyed. We didn't stick around for the main act, which was Moby, because it was raining and we both had work to do.

I've been a lot more organized recently. My new cell phone has certainly helped me with that (more about that on my other blog). As part of my organization kick, I've been doing a better job of keeping my photoblog up to date. I've also created a new photo gallery using the same software. Check them out for some visual updates on my life, if you are interested.

For those keeping track at home, firstrowidiots.com has been updated with a new look and a new awesome companion site called First Row Photos that I'm pretty proud of.

I hope to stay a lot bit more on top of this blog, but that promise (as well as this statement for that matter) is getting old. As usual, I'll continue updating this blog when I feel like it.

That's all for now, folks. Thanks for stopping by.