Yes, we're alive.

Wow. Time flies when you're having fun. Or just really busy. The last few weeks have been pretty crazy, but I guess that's what happens in the summer.

My excursion to see Wicked was excellent. The girls went out for some great food and wine, and more wine, and more wine, at Due Amici, a little restaurant near the theater. And just about the only restaurant in downtown Columbus that's open for dinner on a Sunday. The next day we all agreed that more food and less wine would have been a good idea. The show was great, even though the understudy was playing the role of Glinda. For my first Broadway show, I thought it was awesome. I'll definitely check out other shows as they come through Columbus. Spamalot, The Wedding Singer and The Lion King are on my radar. Riverdance is not.



I also survived three 12-hour days of volunteering in the media tent for the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational golf tournament, part of the PGA's Nationwide Tour. The tournament went extremely well, and even set a record for the Nationwide Tour: an amateur, Daniel Summerhays, won the tournament for the first time in the history of the Nationwide Tour. It was also only the 5th time since 1950 an amateur has won a PGA-sponsored event; Phil Mickelson was the last one to do it in 1991. He now has the opportunity to declare himself professional within the next 60 days and join the Nationwide Tour for the rest of 2007 and 2008. Or he can wait until January and join just in 2008. He's got some big decisions ahead of him. He was very nice when he came into the media tent. In fact, all the players who came in were very down to earth. I suppose most minor-league athletes are since they're not rolling in the dough yet.

Chris and James also got a chance to check out the tournament. One of the perks of volunteering was the 2 week-long passes I received for family and friends to use. I hear it was a good time. I'm planning on volunteering again next year. Just maybe not for 12 hours, 3 days in a row.

Next up was supposed to be a visit to the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair to see Chris' mom at work. However, she did extremely well at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Colorado, and had to pull out of her next two shows, including Ann Arbor, to prepare for other future shows. So, we won't be making the trip to Ann Arbor. That's probably a good thing for us since we can use a weekend at home. We'll try to catch up with the Bileks sometime around Lauren's birthday.