I woke up on Monday morning at 3:30AM to catch 6AM flight to San Diego. Boy is that early! After a connection in Cincinnatti, I was off to San Diego in a nice comfy seat on a Delta flight. (Props to Delta for finally having comfortable seating in coach class!) Of all the random people in the world who I could have sat next to, it turns out I sat next to the youth pastor of my brother Wesley’s chuch. He and 13 kids from their church were on their way to a week long mission trip in Mexico. Small world.

So, I arrived in San Diego, went to the car rental place to pick up my economy class vehicle. When I got there, they were all out of economy cars, so they had to upgrade me for free to a Dodge Magnum – nearly idenitical to the car that I own. Crazy! Sweet!

So, then I was off to meet Micheal. Michael’s a domain name guru. He and I are brainstorming on ways to monetize Realty.com and our other assets. The meeting was great. Lunch was good. But, taking in the Padres game at the end of the night was the best. Thanks for a great time Michael! Cheers!

Here’s the photos.

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I went and visited my brother, Matt, over the July 4th weekend. It was really great. Matt lives in a posh neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Very nice place, nice restaurants, nice hang outs, cool pools, and great weather. For the 4th, we went to a Birmingham Barons baseball game. The Barons are the AA team for the Chicago WhiteSox. (Michael Jordan played here when he was trying to play baseball). The team had a fireworks display after the game, all set to patriotic music. It was well worth the $6 entry fee.

Here are the photos.

It was probably the most all-American 4th of July I ever had. We ate at Johnny Rockets for lunch. I had apple pie ala mode. We went to a baseball game. I ate a hot dog and a coke. And we watched fireworks to cap off the night. Good times.

Thanks for a great time, Matt!

This is the video I took of the fireworks grand finale! Pretty well done for a minor league baseball team. (They played “Sweet Home Alabama” as the closing song. Awesome!)

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I found this video of the Panthers’ Super Bowl appearance against the Patriots. I can’t tell you how excited this makes me for this upcoming football season. Every team has gotten better. The Panthers have added a bunch of new players who should make a great impact. But, we do have tough schedule to overcome. But, this video has me so psyched! I can’t wait for the season to get here. SPOT THE BALL!!

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One of the craziest mascots in all of sports is the Stanford Tree. Well, last night I got to see it in person. Only an hour after arriving in San Francisco I drove down to Palo Alto (home of Stanford University). It is a georgeous area. Pristine yards, streets, great weather. I didn’t realize how close I actually was to Stanford, and once I did I had to drive through.

Driving through the campus I began to notice tons of people walking to a building. It meant only one thing – a basketball game! I had time to spare, and I figured “carpe diem”. $37 later, I had a ticket in the upper level (real small arena, so the seats weren’t too bad) for the Stanford vs. #9 Washington Huskies game.

I stayed only through the first half, but it turns out that Stanford won! For me, the $37 ticket was much worth it just to see the tree. How funny is it to have a tree dancing around the floor trying to pump up the crowd. “Who were the ad geniuses to come up with that one?”

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ESPN’s Bill Simmons made me fall off the couch laughing tonight. He wins the award for best column of the year, so far.

For those who were hunkered down in their fallout shelters the last 4 days and didn’t hear about Steve Smith’s full out assault on the Chicago Bears entire defensive backfield during the Panthers 29-21 win Sunday night, here’s Bill’s award for “Worst Move Before a Playoff Game”

To the Bears D-backs who trash-talked Steve Smith in the pregame warmups before the Carolina game. Why wasn’t this in the scouting report? If you were Lovie Smith, wouldn’t this have been your only ironclad instructions all week? Don’t talk to him, don’t look at him, don’t even make eye contact with him. If he approaches you in the warm ups, act the same way you would if you were hiking in the wilderness and a grizzly bear approached you — don’t move, don’t react, don’t do anything until it walks away.

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Amazing domination. What a game. Congrats to the entire Panther Nation! If you didn’t see it, the Carolina Panthers shut out the NY Giants 27-0. It’s almost unheard of for a playoff team to go scoreless in a game. Surely a testament to the Panther defense.

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