Wide Awake at 3 a.m.

Gracie is a little over 4 months old now and she was getting a little shaggy. So today we took her to our local pet salon Sparky’s for her first haircut! The staff loved Gracie and Bill was fantastic. Gracie was very well-behaved and got a little first-haircut present from them that she absolutely loves. They did a great job — Mags and I love it!

On the afternoon of Saturday, August 5th, I lost a dear friend of mine, Larry Wade, in a tragic drowning accident while we were hiking in Mammoth Mountain. As I write this, a month later, I am still in disbelief. I don’t think I will ever get over his loss. He was the wisest, most sincere man I’ve ever known. He always saw the good in everything and lived life to the fullest. I looked up to him constantly and always knew how incredibly lucky I was to have him as a colleague, mentor and, most importantly, friend.

His friends and colleagues created a wonderful tribute site that I encourage you to visit. There are wonderful testimonials, Larry’s brother Tom’s eulogy, and information for the Larry Wade Children’s Memorial Fund. Larry was married to his true love, Lesley, and his pride and joy were his three young children, Troy, Hannah and Dylan.

Good-bye, dear friend. May you rest in peace. You will remain in my heart forever.

We’re back from our honeymoon! We stayed in Kapalua, Maui for 4 days and Hualalai, Hawaii (The Big Island) for 4 days. It was very relaxing. Unlike a lot of our vacations, we pretty much did nothing but enjoy the resorts and all of its amenities.

We started playing golf! Well…sort of. We took a couple golf lessons from the pro and spent some time at the driving range every day except for one. On that day, we drove from Hualalai near Kona on the west coast to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park near Hilo on the east coast. We left at the crack of dawn and didn’t get back until dusk. We had to spend at least one day venturing out to see some of the island’s beautiful sites since we’d never been on The Big Island before.

We have a private photo set on Flickr with our honeymoon pics. If you need access, let me know.