Two big things:

1. I've started taking vacation time regularly.

2. My big rugby event is this weekend, and it's shaping up to be epic.

So, as a tech guy who grew up in Silicon Valley and learned that you are your job and nothing else... it took me a long time to realize that I EARNED vacation time and DESERVED to take it and the company would be JUST FINE without me for a few days here and there.

Having, once again, maxed out my vacation accrual, I've made it a policy to take time off regularly. So I've got a series of long weekends planned now through November. I'm taking three days this week - Thu, Fri, and Mon - to give myself time to produce the rugby event. Then a weekend to do special effects for a friend's documentary he's shooting in the desert. Then a really long weekend in Vegas for the USA v Ireland rugby match (and my sister-in-law's birthday). And going to the Jet Sprint Boat races another weekend.

And I'm really happy about all of this.

Tomorrow we go into crunch mode on the National Rugby 7s Championship tournament we are hosting here in Tukwila, WA. I'm building several structures for the event, managing all of the 15 vendors, and all of the Media for the event. Fun fun fun!

My wife is running all the volunteers (over a hundred of them!), and infrastructure stuff like signage, hospitality for the broadcasters and referees, etc.

The event will be streamed live on The Rugby Network (which currently has our ad on the front page), and will be shown overseas on Sky Sports, apparently?!?

Over 500 players. 43 teams (both mens and womens). 100+ games, on 3 fields, over two days. $20 for a ticket, or watch online for free.

It's going to be epic.