When I grow up I wanna be a kid, I wanna have some fun and stay forever young

Okay, so I'm already a kid - guess I'll have to set some new goals. Today I reached 40! Leading up to it has been kind of scary. I had kind of been making it into a big deal. But now that it's here I'm embracing it. I really don't have too many complaints. I'm in better shape now than I've ever been (no way I could have practiced ultimate for 2 1/2 hours in 90 degree heat and 70% humidity back when I was 20, but I did it Monday). I have the most supportive group of friends that I have ever had. I have a great family that I get to see grow and that grows with me.

Is everthing perfect - definitely not. But I look forward to continuing the journey toward being the person I can be and improving the areas of my life that need improving and further strengthening the areas that are already good.

Besides, after seeing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I think I might have already identified a new career path - Oompa-Loompa. Very cool job. You get to make up and perform snarky songs about bratty kids! Plus you live in a world of chocolate and sweets. I think I'm about the right size for the job, just need to work on my choreography some.

Olsen Twins / Toys (When I Grow Up)

I’ll be making the most of summertime crazy nights and lazy days

Whoever came up with the expression "lazy days of summer" wasn't living my life! Here's a rundown of what I've been up to lately:

• June 27th - participated in an ultimate frisbee clinic, walked around the Mall
• June 29th - headed home from NoVa to celebrate Karyn's birthday
• June 30th, July 1st - packed and headed to Wisconsin, spending the night in Champaign (Illinois that is)
• July 2nd - Ran a personal best 10k of 46:17.8 (Joel - I think you might be onto something with the not sleeping before a race), went canoeing, attended a picnic
• July 3rd - Attended a Mississippi River festival and jumped on a trampoline/bungee thing, attended a picnic
• July 4th - Attended a picnic (sensing a theme here? - I think I gained 10lbs in Wisconsin), watched fireworks
• July 5th & 6th - headed home from Wisconsin, spending the night in Kentucky (who knows where, it was 4am when we stopped)
• July 7th - played ultimate frizbee during a monsoon and realized I don't know squat about how the game is really played
• July 8th & 9th - took my daughters camping at Claytor Lake State Park (hot dogs, smores, the works!)
• July 10th - the whole family spent the day at the Salem Fair riding rides, eating junk and observing very scary people
• July 11th - Drove to NoVa, worked, participated in another ultimate frisbee clinic, walked around the Mall

Looks like I've come full circle with my activities list - time to quit (the list, not the activities). I hope everyone else is having a good summer - from the blogs it sure sounds like it.

ASIA / Summer

And the stars look very different today

Lightning Bugs (aka Fireflies) have always amazed me. I remember spending countless summer evenings as a boy catching fireflies and putting them in jars so that I could watch them as I went to sleep. Now I get to enjoy helping my daughters catch the tiny little nightlights as well. These bugs are such a part of summer that I can't imagine what it would be like if they weren't around. Over the past week, I've had two very special encounters with these mysterious insects.

The first was near the steps of the Capitol. I had just finished participating in an ultimate frisbee clinic and was walking around the Mall. At the Capitol a Navy band was playing and I decided to make a few phone calls by a grassy field nearby as I enjoyed the music in the background. As I looked out over the field, I noticed that it was completely covered in lightning bugs. They were all staying very close to the ground and flashing like crazy. The grass itself seemed to be sparkling, as if it were made from multifacited emeralds dancing in the fading summer light. It was a sight to behold.

My other experience happened as I was traveling with the family to Wisconsin for Karyn's Father's family reunion. It was past midnight in Indiana, we had just traveled through some very bad thunderstorms (there always seem to be very bad thunderstorms when we travel through Indiana) and Karyn was driving. I was looking out the window at the cornfields as we sped along and noticed lightening bugs above the young corn plants. I thought it was strange to be seeing so many of the lighting up at such a late hour - I always kind of associated them with earlier evening. Plus they were all over the sky, not just right above the corn. There were so many of them and the minivan was moving along so quickly, that I soon began to have the sensation of flying through space; the lighning bugs became stars that we were hurtling past in our rocketship. I felt like a kid again...

On the 4th, me and my family got to enjoy a spectacular fireworks display over the Mississippi river. As wonderful as it was, it really didn't compare to the shows the tiny little glowing marvels had provided me earlier in the week.

David Bowie / Space Oddity