it's been a good summer, both professionally and personally.
got to spend some time with my mom's family last week back on the east coast at Bethany Beach. next week i'm going to visit saya's family in Tokyo for a little bit, also hookup there with my friend Alan Tien on his way back from Shanghai. besides the family trips, i've beem managing to get in some exercise playing ultimate in San Francisco and Palo Alto, and even a little soccer at work.
work at PayPal has been going well, and it will be 3 great years for me at the 'Pal coming up in September. i've made a lot of wonderful friends, learned a lot about the world of IPOs & public companies, and hopefully made a few significant contributions to the company and in building the PayPal Developer Network program. the company has definitely changed a good bit since getting acquired by eBay, but there are still many good people there working hard and doing great things. the merchant services team has grown in the past year, and some terrific new folks have also joined recently.
we bought a house with my mom in Deep Creek, Maryland a few months ago. i'm still not sure about the real estate market here in California (we're still renting), but at least that area seems to be growing. should be a great place for my mom to use for weekend getaways and for us to visit, hopefully rent out here & there. i guess this is the first year in a while i feel reasonably comfortable with our finances. the economy is Silicon Valley finally seems to be turning around a bit after the past 3-4 years of hard times. perhaps the Google-mania is a bit overblown, but it is nice to see some folks do well. hopefully their good fortune will help re-ignite the valley's entrepreneurial spirits...
and Saya and I have been having a great time together. this year in particular, feels like things have really settled into a good groove. she finished another terrific CD ("Bloom") this summer, and she seems very happy with her efforts. writing music together has been fun, and in general we support each other a lot. even when we have arguments or rough spots, things seem to settle themselves easier, more quickly now. that's really nice :)
so, what's next? haven't made any decisions yet, but there are a few opportunites on the horizon. no hurry, but i think something new will be cooking soon... i'm hungry again!