The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) opened their Olympic Sculpture Park in downtown today. It's 4 blocks from my parent's condo in Belltown. They watched the kids last night and we all had breakfast at Minnie's and then walked over. I loved the geometric angles, stone work, glass pavillion, views of Elliott Bay and the Olmpics, and of course the sculptures. It all filled me with immense pride in my hometown of Seattle, like we're a town growing up and able to do world class things. Now we just need to convince people to bury the Viaduct and re-connect the city to the waterfront.

One of the great parts of my job is the opportunity to combine work and philanthropy. This week we kicked off a marketing program to raise awareness of Live Search in the local area via a joint promotion with Team Seattle, which is a group of amateur drivers who are going to Florida this month to race in the "24 Hours of Daytona." As part of this effort, we are raising money for the Pediatric Cardiac Center at Children's Hospital - you can sponsor each lap the car races, and for every search you do from this page the Live Search team will add an extra donation.

 

This program is especially meaningful for my family since our daughter Amelia spent the first week of her life in the Pediatric Cardiac Center at Children's.

 

Search at http://teamseattle.live.com and we'll make a donation.

Took a group of buddies for a tour of the Georgetown Brewery south of the stadium this weekend. I know the brewer and owner Manny Chao through Erik, who I sail with every summer (they went to UW together). Manny's business has doubled every year since he opened 4 years ago. I remember the opening when he only had 2 fermenters, and now the hall has 14. We tasted (and tasted and tasted - half glasses of course) and had a great time.

 

My favorite part of the tour was the cooler. We asked him what happens if he loses power (Seattle just had a HUGE storm that knocked 1.5 M people off the grid for up to 8 days). As a small business owner, he doesn't have a back-up generator, but he said fortunately the local power company is pretty responsive. We joked that the work crews would say things like "Forget city hall, SAVE THE BEER!!!"