A Stroll along Pebble Beach

In the spirit of celebrating Labor Day, I will not blog about anything work-related this weekend. Earlier today, we met several friends at Carmel-by-the-Sea for a day at the beach. This was a cozy little beach, tucked away behind the cypress trees and quaint shops along Ocean Ave. And the beach offered magnificent views of Pebble Beach Golf Links. As it turns out, there was a Champions Tour event at Pebble Beach, and we did see the cameras on the course.

After mid-day, the fog cleared, the sun came out, and the weather warmed considerably. It was a fun day of catching up with friends, throwing the football around, playing catch, and of course eating. Throughout the day, we munched on assortment of Indian dishes, pasta salad, sandwiches, and snacks. And after we watched the sun set over Monterrey Bay, we headed home for Silicon Valley.

Sent from my iPhone

Well, not really, but keep reading. On Saturday, my son and I decided to check out a movie at Shoreline. We both decided to pass on "Star Wars: Clone Wars" and check out "Longshots" instead. Somehow, an animated remake of the Star Wars trilogy didn't appeal to me and my son-- two hard-core Star Wars fans, btw. Turns out "Longshots" was a good call.

After lunch in downtown Palo Alto, we did a little window shopping at Magnolia Video and then headed over to the Apple store. Fifteen minutes later I was all set with my new 16GB iPhone 3g. Although the guy at the Apple store denied any reception issues or 3g performance issues, later that day I did install the iPhone software update to correct the 3g performance issues. And thanks to some help from Jeff Brewer, I've got my Exchange e-mail configured on my iPhone.

Now I've just got to figure out how to blog from my iPhone. I'm not sure the little touchscreen keypad's gonna do it, however.

My Alma Mater's Movin' on Up

It's been two decades since I graduated from Rice University. When I was an undergrad, Rice always hovered around #20 in the college rankings. In this year's list of America's Best Colleges from US News and World Report, Rice has moved up to #17. Some notables:
#1: Harvard
#4: Stanford
#6: Caltech
#14: Cornell
#17: Rice
#21: UC Berkeley

Check out the entire list for yourself.

Would You Like Red or White with Your Series A?

It was another warm summer evening in Menlo Park, and the air was filled with the buzz of business plans, revenue models, and talk of summer travels. Oh yeah, and various vintages of merlots, cabernets, and pinots from a VC-backed vintner. This is Silicon Valley, and a few hundred execs descended on the grounds of Sierra Ventures on Sand Hill Road.

One of my former colleagues, Gamiel Gran, is now an associate at Sierra. Over a nice pinot noir, Gamiel and I reminisced about some of our adventures at Cassatt, including a very memorable trip to SAP headquarters in Walldorf. During the course of the evening, I bumped into quite a few Cassatt alumni: Steve Levine, Polly Sumner, and Karl Perron, a former Cassatt customer.

During the past few weeks, I've run across PayCycle customers at several social events. Today was no exception. I spoke with one individual who use PayCycle for his small business and another who uses our household payroll product. And both were happy customers!

As the sun set, I sipped a nice cotes du Rhone and a full-bodied cabernet. I also sampled some cheeses, including a tasty blue and a gruyere. Finally as the patio lights turned on, I called it a night and took the familiar drive up Sand Hill Road, cut across the Stanford campus, back to familiar mid-town Palo Alto. Just in time for the men's 400m!

Bagels and PayCycle for Breakfast

Earlier this morning, my CEO, Jim Heeger, was interviewed by Fox Business News in New York City. (Search for the "PayCycle" video). The segment aired on Fox earlier this morning, but I missed it. I did catch the video replay, however. It's a 3-minute video-- only a minute longer than Michael Phelps in the 200m IM. And I don't think Jim eats 12,000 calories each day. Check it out for yourself.