My last post was from Beijing। I never made it to Tokyo. The flight got cancelled at the last minute.

The reason? The earthquake.

So I instead jetted back to the U.S.

Since then, I've been on a couple of other trips, one to my hometown of Denton to play in my dad's annual "Member/Guest" golf tournament. Despite a rousing start where I shot 80 in 30 MPH cross winds, we ended up in fourth place.

As mom and dad set out on the road in their RV (first to Ruidosa, then Albuquerque, then Colorado, then Utah, then...?), I got back to work after that long enough to get on another airplane.

This time, I set out for Paris, landing just in time for the Fêtes de la Musique, Paris' annual music festival, and later that week for Madrid, just in time for Spain to play its final matches and take the EuroCup 2008 soccer championship. It was an exciting time to be traveling in Europe, if tres chaud.

I sweated in the subways, in the taxis, in the tapas bars, in my meetings.

In Paris, we had the opportunity to dine -- as I always try to do in Paris -- at a favorite little restaurant off the Champs d'Elysses called "L'appart." I've been there each and every time I've visited Paris. The food is excellent and the atmosphere homely. Literally, as each of the restaurant's rooms imitate the rooms found in a common flat.

In Madrid, we attended numerous meetings and had several social business meals, but I was able to hang around for part of the weekend to check out the city.

My colleague Michael, from Paris, and his wife and I had the opportunity to see the "Goya Goes to War" exhibit at the Prado museum. The exhibit was superb, and included a nice balance between Goya's famous portraits and his more obscure "Disasters of War" sketches. Both visually drew me in, but it was the "War" portraits that I thought were most socially and politically relevant for the times. Sort of a muckraker journalistic commentary in pencil drawings.

After Michael and his wife had to leave back for Paris, I visited the Plaza de Toros (the bullring) and took the official tour, since there were no bullfights on Saturday (outside the fiesta). I also visited the Royal Palace, but didn't go in due to the heat and the fact that I'd already walked miles that day.

Once back in the U.S., I held my annual 4th of July party before fleeing Austin again on my birthday, July 22, to head to New York City for some meetings. I stuck around for the weekend, staying with my friends Ed and Lisa who live out in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, having some great meals with they and also my NYU college roommate, Gary.

Yesterday, I went to see "August: Osage County," the Pulitzer and Tony-award winning play by Tracy Letts, produced by Steppenwolf Theatre Company (the acting company founded by the likes of Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney, and others, and which has included more well known actors like Joan Allen and John Malkovich).

Steppenwolf continues to be in rare form: The play was 3 1/2 hours long, but Estelle Parsons and Amy Morton (two of the main characters) carried the show with ferocity and wit, and though an exhausting ride, it was Southern (or should I say "Plains") gothic at its wicked incestuous best.

As I joked on Twitter afterwards, that play coulda been about some of my relatives.

For now, catching up on email and heading to the airport for the flight back to Austin. But I won't be able to rest for too long, as I leave for meetings in Silicon Valley early Wednesday afternoon.