Ok, back at the keyboard, happily.

In terms of personal happiness, this summer will be the standard by which all future summers are judged. We swam in the sound, played lousy tennis with old rackets, we did pirate adventures, we dived off the high dive (and were rebuked for wearing life vests as two-year olds).

This picture is probably the embodiment of all that. I can’t describe how much happiness and energy comes from doing regular neighborhood things, day after day. Though GMax is he is called is anything but regular.

And in business, I remind my wife and myself, Start Ups are what I love to do. Yes, it is lumpy, aggravating, unpredictable and at times heartbreaking. Yet somehow, we persevere and light emerges at the end of the tunnel. As one of my favorite mentors says… Onward and Upward.

For those in my angel network, a more detailed portfolio summary follows. But the highlights were this: sold one, bought one, restarted one, launched one, moved into two incubators on two coasts, worked with a dozen Choate interns and don’t feel the least bit exhausted. Maybe the secret is found in a quote from Chateaubriand that I got from a new friend, Troy Dayton.

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between their work and their play; their labor and their leisure; their mind and their body; their education and their recreation. They hardly know which is which. They simply pursue their vision of excellence through whatever they are doing, and leave others to determine whether they are working or playing. To themselves, they always appear to be doing both.”

~ Francoise Rene Auguste Chateaubriand , adapted from the original, which can be found here.

Like I said: the summer by which all others will be Judged.