So this post is supposed to be about Marina riding a horse. Really, it is. We took Marina to a friend’s house so she could ride a horse for the first time in her life. And she did. And so did Anna and I. Unfortunately, I’m the one who got thrown from the horse.

Well, technically.

I did fall off the horse, after he decided he wanted me off his back and took steps (backwards) to make it happen. Anna and I hadn’t been gone on the trail very long when the horse I was riding, an Arabian named Remarq (no relation) began to misbehave. I thought I had him under control, so we continued on for a bit, but his antics continued, so I decided we should turn back and head to the house. That’s when Remarq chose to be the lead horse. I tried to keep him back, and he finally just started backing up rather quickly, not responding to my efforts to make him stop. In fact, I tried the trick of turning his head to the side (as instructed by Clint) and that’s when he basically sat down while moving backwards, tossing me out of the saddle. The scary part, though, was when he continued to roll over towards me on his back after I had planted hard on the ground, and rolled over my arm. Fortunately, he really just brushed off me, so nothing broke, but I’m expecting quite a few bruises.

But like I said, this post is supposed to be about Marina, so here is the evidence of her first experience riding a horse.



























And here are the "before" pics of Anna and I astride horses.

Labels: Marina

The last official day of Summit stars over at the Convention Center for breakfast, and no boxed breakfasts this time. Back to the general breakfast buffet, but it was much better than the two previous days. After breakfast, we headed into the keynote room for presentations and Q&A sessions with Ray Ozzie and Steve Ballmer.

I’ll be honest, keynote sessions like this are mostly lost on me. Sure, it was nice to learn Ray’s background and his ideas for future software development at Microsoft, but I likely won’t be interacting with him directly. And while Steve Ballmer is an energetic and engaging speaker, well, I was probably just tired at that point. Drinking from the mental fire hose all week can do that to you. The Q&A session with Steve could have been more interesting, but several questioners were pretty much blatantly trying to get photo ops with Steve by offering clothing and other items, and I just don’t react well to that kind of activity. I’m sure a lot of folks got a lot out of the two sessions, so I’d honestly have to say that they were well received, I just wasn’t the target audience for that.

MS provided one last lunch after the keynote, and I managed to avoid eating more salmon. Honestly, the salmon I had this week was really, really good, I just don’t eat much seafood, and I thought we were in danger of having competition for the Mexican Food inside joke.

I ended up bailing early from the lunch to head back to the hotel and deal with some client issues, so I didn’t sit in on the optional afternoon sessions. I did head over to the Sheraton where the sessions were held and had several hallway sessions with other folks, including Jasminder, Andy, Jason, Jeff, and a couple of MVP Leads, including Brian who had interviewed me for his podcast on Monday. At 6pm, Steve’s SBS User Group meeting kicked off in one of the rooms, and we had an interesting presentation from a vendor who’s putting together a new service offering for assisting partners with streamlining SBS installs. And after that meeting we headed to the Elephant & Castle for food, drinks, and fellowship. I had a long conversation with Ted and Dave, and got the opportunity to interact with several of the user group members.
Again, the steam ran out before 11, so I headed back to the hotel. I knew my roommate, Jim, had a really early flight (left at 6am) and would be getting up really early (3am) to get ready and head to the airport, so I didn’t want to get in too late. And that ended my last official day at Summit.

Labels: Summit2K8

Went down to breakfast again with Amy this morning, and sat with Tom and Debra Shinder. No Dalai Lama today (he and his entourage checked out yesterday) so we were in a different room, but the boxed breakfast returned. I opted out of the “warm” chipotle wrap, so Amy and I ended up making a run through Starbucks on our way to the bus. I grabbed a coffee cake, and she picked up a hot chocolate.

We bussed over to the Redmond campus again, and went through another full day of NDA material, some of it really, really, really NDA, which makes me wonder if I just violated NDA by saying that we heard stuff that was extreme NDA. Maybe not.

At the end of the day, we shuttled back to the hotel, and we got back early enough that Amy and I made a side trip over to a Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream (something I learned about Amy from our Australia trip is that she hardly ever turns down an opportunity for ice cream). We got back to the hotel and eventually took the shuttle over to the Experience Music Project (EMP) near the Space Needle.

Wow. Several of the MVPs mentioned that they had an event at the EMP two Summit’s ago, but I was blown away. First, they had karaoke with a live band (the band was great, the singing varied greatly) going throughout the evening. Second, they had a room dedicated to Rock Band performances (I lasted all of about 30 seconds in that room before I had to leave). Third, there were buffets and bars set up in multiple locations throughout the venue.

Amy and I browsed through the venue together for most of the evening. We started off in the Science Fiction museum, and wow was I impressed. Definitely worth a repeat visit when there are fewer people going through (and fewer people who either didn’t read/understand the “no photography” signs or decided to ignore them, leading to several staff members throughout the night telling people to stop taking pictures), but quite an impressive collection of historical items related to the Science Fiction industry. Brought back a lot of memories of favorite TV shows, movies, books, and magazines from my younger days. Also had me thinking that it’s about time to re-read Frank Herbert’s Dune series once again.

After we finished the Science Fiction Museum, we started through the Music Project proper. As it would take too long to describe all the exhibits we saw, I will point out that I spent most of my time drooling through the guitar history exhibit, longing to reach out and play a number of the guitars that were encased behind the glass. We also headed upstairs to the “studio experience” area (have no idea what it was actually called) where we witnessed (and got video) of Dean playing drums and Stuart either egging him on or trying to play bass along with him.

Dean "playing" drums (105MB, will edit and compress later)
Dean drumming, Stuart on bass (50MB, will edit and compress later)

I still managed to get totally exhausted fairly quickly, so we headed back to the Hyatt a little after ten. Still, an invigorating and exciting day all in all.

Labels: Summit2K8

Tax day, and for once I’m not thinking about taxes. Except that I just mentioned it, so I guess I was. Starting off with a digression, not a good thing.

Headed down to breakfast with Amy a little before 7am. Today was the big event at the hotel with the Dalai Lama, and the meeting room next to where we had breakfast at the hotel was filled with the people for that event, and the line to get in was loooooooong. We were quickly ushered past the crowd and into the room where we picked up our boxed breakfast.

Yes, I said that correctly. Boxed breakfast. I’ve never had a boxed breakfast before. In the box was a muffin, a bottle of OJ, a fruit cup, and plasticware wrapped in a paper napkin. There was a separate bag you could get with a “warm” ham and egg croissant. Fortunately, my egg wasn’t runny. But it wasn’t that warm, either.
After breakfast, we headed over to the Redmond campus for our deep dive meetings. And, of course, I can’t talk about that.

We took a shuttle from the Redmond campus over to a dinner cruise on the lake at the end of the day, and spent a wonderful couple of hours on the lake mingling through discussions with many of the folks from the SBS and WHS crew, along with a number of MS employees. As was the case for the week up until that point, the weather was chilly and raining, and that kept most of the folks inside on the boat, but otherwise it was a delightful evening. I was able to have a number of discussions with several folks that were beneficial to me and my business, but most of all, it was good just to interact with the wide variety of people who were involved.

After the cruise, we took the bus back to the hotel, where I promptly went upstairs and went to sleep. Yeah, not that exciting, sorry. But that’s how it was. I’ve adapted to the time zone, but I’m still needing 6-8 hours of sleep a night, and hopefully I’ll continue to get that.

Labels: Summit2K8

I’ve had to do these posts out of order based on my experiences today, as indicated in my last post. Just goes to show how much of an impact the Dalai Lama has on the extended surroundings. Not that I’m blaming the Lama or his entourage for delays in posting. But I digress.

This morning started with a deep dive session into Essential Business Server. By the time I got to the room (after making a Starbucks run with Jeff Middleton and getting sidetracked by someone asking about SBS, big surprise) there were few seats left, and the headache I woke up with showed no signs of abating. After about 10 minutes, I stepped out of the session, having picked up the product I needed to get from Dana Epp, and headed over to FedEx Kinkos in the convention center to ship it out. That process took much longer than it should have, but I completed the task and then ventured to my next stop – ibuprofin in liquid gel form.

I wandered the streets of Downtown Seattle and finally found the drugstore I had stopped in last year. I grabbed a small bottle of liquid gold, a granola bar, and a Gatorade (the “breakfast” at the EBS session left a little to be desired) and headed back to the hotel. On a whim, I decided to just grab a seat in the lobby rather than heading upstairs, and that’s when the day really started to get interesting.
I hadn’t been in the seat for more than about 3 minutes when someone walked up to me and asked if I was Brian something (I think). After confirming that I was not, in fact, that person, he indicated that he was looking for Brian to record a podcast. It was evident that this person was somehow related to the MVP summit, so I asked what Brians’ competency was. No, I don’t know that many people who do SQL, but I had to try. I asked the gentleman what his speciality was, and that’s when I found out he was an MVP lead. We exchanged “oh, do you know”s for a few minutes, then he reiterated that he needed to find Brian or he would have to vamp on his podcast. I mentioned that I did a weekly internet radio show that we also presented as a podcast, and he asked if I might be willing to fill in as a backup on the podcast. I asked the topic and scope, and found out he’s working on an internal Microsoft podcast and it introduces internal employees to key contacts in the product community. I love talking about community, and I’m always looking for ways to get my name on the positive radar inside Microsoft, so of course I agreed to fill in.

Fifteen minutes later, we finished up and he went off to his next meeting. I stayed in the lobby because it appeared that security was getting ready for another appearance or move from the hotel to his motorocade. I positioned myself in an out of the way area, and decided to try to capture a video as he passed by. Little did I know just how close I’d come to him, as mentioned in my previous post.

I met up with some folks heading over to lunch and the official start of Summit at the convention center. We made it through the keynote as Sean O’Driscoll gave his farewell presentation to the MVP community. Then we broke out into the Open Spaces sessions.
The first session I attended was the SBS Security Best Practice session facilitated by Carlos (way too many initials) de la Rocha from Brazil. The group was about 50/50 SBS MVPs and non-SBS MVPs. Carlos did a great job facilitating the group. Next, I went to Charlie Russell’s session on being a tech writer. Lots of good discussion from that venue as well. For my last session, I opted for the “getting involved with your local Microsoft office” but that ended up being a bust, and I needed to get back to the hotel and deal with a few things before heading to dinner.

The SBS 2008 Unleashed author team met our acquisitions editor, Loretta Yates, for dinner at a nice restaurant in the downtown area. This was the first time any of us had met Loretta, and we all had a good “get to know you” dinner. I had roasted duck that was absolutely delightful, and several others had the rib eye, which looked quite tasty as well.

Then we headed back to the hotel, and that’s when I called it an evening. Tomorrow is the first of the sessions with the product groups, so that should be good time.

Labels: Summit2K8

I'm already having to break with my plan for posting about events at the MVP Summit. As I mentioned in my last post, the Dalai Lama is staying at the Grand Hyatt in Seattle, the same place where I'm staying for Summit. This morning I just happened to be sitting in the lobby when security started building up around the entrance. I thought, well, I'll try to pick a spot out of the way and take a video to see what I can see when he leaves.

Wow. I never dreamed I'd get this close.

The unedited movie file is large right now, about 64MB. I'll edit and repost later when it's a little more manageable.

Labels: Summit2K8

It’s finally here, the time to travel to Seattle for my second MVP Summit. Only the day starts earlier than I normally do, and even earlier than I had originally planned. When I booked the flight in early February, I had selected an earlier-morning flight for cost reasons (to the tune of $100 less for this flight than for later flights). Besides, we had a pretty full day planned in Seattle on the Sunday before Summit, so arriving early wasn’t a huge problem. Originally, the selected flight was scheduled to depart at 7:40am from DFW, meaning with the traditional arrival at the airport two hour prior to departure and the 30 minute drive to the airport, I’d be getting up a little before 5:00. Of late, I’ve been getting up at 5:30, so this wasn’t a huge change. Even though I knew that I’d not get to bed early the night before, it’s not really a big deal.

But a few days ago, I got an e-mail from Marina that American had made changes to our flight reservations for the return to DFW from Seattle as well as our later flight from DFW to NOLA, and she sent the updated information to me. I got on and checked my own reservations, and the changes made to her flights were reflected on mine as well (we had scheduled to fly together on those two legs of the trip, so it would have sucked to have her scheduled to a completely different flight). That’s when I noticed that my outgoing flight had changed as well. An hour earlier. Ugh.

So I got up this morning at 4:00am and had the shuttle arrive at 4:35 (ten minutes before the requested 4:45, but that’s OK). That early on a Sunday, there’s no way I’m going to ask Anna to haul me to the airport, like I normally do. I’ve done that a couple of other times as well, and it’s usually me and the driver, and depending on the driver, it will be a quiet or talkative trip. This morning is a bit different, however, as there’s already another passenger in the shuttle, so the three of us converse throughout the brief trip to the airport.

I was the first to be delivered, because I was “cutting it close” in terms of my arrival to the airport. I was dropped off upstairs at the ticketing windows instead of downstairs at curbside check-in. I was initially a little annoyed, but in retrospect I have no idea if curbside check-in is open at 5am. I got into the terminal and shuddered at the line for checking baggage. I was tempted to take the escalator down and see if curbside was open or not when I noticed that the First Class window also offered its services to “Group One” passengers. Well, since I’m an AAdvantage Gold member, I get Group One status, so I whisked directly to the front of the empty line.
And found out the terminals were down.

The agent walked me over to self-check and we got my baggage tag printed as well as an updated boarding pass. I normally check in online the night before a flight, and last night was no exception. I even double-checked before I left the house that I had my boarding pass in my backpack. Yep, seat 9A. Window seat close to the front of the plane (one of the advantages of booking that far in advance). But my new boarding pass showed seat 30A. I asked the agent about the change in seats, and she looked at me like I was from another planet. I showed her my printed boarding pass that clearly showed my seat as 9A, reserved in February in the year of our Lord 2008.

“This flight has no seat 9A,” she tells me in a very matter-of-fact tone. “Row 9 is an emergency exit row and only has two seats on each side of the aisle.”

OK, the equipment got upgraded from the MD80 that was originally allocated for this flight. Not the first time I’ve had an equipment change right before a flight, but I guess it got changed from the time we left the house until we arrived at the airport. Sure enough, I’m on a 757, not an MD80. And honestly with all the delays the last four days with American cancelling thousands of flights to reinspect their MD80 fleet, I’m quite OK with the change in equipment. Except that I’m in the back of the plane and not the front. No big, I’ll deal.

I got through security quickly, not needing to use the Group One expedited line, because there were so few other passengers going through. I still have about an hour before boarding, so I decided to check out the Admiral’s Club to pull out my laptop and make sure it’s charged in case I want to use it on the flight. This is my first time into the Admiral’s Club, so I’m not sure what to expect.

What I didn’t expect is that it wouldn’t be open yet. Which it wasn’t. At 5:15am.
In fact, I can’t recall seeing fewer people milling around the terminal, especially at DFW. Especially after all the flight cancellations over the previous four days. I’d call it a graveyard, but I don’t know that it’s wise to liken an airport with a death metaphor. So I didn’t. But it was empty.

I did find the Samsung lounge near the Admiral’s Club, and unlike every other public place in the terminal, it has power outlets and comfortable chairs. Chairs are available all around the terminal, power is not. Used to be, but now that they can charge for access to power, all the “public” outlets have been covered by pay-for-power stations. Except in the Samsung Lounge. I assume that there must be some catch for the lounge, like there’s someone that goes through the lounge and tries to sell you all the cool stuff that Samsung has, but not today. Because there’s no one at the airport.

Except for the line of very impatient people at the Starbucks.

About 15 minutes before initial boarding time, I made my way over to the gate. I overheard a couple of other folks talking about the Summit, but they were across the seating area, and since I had no idea who they were, I opted not to go introduce myself to them. I know there are a number of MVPs in the DFW area, and supposedly one other actually in Denton, but I’ve met exactly one. Tom Shinder, and I knew him before either of us became MVPs, although I didn’t officially meet him in person until Summit last year. Ah, the joys of the remote work force.

There weren’t that many people in First Class or Group One, either, because once they called Group One for boarding, I walked right up to the counter and to the plane. Where I had to wait for catering to finish unloading. Because there was only one of them. At 6:15am.

I get the significant impression that very few people fly at God:30 in the morning. Maybe that’s why the fare was so inexpensive.

Seat 30A wasn’t too bad, except that it was the window seat of a three-seat row instead of the two-seat row I was expecting. That meant that I had to inconvenience two people instead of one when I got up to head to the rear of the plane mid-flight. The window was nicely placed in line with the seat so I could see out without having to resort to unusual bodily contortions.

We did fly directly over Denver, and the sky was clear enough that I got to take a different kind of picture of Coors Field than the others we have. And no, it’s not because the field was not buried in snow (which it wasn’t).

We did get a nice view of Mt. Rainier as we approached the airport, and landing went without a hitch. Though I got in earlier than expected, I waited in the gate area for Amy and Jim to arrive on their Frontier flight from Denver. We had a spot of lunch (after working to find an empty table in the food court), got our bags, and headed to the hotel. Well, I guess calling the Grand Hyatt a hotel is a bit of a misnomer, but anyway. Did I mention that the Dalai Lama is staying at the Grand Hyatt through Tuesday? Yep, he is.

After a brief layover in the hotel, we shuttled over to an associates boat for a slow tour around Lake Washington, where we witnessed a number of sights:

The house featured prominently in Sleepless in Seattle.

An office for a small company named Google.

A small house owned by a guy named Bill Gates.

After returning to the hotel, we made two more stops for the night. We registered at the summit, then headed over to the Rock Bottom Lounge for the annual SBS pre-summit party.

Since I’m still adjusting to my old time zone, and getting up very, very early, I shut down pretty early for Seattle time and am heading off to bed. More tomorrow.

Labels: Summit2K8

I’m going to do my best to keep a running diary of my (mis)adventures at MVP Summit this year, and I’m sticking this in my personal blog for the most part, because the few readers who follow my tech and business blog won’t really care about my travels, etc. And I’m not a big fan of people who post every silly detail in their blogs, so I don’t want to become one of them. People who read my how-to technical blog are looking for tech or troubleshooting issues. Those fewer who read my business blog are looking for different topics than what I cover in that one. And both people who read the personal blog must be long on time and short on entertainment.

So, here goes. Enjoy. This is more for me anyway, but if you get something out of it, bonus.

P.S. Loretta, this isn’t taking away from my time working on SBS 2008 Unleashed. It’s hard for me to get anything significant added to the book in a 15-20 minute writing session, but I can churn out this drivel pretty quickly. ☺

Labels: Summit2K8