Category: Travel

Viva Las Vegas?

As Winter can’t quite make up its mind about when to die this year, Laura and I will be heading out west to Las Vegas, or more precisely Henderson, NV.

I’m going there for a Directory and Identity conference, hoping to learn new things and Laura’s going… well, just to hang out with me! Isn’t that cool?

When I’m not in my conference, we’ll be heading out to the desert for some photo ops and possibly some night light shots of the strip, so it’s doubling as a photography trip.  We might even go back to Red Rock Canyon. And I think I’ve been persuaded to do some indoor skydiving.

This year, unlike last, we’ll be staying in the hotel which is hosting the conference. Last time, I tried to “maximize” our Hilton points, but the hassle just wasn’t worth it, and this hotel looks to be VERY posh.

All Silver’d Up

I’m back from my ’round-the-South mileage run. In a couple of days/weeks, it should register that I’ve achieved Silver Elite status.

Yahoo!

All in all, the trip wasn’t too onerous, like some in the past have been. It was a quick trip to Houston, a nice wait while I ate Cajun food [yum!] and then a hop over to Gulfport/Biloxi and back. Now, I get to add another airport and another state to the places I’ve been.

One interesting thing I did see was the remaining devastation from Katrina that still lines the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Gulfport. I saw many empty lots, empty foundations, and damaged buildings. I also saw a lot of rebuilt or newly built houses as well. It looks like at least some people were able to start again, but many may never be back.

You Really Can’t Go Home

That’s what they say anyway. [Who is "they" and why do we listen to them?] I dropped Laura off for a massage and I went exploring in the old neighborhood. It feels strangely familiar, but very different at the same time. Little here has changed, so I think it must be me. Well, little except which streets are under construction.

I have to say, though, that there are many things here in Houston that I miss: the friendly people, the wonderful food – food that you can get at any hour of the day, and cheap stuff… like houses, gas, etc. SO cheap down here. Of course, there’s always the things I don’t miss, like nasty tasting water, some pollution [nothing like Los Angeles, but it still stinks…], traffic and things like that.

Of course, working in the Federal space like I do at home also gives me a sense of doing something "important"… At least, more important than making some CEO feel better about getting his email faster. I don’t know: maybe living in the DC area makes one feel more important. Maybe it’s a false feeling, or even arrogance, that says the rest of the country’s problems seem smaller and more trite. It could be that.

Or maybe it’s time for me to think about changing what I do. Should I dive head-first into photography or maybe move to Redmond?

I guess, when it comes down to it, Houston is always good at making me think. There seems to be more time to do so here.

That is also something I miss.

Return Of The Mileage Run

This year, it just so happens that I am very close to achieving Silver Elite status on Continental. So I thought it might be a good time for a mileage run. I know I won’t have any business travel that will give me the miles, so I found an incredibly low cost plane ticket to Gulfport, MS. Yep. The exciting town of Gulfport. Having never been there, I will get to add another airport to my list as well as another state. Even though I’ll only transit through, I think that qualifies as "being there" in my book. This trip will take me into Silver qualifying range. I’ll earn back my Elite status and the benefits that go with it, such as no baggage fees [big one there], quicker security screening, and even the remote possibility of First Class upgrades, which I’ve discovered doesn’t happen much for the lowly Silver like it did when I was Platinum.

Mind you, I’m not complaining at all that I haven’t been able to earn Elite status like I once was, but this year I was close enough and flights were cheap enough for me to give this one a whirl. The trip is in December, and I should see my "lifetime miles" go up above 700K…

Nice.

We’ve Flown A Long Way, Baby

Many who know me know that I spent about 10 years on the road, flying most every week. Well, that life is past for me now and I don’t get out near as much. So imagine my surprise when I log into Continental’s web site and discover that they are now posting your “lifetime mileage”. Below is the snippet of my actual lifetime miles on Continental:

mileage

That’s almost 700,000 miles! Of course, it would be more if I had learned the secret of benefit consolidation early on in my career at IBM. I only learned of this later on, and then only after deciding that American Airlines had it in for me. So, if you were to add up all the miles I wasted in my early career [I happen to know that this is over 250,000 miles on American alone] plus the several unaccounted for trips to Saudi Arabia to visit my parents, I would be well over a million miles.

Oh, that I had started with Continental from the beginning!

303K and I’ll earn “lifetime Silver”. Guess I need to circle the earth a few times…

On The Road – Again!

In the morning, Laura and I will be journeying to Florida where I will work and she will play. She’ll work a little on some photos for a customer, but mainly she’ll get to relax in the warm weather. I’ll get to work – did I mention that? After having just gotten back from Seattle for 3 weeks, I wasn’t about to leave her here by herself – I kinda like hangin’ out with her, you know?

This is actually going to be my first customer business trip with Microsoft. All of my previous travel has been for training only. I think that’s a pretty good record – almost 3 years without a customer trip. At IBM, it was reversed – I went years without working in Houston.

While I’m there, I’ll be able to visit my friend Jeremy and hang with him for a bit.

Maybe, with this trip, I’ll get up to Silver on Continental. I lost my status on March 1st – I am now a ‘nobody’… 😦 Oh, the misery – it was either Platinum or Family. Yeah: tough choice.

Close Call

I flew back from the Seattle area yesterday and arrived home late last night. After working 14 hours a day in the same room with the same 14 guys for 14 days [there’s got to be some numerological significance there], I’m VERY glad to be home. I’m especially glad that I don’t have to stay in Woodinville anymore. It was quite a long drive to the office and the corporate apartment was not pleasant.

Imagine my surprise, however, when I flip on the news this afternoon and find out that Woodinville was victim to eco-terrorists! I just have to say that I’m glad I’m not there anymore! Of course, by no stretch of the imagination would the apartments I’d been staying in be considered “luxury” homes…

And The Miles Go On…

TechReady 6 [our internal training seminar for Microsoft employees] is now over, with some really cool presentations by BillG and a wonderful guest speaker: Michio Kaku. I read his book “Hyperspace” and highly recommend it for those of you who are interested in theoretical physics.

Now, I’m on the road again – flying back home for an ever-so-brief reunion with Laura only to hop on another plane again on Sunday. It’s not too bad, but it’s my hope that the Ranger training will be somewhat slower paced, what with the parties and dinners that we had to attend here.

Of course, while I was here, I got sick somewhere. Some kind of sinus thing. Could have been the airplane and travel that I’m no longer used to, or just some freak accident. But, I had to power through it anyway. I even passed an exam on my worst-feeling day. But now I go home to Laura and some rest. Then, I get to come back to Redmond and do some more work. Should be more interesting but less exciting – which is better for me in my current state.

And I didn’t get very many pictures.

On The Road Again

Soon, in a couple of weeks, I’ll be on the road again for training – work training. The first week will be TechReady in Seattle where thousands of Microsoft field employees gather for a massive training event. Then, after a very brief sojourn at home, I go back to the area, Redmond this time, for the first half of an intesive training program – the Directory Ranger program.

It’s the “alpha” version of a new certification program that will augment the existing Microsoft Certified Architect – Messaging [aka: Exchange Ranger] with an equivalent certification for directory skills. I’ve been fortunate enough to be selected for the first round of training and, while it will be difficult and intense, it proves to be satisfyingly challenging as well. I perhaps will acheive some level of recognition for my skills that was previously lacking – as well as getting noticed for some “leadership” skills. This class is not yet open to the public, but will soon be and I will be on the cutting edge of the program.

Cabo Dive Pictures

These are mostly diving pictures so far, but more will come later. It takes quite a bit of time to post them from here. Not the fastest of Internet uplinks.

Anyhow: we are now packing up and heading for the airport to go back to Virginia tonight. Then, tomorrow, we will be leaving our house yet again and going down to Richmond to visit friends for Thanksgiving. Lots of travel, but the next time will be much easier – no wet dive gear to deal with…