M@ Around The World

Come Sail Away... November 13 my family on my Dad's side went on our first vacation together aboard the Star Princess cruise ship. We actually had three generations of us together (Grandma McKnight, Dad, Sharon, Collins, Frank , myself, Dave , and Frank's fiance Erin ).  The cruise was through the Caribbean stopping at Cozumel, Mexico ; Grand Cayman Island ; Montego Bay, Jamaica ; Princess Cays Island, Bahamas .  We left out of Ft. Lauderdale, FL on Sunday (which unfortunately still had not recovered fully from the latest hurricane that had passed though, hurricane Wilma) and returned the following Sunday.  A Good Omen As We Set Sail... At 5p EST on Sunday we started to push off from port in Ft. Lauderdale.  Our group had four rooms on the Dolphin Deck of the ship that we had the cabin steward, Bernie, conjoin by opening the doors between our balconies.  We all went out on to them and watched as our journey began.  Up in the sky (as you can see in the pi...

Virtually in Vegas... When last we left our traveler he was just getting back from Cincinnati, OH in anticipation of his next grand adventure out west to Las Vegas .  Hehe :-)  This trip was also related to work as it was the location of the 2005 VMWorld Conference (sponsored by VMWare ®).  The conference was a symposium of classroom lectures, interactive sessions, and labs centered around the VMWare products and their partners' products.  We were in sessions for 9-10 hours a day learning about all the possibilities and directions we could take these products in.  It was very exciting! (in a somewhat geeky way :-) A slight detour on the way... A couple weeks before I left on my trip, I found out that a friend of mine, Nick , was going to be in Los Angeles, CA for Mercedes Benz Fashion Week .  Since this particular friend hails from sunny London , I figured this was an opportune time to go see him while we were only a couple hundred miles away.  Du...

The Nasti... Ever since my department in GE Energy merged with one based in Cincinnati, OH in the GE Aircraft Engines (now called GE Aviation) division, I've had to take several trips up there for various meetings and Work Outs (W/O!) (multi-day focused meetings driven to come up with a solution to a problem).  I never liked (nor minded really) going there only because I didn't relate to the city or to the state (especially after last year's presidential election!).  This trip, however, was a little more exciting because I got to stay the weekend after and hang out with my friend Clifton that just graduated from the IMLP program out of Aircraft Engines and bought a condo not too far from the office.  Clifton so affectionately refers to "Cincinnati" as "The Nasti" which I found amusing because those of us in Atlanta usually refer to " Evendale, OH " (where the Aircraft Engines office is) as "Evildale"...so this played into our ...

  ...so this isn't a "travel" entry per se, but I just wanted to put a quick reminder to "Erase Hate" and remember one of our fallen brothers.  Today's the 7th anniversary of Matthew's murder.  May he be resting in peace! http://www.matthewshepard.org/

...is not a good idea!  My trip back to Atlanta from Albany was proof of that! I started out early, thinking that leaving around 14:45 EDT would put me into Atlanta early enough to get some sleep and still have a productive day of unpacking and getting groceries (which I still haven't done as of now...a week later!).  I got underway and put in the QAF Season 4 DVD (I know what you're thinking...isn't it distracting to drive with a DVD playing...it honestly helps me lose track of time and not realize when the 16th hour is approaching on the journey!).  I wasn't too far down the New York State Thruway (I-87 South...the first Interstate on the journey) before I realized that the fuse that controls the circuit running the power outlets in my car had blown and my laptop was steadily running out of battery power!  Soon I wouldn't be able to keep it on and I was starting to freak out about my chances of staying awake for the long trip down to the Land of the Rising Sun...

Florence, Italy...arguably one of the most beautiful cities in Europe (and the world in my humble opinion) was where the traveling E2k Team (a team I was part of at work that was responsible for implementing the new email system across 70,000 users worldwide) called home for two-ish weeks. The picture in the upper left corner is of me standing on top of the Campanile which is a huge tower attached to the Duomo (a famous church in Florence). In back of me you can see a good chunk of the city including their city hall (you can make out its tower) where the Statue of David lives. As promised, here's a more in depth look at this trip and the adventures it contained. (PS: click on any of the pictures to make them much larger! Use the "Back" button to come back to the story.) 6/14 - 6/15 :: The arrival I got to Florence on 6/15 in the morning after a fabulous 10 hour plane ride, changing over in Milan. Andrew was my last-minute life saver dropping everything to bring me to the...

So...as alluded to before, I've been all over the place this year (which is not the norm for M@ here...).  Here's a brief recap of where I've been so far: March: 3/23-3/29: Albany, NY :: Easter!...the whole family migrated home for Easter this year...it was kind of nice considering only some of us were in Atlanta last year to see me and celebrate together.  Always good to see the family!  Remember that world!  And also, there's never anyplace like home for the holidays (no matter which ones they are)...as I step down from my wee soap box O:-) April : 4/4 - 4/11: Schenectady, NY :: Global Server Operations Team Meeting 4/11 - 4/15: Cincinnati, OH :: E2k Team W/O! 4/15 - 4/25: Ft. Johnson, NY :: Babysit my dad's puppies while they go on a cruise...did I get the short end of that deal? :) May: 5/6 - 5/8: New York, NY :: 3rd Annual Tarot Readers' Studio...where I became a Certified Tarot Master (level 5 of 6!) 5/13 - 5/17: Schenectady, NY :: E2k Pilot Weekend / Wave...

Well here I am...finally got a blog running.  I figured with all the traveling I've been doing lately I might as well start putting some of it down on "paper".  Hopefully people who actually read this (including me I guess :) will appreciate keeping up on some of the wild and crazy adventures of "M@".  Here's to it boys and girls! M@