Everyone recognizes the world famous Sydney opera house. I consider myself a lucky duck to have taken a harbor ride right next to the darned thing. The only thing that could be cooler than seeing a world famous landmark is to see a world famous landmark in the arms of someone you love. (sigh...) I was really fortunate to be able to dine with several friends from Quest - James Delve, Prasant Moorthy, and Vanessa Barcellona. We road a JetCat from the pier right next to the Opera House out to Manly, a very posh suburb of Sydney. There, we ate at a very good restaurant called "Ribs & Rumps" … [Read more...]
Brisbane, the Gold Coast of Australia
October 13, 2007 by Leave a Comment
As Florida is to us Southerners, so Brisbane is to Australians. It's the fun, sunny, beach-laden place to go for a vacation. It's also hot and humid as can be.Brisbane was one of the original penal colonies that the Brits set up to house convicts from England back in the day. Now, it's a beautiful and thriving city. To the left is a picture of the Story Bridge, one of only three bridges of this size that can be walked across on the very top girders (with a tour guide and carabiner lines for safety). You can also make out the "CityCat" high-speed ferry boat that's plying the river. I only had … [Read more...]
Canberra, The Capital of Australia
October 11, 2007 by Leave a Comment
I had the pleasure of flying in to the rather quiet and small of capital, Canberra, on a sunny and warm spring day. (Don't forget that the seasons are reversed south of the equator. That means spring is in October and fall starts in April.) Upon arriving, I got to see a one person protest that Australia hadn't yet signed the Kyoto Accord for global warming as well as the buildings of state. The following morning (today), I spoke to a a crowd of about 50 about SQL Server performance tuning, benchmarking, and best practices. I really enjoyed the folks there and met many interesting people. My … [Read more...]
Off to Australia
October 5, 2007 by Leave a Comment
Tomorrow, I leave for almost two weeks of business in Australia, the land Down Under. I be delivering a series of seminars about SQL Server in most of the major cities around the country.After about 20 hours of travel, I arrive in Melbourne and then make subsequent stops in Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney, Wagga Wagga, and then back to Melbourne. After these stops, I visit Singapore for two days and then return home via Tokyo, Japan. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it. If you're looking for a sense of scale, the country is very nearly as large as the lower 48 states of the USA. Cheers, -Kev … [Read more...]
Is this the face of a Murderer?!?
October 2, 2007 by Leave a Comment
One of Emily's friends hosted a murder-mystery party where one of the guests did the "murdered" another guest and everyone at the party had to figure out who the murderer was based upon the clues that each guest brought with them.It you haven't guessed, the party was set in the 1920's and Emily was a flapper/cigarette girl. She was also a total knock-out. Hey, Emily, do me a favor and don't look so grown up, ok?Love ya,-Dad … [Read more...]
Kinder Adventures
October 1, 2007 by Leave a Comment
All of the kids have enjoyed having their fall break these past couple weeks. I had to work and, not being able to entertain them, had to deal with constant complaints of "I'm bored!" Anna Lynn had the funny experience of going in for an adjustment to her braces, and one of her teeth popped out. The tooth-fairy had to give her a little extra since the tooth had extra "bling" attached to it for her braces.The girls were also really excited to get a chance to see Conner's chinchilla, Marty. It reminds me of a pikachu, a very nervous pikachu. Naturally, the girls love it and want one of their … [Read more...]
Ouch!
September 29, 2007 by Leave a Comment
Dylan had to get his in-grown toenail treated. It does not look like a pleasant experience! He had a treatment called a "wedge" to take out the portion of the toenail that was perpetually in-grown and infected. On a positive note, he did phenomenally well in the Mid-State Choir Competition. He made Mid-State and ranked as 6th alternate for All-State. Way to go Dylan! Cheers, -Kev … [Read more...]
Frozen Custard!
September 28, 2007 by Leave a Comment
It's frozen custard time in Middle TN again! The kids and I really mourned the loss of our local frozen custard place, Amy's Frozen Custard. So I was really delighted when Rachel told me that there was a flozen custard place near her in Hendersonville called Ritters.So naturally, I had to take the kids down to see if it was any good. Evidently, Ritters is a chain. But the custard was really good. Somehow, it seemed that Amy's custard was better. But I had no complaints. The kids friends, Kelly Jo and JoJo, also joined us for a round. I wondered if they'd ever make it to the custard joint … [Read more...]
A couple pics of the PASS event
September 20, 2007 by 2 Comments
This is my last year as the president of PASS. I've been on the board of directors since the inception of PASS in 1999. During that time, I served for 2 years as VP of Marketing, 2 years as EVP of Finance, and 4 years now as the President. I've seen PASS grow from a very small association in start-up mode to a stable and growing international association with tens of thousands of members worldwide. It's been one of the most satisfying activities of my career, yet I'm happy to reach the zenith of my service with PASS.This year Quest once again took the place of SQL Server vendor to beat. Our … [Read more...]
Another interview…
September 10, 2007 by Leave a Comment
You can tell it's conference season because I get a lot of interviews around the time that the annual PASS conference is on the horizon. You can see my latest interview (text only, thankfully) at http://www.sqlmag.com/Article/ArticleID/97021/97021.html.Enjoy!-Kev … [Read more...]
