Heading to Europe and India

Just finalized my itinerary for my trip next week to Europe and India. Sounds like it will be a lot of fun, and not just a bit tiring:)

• Sunday depart SFO to London Heathrow at 6pm
  
• Monday arrive 1pm
• To Hotel to shower
• Meet my folks at the office at 3pm
• Pub and dinner that evening
• Tuesday visit customers Telewest and Harrods (maybe some Christmas shopping???)
  
• Night fly to Amstedam, taxi to hotel
  
• Wednesday visit customers Schiphol and ING
• Night flight to Paris, taxi to hotel
  
• Thursday visit with partner Cap Gemini and customer SNCF
• Night flight to Munich
• Friday visit customers BMW (and pick up a new M5!) and Daimier Chrysler Financial
• Saturday morning train to Frankfurt
• Saturday flight to Bangalore at noon
  
• Sunday arrive 1am
• Sunday OPEN (maybe catch up on some sleep!)
  
• Monday visit partners Accenture, PWC and WiPro
  
• Tuesday day in the Sun office with my team
  
• Tuesday LATE / Wednesday early flight to Franfurt / SFO
• Wednesday arrive SFO noon

I will definitely be making the most of the time that I have. There are some great customers on this list, and some good partners. I will be with the local sales folks in each country. Good chance to meet them, fill them in on what we are doing back at "corporate" and hopefully help them to do more business!

Twas the night before Thanksgiving

I am really looking forward to a long weekend!

• Going to PG for a few days. Home away from home. Wish we could get there more!!!
  

• Hanging out with the family (April and Katy will be there!). Haven't seen them in a while - should be fun.
  

• Eating a BUNCH of Turkey! We all have things we like. For me it is Turkey, green beans and stuffing!
  

• Going to see a movie - maybe Casino Royale ?!?! The new 007 - actually the first in the series, not able to make it until now.
  

• Christmas shopping ... check out the black friday deals. Ok - will be busy but there is only sooo much time and why not ...
  

• Getting some exercise - mountain biking, running, hiking, ... :) Got to have it!
  

• Watching some football (will have to find a place - no TV:)) Also got to have it!
  

• Decorating for Christmas ... The plan for Sunday. Tree, lights, decorations, music, the whole thing.
  

Hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving!

Kids Sports Weekend

It was the total kids sports weekend.

Nick played in a soccer tournament in Burlingame - about a half hour from our house. It started Saturday morning at 8am (meaning we had to get there at 7:15, so leave the house at 6:45, so get up at 6:00!).

They were playing a CYSA Class 1 tournament with mostly A teams. His team is a B team, so this was stiff competition. They lost the first game 4-2. We then played at 11:30 and won the second 4-0. To make a long story short, this gave us the most points for a second place team in the pool play.

So on Sunday we played again at 8am - this time one of the two top teams from pool play. We shut them out 3-0. So we had a game at 2:30 for the championship. Needless to say, we lost that game 5-1, but as a result ended up in second place for the tournament. Awesome for playing with mostly A teams!

The rest of the weekend was the CEEF Gala fund raiser for our schools and preparing for Anthony's end of year football party. I put together a highlights movie with pictures and video from all of the games. This took longer than expected, but was a highlight of the party.

During the party Anthony got two awards. He was again a scholar athlete (two this year on the team) and made all league as a fullback. You can guess which he was most proud of! It was the all league, but he now has a goal of four years of scholar athlete:)

Didn't get much else done - but a good weekend for kids sports!

Sun Open Source Java Technology

Ok - I usually don't put technical stuff in this blog. But thought that I would this time. But before I do, the ups and downs of last weekend ...

• Anthony played his last game Thursday night (kind of a weekend). They lost, but they scored three toughdowns! I thought that Anthony was going to get one. He rumbled for about fifteen yards on one run but didn't get into the end zone. Played full back the whole game (often times in a single back set), played nose guard (I resemble that ...), played defensive end and of course did the long snaps. Good year.
• Nick played soccer on Saturday. We had to go all the way to Salinas. It takes 5 hours door to door for a game that is two 40 minute halfs. Long time. Bummer is that they lost. The other team showed up 5 minutes AFTER the game was suppose to start, didn't warm up and went ahead by three goals in the first half. We came back and tied it up. They scored. We had shots, even bounced one off the head of one of the defenders just in front of the goal as the goalie was out of the play after diving for an earlier ball - but couldn't get it through:(
• We went to Ian's a 50th birthday party on Saturday night. Good time. Stayed with Craig and Dina over night. Kids went and stayed with Chris and Brandon. All had fun!
• Nick played another game on Sunday. Close to home. Playing the second best team and tied two all. They were happy with this result - they just keep getting better.
• Jeff and I went for a nice bike ride. Couple of hours. Still feeling it in my legs:)

Now back to open sourcing. This means making the source code available to anyone that wants to use it. The goal is to get more people using our stuff and innovating. We believe that if we do this, everyone including us will be better off. And we will build strong relationships with developers and customers. Working so far, this was just another big step on our way to returning profitable!

Ten Years Ago - This Week

There has been a bunch of email going around at work amongst the rmtc96 folks. That is - the folks at Sun who worked at the Rocky Mountain Technology Center (RMTC) at the time that it was closed by Sun in 1996. This is because it is the 10 year anniversary of the closure of the site. The announcement was made just before Halloween.

These emails have brought back a flood of memories.

• I remember when I first saw Eric Corwin in the halls of one of Sun's buildings in California. He was my bosses boss at the time I came to Sun from Amdahl, and at the time was the site director of RMTC. Julie and I had just talked about maybe moving in order to get into a nicer neighborhood and house, and into a nice place to raise our kids. I mentioned my interest and in a matter of what seemed like days, we were visiting Colorado Springs ...
• I remember that first visit. I thought that I was going to be interviewed for the job, but Eric had lined up a number of folks and asked me to start interviewing them. Guess I had the job. The site was only 17 people at the time. With me and my group, it would be 21.
• I remember the first person that I interviewed. It was Brian Smithey. Actually, I talked to his wife first. I think Brian was not home so Mary and I talked. Found out that this is the best way to hire someone ... get in good with their spouse:)
• I remember beer busts. This was a Sun tradition, and we did a good job of carrying on that tradition at RMTC.
• I remember caber tossing. That is, the dumb guy activity of trying to flip a small telephone pole (we started out small and gradually got bigger). I remember seeing divots in the grass from the second floor of our building.
• I remember time with friends hanging outside playing bocci in the forest, or tossing big rocks, and of course drinking beer.
• I remember some of the nicest, smartest, most creative folks that I have ever worked with. And I remember working on some pretty cool stuff.
• I remember Anthony and his friends playing in the yard. I remember Nick being born - while I was out of town:( And the two of them growing up a lot during the five years that we were there.
• I remember Julie building up great friendships with other moms who stayed home. And I remember how hard the first few weeks were when she was trying to find a way to make connections - that didn't take long, just a trip to the library (inside joke).
• I remember hikes, bike rides, running on trails and lightening! Actually the first real mountain bike that I ever owned.
• I remember Eric having heart trouble and taking some time off. I remember filling his role. I remember way way too much travel. I remember the site closure and how hard that was. And I remember having to leave such a great place.

Things all worked out in the end. I love California more than ever. I ended up with a great job at Sun and have stayed far longer than I would have guessed. Julie made a bunch more friends. The kids are doing great.

Great memories.