14 Flavors of Awesome

nce upon a time, in the magical city of Phoenix (or Mesa), at a golf course on sabbatical, a small twibe of developers converged. The group escapes the impending icy freeze of their home locales for a few days of learning, laughing and (daresay) loving (and no, not that kind). In the year (2^11)-39, this plucky band of folks met again to make or renew friendships and have a good time. This is is the pictorial of some of the happenings...

he Grotto became the place to meet. After the dinners, the races, the trips to Albertsons. The locale gave rise to epic stories of things gone right and things gone wrong.


Some men know exactly when to say when, others not so much...

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Barb sings, Mike Plays, Walt thinks, Cristof drinks, Alan plots world domination.

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Soak your feet, get your laugh on. Alan, Jody and Yag.

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The Pink Ladies (minus 1, and technically a Thunderbird) make their appearance

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Alan, are you trying to say something?

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Seems like there was a lot of crush for Mike Feltman evident. Even Yag was caught up in the mood. He is fetching in pink, isn't he?

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The Russian shows .Net Girl... "In mother Russia, pizza orders you". (carefully note the fluid level in the Patron tank)

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Cristof making a point with Mike while Alan and .Net girl relax. Not sure who that is at the bottom. The hair-do narrows it.

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@MrOof, come in @MrOof?

@MrOof is 404

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Charlies Angels made their appearance. You can even see most of their hands.

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Rachel waits for Alan to drop some pearls of wisdom.

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Wisdom dispensed. Don self satisfied look.

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Then some bitches showed up.

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Well, I orignally came on to post MrOofs wedding pictures, but did this instead. Wedding pics tomorrow. Maybe

SW Fox Update

Well, I went and did it.

I decided to be a little bit crazy and head to the land of the sun for a little "face time" with my friends from the Foxpro community. We all chat or tweet or email on an almost daily basis, but we only have a few times per year to actually "see" each other, and SWFox has to be the mac-daddy of the times we can get together.

The weather in Buffalo was cold, rainy and a perfect precursor if not polar opposite to the weather here in Phoenix. A quick hop to Philly on a crowded DC9 was a bit of a hassle, but not too bad. The plane was a bit late, so I had to hustle from terminal B to A to catch the flight to Phoenix. It was nice that the plane had a lot of vacancies which allowed me to have row 26 all to myself. I actually curled up on the whole 3 seats and had a bit of a nap and bing, we were landing. Cool!

Had to circle the Sky Harbor terminal a few times in order for the transportation to find another SWFox attendee who had also just arrived. A quick ride to the resort, and there I am.

Feeling a little like an interloper as I made my way to Chez Feltman, the suitcase clacking out a tempo as I get closer. Round the corner, and there it is, replete with many VFP'ers hanging out. Walt Krzystek, Kevin Cully, Doug Hennig, Kevin Ragsdale and a half dozen or so others. Rumour had it that the remainder of the gang was at the hot tub (A place which I will call "The Grotto" henceforth). A quick trip around the corner and we're together again. Jody, Toni, Cathy (the Angels), Craig, Alan, Mike, Steve, YAG!!!, Frank, Sam and a few others. We sang, we drank, we made meat helmets.

We called it a night (morning) at about 6am EST, which made for a continuous 24 hours for me and I was a bit tired. Got up this morning had some great conversation with my erstwhile roommate, had a bit of lunch, and am manning the booth for Matrix for a few hours.

If your here, come visit.

Charlie asks for assistance

SW Fox approaches. It is the preeminent (and only, I think) VFP conference held in the states. The quality of the speakers, facilities and people is second to none. Not to mention the October weather in Mesa isn't too bad when compared to Buffalo.

Alas, it was not in the stars for me to attend this year. I have to stay at the office to "tend the garden" as it were... In the words of Yoda, "Saddened, I was". But, as things often go... sometime during the intervening months our communities own "Charlies Angels"* suggested that I simply fly in over the weekend for the "social aspect" of the conference. Great idea, but implementation is generally more difficult than planning. Some plans we made for lightening the financial load went awry... So, here I am at the intersection of "Really want to" avenue and "Is that prudent?" boulevard. All domestic T's are crossed, however the financial I's aren't quite dotted and here is where the assistance part comes in.

For a donation to the "Help Charlie get to SW Fox" fund, daughter Steph (@Steph_Lyon on twitter) and I will make you a t-shirt with maybe a logo and / or a pithy phrase. I will bring these shirts to SW Fox for distribution (If you're not attending or don't know an attendee, we'll figure something out). We are kicking around a few ideas for the final design, so I will post the design Friday night (10/2/2009) .

Not looking to have the trip shouldered by others, just make it a bit easier financially. Shoot me a DM via twitter or an email if your interested in helping out or just want to flame me.

Peace

* Charlies Angels: Jody, Cathy, Toni - Because I coined the phrase somehow I was appointed Charlie, and I think Craig Bernston has already volunteered for the role of Bosley (all other roles remain open).