SCC comes home!

Flights #10&11 completed (Budapest - Frankfurt, Frankfurt - San Francisco)
Flight miles: 6219 (18,085 Total)
Flight time: 13:21 (44:10 Total)

First of all, 13 and a half hours is too long for anyone to spend on airplanes in one day. What was even worse is that the flight from Frankfurt was delayed for 3 hours due to mechanical issues. (The landing gear wasn't closing...I'm glad they fixed it!). In any case, it was VERY good to finally get home, the flight miles and time on planes is bad enough but when I start to think about all of the time waiting for taxis to get to the airport, checking in at the aiport, waiting for the plane, waiting to get off the plane, waiting for luggage, waiting for the taxi, riding in the taxi...it gets a little staggering to think of all of that time.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, even the Canadians!

Buda is Betta!

Flights #9 completed (Dusseldorf - Budapest)
Flight miles: 622 (11,866 total to date)
Flight time: 1:50 (30:49 total to date)

This is my second time in Budapest and it sure is cold! High was 30 degrees today, do I look chilled?



















Not to do any advertising but I have to say that the Budapest Hilton has got one of the best locations of any hotel in the world. It's built on the foundations of the old church so there are pieces of the ruins built into the parts of the hotel and it is right next to the "new" cathedral (built in the 1400's). This is the view from my room (unfortunately the Cathedral is undergoing renovations but it's pretty amazing).

And the views of the Danube from the hill are spectacular!

And yes, I have been doing some work on this trip, I believe we have found our new European home here in Budapest, the factory is world class and I think they can handle our business so it was a succesful trip. In any case, at this point all I care about is that I get to go home tomorrow, happy Thanksgiving!

Things that can happen when you travel but would rather not!

Flights #8 completed (Prague - Dusseldorf)
Flight miles: 340 (11,244 total to date)
Flight time: 1:15 (28:59 total to date)

We flew through pea soup from Prague to Dusseldorf on a Canadair regional jet (I've been annoying my co-workers pointing out everything made by Canadians this trip so I thought I'd pass that along). The purpose of this leg was to visit a site in Southwestern Netherlands so we were to drive from Dusseldorf. We got the rental car, which is one of the most complicated processes in Europe, we really have this down much better in North America! In any case, we neglected to really set this up properly as the car we reserved was big enough for 4 people, but not for 4 Americans with a pile of luggage. After trying for 30 minutes to cram all the bags in we had to give up and go back and ask for a bigger car, which meant going through the process all over again.

In any case, the end result is that I now can say that I drove a Mercedes on the Autobahn...it was a Mercedes station wagon and it was pouring rain so I never made it much above 120 kph, but who's counting? After arriving in Venray in Holland at our hotel we made another unpleasant discovery, the hotel was supposed to be booked for 2 nights but they only had us down for 1 night so there was no room in the inn for us. There's some conference in Dusseldorf that is consuming all of the hotel rooms for miles (err...kilometers) around but I managed to find the last 4 hotel rooms available in Southeastern Netherlands. And that is how I come to be writing this post from a hotel in Deurne that used to be a monastery (check out the pictures).

We're really out in the country here, smells of cow....quite a change for Prague, that's for sure! I have to say that Prague is probably the most beautiful city I've ever been in. Attached is a couple more pictures, consider them cheap postcards.

Wenceslaus Square and church at night

The Charles Bridge, looking towards Old Town

Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge at night

SCC goes to Prague! City of beauty...and skinheads?

Flights #6 and 7 completed (San Francisco - Frankfurt, Frankfurt - Prague)

Flight miles: 5953 (10,904 total to date)

Flight time: 12:10 (27:44 total to date)

Hours gone since last sleeping (at the time of writing this): 25

My first time in Prague and it sure is spectactular. I am a big fan of my view from the room here.

We had quite a rude welcome, however, as we pull up to the hotel there are tanks and armored cars and 100's of police officers hanging about outside. We were obviously a little concerned about this so we inquired inside...apparently there is some kind of neo-nazi parade here today, the hotel is in the Jewish Quarter of Prague so I guess it gets that kind of attention...weird. In any case, later this afternoon the parade came by, I didn't get too close but here's a picture of the ruckus anyway. Hopefully there won't be anything like this going on tomorrow!

SCC home for a rest!

Flight #'s 4 and 5 completed: Fort Lauderdale to Denver, Denver to San Jose
Flight miles: 2651 (5951 total to date)
Flight time: 7:09 (15:34 total to date)

Well, I get to go home for 4 days. We missed the earthquake in SJ while we were out of town. Fortunately the only casualties were many of the plastic animals habitating in my cubicle, my workspace was littered with giraffes and dinosaurs when I returned to work. In any case, it's nice to enjoy the comforts of home for a few days and getting to enjoy the California Fall...it was foggy and 50 degrees this morning, good stuff! I thought I'd post this picture of the Rockies that I took on my flight back to SJ from Denver...it's purdy.

Later.

SCC attends wedding!

Flight #3 completed: Washington-Dulles to Fort Lauderdale

Flight miles: 900 (3300 total to date)

Flight time: 2:36 (8:25 total to date)

We got another one of the family succesfully married off this weekend. The Hurricane decided to skip South Florida this time so we had great weather for the ceremony. The wedding was on the beach at a place we actually had looked at for our wedding so it was very reminiscent of getting married 7 years ago. It all went very well and was beautiful, although I can't say the same for my dancing abilities. Luckily I don't believe that portion of the evening was videotaped for posterity. In any case, here are some pictures (it was a little windy, check out my bad hair!).

SCC flustered by airport bus!

Flight #2 completed: Denver to Washington-Dulles
Flight miles: 1452 (2400 total to date)
Flight time: 3:11 (5:49 total to date)

These trips are always killers, I'm in town today for a 4 hour meeting and then back on a plane tonight. In any case, I had a little problem last night...I took the wrong hotel shuttle bus and ended up at the wrong hotel, apparently there are 2 Hyatt Place hotels near Dulles and I was supposed to ask the driver if I was going to the right one! Oh well, the nice people here switched my reservation and now I'll always be able to say I spent the night in Sterling, Virginia.

On a separate note, I'm no expert on all names of the world, but at the Denver airport, the driver of the rental car bus had the unlikely name of Atilahun...really, can that be right?

Colorado: Flight 1 completed!

Flight # 1: San Jose to Denver

Flight miles: 948

Flight time: 2:38

I've actually always liked this flight. I think 2 and a half hours is about as long as I can comfortably handle being on a plane. The bonus is that flying into Denver International coming over the Rockies is always spectactular, no matter how many times I've done it. Everyone here is a little disapointed, what with the Rockies getting swept in the World Series but, oh well, it's only baseball people! I obviously didn't get oriented properly, I managed to pour the cream for my coffee onto my cereal this morning...I don't recomend it. We had dinner in Boulder tonight, I highly recomend it to anyone. It's kind of like being in California, only with REAL Mountains looming over your head. For the advenrurous, go to the Dark Horse restaurant just outside the University of Colorado and order the Jiffy Burger...yes, that is a Burger with peanut butter. My revue? Not as bad as you might think.

As a bonus, please see the attached very unflattering self-portrait from the airplane. Cheers from Broomfield, CO!

SCC goes on the road!

I think my real calling in life is to be a travel writer. Earlier this week I received an email from United Airlines telling me to be sure to check the status of my 11 upcoming flights. My first thought after reading that email was..."11, why does it go up to 11?!" After that, I thought it would be a good opportunity to give you all who may be interested a little peak into Brian's life on the road. I'll be taking 11 flights in 17 days, during which I'll make 10 changes in sleeping arrangements and change time zones 7 times.

So, here I go...I'm at San Jose International waiting to board flight #1, we'll see how we do here, it should be spectacularly interesting in a fantastically boring way.

SCC becomes more self-aware!

OK, here's an embarrassing story about myself. I like to think of myself as a pretty capable person, able to accomplish simple tasks with ease. Of course, many of you who know me will know that is not entirely true but I am capable of the self-deception...until now. Here is situation:

Exhibit A) We love coffee and require it in the mornings
Exhibit B) We no longer own a coffee grinder so we require "ground" coffee when purchasing from our local Safeway
Exhibit C) I should be able to remember this and actually purchase "ground" coffee when doing the family grocery shopping

Normally I am able to remember all of this, but last weekend I was sent out to get groceries and came back with, wouldn't you know it, whole bean coffee. Oh well, we all make mistakes. I tried again, went to Safeway specifically for ground coffee, went to the shelf and managed to pick up exactly the same bag of whole bean coffee

Exhibit D) I am not a detail-oriented person and have accepted this fact now.

Brian

P.S.- Minor celebrity spotting! While dining at Aqui's Downtown Campbell last weekend we saw Mike Ricci crossing the street! For those of you who don't know who Mike Ricci is, watch more hocky!

Peace out

SCC Rudely Awakened!

Sorry, it's been a while since I wrote, we tried to find those Pyramids but after much searching the best we could do was a visit to the Frye's on Hamilton...oh well.

In any case, I'm really writing to tell you all a fun story that happened last week. I was fast asleep, dreaming about something when, in my dream, there was a knock on the door and I freaked out and woke up. I was relieved that this was just a dream until I heard a real knock on our front door! It was almost midnight, so this was certainly unprecendented...being still half asleep and coming out of the nightmare my heart was doing a pretty good rythmn when I got to the door and opened it to find...the maintenance man! Okay, so not so dramatic, but the conversation went:


"Do you own a green VW Passat?"


"Um...yes?"


"You need to move it right now, the parking structure is about to collapse"


"OK, I guess I'll do that then"


So, this is how I ended up grabbing my keys and heading out to the parking lot to see what had happened. Apparently, some real bright member of our society, had failed to negotiate the curve in the road behind our complex and had taken his red pick-up and barreled through the fence, taken out a concrete pole, then plowed through one of the support beams holding up our parking structure before demolishing a parked car and finally smashing into the apartment building itself! No one was hurt besides the driver who apparently was taken to the hospital, check out the pictures below of the now propped up structure and the offending truck. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday night/Wednesday morning!

SCC Uncovers Falsehood!

Hello, it has been a while but there hasn't been anything too exciting to report from SCC land. I thought I would share something I saw here at our apartment complex the other day. In an effort to promote the complex the staff placed one of those fun little apartment advertising lawn signs with the very dubious claim that our complex is "Close to Everything!" I never knew we were close to everything but we look forward to going to the Great Pyramids next week now that we know we're close!

SCC says Aloha to the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a!

Well, we're finally back in the real world again. We managed to spend 2 weeks in paradise without having to climb in a dumpster so we'll call that success. If any of you are wondering what's up with the title the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a is Hawaii's state fish and we saw a lot of them snorkeling this time around...it's a fun word to say once you figure it out. Really enjoyed Volcanoes National Park, nothing like a little Sulphur Dioxide to brighten your day! In any case, here a just a few pictures from our travels.

Crazy Banyan Tree near Hilo

Mmmm...Sulphur!

Where the lava runs over the road

Geckoes!

Maui Donkeys!

I call this "Donnie Darko" rock...anyone else see the resemblance to the psychotic bunny rabit?

SCC works from his domicile!

I hadn't written anything for a while, but just thought I would stop and say it is great to be able to work from home. The commute time is perfect and you can go get a snack from your fridge while on a conference call. Good times!

SCC calls "Mulligan" on career plus Smashing Pumpkins news

So...I did it, I quit my job and have gone back to get my old one. It really wasn't any fun having 1 hour of work and squeezing it into an 8 hour day. I can now get back to the business of Supply Chain Commanding! In happier news, my official new title is actually Supply Chain Manager, which is about as close to Supply Chain Commander as I think I'll get officially.

On a completely separate note, I got the new Smashing Pumpkins album on iTunes. I was listening to the album and thinking "Hey, this is pretty good, it's like it's 1993 again!" and at the end I heard one song come on and thought "This is awesome...this is the best song yet!" and then I realized it was the iTunes-only bonus track and it was The Bravery covering "Rocket." Okay, so maybe it's not quite 1993 again...

Peace out for now

SCC Goes to Yosemite!

I thought I would post some of the pictures we took on our Yosemite trip with my parents while they were out for the holiday. I wish I had something more creative to say about the place besides that I believe it's one place everyone should try to see in their life, it's spectacular

Icky Thump! Jack Bauer!...Walker, Texas Ranger?

I can't decide which of the songs on the new White Stripes album is my favorite but it's definitely between "Rag and Bone" and "Little Baby Brother." Lyrically, their the funniest things I've ever heard on a "serious" album since Bob Dylan's "I Shall be Free." I think there ought to be more songs about garage sales by garage rock bands, but "Rag and Bone" is certainly the best one I've ever heard.

On a separate note, we finished watching Season 4 of "24" last night, we remain hopelessly addicted to the greatest action show on television ever created. It got me thinking though, as well-done as the show is it is so over-serious that it begs for some serious parody. I half expect, after Jack Bauer kicks some terrorist in the head and knocks him unconcious for him to blurt out "now, stay in school!" (Jen is already very sick of this joke, I say it for him all the time). It has also got me to thinking, who would win in a fight between Chuck Norris (as Walker, Texas Ranger) and Jack Bauer? It is purely a rhetorical question, as we all know, when Chuck Norris falls in the lake he doesn't get wet, the water gets Chuck Norris, I feel the same laws apply to Jack Bauer. However, when Jack Bauer and Chuck Norris both fall into the same lake at the same time, what happens to the water then? These are the questions I find myself thinking about at the moment...what an exciting job I have!

Incompetent Pigeons Attack!

It has been a tough spring for our patio. While not exactly the balcony of our dreams it did a good job of holding our bikes, plants and grill and it was a pleasant place to enjoy the climate. However, this spring we've been invaded by incompetent pigeons and it's driving us crazy! Like any good bird they are trying to build nests to have little baby pigeons who can carry on their proud tradition of going through everyone else's garbage...that won't be happening this year with our pigeons.




They have made, as far as I have been able to account for, 4 separate attempts to build a nest and bring an egg to the point where it could hatch. What the "building a nest" stage" has involved for our pigeon friends is to gather a bunch of sticks and drop them all over our deck. This behaviour has caused our deck to take on the look of a dead-twig graveyard, complete with buckets of pigeon guano. They are trying to build the nest on the rafter, which is not wide enough to support a real nest so the twigs and sticks invariably fall to the ground. As there is no nest to support an actual egg, the eggs also will invariably fall to the ground, the last count is 4 egges (see exhibit A)

(EXHIBIT A)

Here's to hoping for no pigeons next year

SCC posts month old Dillon Beach pictures!

Many of you have already posted similar pictures but I thought I would add to the general copy-cat nature of my blog by posting my own...enjoy!

Supply Chain Commander Explains Name!

as Kerrie mentioned in her comment, it may not be perfectly to why and how the term Supply Chain Commander should be used. I thought perhaps the best way to explain would be to recreate the conversation.

Act I, Scene I (of one) - Brian tries explaining his job to Jen and Bridget

Bridget: So what is it that do you do, exactly?

Brian: Well, I am responsible for managing the Reverse Logistics Supply chain for my company.

Jen & Bridget: (Blank stares)

Brian: I try to find the most cost effective way to move product from the customer, to us, back to the customer.

Bridget: So, you are kind of like the commander...of the supply chain.

Brian: I guess you could say that...

Jen: So you're a supply chain commander.

END SCENE

And so the name was born and has taken on a life of its own. As a side note, I have always been a fan of unnecessary exclamation marks in titles. I plan on using them until you all are sick of them so be forewarned!

Supply Chain Commander starts his blog.

Greetings,

Well, I admit it, I've done broke down and started a blog (grammatical error intentional for all of you teachers/instructional types). For years now I must admit I've tried to ignore this whole blogging world but lately I've caught up with the whole concept. As a notoriously poor email writer I hope this forum will help those of you who are interested in keeping up with what is going on in our lives. For those of you living nearby...you all have blogs already so I'm just a big copy cat but I can admit it and I'm okay with that.

Cheers,

Brian