I mentioned in my first dispatch from Barcelona that my schedule this year prohibited the sort of experience I had outside of the conference last year. While I had two full days last year with no commitments at Centre Convencions Internacional Barcelona, this year the organizers kept me busy every day of the event. Good for making efficient use of my time on an overseas business trip. Bad for taking in the sights. I had three hours on Friday between my last shift of booth duty and the speakers’ reception,

Greetings from the Delta terminal at JFK Airport in beautiful South Ozone Park, NY, where I’m currently laying over on my way back to Orlando.  As I was getting up at 6am Barcelona time, my wife was watching Friday night’s episode of David Letterman back home in Florida.  Time zones are certainly amazing things. Through a happy coincidence of scheduling, my flight from Barcelona came directly to the States.  I was thus spared a direct personal impact from the Air France pilots’ strike

Earlier this week, I got my session schedule for my talks at this year’s Tech·Ed EMEA 2008 Developers in Barcelona . DAT04-IS, SQL Tricks from Microsoft IT, will be offered on Tuesday, 11 November from 1:30pm until 2:45pm. DAT03-IS, Real-World Indexing Strategies from Microsoft IT, will be offered on Wednesday, 12 November from 3:45pm until 5:00pm. If enough of you sign up for these sessions, additional offerings will be scheduled.  I hope to see you in Barcelona!      -w

La Font de Canaletes is a public fountain near the head of La Rambla de Catalunya in what it currently the center of Barcelona, Spain: When I was in Barcelona last November, I reported that I "drank generously from the fountain, hopefully sealing my fate."  The fate to which I referred is the local legend which holds that visitors to the city who drink from the fountain will one day return. I got confirmation earlier this week that I'll be returning to Barcelona November 10-14 for

.. but my appendix had other plans. I underwent the fabled 0400 Sunday morning emergency appendectomy following a burst on Saturday evening, May 17. Absent a misguided 16-hour attempt to leave the hospital 72-hours post-op (my last gasp at joining you in Orlando), I was in the hospital until last Friday evening. Even at that, I might've rushed coming home by a day or two, but the worst seems to be past, and I can report at this point that each day is a little better than the one before it, which