2007 brought some interesting challenges and adventures for Susan and I.  As the year comes to a close it’s time to recount some of those items and some of the interesting number

The year started off a little slow with a fun trip to NYC to see the amazing Les Paul play guitar at 91 years old!  This was followed by a trip to Redmond for a few weeks to participate in testing out some new products.

February brought an opportunity to go to St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands) for work.  Susan and I took a few days off and made it a mini-vacation.  What a great time of year to head down there as it is cold in the north east.  This was followed by a NASTY cold that kept both Susan and I bedridden.  The end of the month and into March was a stressful time at work as we struggle to patch computers for the Daylight Saving Time (DST) changes in the US.  There were many a sleepless not and countless man hours dedicated to the effort.  After the DST fun, I had an offsite in Las Vegas.  It was nice to relax for a few days.

April buried me in a tremendous amount of work as I was finishing up graduate school.  By the end of the month I had completed the program through Boston University and achieved a Master of Science degree in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in Information Security.  By the time May rolled around I was ready to blow off some steam and I went to 4 moe. shows in 5 days in NYC.

June brought a unique opportunity to deliver a workshop in Asia for other Microsoft employees.  I tacked on two weeks of vacation and Susan came with me for 3 amazing weeks in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. (check out the blog posts from June and July for more details)

In July we went down to North Carolina for a week at the beach with Susan’s siblings and her dad and Julia.  This was followed by a trip to Seattle for Tech Ready 5 and time in Colorado seeing friends and a moe. show.  I also got to see my first rodeo and first time in Wyoming.  The remainder of July and August brought countless hours of relaxation at Susan’s mom and Tommy’s pool.

The end of September and early October Susan had a conference in Huntington Beach, California.  I tagged along and was able to meet up with my cousins that I haven’t seen in 18 years!  We celebrated our 1 year anniversary out there as well.

Later in October Susan had another trip in Denver.  The Colorado Rockies were playing in the World Series and it was a crazy time.  We spent time with friends and visited Rocky Mountain National Park again.

November was a life changing month.  :)  It started off with my father and I going to our first Devils game at the new arena in Newark.  Also, I turned 30 and we went to Paris and Amsterdam to celebrate. (Thanks Mom and Dad!!!)  I saw my 30th moe. show on my 30th birthday.  As if Amsterdam wasn’t enough, Susan had planned a surprise birthday party for me when we got home.

Rounding out the year, December was busy with the holidays.  We had our annual Toys for Tots party which was our most successful ever!  I spent time in Burlington, Vermont for work under 2 feet of snow and enjoyed every minute of it.  The end of the month was spent with friends and family and brought everything back into perspective.

2007 was a great year and I look forward to 2008 being even better!  Let’s take a look at the numbers (in no order):

• 1 - the Anniversary we celebrated this year
• 6 - countries we visited
• 4 - National Parks visited
• 30 - the birthday that I celebrated this year
• 13 - moe. shows I saw this year
• over 7000 - pictures taken this year that we are still sorting out
• 42 - hours to return from Asia (Chiang Rai to Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur to Dubai to New York)
• 9 - babies born to friends and family
• 6 - Blue Whales spotted on our trip in California
• 88 - nights spent in Marriott hotels this year
• $520 - worth of toys collected from our annual Toys for Tots party which was then matched by Microsoft!

-Allen

Last night Michael and I went to NYC to see moe. at The Fillmore NY at Irving Plaza.  The show was amazing as always and the boys brought on Dicky Betts (formerly of the Allman Brothers) for most of the second set.

Check out the complete setlist.  During the announcement portion, Al mentioned that it was Michael’s 25th show.  Check out the video below.

Another show down in moe. history!

-Allen

I am trying to play catch up with all of the photos that are sitting on my computer.  Today I have posted a few sets for your viewing pleasure:

• Cleveland Indians at Boston Red Sox
• Malacca, Malaysia
• Singapore
• Damnoen Saduak Floating Market
• Cranbury Hot Air Balloon Fesitval
• moe.down 8 Day 1
• moe.down 8 Day 2
• Joshua Tree National Park
• Christmas Eve

I have several thousand more photos to get through for 2007 to be complete.  Hopefully by the end of 2008 I will be completely caught up 2006-2008 photos.  :)  Enjoy!

-Allen

It’s that time of year again, time for parties, year end reflection, and

time with friends and family.  Christmas Eve began with the traditional gathering at Susan’s mom’s house with family.  As always things are elegantly decorated and the food is nothing short of spectacular.  After the food it was time to open presents.  Each of the grand kids gets a "tower of presents".  Seeing their faces light up when they opened their presents was really fun to see.  The innocence reminds me that sometimes all the stress just isn’t worth it. 

From there, we went to my parents house for desert and to see my side of the family.  After a long day we went home to catch a few minutes of sleep. 

All pictures can be found at:
http://www.susanandallen.com/photos/2007/2007-12-24-ChristmasEve/

Christmas morning, Susan and I have my parents, her mom and Tommy over for breakfast.  We have been doing this for the past few years and has become a nice tradition.  This is when we do our gift exchanges.

In the evening we went to Grandpa Wust’s for dinner and Grandpa Seifert’s.

A busy few days, but it was great to spend time with famliy.

-Allen

Yesterday we went to Melissa’s son Russell’s Bar Mitzvah (Susan works with Melissa).  Following a beautiful ceremony, we headed to the reception at Powerhouse Studios in Paramus.  This place had several arcade games and a large dance floor.  They also had some of the best catering that we have had in a long time, rivaling some of the larger wedding receptions.

One of the things that you could do was make a video from a list of songs. Dan, Eva (Susan’s co-worker), Susan, and I chose I Love Rock n’ Roll by Joan Jett.  Basically what happens is you are covered in a green blanket and placed in front of a green chroma key screen.  Then your head is placed on top of a dancing body and you bob your head.  Check out the video below.

Overall it was a great day.  Mazal Tov Russell!

-Allen

Last night I met my good friend Tim (Big Country) in NYC for dinner and a few drinks.   Tim has been in Chicago for about 4.5 years now.  Every so often we get to catch up with each other if we have customer engagements in the same area or if we can get to training.

A few folks from work met up and we hit Ted’s Montana Grill on 51st for some good Bison burgers.  Mmmm!  Afterwards we went to the Playwright Tavern on 49th Street where Tim showed us his drinking skills.

Tim Chugging a beer!

Although it was a short visit as I had to head to Long Island, it is always good to see Tim.

-Allen

So I am up in Burlington, VT on business and I had the day to myself.  I made the pilgrimage that any Phish phan must make when they come to Burlington.  Nectar’s!  The bar where Phish got their start.  This is not the first time that I have been here.  A few years ago, I went with Susan and my parents.  Allegedly last time we missed Page by a few hours (according to the waitress at the time).  This time, I was by myself and the experience was a little different.  School is out for winter break and there is a HUGE storm up here that is dumping about 2 feet of snow.  Regardless, I still enjoyed my lunch and hanging out in the bar, even though there were no Phish sightings.  :)  Although the half mile walk back to the hotel in a windy snow storm was not fun, the trek to Nectar’s was well worth it. 

"What ever you do, take care of your shoes…." 

-Allen

On a recommendation from a good friend, I installed the Windows  Mobile Traveler’s Toolkit gadget for Vista today.  This thing is awesome!  It allows you to track flights, weather, travel guides, and more for cities you where you are traveling.  This build appears to even work for some of the international cities that I have visited.  Not sure how I lived without this.  Thanks JohnRo!

-Allen

This will make you want to bring your own glasses and towels the next time you have to travel.

GROSS!!!

-Allen

This past Friday, Susan and I held our annual holiday party and Toys for Tots drive at our house.  We encourage all guest to bring a new unwrapped toy to the party to help make a needy child’s holiday a little bit happier.  This year we broke our previous record and beat our goal collecting $519.89 worth of toys!!!

Thanks to everybody who was able to make it for your donations and thanks to those that were unable to make it and still sent donations!  It only takes a little to make a big difference.

-Allen