Another very good day in yunzvillle.   Diane and I spent the day in Pittsburgh with larry, leah and paul today. I managed to work much of the day thanks to wireless everywhere. I did give a talk today for all the folks in my old graduate department on my experience in The Colony. I love telling people about the  whole experience and the lessons we learned there. I think it’s good for people to hear how fun it can be to do something completely out of your comfort zone…. 

It was fun giving a completely fun talk in the same room that I had to give so many technical talks nearly 20 years ago. The room was packed and they brough in Pizza.. not just pizza.. but pittsburgh specialties like steak and fries pizza (yes fries)

And a pirogi pizza…. complete with mashed potatoes..

We even managed to solve our audio-visual problems…thanks to Rob, Rich and Larry.  (just how many PHd’s does it take to fix a computers sound problems ?)

The talk went pretty smoothly…. folks laughed at the right places.. recoiled at the right places.. It was fun because many of them had seen the show.. I’ve never spoken to a group that was familiar with the show.. 

The best part of the talk, though. was catching up with old friends . Many of the profs and staff from my time at CMU are still there..   Here’s Roxy … the uber mom of the cad center.. and Lyz (aka Betty) who used to take care of Rob and his students.

I managed to get some decent work done the rest of the day.. and got to speak with some students and profs. A really good day   The car for the airport came to get us around 4:30 /./. Before we left I went up and tried to put a SamStone on the roof.. but it was locked, so I left one as close to the roof as I could get..

As we drove away towards the airport I started thinking about the early fall day in 1988 that Diane, Max and I drove here for the first time. I remember just how scared I was about leaving work., uprooting my family and coming to school here.I agonized about it for months.. both before and after making the move.. Now looking back over the comfortable distance of 21 years it seems so funny to have worried abotu it that much. It was such a fantastic decision coming to school here. It’s opened so many doors for me… made me so many good and lasting friends.. I guess the lesson  here is that it generally all works out… especially when if you see it in hindsight.

Anyway..  I want to thank Larry. Leah and the folks at CMU for hosting us… it was a great trip.. you guys are the best…

OK.. enough.. we’re boarding soon. more tomorrow. Nite folks.. nite Sam
-me

ps. We ran into a really nice Colony fan in the security line !