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I’m back home from Green Bay and the Packers Fan Fest. Unfortunately I returned with a cold so I feel awful. Will post more later when I’m feeling better.

The second day of the Packers Fan Fest wasn’t any luckier than the first. Peeling off the sticker on the wild card ticket revealed yet another 15% coupon. No Brett Favre signature or photo for me. I did get signatures from Bob Harlan (along with a photo with my eyes closed), Don Majkowski, and Lee Remmel. Dad waited in Lynn Dickey’s line for me while I was waiting for Majik, but the line moved slo slowly, it became the line for Donald Driver.

We needed a break after standing in line, so we went to grab something to eat at Curly’s Pub. Afterwards we went to listen to Q&A sessions with Jerry Kramer, Gilbert Brown, Grady Jackson, and Leroy Butler. I also did some more shopping at the Pro Shop. Can’t wait to see how my Vince Lombardi bobble-head will look in my office!

Tomorrow we have a final shot at an MVP, Jerry Hornung. Otherwise the highlight of the morning will be a tour of the Packers locker room (not part of the normal tour of Lambeau Field open to the public) as well as a trip through the tunnel. Then we’re off to Sturgeon Bay so my dad can visit with an old friend he hasn’t seen in several years. After that, we head back down through Green Bay, a quick trip to a cemetery (for genealogical purposes) in Ripon, and an overnight stop in Rockford.

Pictures from day two are online.

I’m sitting in a hotel room in Green Bay as I write this. Today was the first day of the Packers Fan Fest, and the highlight of the evening was an appearance by Brett Favre. The crowd went absolutely wild when they heard Favre say that he would be coming back for another season. Everyone already knew this of course, but to hear him say it made it all the more real. You can read all about tonight’s event at Packers.com.

A big part of the Fan Fest is the opportunity to get an autograph and have your photo with current and former Packers. While most signatures are offered on a first come, first served basis, the more popular people, such as Bart Starr and Brett are considered MVPs and require a special ticket. Each person at the event receives a card at the entrance every day. Removing a sticker on the card reveals whether you can get an MVP signature or a discount to the Packers Pro Shop. Unfortunately, neither my dad nor I were MVP winners today, but I’m still hoping to see “Brett Favre” on my card tomorrow! I did manage to get some good pictures of Bart Starr and Ron Wolfe though, so it was better than nothing.

Another highlight of the evening was the opportunity to watch the debut of the 2004 Packers Highlight film by NFL Films on Tundra Vision (the big screen on the scoreboard at Lambeau Field). Everyone gathered in the seating on the Club Level and watched the film through the snow that was falling all evening. What an experience, sitting in the good seats, looking down on a snow-covered Lambeau Field, as the highlights film played. I can’t wait until Sunday when we get the chance to tour the locker room and walk through the players tunnel!

I’ve uploaded some photos from today. I’ll add titles and captions when I get back home. (Note: The photo link has been fixed!)

The TechEd Bloggers site has been updated to get ready for TechEd 2005. This site is a great way to get ready for the conference and keep on top of what’s going on once it starts.

I’m a sysadmin, so I’ll be there primarily for admin, messaging, and management topics. I don’t know what the focus of the show will be this year, but I hope to learn more about directions for Exchange 12, Office 12, and IE 7. Plus, I’m looking forward to visiting the cabanas. The cabanas were the highlight of the conference last year, giving everyone direct access to the product teams from Microsoft as well as some outside experts. Hopefully they will apply some lessons learned from San Diego (mostly sound and lighting issues) this time around to make them even better.

The other big highlight this year is the location. TechEd is in Orlando, as if I needed even more reason to go! Right now I’m putting together plans for Walt Disney World while I’m there. You didn’t think I would miss a chance to go to my second favorite place in the world (after Disneyland) would you? I think I’m going to make a run at the Ultimate Magic Kingdom Touring Plan on this trip. I don’t have any illusions about beating the existing records, but it is a great personal challenge.

OK, it wasn’t the magazine, but I did get my name in a Business Week Online column.

Stephen Wildstrom wrote in a 2/24/2005 Help Desk column, Microsoft Slips a Plug in a Patch about Microsoft’s release of a Messenger update and how it changes your home page to MSN if you don’t deselect the option during setup. I didn’t agree with his characterization of this behavior as browser hijacking (even though I do agree that it would be better if the default was to not change the home page), since every Messenger update exhibits this same behavior, and it states very clearly what it will do during the setup.

Check out More on Microsoft’s Patch Work for the entire article.