Blog.MichaelDogan.Com

With the same blissful disorientation that David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel suffered while searching for the stage and enthusiastically proclaiming “Hello Cleveland!”, Lauren and I explored the streets of Cleveland to determine if in fact, as Drew Carey insists, “Cleveland Rocks”.  What better place to make this determination than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.  While the crew from Spinal Tap was nowhere to be found, we did find Continue reading

Continuing our tradition of finding romantic getaways, sans our wonderful and understanding ladies, Ron and I stumbled across the lovely Gaeta Italy, on our scenic drive from Rome to Naples. Gaeta is located about 80 km from Naples and similar to other Italian towns along the coast that we’ve visited, affords views of the sea and the mountains. Interestingly, we saw an American naval ship in the harbor, and it turns out, that there is a NATO base located in Gaeta. Continue reading

What could be more romantic than strolling the streets of Rome heading to a quaint dinner on Valentines Day? We’ll, doing so with a DATE would be a great start. Unfortunately, and no offense to my friend and colleague Ron, however, we once again found ourselves working far from home on yet another day where we may have preferred to be home with our loved ones.

But, always looking to make the best of it, Ron and I found our way to a nice Scottish pub, and a wonderful Argentinean restaurant. The food was great, and the pints were better. Despite being condemned to being each others Valentines day dates, we had an enjoyable evening, and took in the sites, including catching the Colosseum just as the sun slipped past the horizon. This made for an incredibly deep blue sky, as in the photo above.

Cheers,

- Michael Dogan

I love my job. Sometimes, I love it even more. Today, I spent a good part of my day , as the title suggests, under Rome. As the Project Manager for Ansaldo STS USA on the Roma Line C project, I got the opportunity to do a site inspection today, which included a visit to the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). Without getting into too many technical details, the TBM is a huge machine that, as the name suggests, digs through the planned metro tunnel, removing the debris and placing the concrete reinforcements into the tunnel as it goes. It’s quite a feat of engineering, and was truly an interesting experience. Like I said, I love my job, sometimes, I love it even more.

I took the picture above after we exited the service vehicle, and walked along the catwalk towards the TBM.

Cheers,

- Michael Dogan

Sixburgh! The venerable Pittsburgh Steelers win their Sixth Super Bowl! I, along with Lauren, Tom, and my Italian friend and colleague Angelo watched the game from the Panther Hollow Inn (see photo), which is strategically located in Pittsburgh between the campuses of the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University. As some of you may know, I used to work at the PHI as the “door guy”, and even for a while as the world’s worst bartender… (Rum and Coke you say… what’s in that?).

As you might imagine, after the game the streets were flooded with festive fans, most of whom were celebrating in a responsible manner. Unfortunately, some were not. On the drive home, several routes were blocked due to couches and the like which had been drug out into the middle of the street and set ablaze.

While not a Pittsburgh native, I do enjoy the passion and enthusiasm that the people of Pittsburgh demonstrate in support of their teams… well, short of couch burning anyway.

Go Steelers!

- Michael Dogan

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day found Lauren and I back in Lancaster to retrieve Fred (ok, Diamond), her beloved feline friend whom we had left behind as we gallivanted through Washington DC., Virginia, and then eventually New Orleans. Lauren’s family lives in Lancaster, currently, and have a slash that, had a house on the river in Maryland that sits just at the mouth of the Chesapeake bay. I say had, because they have recently torn down the “little river house”, to build a bigger river house. River House 2.0! Now that the kids are all grown and out of the house, they intend to sell the big house in Lancaster and settle in at the river full time.

We stopped in to peak at the progress, on the new house, and I’m happy to report that it’s coming along fine.

Cheers,

- Michael Dogan

Just a quick post. While in NOLA with Kieron, Amber, Bongo, and Jose; Lauren and I had the great pleasure to watch Jose use his ninja like negotiation skills with a street vendor to get each of us our obligatory “NOLA HAT”.

Cheers!

- Michael Dogan

Another day in NOLA and in the good hands of Kieron, we found a pub… or two, or three perhaps. Lauren and I took time away from our frosty adult beverages to pose for this quick photo. Awww, aren’t they just adorable together….

Cheers,

- Michael Dogan

After a wonderful Christmas in Lancaster with Laruen’s family, we headed off to the thriving metropolis of Roanoke, to visit mine. Passing through Washington D.C. it occurred to me that I should give Bongo a ring and see if she was around to meet Lauren, and grab a bite to eat.

Sure enough she was, and off the three of use headed to the same darn place Bongo makes me eat every time I visit. Fair enough. The foods good, and its just a short walk from her pad. Continue reading

So, you’d like to throw your proverbial two cents into the virtual pot, but you aren’t quite sure how to do so?  No problem!  No problem!  Firstly, in order to leave a comment, you must register.  Don’t panic, all registering requires is that you supply an email address, and its a fairly simple process.

Registering is a fairly simple process and there are two ways to get to the registration page.  Either click on the “Admin Login” link at the bottom of any page or follow the “You must be logged in to post a comment.” link on the bottom of any individual post.  Either way, you will end up here.

The link will take you directly to the login form.  At the bottom of the form, you will see two additional links.  The first link, “Register“, will take you to the registration page.  At this page you will need to supply two pieces of information.  Your desired username, and your email address.  Keep in mind that your username is case sensitive, and cannot be changed once chosen.  (Don’t panic, you can choose what name is displayed when you leave a comment in the registration section).  Next, enter your email address and click  on the “Register” button.

You will receive a temporary (and difficult to remember I might add) password at the email address you entered on the registration page, along with a link to follow back to the login page.  From there, you guessed it, enter your username and temporary password.

Once logged in, you probably want to click on the “Profile” link on the left hand side of the page.  There, you will be able to update your First name, Last name, Nickname, which is publicly displayed, update contact information, add Biographical information and possibly most importantly, update your password.

Now that you are all set up, you can follow the link “Visit Site” back to the main page.  Now that you are logged in, you can leave comments to any article you choose.  One note.  To ensure that nothing inappropriate gets posted, all comments must be approved by the administrator prior to being published for the world to see.

All of this sound too confusing?  Send me an email at blogger at michaeldogan dot com and I’ll help you out.

I look forward to hearing for you!

Cheers,

- Michael Dogan