Celebrated New Year’s in Marseilles, France; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Tumon, Guam(2000).
Been to Mass at the Vatican.
Toured the Sistine Chapel three times, on three different trips to Rome. Tossed 3 coins in the fountain three times, so I will return to Rome.
Watched the US Basketball team play against the team from Lithuania in the semifinals of the FIBA World Championship while I was at a campsite in Lithuania, with a couple of Lithuanian Families.
Sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar 8 times.(On Navy ships)
As someone else said, I have sailed across both the Arctic Circle and the Equator (and both Tropics).
Shared an elevator with Charles Barkley.
Visited Ann Frank’s house and Rembrandt’s house in Amsterdam.
Toured Pompeii
Tons of other stuff I can’t remember, but all because of:
Served 20 years in (and retired from) the Navy.
Had dinner with someone accused of crimes against humanity (later tried at The Hague and acquitted).
Accidentally said the F-word in front of Bill and Chelsea Clinton.
Had an Afghan tribal leader offer to buy me for his son.
- Played Madison Square Garden (saxophone in a String Band…bonus points for anyone who knows what a String Band is).
- Peed in a urinal next to Kenny Bernstein.
- Spent 19 days and 6000 miles touring the US in a mini-van with my wife and 4 kids…and lived to tell the tale.
Got college degrees (one graduate, two postgrads) from three different countries. It’s not unique but it’s pretty rare.
Been part of a SAP implementation which was so over the top, so much beyond what’s normal, that I usually can’t tell colleagues about it as they don’t believe me. But since most of the people in that team weren’t consultants, at first we didn’t know that what we were doing was “impossible!”;by the time people started telling us it was, we’d been doing it for a while so we’d reply “if it’s impossible how come we’re doing it?”
Seeing the monument to the SeaBees at Arlington I thought “these sound like our kind of guys!”
Ooh, tell me more! I’ve been through three of these now. It’s amazing how little the consultants often know about what it can be made to do. . .
Oh, one which will be rare in this crowd: been to the Ciudad Encantada in Cuenca.
And I’ve visited breweries in three countries (Ireland, Mexico and Spain) and over twelve garbage-treatment plants of different kinds, but only in three countries (Spain, the US and Costa Rica).
ETA: Uy, I’d missed the request. We
- implemented ALL needed modules. At the same time. That includes Quality, Health and Safety (and not just for labels), HR… as well as “the usual” Supply chain and financial stuff.
- had no actual consultants for most of them, so learned how to use SAP by careful testing. Since we were a chemical company, we were good at this.
- used a rollout model, but no home-office-defined template Which Everybody Must Follow. Each rollout started with a “blind” blueprint, asking the factories involved to tell us how they did things, give us samples of any documents, and so forth; only once we had that did we go to our list of “processes we know how to do” and start going “got it, got it, got it, this one has a detail that’s new, got it, haven’t done it but we know how, got it, HEY this one is new!”
Got you beat. Served 23 years in the Navy Seabees. You know: the real man’s Navy. 
After our wedding reception, I carried my wife across the threshhold … of the hospital emergency room. She sprained her ankle dancing at the reception and had to spend half the honeymoon on crutches.
Me, too!
I bribed a Guatemalan cop so he wouldn’t arrest me for having a Nicaraguan (and illegal immigrant) hooker in my vehicle, and going wrong way down a one-way street while on our way to buy beer for the cathouse where she worked. He wanted $10; I only had a twenty. He actually gave me change.
Now that’s service!
It always warms my heart to hear of an honest cop.
I saw a Sparrow and a Blue Jay each of whom had made her nest and laid her eggs decide that she had picked the wrong place and destroy her eggs and nest. Essentially the equivalent of a bird self-abortion. A very tragic thing. I cried for the mother bird both times.
I have:
Been within 100 feet of a bomb exploding… 5 times. 4 were outside of pubs or clubs, the fifth was a motorcycle bomb.
Had every flight-deck certification on the ship I was on, except Landing Signal Officer because I was enlisted.
Helped rewrite the way the Navy (not US Navy, sorry) does damage control drills aboard ships.
Completed the process of getting a divorce and then went to a really nice lunch with the woman who had just become my ex-wife.
Got married (twice) without proposing or being proposed to.
Eaten yak meat, barbequed.
Nothing else of note, to be honest. I lead an intersting life, but it’s only intersting if you’re me, which you are obviously not.
Been to Goose Bay, Canada (forget which province that is).
Been shot at by at least 25 people in one day.
Saved the life of someone who tried to kill me.
Been to Bucharest, but only for about 24 hours.
Been in a plane that made an “emergency landing”. One of the windshields cracked.
Had a skin graft.
I’ve seen squid mating. Amazing color display.
-D/a
Jeepers, remind me never to go out for drinks with you.
This is a great thread. Not sure how well any of mine match up, but here goes:
Got hit by a car when I was about 8, miraculously without serious injury.
Attended a private reception by the Lord Mayor of Dundee, Scotland (hey, I’m just a mook from the Pennsylvania sticks).
Accidently walked into, then veerrrry sslllooowwwlly out of, a herd of cape buffalo on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe.
A few days after that, was charged by a baby rhino.
A few days after that, spent a nervous night listening to a hippo stomp around just outside the tent I was cowering in.
Rode front seat in a helicopter on a flight up the Amazon from Iquitos, Peru to an oilfield base camp about an hour upriver.
Rode bombardier position in a restored B-17.
Rode with musician Leon Redbone (anyone remember him?) in a car taking him from a gig back to his hotel. He didn’t much want to talk, however.
Been shot at, but in this crowd apparently that’s an everyday event.
Newfoundland and Labrador (it’s in Labrador).
Thank you!
The real question is how many shot back?
I am amazed at all these things done by this group - makes me feel like my life has been way too boring.
My only accomplishments worth listing are:
- run down a purse snatcher in a mall parking lot.
- snuck onto the sideline of a NFL game.
- won on “Wait Wait Dont Tell Me”.