Today is the last day of work before the long weekend. I’m hoping that it will be quiet and that I can leave early. I need to stop at the pet food store on the way home for cat food and I will be swinging by my parents’ house, too. This evening there will be some organizing and packing to do. In the morning, I’ll pack and load the car for the drive. I will need to get up fairly early since I need to get some reports posted for work, though I could probably even wait until the evening for that, once I get the network set up. I’m not sure that I will be wanting to work after eating some turkey and stuffing, though!

I’m sitting at the gate in SeaTac awaiting the boarding call for my flight home. I’m hogging to only available electric outlet in the gate area, charging both the laptop and my cell phone! We should begin boarding in about 20 minutes or so.

I had an excellent day despite the fact that my head cold is trying to get started and make me feel crappy. I was picked up downtown at 9:30 by Evan and we headed to the RedWest campus where I met members of the Live Mesh team. We had lunch together in the RedWest cafeteria and enjoyed some great Live Mesh discussion over lunch. Evan then took me to the new campus where the Live OneCare team had moved to last year before the project was killed. It was kind of sad to see the empty floor where the team had worked. Members of the team are still there, but they are assigned to other projects. There are many empty offices, though. Next we headed to building 37 where I finally hooked up with Wendy, Paul, and Jessup of the Windows beta team for a short visit. That was a nice diversion! Finally, we headed over to the campus where the support team is located. I met a great group of people and we talked extensively about the ongoing support and community for OneCare and the future of the support for its successor. They took me to dinner nearby where we continued our discussion before Hazel took me to SeaTac for my flight home. It was a great time with all of the people I spent time with. Their passion for the products they work on is clearly evident. They continue to tell me how much they appreciate what I do in the the community, which does tend to swell my head. :-) I remind them that my benefit is that I enjoy helping people and I live to have an impact on making the programs and services better for customers – myself included!

The keynotes yesterday were a mixed bag, but still very much worth attending. I always enjoy hearing Steve Balmer and the audience questions can be rather interesting, to say the least. After lunch we were back at the Sheraton for an afternoon of chatting with the communities teams. I got to see the next release of the MSDN forum software and look forward to that being implemented as it appears to address some of the usability issues. I also spent some time talking to the person responsible for http://answers.microsoft.com and the Connect team.

We walked down to the waterfront for a nice dinner at Ivar’s in the evening and then it was back to the hotel to pack. Rob left at 7:15 this morning and I’ll be heading out the door shortly. Unfortunately, I awoke with the beginnings of a head cold. I went to the local pharmacy and picked up some cold medicine to get me through the day and went to Starbucks for a Mocha Latte and a scone for breakfast.

I’m spending the first part of the day with the Live Mesh team today and then I’ll be with the OneCare support team at another location before heading to the airport for the overnight flight home. As much fun as my time here always is, I so look forward to getting back home in the morning. I miss Pennie and our zoo!

Now, today’s sessions were excellent. Every single one was a winner. We had discussions with the Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Movie Maker, Windows Live Writer, and Windows Live Skydrive teams. All of them were well represented and all of the teams were clearly interested in our feedback. I, of course, gave feedback freely. I don’t tend to be bashful regarding my opinion, especially when I’m passing on what I’ve read in the newsgroups in addition to my own experiences.

I started the day by attempting to hook up with the Windows Beta team, but when I arrived at their building, the people I tried to reach were not in. I headed back to the transportation hub and then took the shuttle bus to RedWest for my morning sessions. I tried again in the late afternoon, but the reception desk was closed at 5 and I had no luck getting through to anyone on the phone using the automated directory. Ah, well. I had walked over to the building, so I walked back to the conference center to catch the bus back to the hotel. I could have hopped a bus to the company store, but decided against that. My voucher can be redeemed online (a coupon allowing purchase with my own money), so the trip to the store wasn’t really that important.

After a short stop at the hotel, we headed to the party. Just like last year, we didn’t stay long. Neither Rob or I had any alcohol and we ate a plate or two of finger food, wandered around a bit, and then had some dessert before heading back to the hotel. It looks like an early night.

Tomorrow we stay in Seattle for the closing sessions. It will still be a long day, however. We start a little later since we don’t need to travel to Redmond, have breakfast at the convention center and then attend a morning of keynotes. After the closing lunch we have some sessions at the Sheraton. I’ll be attending one with the forums team. We’ve been teased with the fact that there will be a surprise for us tomorrow during the keynotes and we have no clue what that might be. We shall have to wait!

Yesterday’s sessions were a mixed bag. We had some good discussions about the various Windows Live services and products. I am hopeful that our feedback is taken back for serious consideration. There were a few hints of things to come, but we weren’t exposed to anything in detail about the future releases for the applications or services that comprise Windows Live. There was some information (that I can’t share) on a few specific plans for the future, though, which was good. None of it was unexpected and confirmed what’s already been suspected. I do wish that there were more details shared with us. Oh, well.

I had high hopes for the product dinner for the evening, but that turned out to be a bust again. I did have some good conversation with some fellow MVPs and I met someone on the Windows Embedded team, but there was a lack of any program group representation from the Windows Live area, unfortunately. I wish that I’d have skipped the dinner and simply headed over to meet up with the Windows Beta team. I’m going to try to drop in over there briefly before my first morning session today. That won’t give me much time with the Windows team, though, since they are located on the other side of the campus relative  to the RedWest buildings.

Looking at the temperature and weather back home, I see that it is way cold this morning following yesterday’s snow dump. It’s raining here again lightly, but it is fairly warm, too.

Time for some breakfast and then we hit the bus for the travel to Redmond for another full day!

Yesterday afternoon was quite good. I had two sessions at the Sheraton and then we headed up to the Convention Center for the welcome keynote and the reception. The first of the afternoon sessions I attended were for MVP feedback and how the processes that Microsoft use to handle that feedback have improved. The second one was on Windows Home Server. There was some discussion about the future direction, which was great, though it was at a very high level. We did get to see some of the OEM boxes that are on the market for WHS. I was amazed at how tiny the Via box was.

After I filled up on some food at the reception I headed back to the hotel to get the last of my work files transferred over the pokey connection. I am not going to deal with the large Monday report files until tonight or maybe not even until I get back home. The speed is just too slow over the VPN connection from the hotel.

At 8:30 Rob and I headed back to the Sheraton for a nice informal chat with the Server and Tools forums team to talk about the current state of the Microsoft forums software and to hear about some of the upcoming changes that will be demonstrated at a session on Wednesday afternoon. We gathered in the lobby lounge and had a great conversation. It is always nice to put faces to the names of people that I’ve been emailing for the past year or so. We headed back to the hotel just before 11:00 and I got ready for bed pretty quickly.

I was awakened at 3:30 by a creaking noise, which turned out to be the building creaking from the wind. And then my roomie, Rob started snoring, so that means both of us are giving a nightly concert!

The alarm went off at 5:00 and I got the shower first. We headed down for breakfast at 6:30 and loaded up on a great variety of food and some coffee before heading out to the bus to the campus. We’re in the conference room at RedWest now awaiting the opening session…

We landed one minute late. :-) The flight was pretty good,. It was awesome to have an open seat in the middle of the row, so it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it can often be. Being in the back of the plane meant that everyone else got to de-plane first, but that wasn’t bad, either. I got out to the sidewalk to partake of some nicotine and called Pennie and then my father. When I got back inside, my bag was already on the carousel. I called Kip and headed back outside to await his arrival to pick me up for the ride downtown. I checked in at the Westin and then Kip and I wandered around before ending up at Starbucks for some coffee and a chat. Now I’m back in the room and am about to connect to work to get the Saturday reports taken care of – hopefully without any issues. I do hate hotel Internet with their sign-in process. It will look like another PC when I do connect with the Virtual PC, though my past experience here has not been a problem with that. Dinner will be with Kip. He will be back here around 7 and we’ll head out for dinner somewhere here in the downtown area.

I almost missed my flight thanks to a super long security checkpoint line and a miscalculation on my part for the time needed to get to the airport. Well, I knew how long it would take to the airport, but I forgot to factor in the bus ride from the economy lot. And, I’ve never had to wait in a long line for curbside check-in – until today. Oh, well.The good news is that the middle seat is open in my row. I’m in the next to the last row in the back of the plane, which means that it will be ages before I get off the plane after landing, but I’m thrilled to have an empty seat next to me. Expected flight time is 5-1/2 hours. I’m looking forward to the coffee service. I had hoped to grab a cup in the terminal, but I actually ran to the gate. I wasn’t the last one on the plane, but it was close!

So, I decided to head down to Burlington Coat Factory today at around lunch time to get a mid-weight jacket. I headed over to the men’s department and stopped in the section where sport coats were. I’ve got a few black sports coats, but none that really fit properly any longer. I started in the 42 tall section and there were a few decent black jackets, but the one that I liked was cashmere. Even heavily discounted, it was still too expensive for me at $199. I took a look at size 40 Tall and found one for $79.99 that was awesome. It looked and felt great. I didn’t buy it, though, as it was snug when I buttoned it up. I knew that it would be tight if I had the inner pockets filled with junk! Now, the amazing thing was that it fit at all. I wore a 42 in High School. And it was tight. Here I am at age 53, a size smaller than I was at the beginning of my High School years almost 40 years ago!

I headed to where the men’s coats used to be. They weren’t there. I wandered around and was finally directed to the other end of the store to the men’s coats. They really do need to do something about the organization of their coats. I had a heck of a time finding the Large/Tall coats. In fact, I never did find them. They had a Big and Tall rack, but the smallest in there was XL. They have certain coats grouped together on a rack or two, perhaps a manufacturer’s line. They had a huge number of coats lining the walls in the racks, and the styles were all over the place. I finally found a London Fog size 42 regular that wasn’t too big on me, but had long enough sleeves to fit well on my arms. It was $49.99 and it has two inside pockets and two outside pockets. It is weatherproof, but it doesn’t have a hood. It also fit the bill as being lightweight, but lined so it is more than just a Spring/Fall jacket. I’m all set for my trip to Seattle! okay, I still have to pack tonight after doing a load of laundry, but at least I have a nice new jacket for the trip.

I had a great day with the OneCare team and members of the MSN team today. In fact, my head is so swollen from the compliments that I may bang it in the overhead compartment on the plane! I was picked up at 10:30 outside the hotel by Evan and he brought me to the campus. We dropped my bags off in his office and had a short visit with a few people before heading out to lunch with a whole bunch of Program Managers at Claim Jumpers. I was very happy with the attendance and interest shown by those who joined us. We had a great conversation over lunch. A representative from the support organization, the boss of several of my contacts, was there from another office and we were able to share some war stories and talk about support issues.

After lunch we went back to the office and gathered in a conference room where additional program managers came to talk with me about their areas. I was able to go see the MSN people because they are on the same floor. I spent a while meeting various members of the team and chatting with them.

Kip picked me up at 5:30 and we headed to dinner and chatted extensively, too, before he brought me to SeaTac. It was great to see Kip and spend some time with him while I was out here. I'm about ready to board the plane to Newark now. So, I'll be home in about 7 hours!

It is Day 3 of the 2008 MVP Summit and I'm in need of more sleep, as usual. Yesterday morning we met for breakfast downstairs between 6:30 and 7:00 and then boarded a bus to the Microsoft campus shortly after 7. All buses drop us at one location on campus and we then board one of several bus routes that take us to various buildings around campus. We almost went to the wrong building for our first session, but fortunately caught our error. Getting back to the central point and then over to the RedWest campus for the remainder of our day took a whole lot longer than expected, but we were still on time for the Deep Dive sessions with several product teams. All of the sessions I attended were very good and I expect today's to be just as good. One of today's sessions will be on Windows Live OneCare, so that should be very good. In the evening we had our product group dinner and I had the opportunity to meet Eric, from the Windows Live team, who heads the Windows Live Butterfly beta testing group. We had a great conversation about our backgrounds and the Butterfly program. Evan from the OneCare team also joined us, gave us a few gifts from the team, and we chatted extensively, too. I was back at the hotel at around 10 PM and ended up staying up another 2 hours. I was up at 5, hence the need for some more sleep!

Today is another day of Deep Dive and then the MVP Party in the evening. It should be another great day of geekiness!

The flight was uneventful, besides being completely full. The meal was terrible and the seat was too uncomfortable, but I expected that. I made it in on schedule and called Pennie while waiting for my bag to come out. Once I picked up my bag I called the limo service that a fellow MVP had recommended as being cheaper than a cab. The driver arrived within 10 minutes, as promised, and I had a nice ride to the hotel. Check-in was a breeze and I went upstairs to my luxurious suite at the Grand Hyatt.  The room is nice and big and has a decent view from the 19th floor. It isn't as nice as the Westin, but it is a larger room and the bathroom is absolutely enormous. I actually amazed at the size of this bathroom. There's a large glass enclosed shower at one end, and a large tub at the other end. I think I'll have to find time to try out that tub!

As is usual for my experience at the Summit, I ended up staying up fairly late and getting up very early. I met up with a few of my fellow MVPs last night for a late dinner and got back to the room at about 10 PM. I was in bed after midnight and awake at 5:30 PDT today. At 7:30 this morning I met up with Jan, MVP and Windows Live Butterfly, and we hooked up with Steve, an MVP from the UK for Mail, who joined us for breakfast. After breakfast, I went over to the Convention Center and registered. This was an absolutely painless registration. It went quickly and efficiently. I headed back to the room for a bit as our day will really begin with lunch at 11:30, followed by presentations all day long. I don't expect to be back in the room until 10 PDT tonight, once I head out. I'll probably skip lunch as I've already eaten way too much!

One rather interesting tidbit is that the Dalai Lama is apparently staying at my hotel. He is in town for an event today and the lobby was loaded with police yesterday and this morning. Fellow MVP and Windows Home Server enthusiast, Terry Walsh, actually spotted him yesterday and posted a picture on his blog. It would be interesting if I got to see him, too, but I expect that I'll be at the Summit when he returns to the hotel later today and I don't know how long he will be staying with is entourage.

I ran a little late heading out the door today. Of course, today was the day that Outlook decided to archive my mail and then PSTSync crashed while trying to complete the sync between the desktop and the laptop. When it works, PSTSync is a pretty good program. When it crashes, I hate it.

Anyway, after a reboot all was well once again. I said goodbye to Pennie and the mutleys and kitties and headed out the door at 11:30 for my 2:15 flight to Seattle. I stopped in to see my parents briefly on the way. All was well there, so off I went. Traffic was a little heavier than I expected, but mostly with idiot drivers, I think.

I made it to check-in with plenty of time, though, as I'm in the gate area right now awaiting the call to board. I parked in the long term lot and hopped on the bus to the terminals. Curbside check-in went quickly and security went even better than I thought. Of course, I had to remove my shoes and belt, which I hate. And with my weight loss, my pants are rather loose, so I almost lost them a few times! LOL!

The flight is going to be packed. I'm sitting at about the 2/3 point of the plane on an aisle seat. I'm sure it will be an uncomfortable 5 or so hours. Well, I think I'll get this posted as boarding should begin in about 10 to 15 minutes.

I'm going to miss Pennie and being home, but it should be a really good week. I'm not sure what's happening this evening, other than some of us are expecting to get together to say hello and hang out.

It's Friday. It's the last workday of this week. And, it's the last day of work (well, full day, that is) before my week of geeky vacation. On Sunday afternoon I'm flying out to Seattle to join in the annual Microsoft MVP Summit. This will be my 3rd Summit experience and I'm looking forward to spending a week with my fellow MVPs, meeting up with old friends and making some new friends. Pennie has been wonderful in letting me take these trips! Spending time talking all things Microsoft and spending time with other like minded crazy people does give me a nice break from work and even the responsibilities of home and worrying about my parents' needs. I will miss Pennie and the zoo very much, of course. For at least part of the time that I am away Pennie will have company. Her daughter is arriving today to spend a few days with her. They plan to go to an exhibit tomorrow and her daughter will accompany Pennie to her appointment at UMDNJ on Tuesday, but for the rest, I suspect that they are going to play it by ear.

I'm actually of mixed emotions about this trip. Although I am really looking forward to it, part of me would rather stay home. I'd spend the time working on the basement project. The workroom is not quite finished yet in that it still needs to be organized and a few shelves need to be put up. I'd also be able to start framing out the louvered doors around the furnace and perhaps even purchase and install the two basement windows. I'll probably spend some time tomorrow in the workroom, but the framing and windows will have to wait.

Pennie headed South this morning. She left early to try beating the weather that was creeping North. She met it past the half way point. She just called to tell me she made it to her Mom's and that there is 4 inches of snow on the ground at her house, with sleet falling. It will be the zoo and me for the next few days. I'm about to head home now to let the dogs out. They will be happy to see me after spending a decent part of the day in their kennels. Tomorrow they'll be in them even longer since I will be heading out by 6 am or so, and won't be back home until around 4 pm. They'll have a repeat of that on Monday and probably Tuesday as I don't expect Pennie to leave quite as early to come home. We'll probably be getting home at around the same time. The dogs and I will miss Pennie for the next few days, but I know she needs to have some time back home every so often, so I can't complain. Well, I might complain if the dogs push me out of bed tonight, but I'll do my best to stand my ground!

Nope. I didn't manage to get caught up today. I never made it to the forums, but I did get through email, newsgroups, feeds, backups, and work. I also did the grocery shopping, visited my parents, helped Pennie grind the veggies for the dogs, worked out, and had dinner. I know I'm going to have a tough time getting up tomorrow as it is already 10:30 and my body thinks it is still 7:30. I guess that means that when the alarm goes off at 4:00 tomorrow, my body will think it is 1:00. I'm glad to be home, but I think I should have taken tomorrow off!

It's 9 PM here in Redmond and I'm packed and ready to leave early tomorrow morning. I had a great time, but I look forward to heading home tomorrow afternoon and meeting my lovely wife at the airport on arrival. It was another full day of sessions at Microsoft for the group of beta testers from all over. We ended the day with a reception where the highlight was a "silent auction" of various gift items where we placed our bids with the "dollars" we had received throughout the three day event. Despite my nice bundle, I didn't have enough for the two highly desirable packages. The only problem with the bidding was that each bundle had a bidding sheet, so it was much like an eBay auction in that you placed your bid and someone could come right behind you to top your bid. I think it should have been secret bidding to make it much more of a surprise at the end. I decided to give a chunk of my dollars to a fellow beta tester from England who was bidding on the Zune to take back as a gift for someone at home. I'm happy to report that he won. I ended up with a few smaller items, so it was still lots of fun. All in all, it was a great trip - beginning with my day with the OneCare and MSNIA teams, all of the sessions with the Windows group, and dinner with Kip on Tuesday and Eric on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to the next event!

Since I'm getting up at 4:30, I'm heading to bed now.

Thursday is coming to a close and the hotel bed is calling me. Today was another long, but great day here in Redmond. I was downstairs shortly before 7:30 to catch the shuttle van to the Microsoft campus, but I was one of two people who didn't get a seat and had to wait for the 8:00 am shuttle trip. This wasn't a problem since the hotel has a complimentary breakfast and our first session was scheduled to begin at 8:15. We made it on time and the last shuttle was pretty empty.

There were some great sessions for the day once again and we also toured the eHome and CIW exhibits at the Executive Briefing Center. I had been through the eHome tour before, but it always fascinates me. Basically it is a vision of a connected home using technology that is already available today, though perhaps still cost prohibitive for wide adoption. I had never been through the CIW tour. This was an hour long session where we got to see new technologies for the business and office worker or information worker, specifically, that also showcased a vision of what's possible within the next 3 to 5 years based on technology that is already available today or in development. It was very cool stuff.

After our final session, I met up with Eric, my MVP Lead. We had dinner at an Indian vegetarian place and the food was superb. It was a small place that Eric had never been to, but the reviews were good. We both enjoyed it very much and had great conversation during dinner. He dropped me back at the hotel and I caught up on email. Which brings me to the present and time for bed.

I miss Pennie and our zoo and I miss my own bed and the comforts of home, but I'm very happy to have the opportunity to be here this week.

I'm at the first day of the Windows Server 2008 beta event in Redmond. I spent the day yesterday with the Windows Live OneCare team, attending multiple meetings and participating in a whole lot of discussions. One of the team members picked me up at 8:45 and brought me to the beta dinner just before 8 PM. I had a burger at Claim Jumpers and then hitched a ride back to the hotel with one of my fellow testers who had a rental car. I tried to stay awake to check email, newsgroups, feeds, and the forums, but I only managed to get through email and feeds before I headed to bed at midnight. I was exhausted!

This morning, I was up at 6 once again, and on the shuttle van to get to campus for registration and a bit of breakfast. The more critical thing was coffee, since the hotel room coffee was not replenished yesterday! I had some yogurt and fruit along with my coffee. We jumped right into sessions. We were split into two tracks. My first session was very interesting, but the second was a little dry. We broke for lunch, which was a salad for me. (I'm trying to keep to my diet!) During the lunch break was judging for the oldest Microsoft T-Shirt. I didn't have an old T-Shirt, but the NT 3.5 polo shirt was ruled to be allowed. I knew mine was old, but I was surprised that it was ruled to be the oldest of the few that wore a shirt for the contest! To make it more fun, the second place winner sitting right next to me during lunch. The prize at this point is unknown. There's a list of stuff that we will be able to "bid" on during the closing reception using special "dollars" that we get for asking interesting questions during the session, for example. Because of my contest win, I was awarded a big bundle of these "dollars" for use at the end of the 3 days. Such fun!

The rest of the day is a full schedule, including a trip to the Company Store and Museum later this afternoon. Tonight I'm meeting Kip for dinner and a nice evening of conversation. And I then hope to actually get to bed early.