Yesterday I came into my office and found a box on my chair. Inside was this plaque. Apparently you get a fancy plaque when your patents filed are finally approved. I've gotten the little patent cubes twice before, but this is my first plaque. Woo hoo.

I had a feldenkrais appointment at 11 this morning and went to get takeout for lunch afterward. When I left the office I hadn't yet finished my morning tea (read: caffeine) so I took it with me in the car. All was well. But when I took a hard left turn going to Acapulco Fresh my mug flew into the passenger seat, spilling a good bit of tea on the way. Once I parked the car I looked into the incident and discovered that the raincoat I had left on the passenger seat was containing all the tea. There was a pool in the coat. Apparently it is waterproof from the inside out, as well as the outside in. ;-)

My Google personal home page tells me that the weather isn't looking good for the next few days.

PHOTO BY A BLOGGER NAMED PETER Last night after work Benjamin and I walked with Maple up to the library. It was a fun way to spend time together, get excercise and get some new audio books, all at the same time! Afterward Benjamin went to his DND game and I stayed home. Maple and I watched TV for a while and then went to bed. Unfortunately I didn't actually get to sleep until about 12:30 because I talked to Benjamin for a while when he got home.

Almost a year ago, Benjamin and I joined the national bone marrow registry. Recently, Benjamin got a call from Puget Sound Blood Center saying that he is an initial match to a recipient. So yesterday Benjamin went in and had blood drawn to determine if he is an actual match or not. We'll find out in 6-8 weeks whether or not he is a match. If you are interesting in joining , visit the National Marrow Donor Program website to learn more.

Yesterday at lunchtime I finished listening to Eat Cake. I wanted to go to the library after work to get more books, but there was no time before my hellerwork appointment. This morning I went online and requested a ton of audio books from the library so I'd get some good stuff soon. I discovered they now have downloadable audio bookd as well as ones on CD and cassette. I am excited. I placed holds on a couple. Yes, you still have to place holds. They have to limit access in order to maintain legal, paid usage. Still, cool. Maybe I will buy a replacement iPod afterall...

Thursday was the first day of fall and although the weather was nice this weekend it was dreary this morning (I forgot to get a cam pick right when I got in so this doesn't look as gray as when we were driving across 520). I also heard on the news the other night that we've now passed the threshold in Seattle where day is longer than night. Today the sunrise was at 7:03 AM and sunset is at 6:56 PM. No wonder it feels so dark when I take the puppy out at 6:30 AM... It is also getting cold at night. But like I said, it is still nice out a good portion of the time, so I will do my best not to complain for a while longer.

Death toll in fish tank rising

The fish population in my tank at work is dwindling. A couple of months ago my dwarf frog died but I blamed it on old age. Then last Monday when I came in my bottom-feeder was dead. Since both the frog and the bottom-feeder spent most of their time on the bottom and bad stuff can congregate there, I decided to test my water. The nitrates were fine but the pH was way off. I added some fresh water and left it. When I came in this morning I thought one of the rasboras was dead (he isn't really) so I tested the water again. Still bad. So I took water out and replaced it with new. Rested: still bad. Now I am letting it sit for a while and will retest tomorrow or so. You don't want to change too much too fast. I already had a pretty sparse population but now the tank looks downright empty. Maybe if I ever get the levels right and stable I will add some new fishies.

Today we had brunch with Benjamin's family to celebrate his birthday. We had a yummy feast of eggs, bacon, cinnamon roles, OJ, and blueberry crumble (with ice cream). We had a nice time with everyone and Benjamin got some good books as presents. Wilder went to his soccer game right afterward. This is him in his uniform. More photos.

Saturday night Benjamin and I went to the Met (Metropolitan Grill) for dinner to celebrate his birthday. We used a gift certificate from Rand & Davonna that was a birthday gift for me and him (we got it in July). It was tasty as always and we paid very little over the g.c. since we didn't drink. After dinner we went to the Neptune theater to see Tim Burton's new movie Corpse Bride. It was cute. My favorite part was the little dog. :-) I gave Benjamin a new Shuttle PC "bare bones" mini system. Now he's going to buy himself a bunch of other pumped up new parts including multiple hard drives, RAM, and a dual-core 64 bit processor.

After SFU a few of us went to 22 Doors on Capitol Hill for a drink. I liked the space and the music. The drinks were creative and pretty - not the most amazing tasting but at least as good as most places. Like most bars, the biggest minus was the smokiness. Benjamin didn't like it quite as much, but had fun nonetheless.

We had a great turnout for Six Feet Under night even though only four of us watched the show. The others either hung out downstairs with Benjamin (gaming) or left after dinner. We ate a yummy chicken and potato dinner that Benjamin made and had Claire's cheesecake for dessert. Maddy and Syl contributed salad and bread. Yum! We ended up with about 5 extra bottles of red wine and a couple six-packs of beer so we'll have plenty for next time.

Friday night was the first of our Six Feet Under nights for season 5. Claire & little Amelia came early because Amelia has to go to bed early. Claire made an amazing cheesecake for Benjamin's birthday. Rob also came early to play with Benjamin and also with the camera lenses he rented from Glazers for the weekend. Erik bussed over and met up with everyone. Sadly Claire, Erik & Amelia left before everyone else arrived.

Friday was the Microsoft company meeting. I never made it there. After sleeping in to compensate for my exhaustion, I took a shower and washed the puppy. Then I ate breakfast and chilled out. In the afternoon Benjamin and I went to the U Village. We ate lunch and Benjamin drank coffee. Then we went on an extensive grocery shopping trip, and finally to the pet store. One of the things I bought was a brush for Maple because she's been shedding like crazy. I brushed her outside for a while and got out a bunch of the loopse hair. She looked pretty, even though she still sheds. Recent Maple photos.

Television

This week the season premieres have started rolling in. So far I've watched the premieres of Medium, 7th Heaven, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order, and ER. I've also got CSI: Miami on the Tivo but haven't watched it yet. Tonight is a big night with premieres of West Wing, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and Crossing Jordan. I haven't yet seen the premiere of CSI, CSI: NY, or Boston Legal, but they're coming soon. Friends and family have also recently told me about a few new shows I am going to try out: Bones, House, and Extras. Last season I started watching Joan of Arcadia but it was cancelled. They also cancelled Judging Amy, which I had been watching for a long time. I don't know if they're are going to be more episodes of Law & Order: Trial by Jury, That '70s Show or 30 Days. Yes, I am a television whore. But on the bright side: there is no reality TV on my list and I multi-task while I watch. ;-)

My brother is engaged! He IM'd me this morning and told me that he asked his long-time girlfriend to marry him and she said yes. I am very happy for them. Then his fiance Gabe sent this announcement email I'll share with you. It made me mist. ;)

Hey you guys, I wanted to share a story of my recent wilderness patrol. Tj and I got to do this patrol together- which is a rare event- and we were also able to do a much-coveted “high route”. A high route is an infrequently used, little known route that takes you through beautiful, high, sub-alpine basins where there is nary a trail, and hopefully, nary a person. The way promises to be obscure and difficult- but the best views and chances for solitude are the reward. Always a true adventure.

The second day of our trip proved to be difficult, mostly due to the unceasing rain that pelted us as we searched for signs of the old sheep trail we were looking for. The great views we had been expecting were obscured by thick, white clouds, and only infrequently did we catch a glimpse of what we were missing. We decided to make camp in a perfect little basin with a stream flowing close by and most importantly, a flat spot to lay our heads. In no time, we had hot cocoa in hand and were relaxing in our sleeping bags.

At this time TJ started acting peculiar. He opened the tent doors a bit and asked if I liked the view….I said “yea, it’s a great view”, he then asked if I was warm and comfortable, I said “yea, I’m warm and comfortable”, he said “good, then I can’t wait”.

Next, he put his hand in his pocket, got on his knee (a bit hunched over, since we were in the tent J), pulled out a little box and asked me to marry him!!

I said, “I'm no fool, lets see the rock first” heehee, just kidding.

He opened the box to reveal the most perfect ring ever. He picked it out without any help from me!! Risky and Bold, but TJ always knows what he wants when he sees it and he has great taste ;).

Of course, I said yes.

After almost eight years together, many would say “its about time.” As it turns out, the timing was just perfect.

Just wanted to share this with you guys all at once. We are thinking an early June wedding. We really hope you can all make it. More details to come. Some pics from our trip below.

ps. The weather cleared, the huckleberries were falling into our hands and we had amazing views the rest of the trip!

Love gabe

The other photos are posted in the photo gallery.

Traffic bit this morning. It took us almost twice as long as usual to get in to work. I have no clue why it was so bad.

When Benjamin & I were in Port Townsend I bought this cool Wool in the Woods brand "Double Kiss" yarn. My mom started knitting me a scarf and discovered there isn't nearly enough yarn. I called the yarn shop, The Twisted Ewe, and talked to the woman there. Apparently she has very specific ideas about how scarves should be knitted: they should be open and drapey, knit with large needles. When she told me I only needed one scain it was based on that vision rather than the way my mom normally does scarves (shown here). Unfortunately there is no more yarn in this specific color scheme, so my mom took this scarf apart and started again (twice) following the drapey lady's recommendations.

Someone is getting big...

I recently set up a Google personalized home page. I like it quite a bit so far, mainly because of the RSS feed support. I had intraVnews installed but it crapped out and I was tired of it anyway. I think I like the web-based approach better and I go to Google so often it is nice because I don't have to specifically go somewhere to see the RSS stuff.

Huge increase in email spam

I don't know if I've just finally been found out or what, but I am now getting a ton of spam on my speakeasy email account. :-( This has been virtually spam-free for years and now it is getting hit like crazy. I am very sad. I am trying the Speakeasy spam filtering but I am trying to balance between getting spam out of my inbox, missing real email, and forcing additional action on people who email me. I would consider adding the feature "force human response" to the account, but Speakeasy doesn't offer it. I just messed with my spam filter settings (again) and will see how that goes. If that doesn't work I may finally switch over to using my own domain email as my primary account.

Snoogle her. She is so cute!

Today my dad came over and we cut and installed the Richlite underneath the fence so Maple can't escape. Up until now the un-cut boards have just been leaning up against the fence but now they're cut and put into the ground under the fence. It's the little reddish-brown bits under the grayed fence on the left. ;-)

Friday night I met Benjamin and a bunch of friends at Rob & Steph's house for a pre-func. From there we went to the Alibi Room where we had a drink in their little downstairs bar. It is a very cool space, though loud. They play hip hop but it is good hip hop. Finally we meandered to our final destination, the Showbox. There we saw the Royksopp concert. I left an hour or so in because I wasn't feeling well and the music wasn't my cup of tea. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't worth standing on my feet for another hour or more when I couldn't stop coughing and was exhausted. I went home and snuggled the puppy and went to bed around 2 am.

Today was the Microsoft Day of Caring, which is organized through United Way of King County. Ten of my coworkers and I worked at the Mark DeWolfe House on Capitol Hill doing yard work. We trimmed, pruned, weeded, and raked up a storm. We had to rent a big truck to haul all the yard waste away. When the woman at the house was telling us about it I was pleased to learn about its connection to the University Unitarian Church. Apparently Mark DeWolfe was a Unitarian minister who died of AIDS many years ago. His family donated the house to the Unitarian church and they turned it into a residential facility for people with AIDS. The church ran it using church volunteers for 10 years but then 10 years ago they got Rosehedge to take it over for the same purpose. Now University Unitarian leases it to Rosehedge for $1/year. :-)

Some more of my own dahlias are now blooming. Yea!

I got my teeth cleaned this morning. Does seeing the dentist's office make you cringe?

This morning traffic getting through Montlake was awful. It contributed to my being 20 minutes late to my dentist appointment.

When the house cleaner came she put Maple's pen back together a little differently than it was before and I like it. It is a bit larger and the extra piece is now being used as a sort of sliding door. Very convenient and amusing.

This is Maple begging to be let into the shower.

When we saw my in-laws on Saturday they gave us this beautiful bouquet of dahlias. :-)

My feature at PDC

The feature I have spent the most time working on for the last year or more was part of Bill Gates' keynote speech at PDC earlier this week. Here's the part of the keynote about it:

Now, there's an additional platform that I wanted to highlight that's new to Windows Vista that we're calling the Windows SideShow, and the SideShow is another platform that you can build fantastic gadgets for. We're working very closely with our hardware partners to support the SideShow, and I'm actually going to hold this up and hopefully people can get a sense of the hardware here.

This is just a laptop that's got an auxiliary display built right into the laptop, with a couple of hardware buttons here that I can click on. And it's running some mini applications or gadgets for the SideShow. Let me go ahead and put it back under this camera, so that you can actually see what I'm doing. But this connects me from my information when I'm actually away from my desk. So, when I'm on the road, I can get quick access to my calendar, to perhaps my e-mail, and Expedia as a third party has built the prototype gadget right here. I'm going to drill into this gadget, and you can see that I can get information about my flight to the PDC. So, you can imagine me getting out of a taxicab on the way into the airport, and just making sure I have that flight information, that flight number, right there.

Some of these gadgets run when the PC is turned off, such as that Expedia one, and the In box or Calendar, and some of them require the PC to still be powered on, such as controlling your music.

There's a tiny bit available for developers at http://microsoftgadgets.com/sideshow.aspx. At the moment I don't see a publicly posted picture so I can't show it to you. I work on the part on the PC, not the interface on the device. This is mainly the control panel. It doesn't sound like much, but since it's a scalable platform it's actually a really complex problem.

Sick, working, etc.

I haven't been blogging lately because I haven't been taking photos and I haven't been doing a whole ton. I am still sick and just now finally starting to get better. I still have a nagging cough and some sinus unhappiness though. In case you're wondering, my belly button piercing is also still pissed off (grumble). Work has also been really busy. We have had a whole bunch to do to prepare for Windows Vista Beta 2, PDC, and a usability lab test. Sadly the usability lab test was just cancelled so it feels a little like wasted effort. Oh well. I think things will continue to be busy for a while. Last week Piper came over on Wednesday night after work and that was really nice. I hadn't seen her since her wedding. She just started working as a student teacher at a nearby public middle school. She's teaching History and Language Arts to 7th graders. She is a very brave girl. Also on Wednesday we had a new cleaning person come. She did a good job so we're going to have her start coming regularly. I also just told our dog-checker-oner-girl that we don't need her anymore since Maple is 4 months old now and has her own dog door to go in and out. It's convenient because the new cleaning lady will cost about the same as the dog checking did. :-) This weekend I had lunch with my friend Leanne on Saturday. We tried to go to Nana's Soup House near where I live but it is apparently closed on weekends. How odd. We walked down to the U Village instead and got stuff from A La Francaise (their pre-made Caesar is surprisingly good). Maple came with us and it reminded me how much I need to walk her. She is still bad at sitting at corners; she gets too distracted. Saturday evening Benjamin and I met his parents at Beso del Sol for dinner. It was yummy food and was nice to see them. We then hustled over to Ballard to see The Constant Gardener at the Majestic Bay theater, but it was sold out. Instead we went to Scarecrow Video and rented The Office (BBC version) to watch at my in-laws' house in West Seattle. We watched three episodes before calling it a night. Sunday was a lazy day of sleeping, grooming, television, email, and not a lot more. In the late morning, after responding to a call from work, Benjamin brought Maple into bed and the three of us slept for maybe 4 more hours. It was very nice. Based on my improvement over the weekend I think the extra sleep was good for my cold. I did accomplish a little in that I did a bunch of laundry. Benjamin and I also watched one disc of Witch Hunter Robin.

This morning I slept in at my mom's house until noon. I'm still sick and I slept hard. While I was sleeping my mom and Rich worked downstairs and hung out with the puggies. Here's my mom holding both the girls (Maple and Carol). Cute!

On Sunday Benjamin drove down to Camus, WA for his Fantasy Football draft and I drove down to Tacoma to stay overnight at my mom's house. My grandma was at my mom's house when I arrived so we all hung out and played with the pups.

This is an average evening with me and my pup. Me watching TV and using my tablet, Maple sleeping and being puppy-like.

Last Sunday (the 28th) Steph came over and I helped her fix tacos. Benjamin and Rob were downstairs playing Dungeon Siege II so all four of us had dinner together. The tacos were delicious and we had mochi for dessert. Num num. Steph and I chatted and hung out while the boys played. It was nice.