trick or treat
by.peter
october 31
In Australia we’ve always regarded
Halloween as some silly American tradition. Over here it seems to be
a big deal among kids and adults alike. It’s an opportunity for
little kids to have fun and for big kids to become little kids again.
Our building got into the spirit and decked out the reception and foyer
with Halloween themed props....
 
We were also encouraged to bring in
treats so the children of Microsoft employees could go trick or treating
down the office hallways. Many of the employees heeded the call and
by the end of lunch, there were bowls and buckets of candy outside ready
to ensnare the little monsters....
One by one they appeared at our doors
with their high pitched ‘trick or treat!’, grabbing
a handful of candy and then off they were to the next office. We had
witches, super heroes, fairies and ghosts turn up. There was even one
that was either a gameboy or a zune.
a touch of frost
by.peter
october 31
The last few days have been extremely
cold. Temperatures dropped to 30 degrees Fahrenheit - that’s -1
degrees Celsius! Luckily our condo has really good insulation so we
haven’t felt the need to use our heating system yet. We
headed out this morning to find a thick layer of frost on everything….
my first product release
by.cristina
october 30
i never thought i'd end up working at
a software company but here i am hehe. peter finds it quite amusing
actually and so do i. i've been working alongside programmers to build
our interactive tutorials and i'm learning a lot about the industry
processes (bug fixing/finding, etc.) and the jargon (like "whack
whack" for a double back slash hehe). tonight was the first release
of a product since my arrival and wow - it was exhilirating and nerve-racking
at the same time. everyone stayed around for it (8pm+), dinner was ordered
and any last minute changes/bug fixes were implemented. the energy was
high and the mood positive. throughout this busy time we've been pampered
with home baked cookies and pies, starbucks coffee, jamba juice smoothies,
and delicious lunches and dinners. the pats on the back and hearing
"good work", "great job" are definitely added boosts.
and just when it seems like i'm getting used to the long hours (i did
over 80 hours last week!) and even working on weekends, my manager tells
me today that our work days will probably go back to being 8 hours long
now. that's almost hard to imagine :-P. i may even sleep in and get
into work at 10am tomorrow ... instead of the usual 7am start. i finally
get to see the sun again!! my manager also said he's giving us this
friday off so we can all have a long weekend! woohoo! peter's suggesting
he take the day off too and we go to vancouver for a couple days ...
i'm sooooo up for that!! :-)
role reversal
by.peter
october 25
Cristina has always been a morning person
while I’ve always been a night owl. Even back in school and university
I found that I was most productive when everyone else in my time zone
was asleep. With Cristina working, I’ve had to make some minor
adjustments. I no longer have the luxury of being woken up by the sun
piercing through the blinds and shining on my face. In fact, it’s
been a while since Cristina and I have seen the sun at all. I usually
wake up to find Cristina playing with Lana at 6am. I can tell Cristina
feels guilty for not having as much time with Lana as she'd like, but
she didn't anticipate on having such a demanding work schedule.
It’s still early fall (autumn)
but it’s already cold outside. Morning and evening temperatures
have consistently fallen between 5-10 degrees Celsius. It’s a
good thing the front seats of our car are heated because cold leather
is as inviting as a cold toilet seat. The drive to work is often in
rain or fog with bad traffic, but it isn’t so bad if you have
someone to talk to during the drive. The other benefit of having a passenger
is the ability to use the mostly empty carpool lanes ;).
During the day Cristina and I are both
on Messenger. I’ll sometimes try to chat with her or I'll send
her links to interesting sites or videos, but she’ll usually reply
with a "babe, i'm busy right now" or "i have a meeting".
Oh, how the roles have changed hehe.
With Cristina staying back so late at
the office, I’ve been hanging out at a colleague’s place
after work. It’s convenient because his apartment is only about
5 minutes drive from Cristina’s office. While I’m there,
we'll usually do some network gaming until I get that call from Cristina
that she's ready to be picked up. During the drive
home, we try to work out what we would be doing for dinner but often
end up choosing the sushi train in Issaquah. We like sushi because it’s
fast, convenient and still pretty healthy. The chefs and waitresses
there know us pretty well now and know what to serve us, even without
us having to order anymore hehe.
When we get home it’s all about
Lana. I’m usually the first one to greet Lana when we get home
but as soon as I open the gate to her pen, she bolts out and looks around
for Cristina. As soon as she sees Cristina you can see her wagging her
tail, jumping up and down for Cristina’s attention. I try my best
to get Lana's attention, often resorting to toys and treats but nothing
will divert her attention from Mummy :).
Lana waiting patiently for a cuddle
from Mummy....
all work, no play
by.cristina
october 22
i worked 72 hours this week.
72.
including my saturday and sunday (ugh).
i am soooooo tired. we have a major deadline next week to complete this
multi-million dollar project for a very important client. our ceo will
be presenting it and he expects it to be as flawless as possible. so
i dragged myself into work this morning at 7am and most of the production
team arrived a few hours later. our production manager thanked me today
for all my hard work and he even congratulated me on being able to create
something for them that will save them a significant amount of time,
hassle and money. being thanked and appreciated is always nice. but
right now, sleep is looking far better ...
a perfect saturday morning
by.cristina
october 14
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after a morning bath for lana,
some playtime and then breakfast, peter suggested we take her
for a morning walk. we considered taking her to a popular nearby
off-leash dog park, but opted to wait after a few more walks before
trying that. i don't know how game i'd be letting lana off her
leash with all those other dogs around but we'll wait and see.
we purchased some doggie boots
for lana yesterday, but when we put them on her we discovered
they were a size too big! ah well, i decided to just get a refund
on them as she didn't seem too fond of them anyway. i guess dirty
paws will just have to be accepted. but she did let me put a little
yellow ribbon in her hair :-P.
we chose to stay around our complex
again for lana's walk, which has nice lanscaped gardens and plenty
of neighbours to wave and say good morning to. the weather was
a little chilly but lana's coat is quite thick so we didn't feel
the need for a doggie coat just yet hehe. maybe when we start
reaching below zero temperatures i'll get that beige doggie coat
for her that i've been eyeing. oh the amusement cute little doggie
outfits bring!! :-P
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peter and i took turns walking her and
whenever i held the leash, peter would run ahead of us and lana would
run so fast after him (with me trying to keep up hehe). we were surprised
at her endurance actually as it almost seemed like she could run for
ages. i'm glad she's so fit ... i think the games of "fetch"
up and down our hallway really helped :-).
then when we were nearing the half hour
mark, lana suddenly just plonked down on the sidewalk, as if to say
"ok i'm done" haha ...
needless to say, at this point we
took the little princess home to rest :-P.
lana's first walk
by.cristina
october 12
peter and i just got back from our first
ever walk with lana :-). we decided her first walk should just be around
our complex (which is quite big) and she was very inquisitive the whole
way, but also very co-operative with the leash. the walk lasted about
15 minutes and she happily walked right next to us, never tugging at
the leash, and whenever we ran, she ran right alongside us! peter and
i really enjoyed walking her and we're definitely going to make it a
daily thing. lana's paws got quite dirty during the walk (more obvious
because of her white hair) so we're going to get her some doggie boots
to avoid having to wash her paws daily hehe. it's amazing the variety
of styles in clothes and accessories i find here for dogs :-). lana's
sure going to be one fashionable puppy!
i'm 27! aaaaarrrggghhh
by.cristina
october 10
I woke up this morning to find a present
sitting outside our bedroom door with a card on it. the card read ...
"i thought of all the things
I could give you that would say how much you mean to me but I couldn't
think of anything that would come close. Then I realised the one thing
I could give you that money couldn't buy - me! I thought about wrapping
myself up for you but as you can see, I'm not even good at that!
(actually his wrapping is getting much better hehe) So I decided
to give you something that will allow me to give myself in another way
- my absolute undivided attention and time!"
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... and i open my present to find the "deluxe
turntable scrabble" and "sequence" board games!
yaaay! see, i absolutely love playing board
games ... and so peter's choice of gift this year is the most
touching yet because in the past, he's always bought me lavish
gifts (like a camera, a watch, a phone and even a laptop). but
this time he gave me something more precious ... a willingness
to finally play board games with me haha. which is a big deal
considering peter has never really liked playing board games (except
for maybe chess). so after peter took me to "olive garden"
in kirkland tonight for dinner, we headed home and he set up the
scrabble game on our bed and played it with me! :-D.woohooo! (hmm,
maybe for christmas i can get him to start playing tetris ;-).
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some of my workmates took me out for
a birthday lunch today at my favourite mexican restaurant in bellevue,
"chipotle". and thankfully my project manager let me leave
work at around 5:30pm today :-).
i also wanna say thanks to all the text
messages, emails, instant messages, phonecalls and greeting cards i
received from friends and family. you guys are all too sweet and i'm
feeling especially loved today! and i want to say a big thanks to my
hubby peter, who's thoughtfulness and sweetness is still unmatched (even
after 11 years of being together). i had a great birthday!!
a new toy
by.peter
october 9
Remember when Cristina said she was
going to spoil me? She was definitely good for it! Today I became the
proud owner of a new Dell Latitude D820 laptop :)
At Cristina's insistence, I put the
order in last Monday via Dell's online store. I had already spent over
a week researching the best laptop for my needs and finally spec'd up
a Dell that was exactly what I wanted:
I actually considered buying an Apple
MacBook Pro but an equivalently spec'd Mac would cost $1000 more with
one less mouse button. MS employees also get discounts on both Dell
and Apple products.
I was so excited about this laptop I've
been tracking its delivery status online for the whole of last week.
When I checked on Saturday morning, I noticed it had arrived in Redmond
so I called UPS to see if I could pick it up personally...no luck...it
wasn't part of their policy. Today I waited for the internal couriers
to deliver the package, which I had expected to arrive early in the
morning. By lunch time when it hadn't arrived, I called the MS mail
processing center and was told it was being processed and would likely
be delivered tomorrow. I couldn't wait another day so I decided to drive
down to Building 123 and personally pick up the package :)
So here I am, writing the first entry
with my new laptop. I am even more appreciative of this laptop because
it represents the hard work Cristina has put in over the past few weeks
with her new job. I can't believe she put in 60 hours of work last week!
That's more than I've ever done in a single week. Every time I use this
laptop I'll definitely think of all the sweat she's put into it!
late nights
by.cristina
october 5
my work colleague, vernard (who's also
filipino), and i were the last ones to leave the office tonight at around
10pm. i had been at the office since 7:30am this morning and my day
was full-on from the get go (like pretty much every day heh). i have
another deadline tomorrow and i gotta meet it!! (i made the last one
:-)
peter normally finishes work at 6pm
so he and some of his work colleagues got together for dinner and some
game-play, after which he picked me up from my office. we headed home
to find, as usual, a little fluffball eagerly awaiting our arrival.
coming home to lana feels wonderful. it's amazing how merely holding
her relaxes me so much. she's so forgiving of our absence during the
weekdays. but for most of the weekend she gets our undivided attention
and she rakes it in! we recently took her to the vet to have her last
set of vaccinations and i'm counting down the days until it's finally
safe to take her out for walks (10 days after her 16 week vaccination,
according to her vet). only 6 days to go! not long now ... :-)
cheddar comin!
by.cristina
october 2
i never would have guessed that last
week's 50+hour work week would have been so easy for me to do - but
it was (of course it helps that i'm a contractor and get paid for every
hour i work hehe). i think the fact that i like my colleagues a lot
makes the long hours almost fly by, and our lunches/breaks together
are little boosts throughout my day. a definite boost was getting my
first paycheck today! woohoo! $-D ... and i know exactly what i want
to do with my first month's pay too! ;-). peter's spoiled me for as
long as i can remember and now it's my turn to spoil him a little! ;-)
stay tuned ...
oh and to address the question some
of you are asking - what does my position at work entail exactly - i'll
mention the responsibilities that were listed on the job ad hehe (easier
than trying to explain things myself) ...
• conceive simple ways to explain how to
complete tasks on consumer technology devices
• storyboard, design, write and produce interactive problem-solving
tutorials
• photograph consumer technology devices
• edit image assets and make them adhere to strict graphical
brand standards
• proofread and correct marketing copy
• write brief tutorials for mobile phones
• interact with software programmers to bring interactive tutorials
to life
so yeah, that about sums it up :-).
a little piece of corvu
by.peter
october 2
After I left CorVu, I had 90 days to
exercise the stock options I had accumulated over the years. Given the
amount of time I had been with CorVu, all my options had vested and
were exercisable. Unfortunately, many were issued towards the end of
the dotcom era and so were overpriced. Nevertheless, I still had a significant
amount that was good so I exercised the options by wiring the funds
across to CorVu’s Minneapolis headquarters…just before the
90 day expiration. So for a brief moment I owned a little piece of CorVu
(a whole 0.04%) and I felt compelled to instant message my former team
to nag them to work harder. Yes, I can be that demanding even when I’m
gone.
Anyway, I finally decided owning a company
was just too much work and sold off all my CorVu shares on Friday. Cha-ching!!
skirmish
by.peter
october 1
Our team organized another event last
Monday. We had voted for paintball and one of our PMs (program managers)
picked out a location about 50 minutes south of Redmond. I used the
term ‘skirmish’ on several occasions, but it only drew blank
faces and nods as if to apologize for my ignorance of local terminology.
I knew they were thinking 'it must be one of those Aussie words'. Anyway,
unlike paintball venues in Sydney I was used to, this place did not
provide clothing so we had to come prepared. The team met at about 11am
to organize transport to the venue. It turns out that of the 17 of us
going to this event, only 3 or 4 of us had actually done paintball before.
At first I thought this was weird and felt a little privileged, but
then I realized a few of the others had actually used a real gun before.
One guy also served in some eastern European (Polish, I think) army
for a short while. Having done skirmish a number of times before, I
was prepared and arrived clad in my tracksuit and thick jacket. My jacket
was so thick it was practically paintball kevlar – I could take
a direct hit and not feel it at all. A few of my team mates who turned
up in t-shirts and jeans came to me and asked ‘so does it hurt?’
I pointed out my jacket and smiled.
The venue was a little disappointing
though, there was only one field and it was barely half the size of
an olympic pool. There were obstacles positioned throughout the field
but they were all inflatables. Maybe the owners were afraid that in
our excitement of trying to shoot each other with semi-automatic paintball
guns we might trip and hurt ourselves. The venue wasn’t great
but the opportunity to shoot your team manager and testers was a nice
consolation. Now that’s team bonding.
Just an interesting observation: I think
paintball guns are illegal in Australia or require some special license.
Not in the great US of A though You will find paintball guns in sporting
goods next to BB guns and fishing rods at your local Fred Meyer (think
Target with groceries).
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