Welcome to Bruno's Space: Blog

Updating Photos...

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:33:20 GMT

I have finally started updating my photo albums with more recent pictures. Things have been pretty busy around here, and in case you didn't know, we shipped another big update to Spaces. This time, we even launched a new product called Windows Live Events. You can read more about it on our team space, The Spacecraft. The official blog entry is here.

I have really been delinquent about getting photos uploaded, despite the large volume of them that I have actually taken in recent months. We have been busy enjoying the changing of the seasons, celebrating Christopher's 2nd birthday, and visiting the more rural areas around Seattle in hopes of taking in the fall colors. The photo albums give some context for where we have been, but most recently, we went back to Snoqualmie Falls to check it out. We have this unofficial goal of seeing the falls in every season. Apparently, it looks pretty cool after a wicked snow storm.

So that has been the jist of what's going on. I will try and get back into a more regular posting rhythm. :-)

An afternoon at Rattlesnake Lake

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 06:15:35 GMT

We took a few hours this afternoon and went for a walk at Rattlesnake Lake. Since we have been home most of the week not feeling well, this was a great way to get back into the swing of things, relax, and enjoy the outdoors on a northwest summer afternoon. If you are in the Seattle area and want to check this place out, it's worth the drive, and offers a decent place to picnic, hike, or swim. I posted a few photos of the trip, and plan to post a few more later. As you can see though, it was a pretty quiet day on the lake. My little pal certainly enjoyed the seemingly unlimited supply of rocks to throw into the lake. I really enjoyed watching him do that. What a picture...

Under the weather...

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:21:48 GMT

It's funny how life catches up to you, just when you think you have a leg up on her. For the last 4 months, I have been working pretty hard... and I am not just saying this because there is a high probability that my boss reads my blog. I think even he would agree with that assessment. The truth is, whenever you push yourself a lot, for an extended period of time, eventually you reach a saturation point... and that's when things start coming apart.

I started feeling lousy about 3 days ago, but it really hit me on Saturday morning. I started with the usual headache, stuffy nose, etc., and then it just blossomed from there. Lousy germs... Anyway, I was planning on taking some time off this week to spend with the family, as a bit of an informal vacation around the house. As it turns out, the first part of that will likely be spent sleeping a lot, and trying to return my body to full health. After I am feeling better, I will start getting more hardcore about my eating, sleeping, exercising regiment. Hopefully that will prepare me for the inevitable winter months and the corresponding flu season that comes with them...

Let's hope that I can get a couple days of actual vacation in this week... :-)

Dev Fishing for Photos on Spaces...

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:04:22 GMT

Many of you that know me, also know that I rarely post entries about what's going on with Spaces. Typically, I manage another blog at http://spacesplatform.spaces.live.com where I will occasionally post some info about how to do things programmatically using Spaces APIs, Feeds, and Gadgets. However, Joe Healy (AKA "The DevFish") recently posted a blog entry about programmatically retrieving photos from your space using RSS, and graciously supplied a link to my space. So, I thought I should post something that might help augment the cool stuff that Joe is evangelizing to the dev folks down in the land of the "hanging chads", sunny south Florida.

First off, I am really excited to see Joe driving folks to Spaces. This service has some really great things to offer, and it's only getting better. So, thanks for that Joe. As I elluded to, I work on developing APIs and other developer integration vectors for Spaces. We came out this year at Mix07 and started talking about basic ways to integrate with our service, but quite honestly, we are barely scratching the surface at the moment. However, that doesn't mean you can't do some cool stuff now. Here are a few things that are currently available...

Scott Lovegrove, for example, recently developed a cool aspx page handler that aggregates the comments from your Space. He made his project available on CodePlex for other devs to party on...

There are also a number of other Spaces related projects on CodePlex:

Gadgets: http://www.codeplex.com/WLSGadgets

Maps: http://www.codeplex.com/spacesmaps

Live Writer photo plugin: http://www.codeplex.com/WLSPhoto

Beyond that, there are over 750 gadgets available in the Windows Live Gallery that people have built already... and that is not including Vista side bar gadgets that use Spaces RSS feeds...

So, if you happen to be stopping by after reading Joe's post and are interested in jumping on the Spaces bandwagon... send me a message or leave me a comment if you have any questions about getting started.

Blowing the dust off...

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 05:33:41 GMT

I have really been meaning to get some updates out on my space. As you can plainly see, my last update was nearly 3 months ago. That is just unacceptable for a guy who actually works on this product. Nevertheless, there are a number of good excuses for why I haven't been posting, but in truth, I should try to find more time to post updates.

After my last post, I took a trip to Maker Faire in San Francisco to represent Windows Live Spaces. It was a good trip, and I posted some photos of the experience. We published a Maker Faire Space for the occasion as well.... and that is definitely worth checking out. If you have never heard of this event (as I hadn't), it is definitely worth researching.

After the trip to SF, I took an emergency trip to FL to be with my Dad who needed open heart surgery. He had gone into the hospital after not feeling well, and ended up with a triple by-pass. He is recovering well now, but it was tough to see him have to go through that. He has had difficulty with his heart since he had a heart attack on Christmas day 05. Two heart attacks and 8 arterial stents later, and he required the by-pass. The hope is that his arteries will be sound for 15 more years after this surgery. You see, my Dad is a diabetic, a disease he acquired in his late 40s from extensive agent orange exposure during the Vietnam war. Much of these problems are directly related to the disease... but that is a story for an entirely separate post... The important thing is that he is getting better.

After the trip to FL, we did find time to do some vacationing locally, and I will be posting some photos of that soon enough. Christa's family was in town for about 10 days in June, so we took a trip to Victoria, B.C. as well as the typical tourist spots in and around the Seattle area. Fun was indeed had by all...

Now here we are in August, and I am having some trouble recalling what we did in July :-). I am certain that we stayed busy though, and as we move into September, we will likely remain busy. Nevertheless, I will get back to being more regular with my posts so I don't get this sort of bloggers block again. It would be great if my friends that read this, would actually leave me a comment or a message, instead of sending me an email wondering what has been going on with me. :-) That way, I know who is being left in the dark by my lack of posting...

31... A look back

Tue, 15 May 2007 05:15:19 GMT

Today marks the beginning of my 32nd year of life... yes, it's my birthday today. I found myself being rather introspective today, and pondering where I have been in the past year and what may lie ahead in the next 364 days of my 32nd year.

So last year at this time, the beginning of age 31 began with me starting my journey from the east coast to the west coast. Since it's been nearly a year since we arrived on the west coast, it's only natural to say that I spent the bulk of age 31 getting acclimated to a new job, new part of the country, new house, new friends, etc. Hence, the "theme" of my 31st year could be characterized as "New beginnings". These were all interesting and fun things for me, and for Christa and Chris... and I can honestly look back and be glad we did them. 31 was a good year.

Of course, the year was fraught with some challenges as well. I would list them out, but in reality they all ended well, so why dredge them up right? The truth is that I am very grateful for my place in life, and certainly feel fortunate to have the support system that I do in Christa and Chris. With them in my corner, every year should be better than the next. So far, I haven't really figured out yet what the "theme" for my 32nd year will be. I figure it will probably be obvious by this time next year.

Update From Mix 07

Wed, 02 May 2007 00:01:11 GMT

Thomas and I wrapped up our session today. Turn out was pretty good, and we definitely had some pretty interested developers. This year, Windows Live has been all over Mix. The many teams have been well represented, and I think we are all going to walk out of here tomorrow with a pretty good idea about what our customers want, and need. I posted a couple of pictures of the session, thanks to Chris and tonight we are off to the traditional conference party at a local night club... this time, PURE.

Spaces will be Hot at Mix07

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:32:40 GMT

As we appoach our presentation at Mix07, the buzz about Spaces APIs is starting to pick up a bit. As you can imagine, Thomas and I are pumped about going and talking about the various ways to consume Spaces user content through RSS Feeds, integrate with our service through our APIs, and party on top of our service with Gadgets. Turns out, other people are excited about this too...

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9713301-7.html

http://mashable.com/2007/04/27/live-spaces-api/

http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2007/04/27/spaces-api-news-at-mix-says-cnet.aspx

I wrote up a blog entry on our Spaces Platform Space as well, which gives a high level of detail as to what we just released... the details and some cool examples will be seen at Mix.

http://spacesplatform.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!AEA03ADE93DDFB95!174.entry

API Docs were just launched too!

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb447736.aspx

See you in Vegas!

Countdown to Mix07...

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:01:00 GMT

As I have mentioned, Thomas and I will be heading to Vegas soon to talk about some of the cool things you can do with the Windows Live Spaces APIs, RSS Feeds, and Web Gadgets. In keeping with the spirit of that event, I was recently interviewed by Michael Lehman of Channel 9 and spoke briefly about the context of our session at Mix07, and why developers should attend if they are not already planning to. So, if you are interested in the Spaces Development Platform, check out http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=303907#303907 or the authority on the platform http://dev.live.com/spaces. Enjoy!

Tumble weeds rolling through my space...

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 05:08:47 GMT

As the title would suggest, there hasn't been much going on on my space as of late. The truth is, there have been a great deal of updates courtesy of the Spaces Team... but alas, my blog has been stale for awhile now. So, I am sure you are wondering what the heck I have been up to.

For starters, Mix 07 is next week (just in case you haven't been following the countdown gadget). I have been preparing for the talk that Thomas' Space and I will be giving about Developing with Windows Live Spaces. As you might have noticed, my Space is sporting a new look... which just happens to be similar to the artwork for Mix. I am pretty excited about the conference, and equally excited about seeing Vegas for the first time. I imagine that there will be much to blog about next week, so stay tuned.

Insofar as daily life is concerned, Christa and I have been busy doing some pre-summer projects around the house. Since moving in, we have had the desire to tweak some things to give them our personal touch and make it feel more like home. Hopefully in a week or so those projects will be wrapped up so we can get on with enjoying downtime on the weekends.

What else... Chris is growing up faster than I can keep up with. He is starting to really talk these days, and Christa has been doing a bunch of activities with him that he seems to really enjoy. Lately he has really been testing my parenting skills (or lack thereof) and often times he leaves me amazed at how challenging but overwhelmingly rewarding fatherhood can be. He is the most amazing part of my life... hands down. I owe some new pictures, so check back soon for that.

In other news, my Dad got a good report from the doctors with regard to the heart attack he had back in March during our vacation to FL (I never got that blog entry finished). We are excited about that, and hope he continues on a good path.

That's all for now... check back next week when we kick off the Mix 07 festivities. There are likely to be some pictures of Thomas and I at PURE by middle of next week. :-P

Mix07 - Las Vegas, NV

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:46:08 GMT

As most of my avid readers know, I don't often blog about what's going on with Spaces. The truth is, there is plenty of information on the spacecraft, torres' blog, or the homepage. However, you might not know much about what is going on with the Spaces developer platform, or Spaces Gadget development. If you are interested, register for Mix07 at http://www.visitmix.com and come learn about what you can do to party on the Spaces development platform. As it turns out, I will be one of the speakers. Hence, the image below and the gadget on the right. Seriously, it should be a great event... check it out.

Chat for a Cause...

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 03:30:48 GMT

The Windows Live Messenger team has an initative going on at the moment where instant messaging your friends will actually help some pretty worthwhile causes. You can help groups like the Sierra club, or the Susan G. Komen breast cancer organization just by starting up a messaging session with your buddies. I like the idea that doing what I do every day anyway (IM) is helping others. Click below to start helping....

Florida Trip: Beaches and Turtles...

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 04:32:04 GMT

On Sunday, we went to Juno beach, walked on the beach, and paid a visit to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. You can check out their web site at: http://www.marinelife.org/index.htm . The good folks at the Marinelife Center rescue and rehabilitate sea turtles of all kinds. It's a great place to get up close and personal with these very large and interesting creatures. The cool thing about this part of Florida, is that it is not uncommon to observe sea turtles in the wild, whether diving, swimming, fishing, or hanging out on the beach after dark. The not-so-cool thing is that some of these poor critters had some unfortunate experiences with humans which ultimately led to their stay at the Marinelife center.

Overall, we enjoyed the visit... though Chris was a bit nervous around the turtle pools. Rightly so I suppose, some of the turtles were larger than him. Nevertheless, we had a good time. The beach was pretty deserted due to the overcast and cool weather they were having at the time.

Florida Trip: Family gathering

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 04:32:04 GMT

This past week, the three of us jetted off to sunny Florida for a bit of respite and a family visit. Naturally, the first thing we really did when we went back to Florida was to hook up with family. We had a small gathering at my parents place where we were able to hang out with some of our extended family from Philly who were in town for vacation as well. In a family that is large and spread across the country, this almost never happens... Needless to say, we enjoyed it very much! Check out the photo album.

Connectivity retro fit...

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 05:32:38 GMT

Today began the connectivity retro fit in our house... Phone and Internet today, TV tomorrow. As was to be expected, no change like this goes off without a hitch. So far, the isues have been minor, but one in particular I thought worthy of sharing. To set the stage for you, I should mention that networking is not my strongest skill... far from it in fact. So when I started to replace my cable modem with my DSL modem, I immediately noticed some issues. For starters, they sent me a modem that also functions as a router which of course establishes an immediate incompatibility with my wireless router. Afterall, you can't have two DHCP servers connected to each other right... especially when both are set to dish out the same IP ranges. A quick investigation on the telco provider's website, and the modem companies website turned up nada... so I was basically on my own. A couple of failed attempts and a 60 minute stress break later, I had it figured out.

Basically, if you want to get a similar configuration up and running, you will need to start by disabling DHCP on the modem/router. Then, you have to reconfigure the wireless router to connect using PPPoE (once you have connected the modem to the router via ethernet). So, the DSL modem gets itself connected to the Internet (after you supply the right credentials) and the Wireless router connects itself to the Internet via the PPPoE connection to the modem. So, now I am back in business. I learned a couple of things along the way, and realized (again) that I really need to get a good book on networking. If you know a good book that covers the idiosyncrasies of networking, please do leave me a comment with the title. :-)

Tomorrow... TV.

Cable out... Satellite in.

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 05:45:42 GMT

By the end of the week, I should have a new phone, Internet, and TV provider. You have probably realized from reading this, once I get my mind set on something... it's on. As it turned out, I was able to get a much better deal through the phone company for all three services than I had with cable. I am not sure how I will feel about satellite TV... after living with cable for so long, in a way, I am a bit nervous. I have read that the Dish Network has won awards for customer satisfaction. I think that is more than I can say for the cable companies out there. At least with Satellite I can get TV if the power goes out again! We shall see... stay tuned. No pun intended.

Cable is not what it's cracked up to be...

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 05:23:10 GMT

I have been thinking more and more lately about switching away from cable. Currently, I am running cable TV, Internet, and Phone. I have always been a cable TV guy, and I have been using cable Internet for going on 6 years now. The phone service is something new, but I think I am finally at my wits end with all of it. Although, there is this part of me that is nervous about going into a contractual agreement with a satellite provider, the one good thing is... the price doesn't change. So, what put me over the edge you ask? Well, here's the situation.

I started out paying about $88 a month for digital cable, "high speed" Internet, and VOIP phone service. Over the first 6 months, my phone service suffered from a 75% success rate. While it was great getting unlimited domestic local and long distance for ~$30 a month, if you can't actually talk to people successfully, then you really aren't benefiting from the service. Then there is Internet... "high speed" as they call it. At a whopping ~145Kb/S download speed, surfing the net is almost as fast as watching paint dry. I mean, they talk about "powerboost"... what does that get me, 160Kb/S?? Cable TV is about the only technically sturdy leg on this three-legged stool. But after 6 months, they jacked up the price on me... from $88 to $158. It was barely a deal at $88... for $158, I am going to start shopping.

So this week, I will start exploring DSL and Satellite. At this point, I am just seeking a stable, reliable, and useful service at a reasonable price. Now don't get me wrong, $88 is a steal. I am much more likely to be in the $150 range for these services combined... Let's hope I can find something that just works well, and isn't full of surprises like cable. More to come...

Powered up...

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:58:48 GMT

It was pretty obvious from my last entries that I don't like living without power. I have always been pretty honest about the fact that I am not much for "roughing it". That's the beauty of living in the USA where, for the right price, you can obtain the comforts you desire.

So today, the electricians came out to wire up my shiny new generator into the main breaker panel. I have been waiting for this day, and every passing wind storm that has blown through over the past 3 weeks has left me feeling more uneasy about the stability of the power grid. So, now I no longer have to worry as much. If the power goes out again, I will have enough standby power to run critical electric (e.g. Coffee Pot, Heat, Lights, Microwave)...notice those items were listed in order of importance.

Being the "tool and gadget" guy that I am, I thought I would share a bit about how this nifty little system works. It all boils down to a simple circuit breaker that enables the power to flow from the generator into the main breaker panel supplying power to any of the available breakers in the box. At the same time, it disables the flow of power from the main utility line. The generator gets hooked up to a port on the outside of the house using a weatherproof 20 ft cable. So, power goes out >> fire up generator >> flip some switches >> light the place back up. Beautiful! The nice thing about this design is that it lets me control which breakers I choose to run based on the load that the generator can handle. In my case, 7000w running and 12000w peak should be enough to run everything but the 30 and 40 amp breakers, of which there are 3. If I get really serious about running everything and want to upgrade to a 15000w generator... no problem, just have to change the generator. I added some photos below to illustrate the point.

So, in the event we have another storm like the one on December 14, I will be better prepared than before. If not, well then I can now successfully run any household appliance in the middle of nowhere. Either way, I think I'll sleep a bit better at night knowing that my family will be warm if something does happen again.

Not much to report...

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:32:29 GMT

So I have been getting a lot of emails and IM's inquiring about where I have been since my last blog post. Turns out, 5 days without power sort of threw me out of my normal rhythm and only now do I feel things returning to normal. If you add to that the usual hectic holiday times, vacation, and then getting back into work... time tends to fly by. So for those of you paying attention, here's what's going on with me.

Christmas and New Years went well, we did get power back a few days before. So, final preparations were sort of hurried and it seemed like it flew right by. Look for some updated photos coming soon in the new photo album. We had some visitors during the holidays, which was nice. My dad joined us for a bit, followed by Christa's mom. Both got to experience the power outage, and since they are both veteran hurricane survivors... it was more of an inconvenience than anything. Both enjoyed the visit with the grandson more than the parents... I am pretty certain of that. :-)

The high note was of course watching Chris discover the joys of Santa Claus' generosity toward children that are good all year long. I doubt that he comprehends that the pile of toys under the tree is much more than just that, but it sure was a blast watching him stare at everything when he first came downstairs.

Generally, we love Christmas... it's our favorite time of the year. We made the best of it despite the setbacks and Santa made sure that next year, backup power will be available if this happens again...<wink> Seriously though, we felt pretty fortunate to have the exciting and rewarding year that we experienced in 2006, and we are excited about our 2007 adventures. So, keep reading... and feel free drop a comment from time to time.

Powerless against being powerless...

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:31:59 GMT

Anyone watching the weather channel in the U.S. has probably heard about the widespread damage and power outages from last Thursday's wind storm. Although they likely hyped it, this has been a pretty serious matter. Coming from someone who has spent the past 2 years living through 4 major hurricanes, this has been a bit of a bigger pain in the ass. Turns out, Florida Power and Light knows how to deal with widespread power outages a lot better than the local power company here. Well, it stands to reason that they have had a lot more experience dealing with it, but the terrain here is much more difficult... so in the end I guess they are doing their best to hook everybody back up. Nevertheless, if you haven't guessed yet, I am still without power. I finally took the family and checked in to a hotel in a part of town where life goes on normally. I have no idea when I will have power back... which really sucks. So far, I am doing fine... the family is fine... and we are more inconvenienced than anything.

Funny side note... the espresso huts that I mentioned in my previous post turned out to be a bit of an oasis for the coffee lover in me. Turns out most of them run on generator power... and the coffee is good. I have not been able to validate Bill H's claim from his comment on my previous post...

6 Months already?

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 19:26:37 GMT

I recently passed the 6 month mark of being at Microsoft and living in Washington. I am feeling good about the changes, and really enjoying my new work and home life. That said, I have been meaning to write a blog entry about the differences between living in Washington versus Florida... sort of a Northwest vs. Southeast comparison of norms. Mind you, I don't plan this to be exhaustive... just a few things I have noticed...not complaints... just observations.

Espresso Huts

I think Washingtonians love coffee... no one would deny that this may in fact be the coffee capital of North America. The espresso hut pheomenon is interesting though. Picture a tool shed (of the old school backyard variety) made of wood, positioned randomly in a parking lot, with a "serving window" and a generator, and that is what an espresso hut is like. They are everywhere... from a suburbian strip mall to a rural road.... and some are drive thru! Cool or weird? No opinion since I haven't had coffee from any of them yet... perhaps, Starbucks just hasn't devised a mobile property that can compete.

Garbage Collection

Nothing is really that strange about the function of garbage collection... just that I get a monthly bill for it. There is the actual process of separating the recyclables, yard waste, and regular garbage but that part is somewhat normal. The weird part is the quota system and the bill. For instance, if the lid on my garbage-company-supplied trash can is not flush, then I will be getting a higher bill for the trash... to the tune of ~$5 a bag. Environmentally friendly, but a little steep if you ask me. I mean, I don't think it costs the company any more to pick it up... so why then the extra charge? If it's to encourage recycling, well I think they are accomplishing that by giving us a recycling receptacle which is 2x the size of the garbage can! By contrast, in Florida I paid for garbage collection in the yearly tax bill, and you could put just about anything on the curb you desired. If you were to leave a nice case of beer with some "unusual" trash, you didn't have to worry about disposing of that "unusual" trash. By unusual, I mean abnormal garbage items... like old carpet or ceramic tile... not contraband of any sort.

Air Conditioning

Very few people have this... of course, it does not get that hot. Personally, I am all about climate control... we now have one in our house...

Power and Water

I found that electric is very innexpensive due to the surplus of energy produced by the various clean energy initiatives around Washington. This is very cool. Gas however is pretty pricey and my house at least, is a combination of both. It is actually cheaper for me to run my air conditioner in the summer than the heat in the winter... clearly the opposite of Florida. Additionally, water is expensive. My normal consumption in Florida was about $30 a month... here, about $75... and I don't have a lawn sprinkler system.

Other Differences

There are some other interesting things to mention that I will list but not comment too much on... maybe I will write a part 2 to this eventually... but for now, I think this covers my early observations.

Sales tax is a killer at ~8.5% ... whereas Florida is 6.5%
License plates are required on the front and back of the car. Not sure the purpose of the front, as the numbers are not readable in a rear view mirror. There are only 5-8 types of plates you can get, where Florida has 30+ different styles... including such controversial plates as "Pro Life". (see for yourself)
People drive the speed limit here and don't use the horn... a welcome change from Florida. The "finger" is still a widely accepted form of negative "Road communication" but it's use is not as prevalent as on the east coast. I don't hear much about any "road rage"... and certainly no one here would know what a "Blue Hair" is. :-)

Overall, as I mentioned... we like it here. I think whenever you move, you have to expect that it will be different. You can choose to embrace those differences, or gripe about them. I think if you gripe, you never will really be happy anywhere but where you left... if even there. Me, I am a "go with the flow" type, but I have preferences. In a nutshell, having preferences but being flexible probably helps sustain my happiness in day to day life. I ultimately enjoy a sprinkling of the right changes in my life... and I would say our migration out here was the "right" sprinkling... for both work and life. Stay tuned...

Protect your furry friends...

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:07:24 GMT

So, it's the holiday season and as such we have been participating in a variety of holiday preparations. Pretty soon, the cookie baking will be in full swing, the decorations will be finished, and I will be sleeping on the couch in some form of an egg nog coma. We all get caught up in the holidays and admittedly, it's my favorite time of the year.

On Sunday, one of our neighbors gave us a nice holiday poinsettia plant, a very festive holiday plant. I had heard that these were poisonous to household pets, and especially cats, of which we have two. I graciously accepted the plant and took it into the house so that the cold nights of Washington wouldn't kill it. I figured I could put it up on some horizontal surface that was high enough to make it unavailable to our cats. Turns out, before I could find a place for it, one of our cat's (known in our house as: "The Cat") was already nipping at it. After I removed it from her jaws, I started looking for some additional information about poisonous plants for pets. I found this site that provides a lot of helpful information for protecting your furry friend from certain harmful substances that are part of normal holiday festivities. Turns out, poinsettia plants aren't as harmful to cats as lore has suggested. "The Cat" survives, and likely did not burn any of her nine lives. However, keeping plants like that away from her is still the smartest move. Check out the site, and see what else is even worse than poinsettias...

3 years today...

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:58:40 GMT

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary. When I consider how cold the past few days in Washington have been, I am reminded of the day we actually got married. It was an unseasonably cold November day on the Florida coast with winds of 30+ mph and temperatures in the low 60's. It was hardly a day for a beach wedding. Despite the weather, things went really well that day and I remember the time just flying by. And so, 3 years has past, and yes it has flown by. Despite the many adventures we have experienced over the past 3 years, we continue to enjoy every minute of our time together... several of which get cataloged here on this blog. So without getting too sentimental, I just wanted to thank my wife for 3 of my best years. Happy Anniversary Christa.

More Snow...

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:36:39 GMT

Since we had such a good time on Saturday, we decided to go back for more. We all had fun of course, and Chris got a chance to get out and explore the snow. I added some additional photos to the album. Enjoy!!

Snow Day...

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 02:56:49 GMT

We have been getting some rainy weather lately... natrually right, it is Washington. We have also been hearing that there was some snow in the mountain passes since the temperatures have been so low. Today, we decided to take a ride out there and check it out. Christa and Chris have never seen snow! For Chris, that is understandable, considering he's just over a year old, but Christa has gone 34 years without seeing it! Evidently, she has never been skiing or even on a vacation where there was snow. I was dying to take them out there to check it out.

It was really amazing, just as I imagined it would be... about 15" of pretty fresh powder and nearly undisturbed. The ski lifts were not open yet, but that didn't stop anyone from bringing a sled or just hanging out with their dogs and throwing some snow balls. I hadn't realized how much I missed the winter, and was a bit dissapointed when we finally headed back to town where it was actually still autumn.

Some great pics to go with the story are in the photo album... here's a few... Click here for those.

Go check out the rest...

Halloween Today

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 04:26:44 GMT

Today was the first Halloween that Chris could really participate in. Last year he was not old enough to go trick or treating... although we dressed him up anyway. So this year, we got him a costume and took to the streets on a quest for candy. He really looked good... he quite enjoyed being pulled around in his wagon, and having the neighbors make a fuss over him. This Halloween proved to be quite memorable for us, being that it is our first in Washington. As it turned out, it was very cold and felt like Halloween should feel... crisp, breezy, and full of fall colors. It's cool to see Christa experience all of this for the first time as well. Halloween from her perspective (and mine in recent years anyway) was always a balmy 85 degrees and completely absent of fall colors. I like that this is a new experience for her, and that she gets to share that with Chris. I am posting a couple of pictures that illustrate the fun we have been having...

Weekend ends on a high note...

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 05:26:04 GMT

The weekend started off sort of lousy. My Tivo, cornerstone of my entertainment experience, passed on to that electronic scrap heap in the sky. It started acting funky about a week ago. I rebooted a bunch of times and then it was fine for a while. By Friday night, it was over. Finally, I decided to give the do not resuscitate order. Of course, there is an upside... I broke down and ordered a DVR from my cable provider. The net effect was a bump of $10 on my bill for the DVR, but the bonus was that it gave me HDTV at the same time... sweet. Picked that bad boy up on Saturday and by 5pm I was back in business. It would seem that even the analog channels look better now... bonus.

As luck would have it, the rest of the weekend turned out to be even better.... For starters, my lawn is looking fabulous, and received a much needed trim. The garage was cleaned out and organized well enough that I was finally able to get my car in there. The sun was shining all weekend, and... we were finally able to take a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo and show Chris the animals. Keep an eye out for some pictures of the zoo trip, as I will post them shortly. So, all things considered... the weekend ended on a pretty high note.

Apparently, I am not the only one noticing the benefit....

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:06:48 GMT

If you read my previous post about commuting at Microsoft, then you are going to want to check this out.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?dist=newsfinder&siteid=mktw&guid=%7B924C5506-E8B0-4BAD-A26B-1C4FC3F21BF5%7D

Apparently, I am not the only one who thinks this is a good deal.

When in Rome...

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 05:11:45 GMT

You know the rest of the old saying "When in Rome...". Well, sometimes it's worth a try actually. Today I took my first trip aboard a King County Van Pool. Yes, I decided to try what is one of the cultural norms at Microsoft... carpooling. In this case, it was a van. King County has this great program that Microsoft takes part in, called RideShare, which essentially helps match you with other locals in your area that are commuting to the same place you are. They provide the van, gas, and maintenance, and the group of riders does the rest. Someone handles the accounting, others share the driving, and the rest show up and ride. It is a very cool program, especially where bus service is lacking, and best of all, it helps save money on gas, wear and tear on the car... not to mention helping the environment. My goal is to try and ride 4 times per week. I am hoping to be able to use the time to do some pre-work thinking, planning, and preparing that might actually help me be more effective. Additionally, the rigidity of the schedule actually gets me into and out of work at a regular time which helps me spend more time with my lovely wife and son.... which is actually the most tangible value from this effort. So far, so good... give me a few weeks and we'll see how it goes.

Fall has arrived...

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 04:23:25 GMT

The cooler weather is officially here in Washington. It has been consistently cool for the past two weeks so I am officially declaring fall has arrived... For a family that recently left sunshine x 365, this is a bit of a change. Truthfully, it's a good change though. For Christa and Chris, this is their first autumn ever. I spent 17 years in Pennsylvania so I have seen plenty of leaves turning and the change over from Summer green to Fall colors. For Christa, it's the first time in 34 years that she has ever seen fall colors...

So far it has been a very pretty season. The trees are turning, the rain has been falling, and the chill in the air makes it feel like Halloween is coming. We recently took a trip to a pumpkin farm to get some pumpkins, fresh vegetables, and of course... pie. I posted some pictures that are worth checking out... Chris and Christa had a great time... and of course, so did I. I am anxiously awaiting Halloween so we can take Chris trick or treating... The fun part is that he gets to dress up and go door to door... and Mom and Dad get to eat his candy! So stay tuned... it should be a blast.

It's all about fresh content...

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:22:22 GMT

I was partially scolded yesterday by a friend on the east coast, who regularly checks up on me via my WL Space, for not posting anything recently. He's totally within his right to do so, given that my last post was 3 weeks ago which is pretty unlike me. I don't have much in the way of excuses, other than I have been pretty consumed with normal life stuff... which is a pretty lame excuse. So what have I been doing? Well, since we left off, my mother-in-law came to visit, we had Chris' first birthday, and I have been busy at work helping build the next great release of Windows Live Spaces. I have had some other things going on in between those things that I will probably omit from the blog, but let's just say they weren't fun and I am moving beyond them now.... no worries though... all is getting normal again.

So my friend was right... its all about fresh content with WL Spaces... so, I am back... and I will make sure I keep this fresh. While I am here, I will mention a few random things....

- Congrats to my buddy Sridhar for his new job with Oracle... good luck my man.

- Congrats to my boy Chris for making it a year with a pair of new parents...

- Finally, my brother Mike and my brother-in-law Rolland have been updating their Spaces with fresh content... go pay them a visit via my friends list...

Thanks for the kick in the pants Pat.... More to come....

The Road to Paradise...

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:43:07 GMT

As I mentioned in my previous post, we wanted to take on something a bit more adventurous than just being downtown tourists. Since moving to Washington, I have really wanted to get up close and personal with Mt. Rainier at the National Park.

If you don't know much about Mt. Rainier, it is a 14,410 ft. active volcano that is one of the main geological fixtures of the Cascade mountain range. It is often considered a sister volcano to Mt. Fuji in Japan as they are very similar in size and composition. I have seen many a television show about the possibilities of Rainier erupting in the not so distant future, so I figured I better get down there and check him out before any cataclysmic events.

So, we took off for Mt. Rainier National Park and I sort of just decided on the fly that we would drive to Paradise, a lookout point in the South end of the park that is at approximately 5,400 ft. above sea level. First of all, the park is huge. If you have a fear of driving on the edge of mountains where the ledge to the left of your car is staring at a 2,000 ft. deep valley, then this might not be the trip for you. By comparison, it is far less scary than the Pike's peak road in Colorado which by the way goes all the way to the top at 14,000 + feet (did that a few years ago).

Overall, the park is gorgeous and I have to thank the politicians of yesteryear for having the foresight to make this into a park. This should never be disturbed unless mother nature decides to do it first. The trees, mountains, meadows, lakes, rivers, and springs are just magnificent. I have posted a bunch of photos in the latest album, but they don't do justice to what you experience when you are there. It was a pretty long day... lot of driving at pretty low speeds on winding roads... but totally worth the trip. My plan is to go back once per season to see what happens during winter, spring, and fall. I imagine next time Christa and Chris and I will take a picnic or something and enjoy just hanging out there. I am certainly glad we could show Mike this incredible work of nature.

Some esoteric history: Scientists believe that Rainier was formed by the underground lava flows in the Cascade Mountains about 500,000 years ago. By contrast, the surrounding mountains in the Cascades are believed to be approximately 12 million years old.

Touring with Mike...Day 1

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 04:00:41 GMT

Mike arrived in Seattle last night. It has been several months since we hung out together so it was good seeing him and glad he was able to make it out here.

We started today by attempting to check out the Woodland Park Zoo. I emphasize the word "attempted". Here is a word to the wise... if you in Seattle and want to check out the Woodland Park Zoo... don't drive your car. Parking was perhaps the most difficult I have every experienced. Twenty minutes circling 4 parking lots and a neigborhood to no avail... so we bounced. Turns out it was better to leave anyway. We headed into downtown Seattle to check out some local attractions. We cruised the waterfront, the public market, had lunch at Anthony's Bell Street, did some shopping and then headed home. We had fun. I posted some photos for those of you tracking our activities this weekend.

Tomorrow... we are planning to do something a little more adventurous... so stay tuned.

Bruno's Space Guestbook

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 03:49:01 GMT

I have been looking at different spaces all around the world, and despite this feature not being available, many people have created their own using a standard blog entry and comments. So, thanks for the idea... If you are visiting my space, I would really like to hear from you. Feel free to drop a comment. Thanks for stopping by!

-JB

Mike joins us for the holiday weekend...

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 16:26:53 GMT

My bro Mike is joining us today for the long holiday weekend. This is his first time to the west coast so we have to give him the five star tour of the great northwest. Naturally, we have a lot of fun things planned over the course of the next few days. Mike is a fairly open minded guy and will probably enjoy his west coast experience... at least I think he will. Hopefully, we will get some good photos and post a couple of blog entries about our experiences. I am always telling him to update his space, so hopefully this will give him a reason.

Lawn: Part I

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 05:47:54 GMT

So I have been meaning to blog about the struggles with my lawn. After moving into this place, I began realizing that the previous owner did next to nothing to keep things updated from the gardening perspective. The lawn in particular has suffered the most. After much dialog with my neighbor who has battled his lawn for years and finally earned success, I realized it was likely an uphill battle for this season and decided to wait before making my move. The single biggest problem: It's not very green.

On Saturday, I made my first move. A laborious exercise in thatch raking, cutting, spreading moss killer, watering, seeding, fertilizing, and applying some lyme is what I would categorize as round 1. Since then, I have watered once per day and now we are finally getting a bit of rain. So, 3 days into this fight and I am starting to notice a change in the color... it could be the iron in the moss killer or the lyme, but who knows... I could just be seeing things... no seed germination yet though.

Ugh. I think Christa thinks I am nuts for obsessing over a lawn, but when my neighbors lawns look green and lush, and mine looks like a fire has recently been extinguished on it, I am sorry... but I have to fix that. So stay tuned... I haven't figured out my next move yet... just hoping to see some green blades here soon....

Cash is king...

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 05:36:26 GMT

It's a statement that you would often hear me say if we were hanging out on a regular basis... it's a true statement, cash is king. If I had my choice whether to be paid by check or cash, well... who wouldn't take cash right? The age old problem though is that there is little protection from losing cash... short of you protecting it with your life anyway. Well, I recently discovered that in today's world, it might be even more difficult to protect yourself from credit theft.

Yes ladies and gentleman, despite my best efforts I have become a statistic, a victim, whatever you want to call it. I noticed today that someone has dipped into a bank account of mine back in Florida. Apparently, it's not so difficult to get hold of credit card information these days and just start charging random things against it. Furthermore, the bank is not to quick on the uptake either. I think the larger banks have been more hip to the scam so they tend to profile your transactions looking for those "out of the ordinary" things. The smaller, more hometown banks just haven't caught up yet I guess.

So, needless to say I was pretty pissed off about the whole thing. To make matters worse, the bank will take its sweet time getting the funds back into the account so in the meantime I need to make other arrangements. I guess the fortunate part is that it was an account I used for a hobby business back in the day, so there wasn't much in there to begin with (Hence the word "hobby"). It just drives me crazy not knowing where I tripped up in my efforts to keep my info secure. I have some theories though, and neither one is particularly glowing for the organizations that may or may not have contributed to the "compromise" of my personal credit data.

So rather than rant on and on about it, I will just say the following. Let it be completely understood that no matter what you do to secure your personal credit information, your security is only as good as the institutions you choose to do business with. In my humble opinion, we have to start getting a little more hardcore in this country with the way businesses handle data. We need some tougher laws around personal data protection... We can leave that topic for another day though...

Talking about July 5, 2006 - Day One

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 17:23:34 GMT

So, I recently realized that my long time friend John has started a space where he will be cataloging his motorcycle adventures across North America. John is a cool guy that taught me a lot about programming until of course, he decided to leave the business and pursue more interesting things in life. This summer, he set about to drive from Colorado to Key West and back via a very scenic route. I think he is due back sometime in September/October and I hope he writes more about his adventure... pics would be nice too. So check out his space, and leave him some comments... Have a safe trip back Mack...

Quote

July 5, 2006 - Day One

The first day of my trip started around 10 in the morning. I headed south in Colorado along a straight 2 lane road number 71. A stretch of highway with nothing but a state prison at either end. There was a strong cross breeze which made my neck hurt as I struggled to keep my helmet facing in the right direction....

Strange things were afoot... in an otherwise normal place

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 04:47:50 GMT

We decided to take a trip today to our local cellular store to get Christa a new phone. We have been to this shopping center several times, and let's just say that I was not anticipating anything out of the ordinary. Today was unique in that regard though... at least I think so anyway.

I pull up to the front of the store when I notice something unusual about the way the people two spaces over where behaving. The dude had this girl in a variety of different poses in, around, and on his car while he took pictures of her. In and of itself this was not necessarily odd, but I don't think he was a professional photographer, and they were driving a Kia. One might expect to see this sort of thing if the car were an exotic (oh say, Ferrari, Lotus, even a Bentley), but a Kia Sorrento? Somewhere there must be a pinup calendar for Kia mechanics I guess...

So all of this was pretty interesting, but I turned my back for maybe two minutes and then she was in a different outfit... now things were peaking my interest. (Adding photos for effect... trying to keep it PG though since my mom reads this blog)

By now I had the entire store buzzing with curiosity and Christa (having forked over the camera to me) thought this was getting interesting too. So he continued to photograph her (now in short shorts) with the hood open, closed, in the car, out of the car... etc., etc. until these two other dudes pull up in a Porsche and start talking to the guy with the camera. I figure they must know each other, but then they whip out a camera phone and start popping off pics of her too!! What the??? (another photo for effect)

Now some total strangers are taking pictures of this woman with their camera phone (I am merely documenting the incident for the blog by the way), and to top it off, these dudes have a baby in the back of the Porsche... Ladies, are you missing your husbands? So after they left, the photo shoot continued for a bit and then they just walked off into the abyss of the shopping plaza. The people in the store with us were just about as amused as Christa and I were. For grins I offered to snap a few of Christa posing with her new phone by our ultra suburbanite SUV, but she didn't bite.

So the moral of the story is: No day of shopping is necessarily going to be boring, and if you are going to do strange things with your girl in a parking lot, remember that someone more than likely has a camera handy. I added the rest of the pics to the "Blog Images" album for those of you who are curious...

He walks...

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 06:01:45 GMT

If you have been reading my blog, you probably read about Chris' new shoes... We bought them thinking he would be walking soon. Turns out, its sooner than we thought... We actually both witnessed him take some small steps tonight on his own. It was amazing how he just sort of figured out that he could do it on his own. I really think its really a confidence thing rather than an ability thing. He can totally do it, he just needs to convince himself he can. Tonight was the first big step toward convincing himself. So, I guess its safe to say any day now he will be taking more than just a few steps.... amazing.

There is something of an inspirational nature here if you look closely. As adults, we often find ourselves in a similar situation. We know we can do something, but we need to convince ourselves that we can before we actually do it. Everyone has challenges right? Be they work, relationships, education, or health, we don't often gain any success until we are confident in our ability to take that first step. I look at Chris and think, what's he worried about? The worst that can happen is that he falls down, and then gets back up and tries again. I realize of course that its my job to encourage him to get back up and try again so his confidence and success continue to grow. I think driving this behavior is really key for him to feel confident about tackling much harder things as he gets older. I want him to realize that success in life comes from learning from your (and others) mistakes, and feeling confident enough to continue trying.

Truthfully, I think watching him and thinking about how to best teach him what I have learned really gives me an excuse to evaluate myself as well. Of course, I want to be a good role model to him, and if I can get better along the way then that's a bonus right? In all actuality, I think its him that makes me better anyway, whether I realize it or not. There is something about having a child that puts a lot of other things in life into perspective. I had a professor in college tell us that our only job in life was to "rear the next generation". I thought that was a pretty unusual thing to tell a bunch of eager soon-to-be graduates who were heading out into the work world. I see now how he is right, but I think in his own way though, Chris helps me grow up too. I think this parenting thing is really a great reciprocal arrangement... the children teach us to be more confident in our endeavors as parents as we teach them to be more confident in their endeavors as children. I just hope that as we go forward, he listens to what I have to say... :-)

So join me in congratulating Chris on his first steps! Good job pal. Dad could not be more proud.

Live is Cool...

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 04:47:18 GMT

So, don't expect this to be a marketing speech. I am totally my own man when it comes to having an opinion on technology (remember, this is an opinion). Despite my being a Microsoft employee, I fought many a battle at my previous employers to roll out competing technologies when it made the best sense to do so. That said, I have to discuss a few of the things about Windows Live that have recently made an impression on me.

For starters, gadgets and the gadget framework for developers clearly sets us apart from any other similar service on the web. The fact that anyone can write a gadget and potentially have it available on the Windows Live Gallery is not only a great opportunity for a gadget developer, its even better for people like me who just want to consume gadgets and have something cool on my live.com page or better yet, my Windows Live Space. Jay does a great job explaining gadgets on the spacecraft, and if you are thinking about developing a gadget for live.com or Spaces, the spacecraft is the place to start. So, what is the coolest part of gadgets from my perspective? Now, you, the visitors of "Bruno's space" can stop by and play... Pacman. Yes, the arcade classic (and probably the first game I ever played) from the 80's is alive and well on my Windows Live Space. It's kind of ironic that the incredible evolution of the Internet has given way to the revival of arcade classics... nevertheless... you can now play Pacman!.... on my space! Too cool!

So what else is cool about Windows Live? Well, the reality is that we are launching new things everyday. Today, I am using Windows Live Writer to publish this blog entry from my PC to my Windows Live Space. Check out the Windows Live Writer team's blog for more information and start publishing using a rich Win32 editor which, by the way, can publish to more than just Windows Live Spaces.

There are so many things going on, it can be difficult to keep track of all the cool stuff coming available. If you are interested in more Live stuff, check out http://ideas.live.com.

First Shoes

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 05:53:03 GMT

Today we went out to get Chris his first pair of shoes. We have been talking about it for a while, and since he is nearly standing on his own now without holding onto anything, we figured it was time. As usual, Christa knew what she wanted to get. She tends to research things on the net pretty well and always gets the skinny on what is the best for him. The pair she found was pretty nice for him... standard white with little trains on the side. They are certainly different than the ones I had, and quite a bit more money too. Nevertheless, I want him to have the best so we got them.

You know, being a dad has been a great experience but one thing it often does is remind me that I am not getting any younger. Reality is that time just passes quicker than we like to admit and suddenly our babies are not babies anymore. Of course, my mom is reading this and saying "now you know how I have felt since the day you were born..." The truth is, once I saw him in those shoes it hit me right in the face... he's going to walk any day now. Not a big deal right? Sure, its just another growth step for him, me, and his mother. Its a bit of a scary thing though. I mean, it seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital and looking at each other saying... "now what?". He has grown fast and given us a lot of happy moments. He will be a year old next month and I guess I am going to blink and he'll be five. I have to wonder what went through my dad's head when I got my first shoes. A seemingly simple thing, who would have thought it would trigger all this introspection. I am looking forward to all the little things of the future as well... just hoping I will always be smart enough to take the time to enjoy every little growth step.

He looks great by the way... he's becomming a little dude now. He's not just this baby we carry/stroll/cart everywhere we go. Thankfully I get an opportunity to grow with him, because I am definitely not ready for him to grow up fast. Check out the new photos and see how proud he is of himself... and his mom. I think we all know how his dad feels...

Friend Unveiled

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 19:56:56 GMT

For those of you reading, the mystery behind the invitation I received last week from an unknown friend has been solved. In my previous post, http://jpbruno.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5F8DA4EA2C5C073!351.entry I spoke about the weirdness associated with getting a request from a mystery person. As I suspected, I didn't have to look far to figure out who it was. So if you explore my friends, there you will see him...