A good antenna makes all the difference

I went up on the roof and installed the Sirius 14240 external antenna. A great purchase if you're having trouble getting a signal in the house. I now have full strength! No more cut-outs during my recordings of Howard, at long last!

10-Year Party

IMAGE_005
Originally uploaded by dstewartms.

Pictures from my MSFT 10-year celebration are on flickr. Thanks to William and Jeff for pulling out the cameraphones for the big event.

Happy birthday, Zuzu

zuzu2
Originally uploaded by dstewartms.

So many yearly events happening this week. Today is also Zuzu's 8th birthday!

Valentine's Day Gifts

Valentine's Day Gifts
Originally uploaded by dstewartms.

Laurel knitted me a heart and also made hand-dipped chocolate strawberries (plus gave me an extra bonus chocky bar).

Mix it up!

I am going to be at Mix 06 in Las Vegas, March 19 - 22. If you're into Ajax and mobile devices, head to the Venetian Hotel, and I'll help you design your app!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day
Originally uploaded by dstewartms.

No more bikes

We sold Laurel's motorcycle today! That's it for the bikes -- and our 3-car garage is now very empty.

A kid's eye view

We gave our little friend Henry Hale a digital camera for Xmas. Today, his photo gallery went online!

It's an interesting look at the perspective of a four-year-old, with some definite keepers -- although Laurel won't be happy with "pictures_008.jpg" ...

10 years

Today is my 10-year anniversary at Microsoft! Sometime soon, I should receive the "party in a box" -- a box with small amounts of confetti, un-blown-up balloons, a new-for-this-year commemerative lucite statue, and most importantly, 10 shares of Microsoft stock.

If you had bought 1 share of MSFT 10 years ago, you'd have enough profit by now to buy those 10 shares for me today.

This is sort of "anniversary week" around here:

• Today: 10 years at Microsoft
• Monday: 10 years since my last speeding ticket (very hard to believe)
• Tuesday: 8 years married to Laurel!

$708,451

That's how much our house is worth, according to the new real estate site Zillow. Think we paid too much for it now? ;-)

Pair o' docks

Got both S50 Home Docks today! One came seconds after I left for work -- Laurel called me as I was in the coffee drive-through line, so I just circled back around and picked it up (her reward: a triple soy latte). So that one, I set up at work. Unfortunately, I get no signal in the building at work. No worries, at least it docks up and I can listen to recordings from it through my computer speakers. The second one, I set up at home, and it is working great -- which means tomorrow at 3 a.m., Howard will start recording!

An embarrassment of riches

Turns out I had three outstanding orders floating around (I hope there isn't a fourth or fifth!) for the Sirius home dock. Two of them shipped and are arriving tomorrow. I was able to cancel the third one before it left the store. But I wanted one for home and one for work, so it all works out in the end.

Dokken

I'm excited -- my Sirius S50 Home Dock is officially on a UPS truck and heading toward Seattle, due to arrive tomorrow!

Go Seahawks!

Go Seahawks!
Originally uploaded by dstewartms.

Of course, we watched the Super Bowl, and of course, we were rooting for the Seahawks. Oh well. By the way, I have to watch football with Laurel so she can explain the rules to me. I am not joking about that.

Some old photos

PikePlaceStreetPerformer
Originally uploaded by dstewartms.

I was just looking through some old photos and found a few good ones from when my friend Mark visited. Made them new again by posting them on flickr ... check them out. And no, I have no idea who this colorful gent is -- he was just performing near the Pike Place Market Starbucks.