My last day at Microsoft was yesterday. After 11 years at Microsoft and 10 years in Microsoft Hardware, I decided it was time to leave. My feelings are currently mixed in that they range from excitement of upcoming possibilities to sadness in how Microsoft has changed over a decade.

My upcoming plans are to take a month off to decompress and then spend the next couple months refreshing my coding skills in preparation for interviewing with small local software companies.

Not a good month for me and my car.  Sunday night, someone broken into my car parked in front of my apartment building.  Fortunately, no damage was done to it (no broken glass, etc) and the only thing stolen was one of those "car cigarette lighter to 110V outlet" adapters (worth $30).  They appear to have quickly gone through every compartment and left stuff strewn about inside.  They even went through the emergency roadside kit.  Sigh.

I was in a car accident Tuesday night.  Short version: I got rear-ended on SR-520 at about 8:30pm at night (traffic stopped, so did I, heard squealing tires, bam).

Myself and the other driver are all right.  I have some muscle soreness but don't think I have any serious damage, though I have a doctor's appointment on Monday just to be sure.

My car is mostly ok.  The bumper is in one piece but is scraped and cut up, the passenger rear lights are broken, and there is some paint scuffs on the trunk.  However, nothing structural is broken.  I had to get new license plates since my rear plate was lost in the accident (and the mounting mechanism is broken).  His vehicle front is all mangled up but only cosmetically (grill is gone, bumper all bent up, etc).

I took Wednesday off from work because I was so stressed, shaken up, and tired from lack of sleep.  People have been understanding at work for this.

Last weekend, DeMonika and I went to FaerieWorlds in Eugene, OR (think of a fairy themed ren-fair) for 2 days and went camping at Oregon coast for 1 day.  Camping was great (DeMonika's and my own first camping in decades, we're itching to do it again) and FaerieWorlds was worth the trip.



My photos are posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lathe26/sets/72157621843906509/

You can check out more of FaerieWorlds at http://faerieworlds.com/

Ok, DeMonika and I know we haven't been out much the past pew months and that is because we've been taking on some big projects that sucked up our weekends.

• I painted 5 dressers for months on weekends (I was almost ready to set fire to them by the end)
• We moved out of our rented garage at ActivSpace and into a smaller and cheaper Puclic Storage space (ActivSpace is a great place, simply wasn't using it, may rent again sometime)
• We spackled/painted/cleaned our ActiveSpace
• I fixed up the car a little
• We cleaned up months of backlog at the apartment
• We dealt with DeMonika's mother's poor health and passing away
• etc

Oy!  That's a lot of stuff.  Talk about feeling relieved.

So anyways, come July, everyone will be seeing more of us out and about.  Yay!

We're going to see the movie "Underworld : The Rise of the Lycans" on Sunday 2:35pm at the Meridian 16 downtown.  Who wants to join?

Trailers viewable here: http://www.entertheunderworld.com/

Who's going to the Vampires Masquerade Ball?  Vendors, music, and dancing.

We just bought our tickets today.

It is Saturday March 28th in Portland, OR with tickets at $25 now and going up to $30 on Feb 23rd.  There is a meet-n-greet event the night before (separate tickets unfortunately) that we also plan to go to.

Details available at http://www.vampireballpdx.com/

-Chris