April update

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it has been ages since my last post, but I really haven't been up to that much these days. Work is getting more and more crazy. We are really starting to feel the loss of our former co-workers as we pick up the slack from their positions.

I think it's amazing how much of a "fast-paced" environment I work in. I never really noticed until one morning I came in a bit hungover and my brain was functioning very slowly that I realized I can't do my job unless my brain is 100%. People are constantly coming at me with questions & emails and when you are hungover, you just want to tell them to go away. Fortunately I am not hungover at work very often.

My goal of being a top 20% employee is causing me too much stress these days. Just doing my job in these busy times is hard enough, let along going above and beyond. I am going to keep trying my best at work, but I can't have the stress as well. If I reach this goal it will be great... but if not, I will just try again next year.

Microsoft Ireland recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. They threw a big party at a fancy hotel. The party was amazing. Champagne on our arrival, an awesome dinner, free wine at the tables, open bar the whole night, an amazing 80's tribute band to start, then a very good hip-hop band at the end. The budgets at work are still very tight, but they seemed to pull out all the stops on this party at least!

Julie & I don't have that much vacation planned these days. The craziness at work should end once we release around sept/oct area which should free me up. We will be going to a wedding in Germany in September I think. I am looking forward to that.

My German is coming along very nicely. I am really sticking with this software course and I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. I still have a long way to go though. I think in about 3 years I should be fluent.

We rented a car last month and drove along the east coast of Ireland. At the same time we were dog-sitting a friends dog. So the doggie got to see quite a bit of Ireland as well. Driving on the left side of the road was not that hard. The hard thing was driving on roads that are supposedly 2 lanes but really only 1 lane wide. We encountered a lot of these narrow roads in the rural parts of Ireland. You can see all the pictures here. It was a fun trip. The weather was pretty good to us as well.

Work gave me a mac laptop. It's and old one, but nice. Slim & sexy. It has absolutely no battery though. I hope that on sunny days I can do a bit of work outside with it :)

There is a very good show on TV these days called "Jamie Oliver's - Food Revolution". It's about how the food in US schools today is just processed, nutritiousness, crap that is full of sugar. Jamie Oliver is a chef who goes into the fattest town in USA and tries to make some changes in that town (especially in the school lunch programs). You can watch his TED talk here. The entire show is only 6 episodes long, but I really think that he made a significant change already.

Anyhow, right now I'm off to see IronMan 2... I hope it's good.
Cya