Work has been pretty hectic for the past few weeks (months?), what with coming back to a new role, and some major deadlines.  It didn't leave much time for frivolous activities like blogging.  But now I'm back and I'll try to post at least weekly, because I know how disappointing it is to return to a blog to see the last post was months ago.  It's like showing up to your favorite restaurant and finding out all that's left is a vacant lot.

My new role is on the Windows Server team, working as a project manager on the Protocol Engineering Team.  We're the team who produces the Open Protocol Specifications out on MSDN.  I've been on the team since mid-May, and I am really excited to be here.  It's a great bunch of people, smart and motivated, and so I feel like I've chosen well.  (Always a good feeling when you're fairly new to a job!)

So one of the cool things about Microsoft is that they don't make you feel totally awful for leaving the company and coming back, and so they just "restart the clock" when you return.  Last year I left just a few months shy of my fifth anniversary with the company.  We had a team meeting this past week, and my manager surprised me with my five year service award glass thingy.  It's a few weeks early, but I am so excited about it!  Here's a sample picture of one of these things:  (Don't read too carefully, cuz I am not John Smith.)

Anyway, it's got my name engraved on it, which is totally cool.  Growing up with an unusual name has made me obsessed with personalized things because I could never find any of those little gift shop trinkets with my name on it, when I was a kid.

So the award is sitting in its place of honor on my office window ledge and it makes pretty colors in my office when the sun shines through it :)  But more importantly, I am thrilled to have been with Microsoft for that long, and unless we win the lottery or something, hope to collect a couple more of these glass things before I'm done.