My customer profile: thirty-something who reserves a significant portion of disposable income for unneeded fashion and refuses to dress her age (a girl's got to have some fun). Dislikes: anything seriously "preppy", mom jeans, the color teal, sensible...

but if...IF...I had room in my heart to love one more doggy as much as I love my Jonas, it would be this one . I'm pretty sure he's made out of clay.

I miss the 80s.

Our marketing team has a new employment branding campaign that I really like. They have different ads around the same core theme in different places. Of course, the one that appeals to me is the one on our college recruiting website. What can I say, I...

Every year at this time, many Microsoft employees start to devise plans to take off extra vacation time here and there so they don't lose it. We get an e-mail reminder with a tool that helps us calculate how many days we will lose by the end of the year...

Marketwatch has an article on commuter-friendly workplaces detailing results of a study by the Department of Transportation and the EPA. Of course, working from home is what keeps me out of the gridlock. I'll admit that any kind of traffic really ticks...

I was just cutting up apples to dump into the crockpot. Unfortunately, I had just cut up raw chicken for the crockpot too. And was eating the leftover apple. I may have actually swallowed some of it before I realized what I was doing. Idiot! I believe...

A few weeks ago, I took a class at Microsoft called Situational Leadership. We have a training team that offers different types of classes in house so you can take classes in subjects ranging from technical skills to time management. I had heard good...

I hope that someday we come to find out that Aleksey Varner (née Garber) has a wicked sense of humor. But based on what I have seen , he's totally serious. Aleksey gets an A+ in cheesy eighties business book metaphors and seems to have mastered the high...

I live in what real-estate agents call a rambler (irony or coincidence...do you see the size of this blog post?), though at just a smidge over 1000 square feet, it really looks more like a bungalow. It's a good size for me and Jonas (though I still dream...

Those creative Aquent people . Love this idea. See if you can guess the holidays. It's not as easy as you think.

Some of my out-of-town co-workers are in town for our HR Summit and yesterday afternoon, we planned a little impromptu barbecue at my house. I would never agree to something like that (let alone offer it) with only 2 hours notice were it not for my Roomba...

We had day one of our Global HR Summit today (HR folks from around the world fly in to Redmond for the event). I have pictures to share from the social event we had tonight but have to figure out how to scan them or something. I need to unburden myself...

I don't know if it was the fact that I've been working out harder than usual lately or that I am eating a lot of fish. Every once in a great while, in the middle of the night, I experience what I think of as phantom dive-bombers. In my twilight sleepiness...

The Seattle Times has an article on the changes made to the current Microsoft employee experience made by our Senior VP, Lisa Brummel. I don't think I blogged much about this other than the home grocery delivery offering (hey, it's a novelty...I care...

than for taking risks . According to Seth Godin. It's like getting into a cold pool. Just jump in. You'll feel much better later. I haven't always felt comfortable about taking risks at work, but you develop a taste for it and it's fun. And let's be...

I might be inclined to hug him . I'm really not sure why (since I'm definitely NOT a touchy-feely type). I think I just like outliers (is that a word?). And once the hug is over you are free to leave.

My friend PatBlue pointed this out to me and I thought it was pretty smart. After the company meeting, we do a product fair so employees can check out new stuff that our product and research teams are creating. It's your basic booth set-up, from what...

You know those little projects that hang over you until you get them done. Those "I really should but don't want to" type of projects? I'm finally getting some of those taken care of. First, I just refinanced my house and I'm buying new cabinets for my...