Beth Massi - Sharing the goodness that is VB : Personal

Halloween Pictures

Beth Massi — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:45:00 GMT

On Friday I posted some pictures of my past Halloween costumes. This year I have to say was one of the better years in terms of how easy the costumes were to put together and the great “scary factor”. This year we were werewolves and the only hard part of the costume was taking off all the hair ;-). I won for scariest costume, yea! I think the contacts I bought freaked people out…

Here’s the family portrait (sister, me, mom, pop, Alan). My mom and pop came as the Wicked Witch and Glenda the good witch. My father won for funniest costume (people always laugh at cross-dressing) ;-)

Here are some of the other costume winners. Robin came as the Windows 7 OS and won for most creative! She even had a jump list, a Bing button and glass. She also kept walking around the party telling people helpful Windows tips (and no, she doesn’t work for Windows marketing ;-))

Best group costume was Austin Powers and Fook Mi and Fook Yu:

Honorable mention, Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert:

Thanks to all who came! See you next year!!!

Happy Halloween 2009!!!

Beth Massi — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:52:45 GMT

“It’s the most, wonderful tiiiiime of the yyyyeaaaar”. Yes, I’ve been in love with Halloween ever since I was young. The neighborhood I grew up in L.A. was a great place to go trick-or-treating. Dead bodies in front yards, live action death scenes, and neighbors that actually made you perform a trick to get your treat. As a shy kid (yes, I was a shy kid!) I always loved to dress up and be something I wasn’t, especially something creepy or frightening. The last time I attempted dressing up and trick-or-treating I was about 17 (hey, I had a young face and I’m short!) and I didn’t do it for the candy, I just wanted to show off my costume.

Nowadays I have a costume party on Halloween at my haunted mansion. We have a garage full of decorations that we’ve collected over the years. Most recently added was an animatronic witch that drags itself across the floor. The house is done up in lots of black-lights, spider webs, gouls and goblins and there’s a theme to every room. We even have the head of a dead fortune-teller at the front door. And watch your step as you head into the bathroom (don’t look in the tub if your squeamish).

But the best part of these shenanigans is the costumes that everyone is required to wear. If you show up without one I have about 10 very embarrassing ones you can choose from (believe me you want to show up in your own costume, these are horrible and a bit smelly). We have voting and a prizes give-away for the Scariest, Funniest, Most Creative and Best Couple or Group costumes.

Alan and I always go for the scariest and it’s always a surprise what we’re going to be. This year I have to say is going to be the hardest costume I’ve ever attempted but if I get it right, it will be amazing. Maybe I’ll quit Microsoft and work for Universal Studios (which BTW, I highly recommend going there on Halloween if you’re near Universal City!)

Here’s some costumes from previous years, try and guess what we’re going the be this year. I’ll post back pictures of this year’s party on Monday.

2003	Ahh yes, the Angels of Death
2004	I couldn’t find a picture of me, just Alan. Dr. Cute!
2005	Zombies love brrraaaaaiiiiinnnnssss…..
2006	I’m bride of Frankenstein and Frankie is above me with his mask off – this was the year we vowed NO MORE MASKS FOR ALAN.
2007	The devil made us do it! This is my first year at Microsoft and the year that Sara Ford came too.
2008	Remember, kids – Always wear your seat belt!!!
2009	GUESS!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Back from our Yosemite Vacation

Beth Massi — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:30:06 GMT

Last week Alan and I headed up to Yosemite National Park with my sister and her boyfriend and Robert Green (VSTO MVP and log-time friend) and his wife, Colette. We had an absolutely fabulous time and I recommend that everyone in the world come visit. And believe me, Memorial Day weekend it seems like everyone in the world is doing just that! ;-) Luckily we stayed the whole week so after Sunday people left the valley and we were left with a peaceful vacation.

The falls are full, the Merced river is flowing high and the flowers are all in bloom.

We all agreed that heaven must look something like this. This is the view from inspiration point just as you come through the Wawona tunnel – showing Half Dome at the east end of the Yosemite Valley, El Capitan to the North and Bridal Vail Falls to the South (click to enlarge).

And here’s Half Dome (left), Vernal Falls (lower) and Nevada Falls (upper) from Glacier Point. Stunning. We hiked down the 4-mile trail from Glacier Point down to the valley with views of Yosemite falls (first and fourth picture above) the whole time.

We stayed in a cottage in Yosemite West and did a lot of day hiking and long valley walks. The highlight was Robert, Colette and I hiked 16.4 miles up to the top of Half Dome and back on Tuesday which took us about 10 hours. You hike up to Vernal then Nevada falls first and then a long walk up the John Muir trail through Little Yosemite Valley and cut over onto the Half Dome trail. I’ve done it once before about 15 years ago but I didn’t remember how hard those cables were, especially coming down, but we did it!

Yosemite only takes about 3.5 hours to drive there from my house so I’m already thinking about our next long weekend….

I really enjoyed this vacation.

Let's GO OAKLAND!

Beth Massi — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:24:03 GMT

It's my favorite time of year -- it's warm, days are long, and baseball season is here! Tonight is the season opener for my favorite team in the whole world, the Oakland A's. They're down in L.A. (ahem, I mean Anaheim) playing the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim (a.k.a LAAA. Man, they have a longer name than some of our products.)

Saturday I caught the A's last exhibition game against the S.F. Giants and it was a lot of fun being back in the old Oakland Coliseum. Especially watching Chavez and Cust hit back-to-back homers! Last time I was there was in November for a Raiders game but I so much prefer being here when it's converted into the baseball field. It was a perfect day too, 65 degrees and sunny on the east side by the Bay. Our season tickets are field level down the first base line. Our seats face north and the sun hit us from the left side all day so half of Alan's face looks like a dark red heirloom tomato. (You know it doesn't matter how many times you tell a man to put on sun-block, they will never listen to you.)

Stomper is the team mascot. He's an elephant that does some major break-dancing (last year he did a back-flip off the railing and fell on his head but he looks okay this year). I got a picture with him to kick off the season (too bad I was wearing a purse, you can't see my A's logo!).

We have tickets to the A's home opener on Friday night against the Mariners. If we can beat the Giants, we can beat the Mariners ;-)

Go A's!!!

Working From Home - In Redmond!?!

Beth Massi — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:20:10 GMT

I've been up in Redmond this week for a regularly scheduled office visit but instead of 5 days of meetings I only could get 3 days in. This is because on Wednesday night it started to snow! Yes, it snows in Seattle! I have been coming up here (and lived here for a brief period) since 2001 and it's snowed every year that I can remember. Don't let people fool you ;-)

So I've been house-bound going on the second day. I know there are a lot of snow storms in North America today. I just saw that Toronto is getting pummeled along with NYC, Boston, Minneapolis, etc. I feel your pain! Today I'm going to try to get to SEATAC to fly back home to the SF Bay Area where it's just raining really hard. :-) I admit I'm a wimpy California girl. I think snow belongs only in the mountains in the winter!

I do hope I make it home though, my mom won't be very happy if I miss her Italian Christmas. (That will be enough guilt to last until next Christmas -- probably longer).

I do have to say though, the snow is beautiful!

I'll try to enjoy! :-)

Halloween Recovery

Beth Massi — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:53:41 GMT

Our party was a blast on Halloween night. Alan and I were a little torn up:

But luckily we had a rabbi and a priest at the party to help (my parents, yes -- my mom is the rabbi):

But most creative was our neighbor Scott who dressed up as Al Davis:

Unfortunately I didn't take as many pictures as I had hoped -- I was running around most of the night. And most of the house is creepy lighting so the camera flash blew all that away, but there were a few good ones that we got.

The haunted tunnel we built was too dark to come out on my camera but I'll see if some of the others had better luck. Next year, I'm going to try and build a space ship :-) Now... time to pack it all up.... may take me until Christmas. ;-)

Enjoy! (I did)

HAPPY HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Beth Massi — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:40:00 GMT

My favorite holiday is Halloween and I'm throwing a huge party at my super-freaky haunted house. I've got the whole place decorated -- which was a challenge to get done on time because I attended PDC. I drove back yesterday afternoon and I decorated until midnight. Now it's time to go outside and build the haunted tunnel through the garage. I've got about 2 hours of makeup so I hope I can get this all built in time! I'll take pictures and post them like I did last year.

Even my cat Zoe is dressing up this year, she's a black cat and I got her a cool cape. She's already started practicing scarring people.

Enjoy and be safe tonight!

Holland Tour

Beth Massi — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:23:42 GMT

On Wednesday the conference organizers of the SDN Conference took the speakers on a Holland Tour. We left the conference center and hotel in the morning and headed to Rotterdam. I got to ride with Maurice in his little green Miata, very fun! The countryside is just beautiful and very green.

It didn't take us long to get to our first destination, a boat that would take us on a harbor tour. This harbor is the largest in Europe and I was told the second largest in the world. They fed us cake and coffee and we cruised around the entire harbor.

I grew up in southern California near the port of Los Angeles so the container ships and cranes reminded me of my childhood.

It was a little chilly for me but it wasn't raining so I got a lot of great pictures. The architecture of the bridges in Rotterdam is amazing. I took these shots of the Erasmus bridge just as we were passing under it. Maurice also has a great shot of the bridge. I also took shots of the lesser famed "red bridge", I think it's called the Willems bridge. There are a ton of draw bridges too.

There were also a lot of interesting ships with a single car on top of them. I was told this is because the captain and his family live on the ship and so they park their cars on the top of them.

After the harbor tour we went up into the Euromast, a high tower that looks over the entire city (kind of like the Seattle space needle). There's a restaurant up there and that's where we had lunch. Then we walked outside and up a couple scary flights of stairs a little more than halfway up the tower. That's where we caught a ride in this rotating chamber that took us all the way up to the top. It was amazing.

Next we headed to Amsterdam to visit the largest soccer stadium in the Netherlands, called Ajax Arena (catchy name ;-)). I'm actually a huge baseball and American football fan so this tour was pretty fun for me. However, I think the tour guide realized that were were a bunch of computer nerds so he focused on the technology that runs the stadium more than the team itself.

At the end of the tour we went into the press room and I got up and pretended to give a speech on how I blew the game :-)

After the tours we headed to a "beach house" on a lake where Remi, Steven and Carl made us ribs and burgers. I have to say that this is an amazing and beautiful country and the people are great. It's really easy to find fun here and I definitely recommend a vacation to this beautiful area of Europe.

Enjoy!

For Sale: 2003 ESX Stage 4 Subaru WRX

Beth Massi — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:35:00 GMT

Option Personal On

Yes it's time to sell the Subaru. (I know I rarely write purely personal posts on my blog, but heck even Sara has done it before.) I bought a new car last week -- an Infiniti G37 6MT -- and I LOVE it. I know it's not as fast or as practical as my Subaru but it's got black leather seats and it's shiny and new... oh and it has dual exhaust and it sounds so good growling down the street. I'll make it much faster later -- it took me a couple years to build my Subaru the way I like it, so give me some time. ;-)

So here's my baby that I'm selling. If any of you know me personally I am a total car enthusiast and I took care of this car like no other (I have all the records and dyno reports). If I could afford all the insurance on both cars I would keep her. But I figure I can find a good home for her with someone who is as into cars as I am. I've put so much money into this work of art I know I'll never get it back. But I'm not into cars for money, I'm into going really really fast -- and this one does that very well. ;-)

FOR SALE - (Northern California)
2003 Easy Street ESX Stage 4 WRX

Race Inspired Daily Driver

Do you want a reliable daily driver that's a functional wagon and lives up to your performance expectations? This car is race-inspired and was built by one of the most prestigious Subaru racing shops in L.A. Enter the Easy Street ESX Stage 4 WRX Wagon.

Dyno Tested: 239.6hp at the wheels @6250 RPM 221.8ft-lbs torque @4500 RPM

Performance Features: Easy Street Stage 4 performance package, IHI VF-34 Turbo, 3" exhaust & downpipe, Injen polished cold air intake w/ extra filter, Helix Flex up-pipe, large MRT top mounted intercooler, STI 300cc Injectors and fuel system, NGK Iridium plugs, bigger STI hood scoop, TEIN Superstreet suspension w/ EDFC (cockpit dampener controller), GFB Blow-off valve, Cusco front strut bar, Blitz turbo timer, Autometer cobalt series boost gauge, 18" Rotas w/ Sumitomo 225/40ZR18 tires, Tinted windows, Alpine amplifier + sub whoofer, Cobra radar detector, Yakima bike roof rack, Garmin navigation system, 1 yr old clutch, + more! Over $25K in modifications!

Standard Factory Features: Midnight Black Pearl w/ black cloth interior, rear spoiler, 4-cylinder turbo, 5-speed manual transmission, driver & passenger airbags, alarm, anti-lock brakes, bucket seats, 6 disk CD changer, cassette radio, cruise control, fog lights, power locks, power steering, power windows, premium sound, rear window defroster, rear window wiper

This car is in great condition with only 64,500 miles. I am a car enthusiast that never misses a service or synthetic oil change. Tuned for street driving but can be retuned easily to race, she has a clean title and has never had any mechanical problems. I’m the original owner and I have all service records and the original ESX brochure. The 60K-mile service is DONE, all service is up to date. Price Includes all original stock parts.

Asking $19,000

Contact me if you are interested in a test drive!

Auto-Reply: Out of Office on Vacation

Beth Massi — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Yes, even Beth Massi gets a vacation. This year I have the pleasure of attending Nick Landry's (Mobile MVP) wedding in Jamaica. It's my first time in the Caribbean. This is what I call community baby! ;-)

I'm actually writing this before I leave and queuing it up to publish later. Yes that's right I'm probably on the beach right now drinking Red Stripe. Ya mon. Maybe I'll work on my dreadlocks too.

I'll be back to blogging when I get back next week. Don't miss me too much. :-)

Later!

MVPs, VB and Me

Beth Massi — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:15:00 GMT

The MVP summit was last week -- my first summit where I wasn't an MVP but instead an employee -- and what an enjoyable experience it was! It was awesome seeing MVPs from all over the world. Microsoft really throws a great summit, this year renting out the entire EMP like they did a couple years ago. The difference this year was live band karaoke and Rock Band on the XBox set up on a real stage. Remind me to pick songs I know the words to next time I get up and sing!

One of the highlights of the summit was Adam Cogan, a Visual Studio Team System MVP from Australia, who brought over some beer for me on a request from Chuck Sterling. (Chuck realized I loved beer after dinner at his place with Sara Ford.) I figured since Adam was bringing over some Australian beer he could also bring me a Victoria Bitter.... not a very good beer but I LOVE the logo. Chris Williams, Visual Basic MVP, took a picture of me holding it up in one of the VB sessions:

If you can't see it, here's a picture of the bottle:

But the beer they really wanted me to try is called Little Creatures and I highly recommend it to the hop heads out there! Unfortunately one of the bottles broke in Adam's luggage (alcohol abuse!) but he saved one. Thanks so much for the trouble Adam, REALLY! Anyone that goes that that great length to bring a girl beer around the world is #1 in my book!

Enjoy! (you know I did ;-))

Happy Anniversary -- 1 Year at Microsoft -- I made it!

Beth Massi — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:11:00 GMT

Today is my one year anniversary here at Microsoft. I can't believe how time flies - it must be because I've had so much fun creating content and engaging with online community this past year. The VB Dev Center has come a long way in that time and I'm excited to be part of a team that really values online community.

Thanks to all the readers of my blog and the encouragement and support you've all given me on the videos, interviews, articles, webcasts, samples and even emails! Even though I can't possibly respond to everyone please know that I do read all of your feedback. And remember to use the forums for general questions, as that will be much more responsive than I can be.

So here at Microsoft it's a tradition to put a pound of candy for each year you have been here outside your door for people to munch on. Since I'm working up in Redmond this week I brought popcorn, licorice and gum drops (I like variety) that I figured added up to a pound. I still have about a pound left!!! Hmmm... next time, chocolate!

Thanks again for all the support from you and thanks to the awesome teams I have worked with this year especially VS, VB and MSDN.

Here's to enjoying another year!

Happy Halloween!

Beth Massi — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:00:00 GMT

One of my very favorite holidays is Halloween. I've always loved dressing up as something really gross or scary and freaking people out. Every year I throw a costume party the Saturday before Halloween. This year I was a demon and Alan was the devil. Sara even came down for the weekend and was Trinity from the Matrix with a side of clown because she was busting out animal balloons all night! My mom won a prize for most creative as she was Queen Elizabeth and VERY realistic! She stole a wig from my grandmother so I think that was what was creative about it! ;-)

I won for scarriest, which is good because that's what I was going for. If I had dressed up all sexy or cute and won scarriest I would be scared myself. Luckily the two hours of makeup I spent was well worth it. Here's a picture of Sara on the left and me on the right.

I also spent about two weeks building the haunted house downstairs (that's actually how I hurt my thumb). I still have it all together and will turn it all back on tonight to try and lure the trick-or-treaters into the maze. We'll see if they want the candy bad enough ;-). I'd stick a picture up here but I haven't gotten them all from my friend who was in charge of photos so stay tuned for that. I think a video would do it more justice so I may make one tonight.

Enjoooowaaaaaahhhaaahaaahhaaaaoooyyyy!

Beth's Boo Boo

Beth Massi — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:30:26 GMT

No this isn't a Halloween "Boo" as in ghost, but rather a big boo boo or small-ish injury to my thumb. :-(

I ended up in the emergency room yesterday because I slammed my thumb in a folding ladder. I knew the instant it happened it was bad news. It felt crushed, smashed, okay I thought it was falling off. But I knew it wasn't bad enough to call 911 or anything even though I felt like I was going to pass out. Especially after I looked at it under the running water in the sink -- the red water was not a good sign. I was with my friend Robin so she played ambulance driver and nurse for me the rest of the day.

I haven’t been to the emergency room in a long time. I forgot how long they make you wait if you’re not dying. It hurt pretty bad (I told them a 6 on the pain/smiley-sad-face chart) but after X-Ray, no broken bones!!! YAY MILK. I’ll probably lose the nail though… but I figure I already bite mine so badly no one will notice. ;-). I have it on ice and the doc gave me some nice pain-killers so I’m doing just swell. Code camp should be interesting this weekend. :-)

But you know, typing with one hand is hard! Luckily it’s my left hand. I have an even greater respect now for people with disabilities using computers. For instance this post took 38 minutes for me to type with one hand. I'm a terrible typist anyway (I have to look at the keys) but this is ridiculous.

If you dare to look at it, click here. Don't tell me I didn't warn you.

Here are some thoughtful responses from my team when I told them about it:

"Thumbs Up!"

"If you doodle on it, is it a thumbnail sketch?"

"If you’re sailing is it a thumb-tack?"

"If you use that hand while operating your car, would that be called a thumb drive?"

"Rule Of Thumb: Be more careful"

Thanks guys! :-P

6 Months at Microsoft - I made it!

Beth Massi — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 03:34:00 GMT

Today marks my 1/2 year anniversary at Microsoft - wow - it's gone by so fast! I guess because I've been so busy trying to bring you the best Visual Basic content and a fresh Developer Center. I have enjoyed every minute I've spent on doing videos, writing articles and samples, speaking, interviewing, working with our MVPs and community, and time spent out in the field with customers. It's been so much fun learning LINQ and all the other amazing features in this version of Visual Basic. This is definitely the best, busiest, and most fun "work" I've done in a while and I couldn't have done it without such a supportive team here at Microsoft and people in the community like you!

Please keep the feedback coming on what other things you'd like to see on our Developer Center. It's YOURS for goodness sake!

Thanks!
-B

Beth Massi - Sharing the goodness that is VB : Personal

Halloween Pictures

Happy Halloween 2009!!!

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

GUESS!