SwentonTech

Summer '08 Commitments

cathy@swenton.com — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:23:43 -0400

While for most of my family back on the East coast, summer arrived weeks ago, I am still in summer planning mode since we haven't seen too much sun or warmth out here. Along with ramping up on my new job in HRIT (Human Resources IT), I would like to accomplish the below before the end of the summer. Ready, set, go!

Camp and hike on the Oregon Coast
Complete at least 1 backpacking trip
Buy a new set of women's golf clubs
Golf at least 4 times this summer (including 1 night of Glowball at Bellevue Muni)
Find a DJ for the wedding
Pass the MCTS Exam #70-536
Compete in the Tillamook Macaroni & Cheese Contest
Visit at least 2 new breweries
Hang the Northeastern University flag at Buckley's on Queen Anne

The Tillamook Macaroni and Cheese Contest

cathy@swenton.com — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:39:26 -0600

Personally, I am very excited about the upcoming deadline for the Tillamook Macaroni & Cheese Contest! I think this will be a fantastic opportunity to spice up our current recipe and add just the right Pacific Northwest/Seattle flavor. Stay tuned for more details on our entry!

Guitar Hero on the Road

cathy@swenton.com — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:40:59 -0600

Finally someone started thinking! This travel guitar hero game is pocket-sized and even has some of the same tunes from Guitar Hero I and II. This is exactly what I need to step up my skills so I can beat the 7 yr old kid on Xbox Live. He really rocked me last night and we were only playing on medium!

Goodbye Notepad, Hello Expression Web!

cathy@swenton.com — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:41:47 -0600

Recently, I started using Expression Web. While I haven't used Dreamweaver in a while...I think since the MX version was released in 2002, I had resorted to using Notepad as my HTML, PHP, CSS, and JavaScript editor. It's pretty painful if you ask me. I have since been dreaming of color coding for my PHP code and FTP support all in one piece of software. With my recent interest in Expression Web, I have been able to fulfill some of my hopes and dreams for designing and coding my personal websites and projects.

One of the very cool things about working at Microsoft is the ability to install and run all the software that Microsoft develops and ships. With that said I figured why not give Expression Web a chance. After using it for a week or so I decided to do some surfing on their intranet site to see what future features they are up to. I'm pretty excited about the things to come and especially now that I don't have to use Notepad any more!

Welcome to Microsoft - Enjoy the Kool-aid!

cathy@swenton.com — Tue, 07 Nov 2007 15:58:27 -0500

Rachel will be joining us in the Emerald City this January for a 6 month co-op in IT/Operations. While we only know that she'll be a PM (Program Manager) for now, she'll most likely be placed in the OEM or LPO teams for her co-op. I'm so excited that she'll be out here so she can finally taste what it's like to be away from home. It's not for everyone...but it's always nice to "try before you buy." I know my parents will miss her a lot, but I'm really looking forward to spending some quality time with her and being her Microsoft coach from the sidelines.

On my side of life, Kevin and I have been settling into our new place and beginning to decorate. It has been a slow process in finding a place for everything we moved. Luckily, we have 2 storage closets, one in the basement and the other outside on our "entertainment sized deck." Our gas grill has been an awesome additional to our home and so are the amazing views of the Space Needle and Mt. Rainier. Soon we'll be waxing up the skis and hitting the slopes though. I can't wait!

September in Seattle

cathy@swenton.com — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:58:27 -0500

While I actually never finished my post from our trip to Glacier National Park back in July, I have decided to move on and let our pictures from Flickr speak for themselves. A few weeks back, Kevin and I finally ventured south to Mt. St. Helens for the 9 mile/10 hour hike to the crater. It was absolutely amazing and again, the pictures from Flickr just about sum it up.

To finish off a great month, Kevin and will be moving in our new condo on Queen Anne. We're pretty excited to finally have a place to call home and really decorate. Now if only I could find a way to sort through all my junk that I acquired in college and on Beacon Hill. Kevin and I also got engaged last week on our 3 year anniversary of dating! While we won't be marrying until 2009, it's still very exciting!

Roadtrip to Glacier National Park (Days 1 and 2)

cathy@swenton.com — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:52:40 -0500

This year for the 4th of July, Kevin and I took a road trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. We left on the morning of July 4th and headed straight through Washington to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. A few miles outside of the city, we reserved a campsite at the KOA (Kampground of America). After making a quick lunch and setting up our tent, we headed into the city to enjoy the lake and the fireworks. There was a big party going on in the city with tons of people. We found ourselves drawn to the Coeur d'Alene Brewing Company. This place was amazing. They had a Huckleberry Ale on tap that was spectacular. I even enjoyed the Strawberry Hefe which reminded me of Harpoon's Raspberry Hefe. The brewery had a "mug club," which required a $25/year membership fee. For the cost, you get a peg on the wall to hang up the biggest beer mug you can find. Whenever you come in, they will fill your mug for $2.50 with any beer on tap. It's a shame we don't live closer to Idaho.

After some great food and sampling all the beers we headed down the lake to walk around and check out the festival-like activities. We then found a great spot on the grass near the lake to watch the fireworks. After a few hours of travel scrabble (Kevin won) and waiting around, the fireworks finally started and they were pretty amazing. It was then back to the campsite to rest up for a long day of driving. They next morning we found ourselves getting a slow start to the day. We also didn't know about the time zone change (in Montana) until the previous night. Our 9AM start was really 10AM. To add to the slow start, we couldn't find a place to eat breakfast. Each exit off of I-90 in Idaho was a ghost town. We finally found the perfect greasy breakfast place in Wallace, Idaho. After filling up on all the necessities, we headed off to Montana.

The next leg of our journey brought us through the mountains of Idaho and then the hills of Montana. After leaving the highway we began traveling through long winding roads of remote houses with farms and desert land. The drive to Glacier took a bit longer than we anticipated. We arrived at our campsite (Fish Creek Campground) a little after 3PM Mountain Time. We set up our tent and cooked some burgers for lunch. By now we were pretty exhausted, but really excited to check out the park. We decided to drive up to Logan Pass on the Going to Sun Road which is a 40 mile road traversing through the park from the west to east side.

Our first stop on the road was the rapids of McDonald Creek. Next, we continued onto the Trail of the Cedars, which was considered a "walk in the park." This was our first venture into the forest in hopes that we wouldn't come across any grizzly bears...or black bears for that matter. After the trail, we headed up the road through some pretty amazing terrain with awesome views. Some of the notable sights on the road where the Bird Woman Falls, the Weeping Wall (my most favorite), and finally Logan Pass.

At Logan Pass, we encountered our first sighting of wildlife. There were 3 mountain goats just hanging out around the wildlife trail. After this sighting, we stopped at Logan Pass to check out the scenery and plan our hikes for day 2 in the park. We then began the descent down the Going to the Sun Road and back to our campground.

1 Year at Microsoft

cathy@swenton.com — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:31:41 -0500

Today marks the completion of my first year at Microsoft. It also marks another re-org within my larger group: EAS (Enterprise Application Services). Of course though, this re-org did not affect the development team. Along with this change, my role in the .NET space has greatly evolved since January, when my co-worker moved into a PM role in the Office for Sales team. I have had a chance to dive into some SharePoint development and even develop a POC (proof of concept) for SAP web services and the BizTalk .NET LOB Adapter.

While the fun stuff is what keeps me coming back to work each day, the tedious task of debugging always seems to keep me on my toes and at the beckoning call of other development teams. I have found myself writing several web service test harnesses over the past few months to debug all kinds of issues. Of course the lessons learned from these issues are always the highlight after spending weeks in debug mode stepping through lines and lines of C# and ABAP code. I won't lie though...the excitement of resolving an issue keeps me coming back to work day after day as well.

Looking back on the past year, I am still amazed at how far I have come. Not only the fact that I moved 3,000 miles away from home, but how far I have progressed in my career too. A few weeks ago, I was attending an Advanced ASP.NET 2.0 class on main campus. The instructor was talking about an upcoming class on C# Threading and how it would be beneficial for some of us to attend that class as well. He mentioned the importance of knowing how to prevent race conditions. That immediately brought me back to sophomore year in college when I thought, "What the heck is a race condition? I'll probably never need to remember what it is." Well the day has come...

Along with all the cool/hectic stuff going on at work, we're also having a blast in our "life balance." This weekend we're off to Denny Creek for our first camping trip of the season. Along with this trip, we also have a larger trip planned to Deception Pass on Whidbey Island and then a trip to Mt. St. Helens later in the season. I often find there's so much to do and not enough hours in the summer to do it! My sister will be flying out here in late June for 4 full days in the Northwest. With so many beer festivals scheduled and mountains to be conquered, we'll be here for a while.

del.icio.us Kraft Recipes

cathy@swenton.com — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:48:44 -0500

One of my new favorite things these days is the Kraft Food & Family Magazine. In case you don't already subscribe to it, I highly recommend it for anyone like me who enjoys "cooking," but doesn't want to spend lots of time or money on ingredients.

I always thought that cooking took too long and required all kinds of special ingredients. That's the coolest part about the Kraft recipes. While most of the ingredients start with "Kraft this" and "Kraft that," it definitely makes a quick stop at the grocery store after work easy, since everyone knows what the Kraft logo looks like. To help keep track of which recipes I like, I add them to my del.icio.us links. Not only is this a great way to keep track of the URLs, but a great way to share them with my family and friends.

Goal Attained!

cathy@swenton.com — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:36:04 -0500

Today, I passed my first Microsoft Certification Exam and attained MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) status. My exam of choice was the "Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET." This exam is 1 of 3 in the MCAD (Microsoft Certified Application Developer) certification series. After finishing the MCAD certification, I will move on to upgrade to the MCPD (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer), which specializes in Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0.