Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 02:28PM 
Balloons in the park.
It was a beautiful day today. Flight didn’t leave until late afternoon, so I had time for a wander around and breakfast in Bellevue old town. Anything in the US can be called old if it was built before 1975 apparently. But it did look nice.
On the way back to the hotel.
Friday, September 24, 2010 at 08:24PM 
They have this interesting, illuminated wall thing in the Microsoft reception area.
Today was the last day of recording. We got everything sorted out by lunch time and I caught a bus up to Seattle and did a bit of sight seeing. I really love this city, particularly Pike Place Market and the amazing Science Fiction store down there. And the coffee. And the views. And the people. And I’m flying back tomorrow. Wah.
No matter, went for one last meal out before packing.
This picture is for you, Jeff.
Life Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 07:18PM 
We spent the day today recording video material for the updated Windows Phone courses. Then we went out for a wander just before tea and happened upon a very posh camping store. This had everything you might want for the wilderness, and then some. Including a telescopic spoon.
Now, those of you who know me well have often heard me saying that the one thing I need to make my life complete is a telescoping spoon. I have this fear of someone looking me in the eye and saying “We’d like to take your spoon Rob, but there’s no way it will fit. If only it was telescopic.”
So, I bought one, and it works too. It goes from quite small to fairly small in one simple, sliding movement. And I can use it to stir my cocoa at night. Wonderful.
Life Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 07:00AM 
We spent today updating the slide decks of our Windows 7 content in readiness for a couple of days of recording. The plan is to have all the Jump Start material bang up to date and compatible with the final release of the phone SDK last week. The videos will be available soon.
When we had knocked things into shape we wandered down to Bellevue Mall and tea. I took my camera.
I could photograph this building all day.
Bellevue Nails
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 07:07PM 
Windows Phone SMEs (Subject Matter Experts). I wish I could put names to the faces, but if you are a Windows Phone developer you will have read material from at least one of these folks and used software they have written.
Today Andy and I did another day of Windows Live training. Hundreds of viewers on the other end of the line waiting to find out more about developing for the platform. And it was great fun. Andy covered the new Silverlight controls, Bing maps and performance. I did some XNA stuff and we had a couple of Expression Blend experts along to add even more value.
Then at the end we had the best bit (at least for me). A whole bunch of Windows Phone developers turned up to answer questions live for the last hour. Great questions, great answers and a good time afterwards, when the free beer turned up. Afterwards we went in search of a Best Buy store, and gadgets. On the way we passed a Nissan dealer….
A Mighty Cube
Didn’t actually buy anything, which is a first for me I think. Then we wandered back to the hotel.
All the material from yesterday was recorded, and will serve as a nice continuation of the existing content. Andy and I will be spending the rest of the week here in Bellevue re-recording the existing stuff and bringing it up to date.
