Lobby of OCCC South
And it really was fortunate that we were the ones to go since sooooo many of the sessions and talk was about Office 365, Azure and the cloud! It was really hard to find sessions that talked about on premises stuff but I managed to go to a few! The event started officially on Monday morning with a vision keynote by Satya, the CEO of Microsoft and had a bit of this and that in it.
Trying to get the new about OneDrive
Another great thing about these events is that you meet the people who are actually working on the other side – when I’m freaking out over the bad SharePoint Online admin center “well that guy right over there is the program manager of that, go talk to him”. Which I did. “Well you’ll glad to know we’re working on version 2, mail us and we’ll get you into the preview”. Done and done! And seeing some really pros at doing presentations, like Anne Michels who constantly made jokes on her expense (and sometimes even Mr. Michels).
And on Thursday evening Microsoft had “rented” the entire Universal Studios Orlando theme park for us! All you can eat, drink and ride all evening long! That was certainly an experience since we don’t have anything close to these theme parks in Sweden! We have plenty of amusement parks, but no theme parks, certainly not like this where you can walk into Jurassic Park and have a dinoburger!
Then friday was kind of winding down and collecting thoughts and writing reports on what I’ve learnt and then on Saturday the long trek back to Stockholm began. I checked in at the airport at about 2pm on Saturday and passed through customs in Stockholm at about 1pm on the Sunday.
But all in all it was an absolutely awesome experience and conference to attend for me. The downside was of course being away from my family for 8 days, that really felt long in the end. My and the wife have never been away from each other for that long since we moved in together 8 years ago!
I’ve said this before but it can’t hurt a repeat – expectations are bad! There should be a class in high school called “lower your expectations” because in high school all you wanted was to be a grown up and look how that worked out. Another thing about managing expectations is very much related to the video above. Guys growing up expecting chicks to look like they do in the movies are so in for a disappointment, ’cause not even those chicks look like they do in the movies.
Now I’m just slacking! Vacation and everything and not a single update?
Well surprisingly enough, now that I’m on vacation I have the least amount of time to care about this place. You see I have a wife that get’s worked up everytime I sit in front of the computer so I don’t have much opportunity to post things here from home. Yeah, you could call me whipped and you wouldn’t be wrong.
But now I’m back at work so now I have time to post things here. And I have time on the train to get through the rest of SG1 as well and all of that other stuff that I don’t have time to watch at home. And unfortunately F1 is on summer break, and besides, the Ferraris aren’t doing too well this year. Oh well, there’s always next year.
Most of my vacation was spent at home with my family. We tried to do things, we went to Gröna Lund and Skansen but in the end it just costs more than we can afford right now, especially since we bought new phones and we spent alot more money in Crete than we thought we would. “Don’t do the crime …” eh? But this week my parents will take Sam for a few days so we can get a slow weekend. “Slow” as in “celebrating my brothers 30th birtyday this friday”, let’s see how that turns out!
Other than that, I’m chugging along just fine!
I’ve finally upgraded my image gallery and imported it into WordPress with a cool addon. Took me about 3 days of work to get it sorted and adding comments and stuff but it’s been fun going down that memory lane again.
Here are some of my favorite galleries:
As usual the password what the company I work at is know as in Sweden.
I say that a lot, maybe too much for her to really believe me. So let’s put it in writing –
I Love My Wife !
So many reasons, most of them unexplainable and unmeassurable. But this weekend it’s because of this little birthday present she gave me. Not because it was an expensive gift but because she knows what I want and goes the extra miles. So yeah, I definitely love her 🙂
This weekend it was time for Father’s Day. Since Sam is only 2 3/4 he has no clue what that means so it’s as usual up to us to fix things. Usually we don’t really make that big a deal, but this time my wife had decided that yes we were going to make a big deal. But on Saturday she made us dinner and set a very romantic mood but was very secretive about her plans for the evening. And at 7 pm we got into the car and drove off. I had no idea where but soon realised we were going to her mother’s place. Reason for that was to drop off Sam for the night so we could go out to the movies and basically have a date night. Yeah, that’s pretty ironic, her “father’s day” arrangement had Sam staying at his grandmother, how about that 🙂
After we’d dropped him off as we were driving to Kista we kinda looked at each other, remembering the last time we tried to go there to see a movie, and decided to just go home instead, stopping by Willys for some treats and then got comfortable in our home cinema and watched “Ted”. Then we went to bed and we woke up at 10 am! I have no idea how long ago it was that I woke up that late! I mean I may “get up” at 10 but not actually waking up! That’s exactly what the doctor ordered!
Then we were off to pick up him and do the grocery shopping for the week and resume our normal lifes as homeowner and doing the last bits of tweaking in the garden before calling off the season.
So it’s the International Women’s Day today.. what does that exactly mean? And does it mean every other day of the year is Men’s Day? ..
I don’t need a special day to remind me how much I love my beautiful Helena; the woman that keeps me on my toes at home instead of being the lazy couch potato I’d probably be; the mother of my wonderful child; the love of my life; the wonderful person that I wake up next to every morning… hm, I guess it took a special day for me to write it though 🙂
Me and H (which is what I write when I don’t wanna write her full name, but I’m talking about my wife Helena, just for future reference) have really been plowing through lots of movies in the past few days!!
So small short reviews: “Killer Elite”, too long and too many twists to be even bother thinking about. “Real Steel”, I didn’t know it was such a kids movie when we started to watch it but combining the robots and Hugh Jackman taking off his shirt all the time and it’s clear that I wasn’t the target audience here. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”, I didn’t expect much since the last “Planet of the Apes” was so very sucky but this one was actually pretty good. Only thing to complain about was James Franco which just haven’t got much acting depth to him. “Darkest Hour 3D” – yeah we actually went out to the movies to watch a 3D movie and boy did we regret that! The movie was “meh…” at best and for once the 3D didn’t help, it was actually a downside since both our eyes were sore afterwards. So no more 3D for us I think.
But the biggest surprise was “What’s Your Number”… Yeah I know, of all those previously mentioned action and/or sci-fi movies the movie we’ve watched that I’d rate the highest was a chic flic!! But it was actually quite good, funny and warm and modern. The huge downside to having that theme to a movie (which basically is “how many have you slept with?”) is it makes for really uncomfortable talk afterwards! Cause imagine it, you’re on a date with a beautiful woman and you take the bullet and go see a romantic film and the first thing she says afterwards is “so how many have you slept with?”, woooops! But me and H actually didn’t fall into that trap. Maybe because we really don’t care about what we did before …
The question was raised by a friend of mine “what did you get your wife” so here’s the answer to that.
I got her one of those Qube games with the “luxury” theme (cause she likes that stuff), a Nespresso-machine (she wanted one for work but she’s not really likely to bring it to work since it makes sooooo good coffee!) and pods for 500 crowns – that was alot of coffee! 🙂
So she was pretty much happier than I was about the presents – and she was even happier when her secret santa had bought a little Nespresso-glasscube for the pods!
Here’s a little recap of what went down last weekend.
We started the weekend off on friday evening with a nice dinner in front of the TV with wine and beer, some cookies and cheese but went to bed early since we knew what a big day we had ahead of us.
On saturday morning my sister AC arrived to take care of Sam for us. We love the little guy but to really relax we needed someone to “off-tank” him (all you Warcrafters now what I mean). We suited up, took some photos and headed into Stockholm. Since we didn’t know exactly where we were supposed to be (Stockholm’s city hall is a big building!) we went a bit early. After doing some recon we sat down for some coffee and a muffin and a nice lady at a table next to us wanted to take some photos of us with our camera since she thought we looked like the cutest couple ever. And then my dad called my to ask if they could stop by so we had to tell them that “nope, because we’re in Stockholm getting married” which they had no clue about. At first he wasn’t sure if I was being serious or not but soon realized I was.
After that I took some nice photos of Helena by the water with the wind all over her dress! Then we went in as instructed 15 minutes before the service and it was totally packed! We thought this is where people went that didn’t want to have a big wedding but we were wrong – almost everyone had their families with them, all dressed up and wedding dresses and tuxes, made us feel a bit under dressed. And when it was finally our turn it was over in 5 minutes. Just a quick “do you” and “do you” and some text that I don’t remember that much about. And fortunately one of the assistants helped us by taking some photos of us, even though she wasn’t that camera savvy so half the photos are out of focus.
After the ceremony we got into the car, texted all the people that should know we got married and then drove off into the sunset… or to Norrköping where we had booked a suite with their “Love”-packaged. Got champagne on ice and fruit and chocolate, that was really nice. After winding down and walking around the city for a bit it was time for dinner which was at their local pub. Not really the fanciest place to have a post-wedding dinner but it worked for us. Then enjoyed a drink in the bar and then bed time. Yeah, I know, we actually go to bed early nowadays. But we slept really late on Sunday 🙂
After we finally got up on Sunday Helena tried out their Jacuzzi while I was just l laming around just enjoying not being stressed or worried or entertaining Sam or anything, it was just us! After we checked out we went to Söderköping for our annual visit to the ice cream restaurant. Then we drove to Huddinge hospital to check up on a friend of Helenas that had a daughter a few weeks ago. She was tiny as hell but she was born way WAY premature so not surprising.
Then home again and take care of Sam so AC could get back to her real work.
So that was our weekend. Except for the mediocre dinner it was awesome!!!
Pictures are here by the way.
Yeah, we finally got married!!!
After we’d built the house and we knew we were pregnant and agreed we’d go with it I knew this was the woman I was gonna spend the rest of my life with! Not only did we have a house together and a mortgage to go with it, not only because we were gonna bring a child into this world. Nope, it was really just love! I knew I was gonna love her no matter what because she’s just such an amazing person! So for me getting married was a given. We just needed to get some cash flow so we could have a party. But after being home for a while and doing the budget we realized that wasn’t gonna happen so we just agreed to do a normal ceremony at city hall in Stockholm because neither one of us is particular religious. For us the most important thing was to just be married with all the benefits and security that brings if something would happen to one of us. And Helena also wanted to have the same last name as her son. They had a 6 month waiting list and pushed it another month to wait for our tax return. We got my sister to take care of our son and made reservation at a hotel in Norrköping so we could swing by Söderköping for our annual visit to the ice cream restaurant.
So here we are after that amazing weekend! If you followed me on facebook you know how much fun we had and how glad and cute we looked all weekend 🙂
But I do feel bad about not throwing the party but we simply couldn’t afford it. I feel particularly bad for Henke and Markus who invited me to their wedding and I couldn’t return the favor. But after over a year of one of us staying home with Sam our economy is just recovering.
I’ll post something tomorrow about that awesome weekend but for now… I can’t believe she said yes!! 🙂
Yesterday was one of the most beautiful days of summer of the year here in Stockholm. So what does me and my friends do? Yeap, sitting in the dark watching Star Trek in Skarpnäck ofcourse!
It’s one of the few things from my old life as carefree single immature guy that I have left so I have to keep at it! Although back then I used to spend 10 hours there, this time it was barely 5 because me and H haven’t spent much time together this week at all, mostly because of work, sickness or something else. But now we have all sunday and monday together! 🙂
It may have taken me a while, but I’m really starting to appreciate the beauty in hispanic women! They are nice. Especially the eyes and they have female curves, not that bone-like hungry looking anorectic thing..
I think this is the first time in my life that I can take the blame for a failed relationship! This woman I just started dating finally decided it was over after keeping me in a state of limbo for 2 weeks. When we started dating, this travel-the-world thing at work was only some project I had signed up for , but it wasn’t anything certain and I didn’t have any specific details. When I finally did get it confirmed and the details, the first thing I did was talk to her about it. And she was pretty disappointed I hadn’t let her in on the loop at all. And she’s right – I hadn’t. And it hadn’t slipped my mind or anything, a colleague at work pointed out that “how does your new girlfriend feel about this”, I just never mentioned it because I didn’t really know what was going on either with the project or our relationship. But she didn’t appreciate the fact that I had hidden it from her, and the fact that I was barely gonna see her for the next 2 months wasn’t a good start to the relationship. So that’s over. Which is really sad ’cause this woman was someone special. First girlfriend to disprove the “women hate it when the guys watch sports on TV”-point in my “Bad things about girlfriend”-list.
Unfortunately she added a new one to the list when she couldn’t decide if it was on or off, took her 2 weeks and hours and hours on the phone to come to that conclusion. I don’t like not knowing, and I dislike it even more when there’s nothing I can do about it.
My mother wanted me to post a “I am not homophobic, I am a very tolerant person!” defense speech in response to my Thursday-entry. And that is so wrong! Actually, half the point I was trying to make was how hard it is to disprove the theory you may be gay – without sounding like a homophobe! If you in your reply sound the least bit condescending towards the gay community you’ll end up being labelled a homophobe.
So just to clarify (again) – I’m not gay, I’m not homophobic and neither is my mother. She’s a very tolerant person. Except when it comes to people talking on the cell phone in restaurants. And her children’s desire not to be embarrassed in public. And people smoking in public places. And people who can’t be quiet at the movies. And the buss company. And intolerant people. And politicians with a twisted sense of reality…
As a matter of fact, I only know one really homophobic person. And he knows who he is. Strangely enough he doesn’t mind two girls going at it. Then again, what guy does…
So how many people, beside my sister, misinterpreted the comment “I haven’t been in a man-woman relationship for over a year” to suggest I was gay?! Usually I wouldn’t get upset over that, I mean there is room for interpretation there. But I did because 1) she knows me and what I’m like around women better than anyone else (girlfriends excluded) and 2) it’s not the first time people have thought that! Even my mother, even my sister’s-husband’s mother (which makes her what to me?) suggested that, and some friends have had to ask to clarify it. I feel a little bit like Chandler – why would people think that? I wouldn’t be upset being called gay if I were gay, I wouldn’t be upset being called “short-sighted, close minded asshole!” if I was. But I’m neither! And the usual “only a gay man would deny that!” and “I think you’re overcompensating with your obession about chicks!” amateur psychology doesn’t help! So, just to set the record straight (that was quite funny!) – I’m not gay (not to my knowledge anyway!), I love women and water is wet!
One of the best ways to attract a member of the female species is to show off wealth, preferably by buying expensive stuff. Stuff that does the same thing that stuff that cost half as much! It sounds like a very shallow thing to say, but it’s true. If I was driving around in a Ferrari wearing Gucci clothes and Rayban sunglasses I’d have a hell of an easier time getting a date! (please note that I’m differentiating between “getting a marry-able (I love making up words) woman” and “simply getting a date”).
And now it seems Debenham’s here in Stockholm is going to cash in on that idea! They are gonna have a night open only for singles! Seriously, only singles allowed! So you’ll be cruising around there like in a singles bar, only difference is that this forces you to buy those expensive stuff to show off and since there’s no alcohol involved there’s even less of a chance for people like me! (make of that what you will)
But I’m not bitter, I’ve already got a date (Date # 2) for this weekend.
As you may know I’ve come to hate… loath… reality shows, or docusoaps. I’m so totally tired of them. But keeping up my “like to be proven wrong”-theme I gave another show a chance to prove me wrong. “Joe Millionaire”. The very talked about show in the states that took a $19.000/year construction worker and turned him into Mr Slick that had just inherited $50 million and was looking for a woman to share his life and money with. At first I thought it sounded really unfair to the chicks who thought they’d hit the jackpot, only for the guy to tell them “hey, I’ve got no money” but after seeing two episodes… shit, those girls seem to deserve it. You may have picked up on the fact I love women, but in this show they’ve really been able to bring out the worst in them. All the back-stabbing, catfights and “does my ass look big” was there. I ended up hating every one of them… except one, but that’s because I have a thing for chicks in charge… And then Jay Leno proved once again why I never watch his show (except when I zap through the channels). He compared the “sorry babe, I’m actually not rich” to the reversed role for a woman to tell a guy “sorry, these breasts aren’t real”. I mean, common?
I’m certainly not one for breast size, and I’m very confident no other guy anywhere has ever fallen in love with any woman because of her breasts! Although I’m not sure how many women have fallen in love with a guy’s money either, but I still didn’t like the comparison! I guess because both of them makes us sound primitive and goes back to the old animal instincts inside everyone – “a female is looking for a male that can provide for her and her offspring” and “a male is looking for a female who can nurture his offspring”. Oh well, I’ve never been one for animal instincts, I’m totally defying the instinct for breeding!
No, I’m not depressed, stop saying that (3 people have already!)! What do I have to be depressed about, I’m doing pretty fine. I’ve got my health, a steady job, my economy is almost under control and I’m not going through any heartache. That’s more than any of my friends can say (I’m a dangerous person to know). But me – I’m doing alright. Although my mother would fill in “but you’re still single, on Valentine’s day!!”.
But you know what? No biggy for me, I’m quite used to it. ‘Cause now that I think about it, I’ve only been in one relationship that coincided with Valentine’s. Ok, 1 1/2 but that’s a completely different story!
And about that Jewel video – I know I’ve said that music should be music and not videos, and her music is great, and that track was pretty good. But I just couldn’t help but to be disappointed over it because every video with Jewel have been… different, odd and deep in ways I probably don’t understand, but this one??? Rolling around in bed in her underwear? Seen it, been there, done that…
One week and two days later, and what goodness do I have to report about? Not much, but here goes ; My female best friend’s husband and daughter was involved in a serious car crash (that ended with them upside down), but doesn’t have anything to show for it except a wrecked car. I’m not sure if that is bad or good news, but since they’re OK I’ll file it under “good”. My american buddies are coming back to town tomorrow. This is surprising since it means they have been here 4 times in the past 12 months, and I haven’t been over there once during the 6 years I’ve known them! And I can still be surprised by small little restaurants that serve great food (“Asperia” in southern stockholm, great Greek restaurant). So that’s something to be glad over, right?
Compare that against ; two good friends are getting divorced (from eachother!), two really good friends are still unemployed, another friend with some bad news I can’t talk about but it got me depressed, losing a space shuttle and the world is on the verge of war again. And on top of that – Jewel’s latest video was more like a “Victoria’s Secret” ad than an inspirational video! Yippi I’m so happy.
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