Earlier this year I promised Sarah I would take her to a Seattle Storm game this year. It was important for me to do that because I want Sarah to understand that anything boys can do, girls can as well (often better). Also, the Storm players are much better role models than most NFL, MLB, or NBA players, and it is much easier to get closer to the action at a Storm game and actually see the players then it is for most every other sport.

Yesterday morning an email came out from one of our admins indication that there were tickets available for last nights game. I quickly responded that I was interested and was able to get some tickets to the game. Becca's parents brought Sarah down here and we were able to go over to the game. It was even better than expected because the tickets were in the suite which means the seats are better, and they even provide free food. While Sarah didn't watch much of the game she was very excited to get a T-shirt, a necklace, and a pom-pom to cheer on the team. Here is a picture of Sarah ready to enjoy the action.

Honestly I wasn't expecting much from the game. I guess I have just heard so much about how the players aren't as athletic, and the flow of the game isn't as good as the NBA. I have to admit though that the game was great! There isn't the dunking you see in the NBA, but they play a real good tea game in the WNBA with lots of set plays. I also saw some nice drives and some nice shooting from the players. The Storm even won 94-76 over the Chicago Sky which made the night complete. In any case, I recommend going to WNBA games if you can. The tickets are much cheaper and the atmosphere is great!

I keep promising to write more often, but find that it is hard to set aside the time to write. Oh well, I have some time this morning so here goes.

• Ken Griffey Jr. will be back tonight facing the Seattle Mariners for the first time since he left for the Reds. I for one hope he gets a warm reception from the Seattle fans and then goes hitless in the series. I am all for welcoming people back, but that doesn't mean I have to wish for their success.
• eWeek is reporting that many large enterprise Linux customers are migrating back to Windows server. It will be interesting to see if that continues with the release of Server 2008 (Longhorn).
• There is a great entry about Asshole Driven Development and other immature ways of developing code. Personally my favorite is the Get Me Promoted Methodology. I saw that happen a few times in my career. (via The Berkun Blog)
• My manager Rick writes about the importance of playing in the dirt with your kids. Since we have become such a technology and media driven I find his points very accurate. It reminded me that I need to spend more time with my kids just playing and enjoying our time together since it's so precious.
• Since I am in a bit of a weird mood today I found the song Roy Osherove wrote about Agile development to be hilarious. You probably need to have experienced it yourself, but if you have the song is very entertaining.

In an effort to keep up after covering for Harry last week I am going to try and blog every other day as I think this might be more realistic with my schedule and commitments.

• I read this article by Joe McKendrick with a great deal of interest. The project I have been working on to produce a service-oriented infrastructure is directly tied to how he describes a SOA architect. I see our role as providing the utilities, the streets, railway lines, etc. so that our customers are able to carry out their business in as efficient of a way as possible. I am not sure that living in Seattle gives me a good idea of what a well-designed infrastructure should look like though.
• How about those Mariners? They have definitely been the "cardiac kids" of this last week or so. It is amazing to think that they are 9 games over .500. I hope they can stay in the pennant race and keep things interesting this summer.
• I downloaded and have been doing some testing of DiffMerge. It really has some cool features and I will write more as I get a chance to try them out. Maybe Eric will forgive me for not posting a picture of myself in my Evil Mastermind shirt yet. :-)
• Twenty years ago today one of the most powerful political speeches of my lifetime was given. I quote, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" It's too bad that neither the Democrats or Republicans can produce someone with ability to captivate that Ronald Reagan had.

• I am a big fan of PowerShell, and I know Harry likes it as well. Of course I have aliased many of the commands so they appear more Unix like. I mention this because David Aiken mentions a new product for PowerShell called NetCmdlets produced by N Software. I downloaded a trial and have been impressed so far. If you use PowerShell it might be worth giving this a look.
• The New Yorker has an interesting article about feature choices in technology. Basically it comes down to customers choose products with more features and customization options if given the choice, but when they actually have to use the products they prefer simplicity. I think that is something lost on those of us who design things. Giving users every possible option can make our products seem more difficult to use over simpler less feature rich choices. (via Coding Horror)
• Well it took longer than some may have guessed, but Microsoft has been sued over the name Vista by a French TV company. Apparently they were going to launch a television station with the same name. I wonder what the courts will decide since apparently the TV company didn't register the name in the software category.

• I am a few days behind on this, but Joe McKendrick writes an interesting piece on if businesspeople are begging for SOA. It is fascinating because I believe that SOA should come from the business, not because of the delivery mechanism, but because of the results. If services will truly make a business more adaptable and responsive to change shouldn't all business people desire those results? At the same time they don't care how that end is achieved, just that it is. That's where we in the IT industry need to do a better job of working out the details amongst ourselves and show the business how SOA can benefit them. Once we do that we should see more SOA adoptions go smoother and real ROI can be seen.
• Joel Dehlin has blogged on the myth of youth being the ones that use instant messaging, publish and read blogs, participate in social networks, etc. I agree that the technology has been integrated into every layer of society. If you have ever been at the airport or at a Starbucks you know what I mean. Who is it exactly that has a Crackberry addiction? It seems technology has really become a part of our culture, and that it's not just one age group that is adopting the changes.
• Visual Studio 2008 shell was announced at TechEd yesterday. Even Harry who was on-site missed the release, but it certainly looks cool.
• If you have ever met me you would quickly discover I have quite a background in Unix. That being the case I couldn't ignore the news that Sun is releasing new blades for the desktop. I had a blade on my desk for several years and it was really a nice system to use. For those that would bash me since I work at Microsoft now I will just say that when you support Solaris boxes, having one on your desk is quite helpful. I don't take sides in the Holy War. :-) (via Scoble)

Sometimes as parents it is easier to remember the times when your kids don't listen or are difficult, stubborn, disobedient, etc. We often forget it when they are well-behaved. We took Matthew to the Orthopedist today. They had to take an additional x-ray on his leg and put his cast on. He was great! He did exactly what the doctor, the nurses, and the x-ray technicians asked and was in very good spirits about getting his cast. They even let him get two colors on his cast which was very exciting for him. He has black on the bottom and glow-in-the dark on top. I took a couple of pictures which also show his wheelchair he will be during his time with the cast.

For us the news was better than we hoped. While the fracture is right at his growth plate it really looks pretty minor and the doctor said it shouldn't impact his growth at all, and will actually heal a bit faster due to its location. Matthew will only have to wear the cast for the next 4 weeks so he will only lose part of his summer. I keep reminding myself that with three boys, plus a very active girl that this stuff is going to happen, and we just need to enjoy the ride, plus get on the frequent guest program at the emergency room. In any case I am very grateful that his injury wasn't worse and that he is being so good-natured about it.

Due to a temporary reassignment this morning, I spent my usual blogging time moving all of my computer equipment from one cube to another.

• Sam Gentile writes about the ALT.NET moniker. My favorite of his principles is number 4 where he discusses the importance of tools versus principles and knowledge. I really agree that knowledge and principles are more important because the best tools in the world can't help us if we don't know how and when to use them.
• I find Mark Cuban's ideas (here and here) about how advertising on the Internet is different than traditional media advertising. He points out that the ability of a provider to deliver higher simultaneous views is more important and valuable than delivering views for a longer period of time. I think he right on here, even if I believe his football league is going to fail. (via Blog Maverick)
• Worse Than Failure has been running an unusual contest to get the most interesting, buggy, and unusual way of writing a calculator application. They have 12 finalists for readers to review. I find that the descriptions of how the programs work (or don't) to be hilarious.
• As I have been working on service-oriented management and monitoring I have given a lot of thought to the best way to present the data. Doesn't it make the most sense to primarily display information from the business process point of view? I would be interested in your feedback.

On Saturday we went to the baptism of one of our friend's daughters. The baptism was very nice and afterward we went to their house for a BBQ with the family. Everyone had a great time and the kids were playing on the swings, bouncing an an inflatable castle and jumping on a trampoline. Towards the end of the day my son Matthew (4) jumped on the trampoline and while landing twisted his knee. He wanted to have mommy or daddy kiss it better so he went to the edge of the trampoline and jumped off. When he landed his already injured knee collapsed and he started crying. We got ice on his knee right away and really thought that he would recover quickly. Since it was so late in the day we decided to let him rest it overnight and see how it was on Sunday.

Sunday morning came and he still wasn't able to put any weight on it. We took him to the emergency room since we thought they would have to do an MRI on it anyway, and didn't want to have to go someplace else. At the ER they took and x-ray and discovered he had gotten a hairline fracture right at the top of his tibia, just below his knee cap. That means that Matt will get to spend the beginning of his summer with a full length cast on his leg. Right now he has a splint, but gets his cast on Wednesday. I'm sure this will be lots of fun since he is too young for crutches so we have to carry him everywhere.

When we talked with family on Sunday night I said that with three boys, not to mention my daughter I expect this won't be our last visit to the emergency room. Becca took some pictures, but I will only post one. At least Matt looks to be in good spirits in this photo.