I realized that I am somewhat like a sailor with a girl in every port, except that I’m a girl with a geek in every port.  When I learned that the weather might prevent me from flying the last leg of my trip home from Seattle last night (Seattle to Washington, then to Burlington), I didn’t even have to think for more than a moment who I knew in the area. Andrew Duthie and his ever so lovely (and recently expanded) family live close to Dulles. Talk about a friend; he even came to pick me up at the airport! I got to visit briefly with their 4 yr old who Andrew and Jennifer woke up just long enough for a “hi” (Joseph and I fell hard for each other last time I visited). Wireless, a comfy bed, a beautiful new baby to meet. And happily for me, Andrew has recently become slightly obsessed with making the perfect cup of coffee, which I got to sample before we headed back to the airport this morning. Pretty convenient that he had a flight out this morning too. 🙂 

I was heads down prepping for DevConnectiosn last week and missed this post from Beth Massi. This is fabulous news, not just for Beth but for anyone who is a fan of the VB Developer Center (and all the new fans that I’m sure she will attract). Beth is one of the most energetic people I know and she’s scary smart, too!

Congrats Beth!!

Thursday, March 22, 2007 6:27 PM
Yes, I swallowed the red pill, drank the koolaid, been assimilated, whatever…
That’s right folks, I joined Microsoft on Monday! (Right after the MVP summit, of course.) I’m very excited about my new position writing content for the Visual Basic Developer Center and promoting the Visual Basic language in the community. I’m still getting all set up over here but stay tuned!!!…

Here’s her new blog: blogs.msdn.com/bethmassi

Thanks again to Kate (she sure helps funnel good info for me), I see that Microsoft is sponsoring a contest to win a full paid trip to this [Microsoft sponsored?] summit.

You need to be a software developer chick (sorry guys), live in one of these 5 countries: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany or the UK, and not work for Microsoft.

The submission is an essay and due by April 2.

Check it out here.

Frances Allen’s Turing award has rightfully created a big buzz as she is the first female in the award’s 40 year history to get this incredibly prestigous technology award. (I love Larry O’Brien’s comment about Grace Hopper (which Kate pointed out to me)!)

But you probably didn’t hear that the Vermont Engineer of the Year award, which has been in place for 46 years went to its’ first female recipient this year, too.

Katherine Norris worked at IBM for 38 years. She started in Fishkill in 1967 and moved up to Vermont to work at the IBM plant eleven years later. She retired only last year.

Can you imagine being a woman in Engineering at MIT in the 60’s? That’s not just engeineering, it’s pioneering!

Read more in this Burlington Free Press article.

Frances Allen, who has a grand legacy at IBM with her work in compilers was awarded the Turing Award this year. The award has been around since 1966. She’s the first woman who has ever gotten it. Very cool. Thanks to Carl Franklin for making sure I didn’t miss this!

Okay, that’ s just a little misleading. Charles will be doing the keynote for Wintellect’s Devscovery NYC event in May.

I also heard that they have made a recent hire which,  knowing that hiree, I was very happy to learn that news as well!

When we attended the ASPInsiders Summit in December, I was impressed with the amount of time that many of the ASP.NET Team members spent with us over the three days (and nights) that we were there. Notably were Rich Ersek and Scott Guthrie, but really so many others that spent lots of time with us.

In one of the of the presentations that Scott did for us, we were reminded that he is a coder first and a manager second as he talked about working out some coding concepts on a plane but getting cut short because his laptop battery died.

One of the things that has always been great about Scott is that regardless of his elevation to higher and higher ranks at Microsoft, he’s still, in many ways, just one of the guys, or should I say, just one of the geeks.

I have always been under the assumption that Scott, who is a very busy guy, has some of his lengthy technical posts and tutorials ghost written, but it just isn’t true! He wrote about this in his rendition of "five things you didn’t know about me…" that has been going around the blogosphere.

5) I write all of the blog posts and samples on my blog myself.  A lot of people often ask if I have help doing them – but I actually write all of the posts/tutorials entirely myself (hence the reason I usually post between 10pm and 2am at night <g>).  I’ve posted 217 blog posts over the last 12 months and have responded to ~6500 (non-spam) blog comments this year.  It has kept me busy, but I also find it a lot of fun.

You might also assume that this is just part of his job, but have you ever noticed when his posts are posted? 11:30 pm. 1am. 8:30 pm. etc.

And it just makes me wonder how he does it all, but only adds to the enigma that is Scott. All I can say is that I know I’m one of many many grateful developers!

“LOCAL GIRL DOES GOOD”

Okay, can’t be helped. She lives very nearby. So that means to me, she’s a local yokel. Although, as I don’t know her, I suppose that merely makes me a fan. (blush)

Alison’s book, Fun Home, which I have blogged about, recommended and given to number of friends is on top of Time Mag’s 10 Best Books for 2006. I dont’ read Time, but I do peek at her blog occasionally which is where a typically hilariously titled post when she learned about this.

But it’s not just Time. It’s on a LOT of lists. From another of Alison’s posts:

Doug Reilly, along with his family, has fought an invansive cancer for a number of years. This never stopped Doug from being one of the smiliest guys at TechEd, answering posts on ASPAlliance listserver from the hospital and writing and sharing so much with so many through many ASP communities. Doug passed away today, quietly and peacefully, at home with his wife and children at his side. His wife Jean has been keeping his blog updated with his status and even today, somehow, she took the time and love to share with us this very very sad news. Even still, this evening she added another post about arrangements.

While does was still physically strong, he was cycling and fundraising for the LIVESTRONG foundation. He never let up and he truly lived strong right up until the end.

We will truly miss you Doug. Thanks for everything.

I’ve written some more about Doug over here on my DevLife blog.

Who else but the energetic Stephen Forte! HEre’s his account of running yesterday’s marathon. Now he’s on his way to TechEd Barcelona. I’m on my way to speak at DevConnections in Las Vegas. But my marathon was a marathon weekend of sitting in front of my computer.