The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

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While out walking Milo today, I took a few random photos of what we normally see. I especially like the mini campervan that’s almost the same size as an old Honda Civic.

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We were at Borough Market the other week and I still enjoy being a tourist there, hence the photos.

To all my friends and family that I’ve said “just wait, new versions are coming” … you can now get those new versions of Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and more.

Please download everything from http://download.live.com so you can easily upload photos to share with me (uploads to http://photos.live.com) with Photo Gallery, have better video calls via Messenger, and manage your e-mail with Mail (even you gmail users).

Yes, these are the products I work on at Microsoft, so I am naturally biased, but I think they are great products. Also, if you haven’t already done it, then after downloading the new products, go to http://profile.live.com and setup your Windows Live Profile  

The little dot on the map points to the one square foot of land that I now own in Scotland. Because of this, I am now Brian Groth, Laird of Kincavel, which is on the Ardnamurchan peninsula in Scotland. Laird means land owner.

Yep, I’m a bad-ass and I too can carry a sword just like the Highlander. Or maybe I’ll just be content to know that weeds and grasses grow on my land and the occasional sheep pees on it. 

The land is at:
Latitude North 56 Degrees 43.872 Minutes
Longitude West 6 Degrees 11.155 Minutes

Useful links to know about my land:

• A Map of the area
• General information about Ardnamurchan
• Tourist info
• And even more info about the area.
• Sister Beth bought us this for our recent birthdays via Moon Estates.

Jesus (he works in Spain) and I tried to go to a Dutch pancake house tonight in Amsterdam called Pannenkoekenhuis. After a very long €50 taxi ride (traffic & rain) we got there – only to discover that it is closed Monday through Thursday. Today is Thursday. The taxi driver was sort of lost, so he didn’t care. Since we were left to walk in the rain, we didn’t walk far, but at least we saw some streets lit up for Christmas. We ended up a a quaint little place that did serve some local foods, including my ham & cheese pancake (sort of like a crepe) and my advokaat and chocolate pancake (again, crepe-like). Nothing amazingly great, but better than airport food, which is where our hotel is located and at least it was interesting.    

I work on Windows Live at Microsoft and now I can finally talk about the new stuff we will release soon. You can read about it at the Windows Live Wire blog. I just spent two days with the press and some analysts explaining the new products and hope to see articles in UK and European newspapers soon. Here’s a good video that highlights some of the top new products and features:

It will be a couple of months before everything is available for you to try, but I look forward to getting my friends and family to use all of my new products. That means you. Don’t worry, once everything is available I’ll let you know and help get you started.

Thanks to our friend Anne, we now have another great Champagne to add to our list of favorites: La Chapelle Champagne, specifically the Brut Prestige.

Since their cellars are south of Reims, Lorie is already thinking about how to visit them the next time we “just happen” to get there.

Feel free to buy us a glass, bottle, or case the next time we see you…. whoever you are. ;-) 

Why is it that people cross the street to avoid me when walking Milo, and even more so when we add Hazel (a friend’s dog) into the mix? Milo is tall and Hazel is all muscle, both have lots of happy looking teeth, but are very friendly dogs. Hmmm, it must be me.

Yes, there are quite a few great cars in the Fulham area of London. However, can any of them compare to what Wikipedia describes as a peasant car? You can still buy a new one from Fiat if you have the need/desire.

I am only somewhat joking. Our beat up Panda that we borrowed in Orta, Italy got us around, but wasn’t something I would want to rely on for too long. However, they are great city cars.