The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

Lorie is on TV again because she’s so active in the South Lake Union (SLU) neighborhood. This time she was at a city council meeting and it ended up on Q13 Fox in the “Proposed South Lake Union towers generate controversy” story.

Most arguments center around “towers versus no towers” but Lorie is pointing out that the real problem is the proposal for big, blocky podiums. A podium (the area below a big tower) of 85 feet or so would be terrible for the SLU neighborhood. That’s as big as our residential building and combined with a tower above it, would block all sunlight on Lake Union Park.

Only in the Northwest would you see this!

		London 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Here are a few photos from the recent trip to London. It consisted mostly of work, so there’s not too many photos or stories. However, one interesting one is when I ate a sandwich outside of the Somerset House and watched a mouse running around so I tossed it part of my sandwich. It seemed quite happy about that!

The hills of Berkeley have a variety of large rocks in small parks. Busby mastered this one.

Tonight at the Everyman theater in London, I was able to enjoy a martini while watching the new James Bond movie. I’ve decided it’s the best way to watch a Bond movie and highly recommend it.

In 2005, I received a patent cube, which is what Microsoft gives an employee for having a patent submitted. Now, I am proud to say that patent number 8243897, “Automatic Detection and Notification of Proximity of Persons of Interest” is now an official United States patent and I am listed as the inventor. Upon a patent being accepted, Microsoft gives the employee a plaque honoring the occasion, which is what I have pictured here. 

		Busby and Luna Play VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Luna is a our friends’ Portuguese Water Dog and Busby is our poodle. They were almost the same size a few months ago, but now at around 7 months, Busby is quite a bit taller. I think Luna is the dominant one when they play though; or at least she gets the toys most of the time.

The photos here are at the off-leash dog area at Denny Park in Seattle.

Over the last two weeks, I have been in New York City, San Francisco, Berkeley and Santa Monica. I attended parties at Advertising Week in NYC, learned a bit about what Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others are doing in the online advertising space. Lorie and I also got a chance to meet up with friends just about every evening and meet a few new folks too. In the bay area, we again met up with friends and family, as I trained some fellow Microsoftees on some ad sales topics, which is what I did in Santa Monica too.
Photos include me on a big screen in NY (under the woman’s leg), pillows at a LinkedIn party, wood working art projects at Facebook (I was visiting a friend), the Santa Monica pier at night, and the Los Angeles airport.

None of all that seems too exciting, but it was mostly all work from morning to night. I’m ready for a break and some Busby-walking exercise. :-)