London it is!
Robert Vasen
Heli-Skiing in Utah
On March 23rd, my dad Gail, my brother Mike, and I went helicopter skiing in Utah. It was a first for all 3 of us and we all agreed that it was our best day of skiing ever. We had clear blue sky, fresh snow, no lift lines, and got to make fresh tracks with every run. We had 6 runs for a total of 12,000 vertical feet of skiing. We also got to ski together with one guide the entire time, even though there were other people using the helicopter with us: we only saw them at the base of the runs where we would wait for the helicopter to take us up for another run. It was run by Park City Powder Cats & Heli-Ski (http://www.pccats.com/helicat.html). Our guide skiing with us was Jon Marshall (http://www.jmarshallphotography.com/)
Photos are at http://spaces.msn.com/grothadventures/Photos/
Moving to London, not Paris
Yes, that’s right. We are now going to be moving to London in June or so and not Paris.
Why London? As it turns out, most of the people I will be working with on a regular basis are based in London. I will still need to go to Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, Milan, Madrid, among many other locations, but if I will be spending most of the time in London, then it only makes sense to live there.
Most of the details are the same as I explained when we thought we were moving to Paris.
We plan to live in the city, so we can have the full-on urban experience. Neighborhoods (“neighbourhoods” in the UK) that our friend Cullen suggests are “Chelsea or maybe Notting Hill. Both are pretty artsy, both have a vibrant nightlife, both are pretty safe and sane”. Hopefully the people who will help with our relocation will help find us someplace cool to live that we can also afford. Although afford isn’t really the way to put it…. exist without going flat broke is more like it. 
Milo is still going to move with us and Ripley is still going to live in Monroe, WA. We still want you to come and visit. We are still working on the new/unfinished house in Kirkland. Lorie will still be looking at various schools, but now in London. We probably won’t learn as much French though. Now we have to learn how to speak and spell real English, not American.
So wish us luck and please come visit!
Ultra-Mobile PC
Moving to Paris
Yes, Lorie and I are moving to Paris, France and we will probably move in July 2006, give or take a month. We could live in London, Munich, or maybe other big cities in Europe too, but Paris is where Microsoft’s Europe headquarters is based and it’s a good sorta-central location to get to from the other countries. We also like Paris as a city and would really like the opportunity to live in the city, not a suburb. We also prefer to throw ourselves into a culture, learn the language, learn the day-to-day survival, and see how another part of the world lives. Our philosophy is “live for the experiences” much more so than “have lots of nice stuff”.
What Microsoft Products will I work with?
I will mostly be focused on the following products:
And more very cool things coming soon
Which of course also leverage or tie into the following products:
And more very cool things coming soon
What countries will I get to visit?
I will be working with people in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, but specifically on the following countries, in roughly the order that I will be visiting most often:
- UK
- Germany
- France
- Netherlands
- Belgium
- Italy
- Spain
- Sweden
- Norway
- Denmark
- Finland
- Ireland
- Switzerland
- Austria
- Israel
- Arabia (like Dubai in the UAE)
- Turkey
- South Africa
But what the heck will I be doing for Microsoft?
I will be helping solve country-specific and region-specific challenges and successes with the products in the first list noted above and roll them up into something that the product groups in Redmond can do something with. I will also be relaying information from these product groups to each country so they know what’s being developed and why. There’s more to it, but that’s basically it. My title is “Regional Business Manager”.
Back to Paris…. What about the dogs?
Ripley (the girl) will stay with our friends/trainers Kerry & Kevin at www.ManneredMutts.com. Ripley loves it there, and they love her, so she will be well cared for. The main reason for this is because we don’t think she will to very well away from them and their dogs, plus she doesn’t do well with big changes. Milo (the boy) will come with us. He’s 100% French anyway, so he should fit right in. Really.. he’s a beauceron, which is basically a French Sheppard. He is also a spaz who is happy to be near anyone, especially Lorie, and doesn’t care where he is with us or what’s going on. He’ll have fun. He’d have fun even if we bounced on the moon in space suites (hmmm, so would I).
Can you visit us in Paris?
We do plan to find an apartment with two rooms, one for us and one to use as an office, which of course we fully expect to have guests in whenever possible. We even have ideas to keep a calendar posted online so all friends and family can know when they can visit.
What will Lorie do in Paris?
She has lots of options she is considering: Art classes, MBA (they are taught in English), Design schools, Cooking schools, being Parisian, watching airfare deals so people can visit, and planning cool trips for us to take in Europe.
What about the new house in Kirkland, WA?
Move in date is early June 2006, so we will move some of our stuff there, then move to Paris. We have a friend who will be staying there and we’ll also stay there when we come back to visit and work every 4-6 months or so.
You can contact Lorie at Lorie@BlueFizz.biz and Brian at Brian.Groth@microsoft.com
Portable Media Solution
The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth 