This year I'll celebrate eleven years at Microsoft. In September of 1996 I maxed out a credit card to relocate from Estevan, Saskatchewan to Redmond, Washington joining up with Microsoft as a contractor. As a contractor I didn't qualify for relocation benefits, but I figured it was a worthy risk :-).  My first job was to support the beta of Active Server Pages along with Internet Studio.  Later on I made the transition to full-time employee status, supporting the released editions of these new Internet products.

I get goose bumps thinking about the last eleven years at Microsoft.  Although I try not to reflect too much on the past, but man there are some amazing memories.  It all began with answering the phones in PSS as a Support Engineer, then moving on to ship Visual Studio/.NET, MSDN and ultimately landing in my dream job with Evangelism.  There has always been something going on.  At first it was challenging cases in PSS, launching a community features for MSDN, shipping Visual Studio/ .NET, XML Web Services, the birth of Channel 9 or the growth of the Evangelism Network.   It has been an amazing ride with many more chapters left to be written. 

A while back Steve Cellini (my most awesome manager) made a comment about how it seems that I always have the pedal to the metal and asked when I'd take time for a break.  Over the years I probably haven't set the best example to my team around work / life/ vacation balances.   Work and projects are very addicting to me, when one is done I'm always ready for the next.  In looking at the summer ahead though I decided that now would be a great time to take a brief sabbatical from Microsoft.  The recent efforts on improving processes on our team along with the amazing team of folks I work with go a long ways to enabling me to take this break. 

On June 15th I will go on a summer vacation, returning in early September.  During this time off, I'm going to disconnect from work and recharge my batteries.  To begin the break Josie (my seven year old daughter) and I are heading off by ourselves in my car across Canada and back through the United States.   We’ll spend quality time together, visit many aging family members and connect with each other.  There are no end dates on this first trip, no daily schedules, just cool places to see and quality time with my family.  Josie hasn't always gotten the right level of attention from me and this should be a start to make up for that.  Hopefully building a memory that last for a long time. 

The trip back home will help me say good bye to our family home in Estevan.  My Dad has had a long hard battle with cancer and with that my parents have decided it is time sell our family home.  Some of this time off will be used to help with that and also allow me to say goodbye to the place I grew up.  During the remainder of the break, my wife and I have goals around personal fitness/health, books we want to read (feel free to leave suggestions in the comments), some smaller projects around our home and a few trips. 

In essence this is a "do over" summer vacation for me.  I'll pick Josie up from her last day of school, we'll take our trip, hang out in the summer together and both return to our "work" after the labor day weekend.   I don't think as a child I truly appreciated the luxury of having a summer vacation.  As a kid you could not wait for them the vacation to begin, you squandered the days by watching television and before you knew it you were back in school.  I have a feeling it will be different as I experience summer vacation as an adult.

I guess I should answer in advance the obvious question that might come out of this post.  "Will I return from this break?"  &#$%@ yes!  I often joke that Evangelism at Microsoft is a lot like Hotel California.  Once you arrive, you never want to leave. :-)  It really is that way for me.  I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.  So In September I'll return to the same role continuing to lead Channels 9,10 along with our other online Evangelism Community efforts.  

So with that its time to get back to work before my break.  

If you are interested in following along with my travels I will update this blog occasionally during my break and even more often my flickr feed.

inch by inch.