It’s a Major Award!

I arrived home this afternoon to find a Major Award sitting on my porch. From the looks of the markings on the box, it appeared to be Italian:

What could it be? What could it be? I was hoping for something like an in-home bowling alley, or maybe, just maybe, something more like this:

To my disappointment it was neither. Instead it actually looks like this:

That’s right, Microsoft selected me as a 2010 MVP for client application development! Can you believe it? I’m still in shock. It’s quite an honor to be included in this group, an honor, quite frankly, I never dreamed of earning. The work (i.e. speaking, blogging, podcasts, screencasts, user groups, etc.) I did over the past year that earned me this award was done for purely selfish reasons, I actually enjoyed it! I had no intent of trying to earn this award. I just wanted to do the work I liked doing that actually helped the technology community. In all honesty that has been the most rewarding thing of all. This award from Microsoft is just icing on the cake.

I can’t accept an award without thanking a few folks:

• Ann Marie, my wife, who puts up with my late nights and loads of stress.
• The team at RBA Consulting. Without their support and backing this wouldn’t have happended.
• Jeff Brand, a local Microsoft DPE, who had the hairbrained (that pun is for you Jeff) idea to nominate me for this award.

Thanks for all of your continued and ongoing support!

Let’s see what the next year brings.