You see, in my 5.5 years at Microsoft, I've accumulated an unprecendented amount of junk. We're talking miles of cables, 15-20 WebTV boxes, 4 TVs, tons of wireless routers, 3 21" monitors, and lots of other junk. With my moving off of wireless and home networking testing of MSNTV2, I handed off all of my wireless equipment and most of the cables along with my desktop beast computer (tears welling up in my eyes) to my coworker. The beast had 2GB of ram, 2 SATA 150GB drives, 1 300GB IDE drive, and a some form of P4 3.0 Ghz with HT (not dual core). The machine was quite fast but I sure know how to tax a machine. I installed virtual server and used this machine as 10 PCs (sometimes at the same time) for testing. Virtual Server is a Microsoft product that allows you to run "virtual machines" inside of one PC. The idea is you can switch between environments without having to switch between different hardware...just boot up another virtual server and boom, you're ready to go. I'm thinking this is the way to go if we run into the same configuration hell that I had to deal with for home networking tests on MSNTV2. Anyway, I emptied out about 80% of the contents of my office into the hallway (our admin wasn't too thrilled about the prospects of finding storage spots for all my leftover crap, but hey, whaddaya want?).

Long story short...the office is a zen paradise with nary a pile of anything...just open desk space that just makes you feel good. The space is ripe for population with indoor horticulture which Hongyun and I have been neck deep into for the past few weeks. We've acquired over 20 plants and window boxes filled with seeds to fill our home. Now some are coming with me to work.

At home we have a couple of bromeliads (including one ultra cool looking tilandsia with a large single pink paddle in the center), quite a few cacti, two large sweet basil plants, one window box of basil seedlings that just sprouted, one window box of thai chili pepper seeds, a few peace lilies, two large chrysanthimums, some sort of mini palm tree, a rubber plant, a large pot with just-planted hybrid lily bulbs, and a window box filled with Narcissus dwarf daffodil bulbs. I'm going to bring to a grafted cactus, a small peace lily, and the window box of chili seeds to my office to populate it with life.

What started us on the whole indoor plant kick was trying to find plants that clean the air. From what I can discern, chrysanthimums have the most beneficial effects in the home. They can clean the air of many major forms of toxins literally overnight and keep it clean. What most people don't realize is that almost everything in their home releases toxins. The fire retardant in their sofa, the laquer on their dinner table, the pressed wood of their bookcases, the paints on their walls, etc etc. Toxins are all around you and in home air pollution is often times just as bad if not worse that outdoor air because it is so concentrated with very little avenue of escape and renewal.

Enter the houseplants. Our little of army has been chosen from the among the very best cleaners as determined by NASA. Hey, what can I say, I'm a geek. But my geekiness has lead us to fill our home with a few of the most efficient toxin removers money can buy. We also confirmed they were the best and lowest maintenance by noticing that the Valley Fair mall used a similar selection (especially Peace LIlies) all over their mall. I guess they've figured out that these little filtration units are not only more efficient and completely silent, but they look nice too. And being that it's a mall, they'd want the easiest thing to take care of.

Anyway, our adventure into indoor vegitation shall continue I'm sure. I only hope that as our schedule ramps up for the fall and winter don't lead us to the neglect our litte dynamos. Hongyun has school, transfer applications, scholarship/financial aid applications, art "work" time, not to mention her desire to start a part-time business of painting wedding scenes. I'll be busy with my new project at work and managing (and mostly doing) a new content management system for Silicon Valley Open Studios. If you have the bandwidth and want to help us water the plants, let me know :)