Because I work on Outlook Calendar at Microsoft, I see requests all the time to “automatically add travel time to my calendar”. Why don’t we see this in Calendar solutions out there today? It’s a bit tricky. Before I tackle the question of “Why Not?”, let me give some advice on how to deal with […]
I learned to ski a few years ago and after getting the hang of it, the first thing I wanted to do was share this with my kids. I had this romantic dream of all of us hanging out on the hill, skiing all day together. Family bonding at it’s best. Making this dream a […]
When your kids become teenagers, one of the biggest things they need to learn is how to be independent. They WANT to be independent. It’s our job to help them learn to be both independent AND responsible. The same goes for a kid on the Autism spectrum. The challenge for the parents is a bit […]
I should say that a calendar could have saved the Tooth Fairy! It all started last night. My 9 year old daughter announced that she had lost a tooth while eating dinner. It’s been loose for weeks. Later that evening as my daughter was ready for bed and just coming up to have me tuck […]
I don’t travel much for my job at Microsoft but as I’m heading to Minneapolis to attend this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration Conference, I’m feeling grateful for one of the few benefits of having a split family: the flexibility to travel worry free. I share custody with my kids’ dad. While I’m at the conference, […]
It’s hard enough for a typical family to keep track of everything between school holidays, career deadlines, soccer games and business trips. How does a split family do it? I’m divorced and I’ve found that sharing a calendar is the key to successful communication and coordination. To be blunt, I really don’t like needing to […]
With a new school year starting, I had 2 things I wanted to somehow fit into the day for both me and my son: Getting consistent exercise by walking the dog AND just getting some quality time with my son. Because he has Autism, he doesn’t really talk much. He mostly sends me text messages when […]
I think all kids get a little anxious about going back to school. What will their new teacher(s) be like? Will their best friend be in their class? It’s tough for all kids, and even their parents. But for a child with Autism, it can be even tougher due to difficulties around being able to […]
Adding a calendar from your favorite sports team is really easy to do. You just need to get an “ics file” with their schedule. Some teams make it easy. For example, on the Seattle Seahawks website, you just click “Download Now” from their schedule page while Outlook 2013 is open. The calendar magically appears in Outlook. You can rename […]
