Well folks, Spring is officially here!

What’s that you say? You’ve been enjoying the new season for the past month and a half? Okay, truth is… I have too! I spent all winter making meals in the Crock Pot (yes, I still consider this cooking), but the crazy nice weather has got me grilling anything and everything I can think of. Have you ever tried peaches on the grill, drizzled with honey? If not, please stop what you’re doing and go make some now… I promise you won’t regret it!

Alright, I may have gotten a little off track with the peach thing. But really… spring is all about baseball games, evening walks, and soaking up every minute of daylight you possibly can. Another thing it’s good for? Traveling the globe, talking about SharePoint. So without further ado, here’s what the Fpweb.net SharePoint Hosting ‘Road Crew’ will be up to in April:

I am so ready for Fall.  Not just because it’s hotter than all get out in Texas, or because I’ve gone too long without watching a college football game…but also because there’s a whole lot going on in the world of Fpweb.net this Autumn.  So what’s all the fuss about?  I’m glad you asked!

• St. Louis Habit for Humanity: Last week we busted out our tool-belts and channeled our inner Bob Vilas. Yep, it was Habitat for Humanity Round 2!  Last year’s build day was such a rewarding experience for our employees, and we always look forward to giving back to this great city!  Did I reach my personal goal of staying out of wet cement? Stay tuned.

• Costa Rica SharePoint Conference:  A one-day conference completely focused on SharePoint sounds good enough…but put in beautiful Costa Rica? Count us in!  On August 31st, the Fpweb.net team enjoyed a wonderful day of SharePoint collaboration at Pueblo Antiguo!

Saturdays aren’t just for barbecuing, housework and college football anymore. For the past couple years, SharePoint Saturday events have been popping up in cities all over the country and the world.  If you haven’t attended one yourself, let me give you the rundown.  They are free events for anyone involved in SharePoint: architects, developers and admins alike.  Sounds pretty great, right?

Why Should I Attend?

Networking: SharePoint Saturdays are a chance for you to meet other local SharePoint folks and catch up with those you already know.  Plus it’s always nice to put a face with a twitter username! If you can’t get enough SharePoint chit-chat throughout the day, many of the events even organize SharePints for Saturday evenings.

When the 2011 “Snowpocalypse” landed in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago, many of my Fpweb.net teammates set up shop in their homes to keep things rolling.  I too was working from my home office, but not because of any record-breaking blizzard.  In October of last year, my husband was asked to relocate to Houston for a new and exciting opportunity with his company.  I was thrilled and completely bummed at the same time.  Just the thought of leaving my co-workers and the job that I loved was beyond disappointing.  Lucky for me, my manager and other members of leadership decided to take a shot on me and truly “go ROWE“.

Chris 'Cotton' Schwab and Tom Lutker chow down

Thanksgiving is so close we can almost taste it. Well actually, I guess you could say we already did taste it. As you can see from the pictures below, Monday’s company “Turkey Day Chow Down” had many highlights…pumpkin-crumble cake, turkey-induced comas, and a showing of Muppets Take Manhattan to kick off the holiday season.

Other than our wonderful partners and clients here at Fpweb.net,
we have a lot to be thankful for as employees too. In honor of tomorrow’s holiday we thought we would share a couple of those things with you:

Our brilliant team of SharePoint Pioneers here at Fpweb.net have done it again.

Our engineers collaborated with Lawrence Associates LLC to host & custom-build the new Microsoft Education Partner Network SharePoint 2010 Web site.

This is the first public SharePoint 2010 site in the world to utilize claims-based SharePoint authentication using Live ID. Yep, you heard right… no passwords to manage or user accounts to create. By using Live ID, the team at Microsoft had instant access to millions of Live ID user profiles that were already created by folks all over the globe.

Meet April.

Some of you may know her as the cheery voice behind the Fpweb.net Customer Care line–but did you also know that she holds the title of “Fpweb.net Baker Extraordinaire”?  Once a month, the folks here at Fpweb.net skip their usual bowls of Fruit Loops for something a little heartier, a lot tastier, and much more mouth-wateringly delicious…Breakfast by April!  Luckily for all of us at the Fpweb.net headquarters, today happened to be that day!

Sometimes, there’s nothing like a great series of throwback ads to revive memories from the precious era of yesteryear. Like all great things before it, computers have definitely seen a rapid change in not only the way they’re built, but also the way they’re advertised.

In this collection of vintage spots from the synthesizer loving era of the 80s, you’ll see a variety of ads; some are weird, some are cool and some have strokes of pure genius that still reign relevant today. Check out these gems and let the memories start flooding back to you!