The biggest danger of working with my boss is, quite frankly, jealousy. Don't misunderstand me. It's not jealousy of his considerable programming chops or his modest good looks. It's his wide range of stalkers that evokes my pangs of envy. Nothing defines fame quite as definitively as the number and variety of one's stalkers.

Over the past years, I've declared a few people to be "my stalker."

First, there was Jason Follas because of his stalker-ish way of chasing me down to speak at the Northwest Ohio .NET User Group. Here are some choice quotes:

Jason showed a lot of promise, but his heart really isn't in it. This quote from his very first email to me clarifies his level of commitment as a stalker:

Oh yeah! Can you feel the love?

Then of course, there was Jeff McWherter. Jeff approached me this year at Tech Ed to discuss a talk that I had given a month earlier over a 1,000 miles away. Truthfully, Jeff was just being conversational, but I jumped all over his pleasantries with cries of, "Ha! You're my stalker now buddy!" Lately, I've been questioning how seriously Jeff has been taking his roll as a stalker. Recent encounters have involved him darting around corners while I shout, "HEY! Aren't you going to stalk me!? Why aren't you going through my trash or taking distant, blurry photos of me?"

I guess that I've just been trying too hard.

Until today.

Finally, I have real stalker of my very own: Dan Hounshell. That's right Dan. I read your blog, and I saw your post.

After seeing this photo, I'll be sleeping with one eye open.

A stalker of my very own.

I've finally arrived.