friday update

Here is what I have been up to:

Last weekend I went to Whistler-Blackcomb with a subset of the ShowMe gang. I had never been to Whistler before, but I must say I was impressed. The Ski area is huge with beautiful views and awesome terrain. Despite being an epic year for snowfall at all of the ski areas out here, we had bad snow on saturday. We picked the one week where there was rain all week instead of snow. But there was snow saturday night and Sunday was great. My only complain is that the ''green runs'' high up on the mountain are marked as ''the easiest way down.'' This is misleading. We had some beginners in our group who reported that these were much harder then the blue runs down, since they were simply cat tracks. Since the snow was rock solid, they were long, thin, narrow, fast, icy roads with steep slopes past the edges. Because they were marked ''easiest way down'' they were littered with beginners who had fallen and/or stopped in the middle, making them very difficult to ride down. 

I love living in the Northwest. I do not think I will ever be able to leave the mountains. 

We have been very busy at work finishing our XP SP2 security features for IE and driving down our bug count. I know many of you have been asking about features and additions, and I have not answered. I must remind you that under the terms of my NDA I cannot answer those questions. Please remember that the primary focus of the SP2 release, at least for my team, is security and trustworthiness.

I have won (left with more money then I came with) at poker night three weeks in a row now. We play no-limit Texas Hold 'em tournaments. Usually we get through three or four in a night. I wonder if this is pure luck or if I am getting better. I have not been this interested in a game since Chess.

We are halfway through season three of The Sopranos. I ordered Red Rock West and a Paco de Lucia disc. I am reading some book set in St. Louis about power and money and greed and bizarre things like that; I do not remember the title. I am also finishing off Mere Christianity, which I bought as a compainion to read with Good Omens.