Wrapping up July

What a great month July was.  I was away with the family for the past two weeks, and a lot has happened.  I missed the BizTalk Server 2006 Beta 1 release and the Windows Vista Beta 1 release.  Wow.  Hopefully, it won't take me too long to catch up on email so that I can play with these bits. 

It was a great vacation.  We took the long way to a family reunion, and spent a couple of days at each tour stop.  Newport, Oregon (the Oregon beach), the Redwood Forests (camping in Grizzly Creek State Park - apparently, this is where the ewok and speeder scenes of the forest moon of Endor were shot...?), San Francisco, Las Vegas, and then Fremont, UT for the reunion.  Lots of driving.  You learn a lot about the members of your family on a trip like this!  (It was all good!)

My role at Microsoft is changing slightly with the new season.  I'm going to focus more on Content Management Server and the Sharepoint products and lessen my emphasis on BizTalk Server.  We will be hiring a BizTalk specialist for the Pacwest District.  I kind of had to make a choice between BizTalk and content management and portals, and I chose the portal path.  I am looking forward to it.  I think that my experience with BizTalk and Indigo and Web Services, combined with the upcoming Office 12, will help my customers enjoy some incredible portal functionality.

It's good to be back.  See you around!