I know it seems like I set up and abandoned the blog.  This is not the case.  I've just returned from our annual December vacation in our new timeshare at St. Kitts.  It was nothing short of incredible.  It was also sorely needed.

I have to admit that while I did very little with company work, I did take the opportunity of down time to catch up on some reading and research.  (I mean, seriously, isn't that what everyone does on vacation?!?)

Of course, I had the perfect computer desk with a view, as seen below from one of the three balconies at our place.

Although I consider myself a strong .NET and especially ASP.NET developer, I have to admit my CSS design skills are not where I would like them to be.  So, I did some light reading and exercises from a couple of books based on recommendations from my friend, Spike Xavier, who I consider to be a great web designer.  The two books he recommended (which after reading, I, too, recommend) are Professional ASP.NET 2.0 Design: CSS, Themes, and Master Pages by Jacob J. Sanford  and Beginning CSS: Cascading Style Sheets for Web Design, 2nd Edition by Richard York.

Admittedly, most of this was refresher, but I feel more confident when attempting to do more CSS based design in ASP.NET 2.0 and, therefore, SharePoint 2007.

Other than spending some time and becoming more comfortable with Visual Studio 2008 RTM, I also caught up on some Microsoft Silverlight development information.  My good friend, Michael Palermo IV, a Microsoft Regional Director (RD) and Microsoft MVP, has done quite a few videos that are highlighted on the Silverlight site under Learn > Videos section.  I got a jumpstart on the technology thanks to him.

Now, if you think that all I did was read and stay on the computer, you are incorrect.  I spent the majority of my time with my wife and son in the sun and water.  (In fact, most of the day reading was done during nap time, since we didn't have a dedicated nanny on this trip.)  I also did a couple of dives to get my SCUBA fix in.  Unfortunately, my wife had baby duty and couldn't dive with me, which I regret.

All in all, it was a great vacation and I came back recharged and ready to go.

Promulgations?  Soliloquies?  What does it all mean?  For those of you who know me, you are aware of my often strange sense of humor.  I have created this blog site for the purpose of hopefully sharing some of my knowledge and hard lessons with you, the reader.

So, to answer several of your questions, I present the definitions of the words found in the header of this blog.

prom·ul·gate [prom-uhl-geyt, proh-muhl-geyt] –verb (used with object), -gat·ed, -gat·ing.

1. to make known by open declaration; publish; proclaim formally or put into operation (a law, decree of a court, etc.).

2. to set forth or teach publicly (a creed, doctrine, etc.).

—Related forms  prom·ul·ga·tion [prom-uhl-gey-shuhn] , noun

 so·lil·o·quy [suh-lil-uh-kwee] –noun, plural -quies.

1. an utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself or herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present (often used as a device in drama to disclose a character's innermost thoughts): Hamlet's soliloquy begins with “To be or not to be.”

2. the act of talking while or as if alone.

In other words, I understand that I may be talking only to myself, but am hopeful that my ramblings may give some others insight and usefulness.

What can you expect to read about in this blog?  Topics such as Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies (WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007), Microsoft Web Technologies (ASP.NET, Silverlight, AJAX, etc.), and Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) Tools (SSAS, SSIS, SSRS, PerformancePoint Server 2007, etc).  Be forewarned, I may from time to time exit stage left and go "off the reservation" with respect to these topics.  Some postings will obviously be personal in nature and opinion.  I foresee you would also, over time, learn a bit more about me and my life.  I expect that most information will be just my observations on technologies as they pertain to usefulness, primarily in a business environment.

So, buckle up and stay tuned to the future...