We are concluding that time of year at Microsoft where we write our reviews of the past year and ponder our goals and objectives for the next.  Several weeks ago my boss (Andrew) and I discussed my focus for this coming year.  I put the following on his radar to consider...

1. I prefer to give up managing people so I can spend more time focusing on my family (to quote: 'I want to be a great feature PM for Ashleigh v1 and Lacie v1 -- they are the only software I will ever personally ship').
2. I want to focus solely and squarely on our platform for the next version of Media Center on Windows Vista.
3. I crave designing experiences and writing code to bring them to life. I love showing others 'how to' and getting them excited about the possibilities.

This week Andrew and I pretty much closed on all three -- I won't be managing people starting this coming Monday, get to do nothing but work on Windows Vista starting August 1 and get to write lots of sample code for our next generation platform for Media Center.

Thanks, Andrew, for listening to my heart and helping me achieve my dreams.  I'm still pinching myself to see if I wake up from this dream after nearly 6 years -- and it keeps getting better and better.