Well it certainly has been a busy and exciting week at PASS.  I couldn't go this year, but through the magic of SSC.com, the blogosphere and personal email from Seattle, I was there in spirit.  You might say I was virtually there. 

Speaking of virtual, one of the sessions I've followed was the Virtualization VC Breakfast Session, sponsored by VMWare, highlighting real-life experiences and challenges with SQL Server in virtualized environments.  The debate to virtualize SQL or not continues.There's been a lot on this in the news and events this week,  and I'll add my two-cents next week.

I even got pinged by one of my seasoned BI colleagues, Chuck Kelley manning one of the booths at PASS, hoping to hook up with Brian Knight.  I left a message, but there's always a next time 🙂  So, let's hear some feedback on Brian's politically incorrect presentation.

My new buddies from India, Jacob Sebastian and Pinal Dave were there, as well Greg Larsen, who was given honorable mention in Andy Warren's blog as one of those to watch. And as if Steve Jones didn't have enough to think about on the way out the door to take off for Seattle, I pinged him about when my next article's going to be published.  (Sorry man, I hope it wasn't my fault on the luggage mishap)

Ok, I dropped enough names, I feel like a gossip columnist.  No offense to the ones I didn't.  During this time, I made some new friends and connections in the SQL World.  I hope to collaborate with them and bring some new and great contributions to the SQL community.

My blog has been appropriately light this week, making room for all the PASS MVPs, attendees and presenters, bringing us up-to-date coverage from Seattle.  I didn't want to compete with all this, so I'll pick up the pace in the week to come.

So, in absence of technical content, and to keep those who didn't attend PASS in a good mood, I launched my first DB Audit challenge #1 (still one more day to play, before I announce the winner(s).) I will mention and profile those who participated.

Check out the challenge at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/pearlknows/archive/2009/11/01/db-audit-challenge-1.aspx 
I've received very positive feedback and thank you's on this, so I will do my best to bring a new challenge soon.

Finally, maybe I'll have an MVP Profile of the week again, but this week at PASS, all our MVPs and presenters there deserve to be named MVP of the week for their extraordinary, outstanding contributions and ongoing service to the SQL Server community!

Great job ALL!  On behalf of the sql community at large, we thank you!