After slagging away countless months, weeks, days and hours, our team has finally shipped our latest, and definitely most important release to date. Woohoo!

Prior to joining Microsoft on the Windows Live ID team (known as .NET Passport back then), I was part of a startup and a few “side” projects. When I decided to ultimately move from Vancouver to Seattle and accept the Microsoft offer, a part of me was sad that I was leaving the “start up” environment behind me. There is something I find exciting about those moments right before you “hit the button” and your service hits the web for millions of people to see.

In Windows Live ID, I was the Lead PM on the team responsible for a whack of things including the login user experience and platform programmability. That team helped me learn what it meant be a great Program Manager and I was truly sad when I left for Windows Marketplace last November.

I’ve been on the Windows Marketplace team for a few months, and now that we’ve shipped, it’s like my professional life has come full circle. I’m back in a startup-like environment, working at a frenzied (but fun) pace, with people that I absolutely love to work with. I absolutely love coming to work each day and it’s days like today that make all those crazy long days worth it.

You can now buy and download Windows Vista and Office 2007 on WindowsMarketplace.com. Run, click, crawl, buy, drool and download your copy today.

The months leading up to tonight have been crazy, but nothin crazier than the last week, where our team:

1. Racked up a crazy amount of food bills for late night dinners, including weekends.
2. Have an ongoing set of jokes that you only laugh at when you spend 80+ weeks with the same people
3. Had A “sexy pants” contest, that was won by Derek who made cowboy chaps with iron-on 3M reflective tape.
4. Ate a hot dog and margarita dinner tonight — nothing but the best for us!

Here’s the obligatory marketing shots: (referral links)