Sounds like you've been through h*ll both personally and professionally, John. Thanks for sharing the story. FWIW I think you made the right choice - family and health have to come before career. The old saying comes to mind, "You must work to live, but you shouldn't live to work."

Your comments are particularly of interest in light of the Business Week story about the exodus from MS and the stuff from MiniMicrosoft. Almost sounds like something out of Dilbert - kinda scary. Probably not uncommon in many large corporations, but when process becomes more important than product and policy outweighs performance, there's bound to be stress.

Thanks for your contributions to VFP while you were on the inside, and best wishes for success on the outside.