So I mentioned earlier that I am excited about using XPath against XML data stored in SQL Server (v2000 at the moment) but I keep coming up against the same problems, like text/ntext data types are invalid for local variables in a batch and I can't fit the documents I want inside varchar(8000). 

The result with the most Google Juice on this points to the solution we all want.  There needs to be a version of sp_xml_preparedocument that accepts a pointer to a text/ntext column.  There are various solutions around, none of which are kind on server resources (like creating an undetermined number of varchar(8000) variables in scope) and none of which are pretty.

The chances of getting this went from slim to none last Nov.  Oh well.  I've yet to sink my teeth into SQL Server 2005 and I know they have done a lot with XML in that release, but Microsoft:  Do you think every system and team cuts over to the new version of your products the day after launch?  I understand you're excited but the same happened to VB6 when VS.NET 1.0 came out.

The project I have in mind involves taking the XML out of Excel documents and working with it using XPath and XSLT.  So for now this dosen't live in the data tier.  Oh well.  The sun will rise on the morning.

Oh and a nod to the brainy and beautiful Anina for "google juice" links.