In a lighter moment at a generally upbeat Microsoft shareholder's meeting today, an older gentleman in the audience asked an off-topic question of Chairman Bill Gates.

"Mr. Gates, you look like you're wearing a Husky purple shirt this morning. I wonder if you just haven't given up on the Huskies yet?"

"Maybe I don't follow them closely enough," replied Gates, dressed in a lavender shirt and purple tie. (If he did, he would know that the football team lost ugly last weekend to Stanford, formerly the worst team in the Pac-10.)

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO and Gates' longtime friend, came to the rescue without missing a beat.

"But he would never give up on the Huskies!" Ballmer intoned.

For context, neither Ballmer nor Gates went to University of Washington. They met at Harvard as undergraduates. And Ballmer left graduate school at Stanford to join Gates at Microsoft. I guess he's not a big fan of the Cardinal.

Here's our initial coverage of the meeting.