Vista - Vista Calendar and Contacts

I was sort of happy when I found that Vista came with a calendar. And then disappointed when after I had input all my contacts with their birthdays and anniversaries, they didn't show up in the Calendar...

I don't suppose I am, but still I am asking, do I overlook something or is this by design? Why don't Windows Calendar and Windows Contacts integrate with each other?

When you double click on a date for example to setup an event, on the details pane on the right at the bottom you will see a section named "Participants" (actually i run the french version so it could be named differently on the en-US one)
When you click on "participants" it will open the contacts window

With regards to the loss of your entries, i don't know?? did you try to open the right calendar (left pane) ?