Yet another "I didn't know this" moment - Turns out, static variables in a class in ASP.NET are pretty similar to application objects but I am going to keep my long-winded posts really short this time.
Long story short: "A key reason that the Application object exists in ASP.NET is for compatibility with classic ASP code—to allow easier migration of existing applications to ASP.NET. If you are creating an ASP.NET application from scratch, you will want to consider storing data in static members of the application class rather than in the Application object" (MSDN)
As always there are Pro's and Con's of using both Application Object and Static Variables.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/dnaraskdr/html/askgui09172002.asp , http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q312607
That's the 42nd "I didn't know this moment" ever since I got into the habit of counting :)