MSSQL pyodbc - unicode problems since 0.5rc2

[desmaj]

I'm using MSSQL + pyodbc + unixODBC + FreeTDS ...

I have been tracking the 0.5 line for a while now, but I only recently
noticed that I am unable to insert unicode into the database since
0.5rc2. Starting with 0.5rc3, when I do try to insert unicode into a
column defined as Unicode or UnicodeText, I get an error like:
[HY000] [FreeTDS][SQL Server]Could not perform COMMIT or ROLLBACK (0)
(SQLEndTran)

I should probably also add that I autoload my tables.

So before I start tearing code apart ... does this sound familiar to
anyone out there? Can anyone think of changes since 0.5rc2 that might
not be local to mssql and that might result in such errors?

Thanks,
Matthew