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Day 2 of our magical journey. If I could think of something clever as a means of introducing the day, I would. But while my mind is stuffed with stuff, I can't think of any poignant stuff to say.
| Friday,
12 September 2003 |
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| 8:00am | The alarm went off. No one opted to stir. |
| 8:37am | We both finally got out of bed and made our way down to the conference hall. But not before checking out the daylight view from the room, and looking in upon the work crew apparently planting the strawberry field just south of our hotel. |
| 8:57am | After some doing, we walked effortlessly into the convention hall without challenge or questioning. Curious, but pleasant. |
| 9:08am | The re-grouping, restaffing, whatever. The fun begins. |
| 9:42am | The team of four (plus one duck) depart for the large room setup (250 or so network connections to be established. Tubby is wearing his "Talk Nerdy to Me". (For your own "Nerdy" shirt, you can buy it here.)o to my main page and hit the link to the right of the Amazon.com link.) |
| 9:50am | Minor delay, soon resolved. While we have a key to the place, the room is bicycle-locked from the inside. Sneakiness occurred to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, I got to look at one of the crews that set up rows of live shrubs. Here we have one supervisor overseeing two guys placing the planter boxes, side by side. The room for error is staggering, I guess. |
| 11:33am | Cables are up and connections made. I supervised the connectivity to the Catalyst 5000, given I apparently understand networks more than Tubby. |
| 12:09pm | Lunch! Of course, mine consisted of two rolls broken into bite-size bits, and the collective of Diet Pepsis. But Tubby (true to form) stumbled across the snack stash, so we padded our plates and our tummies with the likes of Skittles, Starbursts, and Mrs. Field's mini-chocolate chip cookies. Mmmm, cookies... |
| 1:28pm |
I remain in a nesting mode, waiting for the next task to tackle. (Wow, that sounds almost poetic.) From where the team office is, we also have a nifty view of the conference floor. |
| 1:41pm | We're off to the conference floor to test network connections and stuff. |
| 2:34pm | ... and test, and test. Apparently, they were even prepared enough to have extra laptops available, so I was also put to work. Drag. There is still one plug that isn't working, at the end of the day, but heck if I can't figure out why. |
| 3:43pm | Back in the support offices (both Tubby and my laptop batteries have died, alas), so we're recharging and refreshing with a Diet Pepsi ad some Lays chips... and I think there's a Krispy Kreme over in the corner. |
| 3:54pm | Apparently, the question is: What's a conference without lots of bean bags? I guess we won't find out this week, since lots of bean bags are indeed here. |
| 4:48pm | We regrouped for a status meeting, and broke for the day after about 20-25 minutes. From there, I got to catch up on my mail and personal projects. |
| 5:22pm | We ended up in the crew's dining area, where the theme of the day was Mexican. Tubby and I indulged in two cans of Diet Pepsi, Equal, orange-flavored mints*, salsa chips and cheese, the latter two forming a non-melted nacho thing. |
| 5:51pm | A group of us make the trek back to the hotel, on [webbed] foot. |
| 6:02pm | Back in the room, we took a few minutes to regroup, refresh, and repack for Disneyland. (Some of the gang was going out to Newport Beach or something, but I wouldn't hear of it, and am off to the park.) |
| 6:36pm | We've finally managed to leave for Disneyland. I guess it really does take nearly a half hour for the Bald Wonder to change from business sweats (khaki colored sweats, with pockets) into shorts. With that, we're out the door. |
| 6:58pm |
I passed through the main gates of Disney with my chubby buddy, Tubby. Good for us. I made him take my picture once we got there, of course. |
| 7:04pm | There are holiday decorations out already. Odd, yes. But they explain why, fortunately. |
| 7:21pm | Like everyone else, I had to oooh, ahhhh the castle. It's just what little ducks do. |
| 7:42pm | We wandered around, found that Thunder Mountain was still closed (go figure), Haunted Mansion wasn't open as it converts into the Nightmare Before Christmas story theme, so I found myself on Pirates of the Caribbean with my tubby buddy after a good 10-15 minute wait. |
| 8:15pm | Yup, me at the castle again, but this time sporting my princess cap. Of course, it's not mine, it's intended for my future intended, whomever she turns out to be. |
| 8:17pm | Okay, last castle photo. This time, it's the front (without me in it), and for those of you who are 18 or over, the castle's back side (ooh, behave!). |
| 8:21pm | I can sort of see why the Storybook ride is seen by some wee ones as scary. At night, with the lighting as it is, riding on a boat into this guy can be a bit intimidating. |
| 8:22pm | The Tea Cups are a different sort of scary, more so if you've recently had dinner. |
| 8:25pm | I decided to have my picture made with Dumbo, and he's now the newest FrankPal. |
| 8:36pm | The glow we saw was none other than the aforementioned TV commercial being shot. So, like any good tourist, we had to stop, gawk, and take photos.** |
| 9:01pm | We left Disneyland, dejected at all of the good rides being long-lined or closed (either for repair, recent fatalities, and the like). I suggested a therapeutic trip to Target.*** |
| 9:35pm | I checked out of Target with two 6-packs of Mighty Beanz, a Vanilla Diet Pepsi (for me), a plasma ball (small, $5.58 variety, but disposable when this one also dies (sigh)), and some other stuff. All in all, a good haul, for $32. |
| 9:42pm | We're safely back in the room. You can collectively breathe a sigh of relief. |
| 11:58pm | Sleepy eyes time. G' night kids...! |
| * Mints do not contain Vitamin C,
and are not part of a well-balanced diet. ** Gawking and photography done exclusively by the boy; I was merely a bystander. *** There is no actual, inactual, real or tangible therapy value to going to Target. Day 2 sponsored by Target, © 2003 |
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