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Day 3 = Day 0 of the Conference, which opens tomorrow. More preparations, getting things tested, signs posted, and things like that. I personally took an extended nap, since I don't get a paycheck, why work?
| Saturday,
13 September 2003 |
|
| 8:00am | The alarm went off. Big deal. |
| 8:12am | We opted to get out of bed and head over to the conference hall for the provided breakfast. Free food is good, particularly when there's a variety of it. Or so the story goes. |
| 9:31am | The team regrouped, work assignments are handed out, and everyone scatters like cockroaches when the lights are turned on. But in our case, scattered was in a good way. |
| 9:51am | Three of us arrive in our area, check the printing, network connections, and put up signs about the recent Windows vulnerability, MS03-039 (if you're techy, you can read about it). |
| 10:21am | Not a good day to be a duck who's covered in down. There is no air conditioning in the room yet, so it's sort of sauna muggy warm. Yeech. |
| 11:54am | We head up for lunch, but find the lunch room is a big busy; we opt to wait a bit. |
| 12:17pm | The gang again headed over to the lunch room, and were met by enough empty chairs to accommodate our ample... team size. All was well. There was some discussion about Bob, a lad from the Windy City, and "tapping it." There was further conversation around creating a web site, bobtappedit.com. That name is available, by the way. |
| 1:04pm | Lunch ended, and the group returned to the network team room. There was more banter about Bob and his tapping of the proverbial "it", jumping rope with network cables, and other fastidious work-related activities. |
| 1:46pm | Tubby and I returned to our assigned area, since that's where the laptop and other fun stuff are. And, it's the very laptop I get to post my updates from, which is also good news (for me, and you, reading them, of course). |
| 3:05pm | I'm all caught-up on various thingys, and a bit idle. It's a common state for some of us, but those working on the video conferencing are quite busy. Unfortunately, we're not all that technically capable. :\ |
| 3:42pm | It seems that aside for Tubby and I, working from our area, and a few stray others, everyone has gone home. We opt to leave after checking in with the team leads, and take note that the conference floor is progressing nicely toward opening tomorrow. The plans to hit Disneyland with Tubby's co-worker, Jennifer, are finalized. |
| 3:57pm | Tubby's brother called; he's shown up in Anaheim with the Tall Teacher (having driven the 350 miles to spend a few hours in the park -- now that's Disneyland magic!). There are general plans to coordinate a meeting to assault Disneyland as a foursome (plus me, of course). Tubby hasn't yet mentioned this to Jennifer. |
| 4:24pm | Tubby heads over to the hotel where Jennifer is staying for the pre-arranged meeting and drive to the Disneyland parking area. Tubby springs the news to Jennifer about Brother and Tall Teacher going with. |
| 4:32pm | Tubby drives back to his hotel... apparently the great communicator/Bald One didn't "get" that Jennifer is staying in the same place he is, just different floors. Go figure. |
| 4:54pm | Tubby and Jennifer get to Downtown Disney, where they meet up with Brother and Tall Teacher. Everyone purchases tickets and heads to the park. |
| 5:22pm | For those of you not in the know, this is Jennifer's first time ever to Disneyland. But by virtue of consensus, we aren't posting the picture of her in front of the castle. (Particularly as you've seen all too much of this castle after yesterday's posting, right?) |
| 5:29pm | We all get in line for the Matterhorn. It took about 40 minutes to get through the line, which apparently means some of the more tired boyfriends need to rest their weary heads on the chest of their girlfriends. Get a room already. |
| 6:03pm | With a look like this on Brother's face, you'd think the ride was a holy terror. But no -- we hadn't started even moving yet. |
| 6:15pm | That ride over, we next followed Jennifer's lead and hit It's a Small World. By virtue of being there at 6:15pm, we got to see the clock perform. |
| 6:21pm | As we neared the boat loading area, we found we were going to be amongst friends... this load of folks were already signing and clapping that annoyingly repetitive Small World tune even before they entered the attraction. |
| 6:22pm | We're in the boats and slowly making our way into the Small World area. In the boat in front of us, we also see a smooth operator getting ready to put the moves on the blonde. |
| 6:24pm | It really is a small world after all. But this is just the beginning of the 9-10 minute ride. |
| 6:28pm | We passed by the hungry, hungry hippo within the Small World ride; a sleepy looking fellow. |
| 6:43pm | From there, Tall Teacher and Brother demanded their daily feeding, so we ended up at that Pizza Port. By virtue of his annual passport, Tubby was able to provide the group a 10% off discount on the munchies -- thus, 10% more yummies. |
| 7:41pm | Then off to Autopia. Brother tried talking to the line attendant girl, Amanda, about me, but fell short of the sale of getting her to be a FrankPal. (Tall Teacher informed us that the cast are not permitted to be photographed... at least, that can't agree to be photographed; I bet if I just snap a picture, it's okay -- it's not like they're vampires and won't appear on the film itself.) I settled for a picture of Brother waiting for his car to come up. |
| 7:44pm | Fantasy mimics reality. Brother is one car ahead of me, and driving like crap. It turns out he's talking on his cell phone. |
| 7:51pm | We then loaded up on the Disneyland Railroad and rode over to Frontierland, where we engaged in a shopping trip for Tall Teacher's characters from Nightmare before Christmas. We were informed by an apologetic Kathrilynn that they were out of Jack and Sally characters. This brought a great sadness over Tall Teacher. |
| 8:02pm | Given the impending Fantasmic! showing, we were able to get right onto Pirates of the Caribbean. The five of us were mushed into row 3, behind three girls. I was quietly informed the middle one, a bottle blonde, had very soft hair, after Tubby checked. Bottle Blonde was unaware of the survey being conducted. |
| 8:07pm | Tall Teacher screamed as we were between the pirate hideout rooms and where the pirate ship was exchanging cannon fire with the village's fortress. Several others in the boat also screamed, before they realized they were had. The laughs were ours for the taking. |
| 8:21pm | We entered the Indiana Jones ride and dared survive the 20 minute line. It was worth it, of course. |
| 9:05pm | Not being ones to let an evening of silliness pass us by, we had to embark upon the Jungle Cruise. After briefly eavesdropping on the conversation a mom was having with her brace-laden 15-year-old daughter, we found Tall Teacher starring at the girl's navel piercing. When seen, the girl made a comment about it, and Tall mentioned Tubby has one as well. Taking the bal and running down field, he said he indeed has one, but he doesn't show it around on a first date. The whole thing spun into a mini-conversation about pain endurance, and before we knew it, we found Tall and Tubby stopped caring. Moving on. |
| 9:16pm | We boarded the boat for the Cruise. The guy running our trip wasn't nearly as into it as he could have been, so we opted not to waste our energy in out-clevering-him. All is well. |
| 9:29pm | The trek back to the cars begins. We get out of the park relatively unhurt, after stopping in the magic shop (Jennifer had a look-see). It is unknown what, if anything, she looked at or purchased. |
| 9:42pm | We arrive at the World of Disney store, along Downtown Disney. It seems Tall Teacher must now buy things for The Golden Child, and that event begins. After several minutes, Tubby opts to depart (and remembers to bring Jennifer), and we all bid Brother farewell, and charge him with extending our bid to Tall Teacher by proxy; we leave. |
| 10:02pm | The tram ride ends, and we make it to the car quite alright, and head back to the hotel. |
| 10:09pm | Tubby and I drop Jennifer off at the hotel, and we ensure she's there in good working condition (since we don't want to have to replace her for work this week, of course). There is a quick trip to the 7-11 at 611 Katella, spend the $1.55 for a liter of Diet Pepsi, and return to the room, where I begin to work on web updates. |
| 1:41am | At long last, it's time for sleepy eyes, so... g'night. |
| No disclaimers or footnotes today... sorry. | |