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Day 3 of the Conference. Various activities during the evening, but nothing with a conference-wide audience. We wandered off after things ended and did an IT group thing, as you'll soon read.
| Tuesday,
16 September 2003 |
|
| 6:00am | The alarm was set, went off, and was let to sound for two minutes. I wondered what our neighbor (only one, we're at the end of the hall) thought, but Tubby didn't much care. |
| 6:20am | The second alarm went off. Its authority was respected, but the Sleep Monkeys again seized Tubby. |
| 6:35am | We escaped the room before he could nod off again. Geez, old people... |
| 6:47am | Our arrival at the convention hall was met with a ticker-tape parade and streets lined with bright eyed children and somber adults. But more to the point, no one much noticed or cared. |
| 6:56am | Tubby and I parked in our work area, setup the stuff, cleaned up after yesterday's mess-makers (users of the room), and the like. I wonder if those same mess-makers think they're a cleaning fairy that comes through and tidies up, just like at home (where their significant others likely feel as we do this morning)... |
| 8:07am | We've thus far loaned out two network connector things, and had one come back already. It's a hopping day so far, to be sure. |
| 9:01am | Tubby got the update from the car shop; the alternator's quite dead, but the battery appears to be fine. Repairs have begun to replace that, and it's not even as horribly expensive as he'd expected (yea!). |
| 10:56am | And the car is now fixed. Yea! |
| 11:22am | We're off for a half-mile walk down Katella to the car place. |
| 11:49am | Tubby now has keys in hand, the car starts better than before, and the weird light on acceleration has also been addressed... which isn't such a bad thing, considering (a) Don't Tread on Me is a week away with 13,000+ miles on the map, and (b) he won't have much time between when we get home from this conference and when we leave for the tour. |
| 12:17pm | We've arrived back at the convention center; rather than walk, we elected to take the "blue" shuttle, which looped from our hotel, past five others, to arrive back at the convention center. |
| 1:36pm | The phrase of the day is "go have some popcorn." (Earlier, there was a fire alarm that was the result of someone microwaving popcorn.) |
| 2:25pm | All is quiet on the southern front. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... oops, wrong novel. |
| 4:18pm | Tubby got called over to look at a sick machine. Very sick; the keyboard is sort of whacked out of working order, but no replacement is readily available, so one will be brought in overnight for a 7am replacement/fix. |
| 5:00pm | Did you know it's only 2pm in Hawaii right now? Or 8pm in New York? You do now! (Thanks, Frank!) |
| 5:42pm | While the boy has spent most of his day looking terribly efficient, I finished up the preparations for the web site for new stuff that I'll be adding while on the trip. (And having finished it, it took me nearly 12 hours, saving me at least 30-45 minutes a day, leaving more time for sleep, actually writing the updates, and going to -- you guessed it -- Pizza Hut and Wendy's. |
| 6:06pm | We manage to out-wait the last of the folks in our area and lock it up, as per instructions (saluting sternly). |
| 6:24pm | We're back in our room, and getting ready for the team's get-together with the rest of Tubby's IT co-worker computer nerdy types. |
| 6:52pm | Tubby and I converge on the lobby, and find maybe four others; little did we know there were 11 supposed to be there. |
| 7:11pm | Our numbers swell to the expected 11, plus one duck (not credited in the count). We break into two cars, Dan taking six total and Tubby and I with the balance (five plus duck). |
| 7:40pm | It may have been 7:39pm; I wasn't paying attention. We arrived at Thaifoon (pronounced typhoon, like the storm), and were led to the back room. After a spell, we sat down, but the drinks had already been served. |
| 8:48pm | Given the whole new Thai thing, Jennifer had to give a lesson to the rest of us as to how to properly hold chopsticks. In just a few short minutes, Ken was able to grasp small items of food, and looking at the picture, remove the top of Dan's head; Steve looks on in an amused sort of way. (The pride we felt was nothing short of inspiring, let me assure you.) |
| 10:02pm | Eventually, dessert was served. My fondness for bread crumbs, and the boy's fussiness at refusing to eat anything that isn't from the fatty or sugary food groups left us keen on the dessert -- caramel cheesecake. |
| 10:05pm | The dessert inspires Ed and Ken to have a picture taken (right, and left, respectively, which means Ken is on the left.) Tubby is directed to finish the chocolate chocolate cake that Jennifer leaves behind. (The side was caked with a 1/8" of dark chocolate, which the boy commented on, but still ate. |
| 10:59pm | It seems as though the folks at the restaurant want us the heck out of town, and we're nudged to the doors. We linger in the parking lot before scattered to our cars, but again, that was a slow process. |
| 11:21pm | Tubby gets the replacement laptop from Ken, to fix the woman from 4:18pm. Ken also provides directions to the I-405 (turn left at the light, and left at some intersection). Well... the second left puts us back in the mall. We circle, Steve makes a command decision to turn right, we do, and find Highway 1, but a vote is cast to ask for directions. Bob handles that for us because Tubby lacks the huevos to talk to strangers, and we manage to get onto 55 North to I-5 after only running one very yellowish-red light, and traveling for 150 feet in the wrong direction of a divided roadway. While some may call that reckless, having driven with His Baldness for nearly 150,000 over the years, this is definitely a good day for him. |
| 11:52pm | We're back at the hotel, alive and intact. Or the hotels, rather; we dropped two at the first hotel, and the other six of us (five plus me) managed to get back to the main hotel. And all is well. |
| News You Can Use: In a pinch, chopsticks can be used for self-defense; it's a little-discussed topic, but can be the difference between life and death if you're assaulted while enjoying Khao Phat with saki. | |