I thought I was going crazy, I couldn’t find out when the conference started today. I knew from an email that the registration desk opened at 7:30a, but not when the workshops actually began. It turns out I wasn’t alone in my ignorance, 2 other people I talked to had the same problem. I went to register at about 8:15a and found out the content started at 9a. Not bad.

I attended the workshop on Introduction
to ASP.Net 2.0. This was good for me, because 90% of my projects for Salem are
Web applications. The content was better than good, and I was introduced to a new
(to me) speaker named Fritz
Onion. I will probably subscribe to his
blog in the near future. The very first sentence out of his mouth this morning
was “When I agreed to do this seminar, I didn’t realize it was on Super Bowl Sunday.”
He is originally from near Boston and is a strong Patriots fan. Needless to say, he
didn’t run overtime, and in fact, let us out about an hour early. There were more
people than I expected who showed up for the pre-conference workshops. It seems like
they are expecting more people this year than last. They have reserved all 3 floors
of the Moscone West conference center, while last year was only 2 floors.

The hotel’s
restaurant is only open for breakfast, and has an incredible buffet. Last year, I was unable to control myself and stuffed myself to the gills every morning before the conference, with the expected results.
This morning, I got the buffet, but only had eggs and biscuits and gravy, and a large bowl of fruit. I wasn’t perfect though: I attempted to drown myself on the incredible orange juice that they serve (3 full glasses). I don’t know how many days I will be able to resist the siren call of bacon cheese omlets, double sides of extremely well done bacon, a bowl of oatmeal, fruit, a sweet roll, some more bacon, and at least 3 glasses of orange juice. Yum, yum.

I love the Santa Barbara Airport.

Toby dropped me off at about 6:35p for my 7:45p flight. I walked right up to the check in counter and had my boarding pass in under 3 minutes. I was told that the plane boarded at 7:20p and that security would open at 7:00p. Huh? I guess they have so few flights (at least on the weekend) that the TSA crew moves from one terminal to another. It was so laid back. I was the only one who went through, no one behind me.

There was only one slight hiccup and it was not a big deal at all. I didn’t check my bag because it was not that big. I had taken it as a carry on on many other flights (to Portland, from Burbank). But this was a much smaller plane, an EMB-120,
and the bag was just too big. So I had to gate check it. Not a big deal. The plane
has 3 seats across, 1 seat, an aisle and then 2 seats. I got to sit in the single
seat! The plane touched down at San
Francisco Int’l at 8:45p, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I hopped onto the BART train
at 9:15p. At Montgomery
St. station, I debarked BART and hoofed the 5 blocks to my hotel, Courtyard
By Mariott, Downtown San Francisco. I was in my room on the 15th floor by 10:15p.

I leave tonight (Saturday, 6 Feb) at 7:45p from Santa
Barbara Airport (thank you Salem for not making me fly from Burbank,
nearly 90 miles away). I will be gone until Thursday, 10 Feb 2005. Camille will be
flying down tomorrow and staying with us until Monday, 14 Feb. She will be with Toby
while I am gone. My parents generously let us borrow their travel trailer for Camille
to stay in while she is here. This beats the air mattress on the floor of the office,
I can tell you. I can’t believe that VS Live is starting on Super
Bowl Sunday. Not that I am that interested in the Super Bowl, but it is just surprising.