November 2, 2016: Dominica and the Kids Come to Austin

I went over to the convention first thing this morning and was quite busy all morning.  Dominica got a hold of me and decided to come down to Austin and surprise me, but told me before she actually arrived.  I had enough room in the hotel for her and the kids to fit so there was really no reason for them not to be here, even if we did not manage to find a babysitter while we were here.

The morning went well and at lunch I was walking on the street and ended up getting called into a restaurant along the way to have an impromptu hang out lunch with a friend of mine and two friends of his that I had not met.  We had a really nice lunch and a good time hanging out.  The one person was the head of ConversationalGeek.  The other I did not catch his name until after we had left and I was back in my hotel room looking at his business card and I realized that it was Ed Tittle!  The man who wrote the majority of the books that I used in the late 1990s to get into my IT career! One of the most influential people on my IT career.  I could not believe that I had had lunch with him and, even crazier, that I had not realized it until after I had left.  And even more awesome, I had heard them remark what an awesome lunch conversation it was!  Made my day, for sure.

Dominica and the girls arrived mid-afternoon.  They hung out at the hotel until the conference was over for the day. I had the Scale Cruise on the river this evening.  That went well and is always a lot of fun.

Then I went to the hotel and just hung out with the girls while Dominica went to the main SpiceWorld party to do her thing.  The girls and I ordered in Domino’s Pizza and had a nice time just chilling at the hotel.

Dominica led people down to Touche’s to get the party started, then she returned to the hotel and I took over going down to Touche’s and leading the party for the rest of the night.  I ended up having a pretty late night out as I was the responsible one getting everyone home after the party.

We went to IHOP after Touche’s closed down, which has become a bit of a tradition.  Rob did not manage to join us, he got lost on his way there, oddly.  Bud fell in the parking lot and banged up his face pretty badly.  His nickname was “concrete kisser” for the rest of the conference.  Even Lauren made it out with the late night crowd this year.