Saturday. We have nothing planned for this weekend. In theory I am supposed to be flying out to Phoenix late tomorrow night, but nothing about the flight plans or schedule has been discussed yet and I am still awaiting information on other things from earlier in the week. So, it seems rather unlikely that I will be flying out all that soon.
My morning started with me getting out of bed to news that I need to help with looking into the development of some new banking systems in central Africa. Some extremely interesting stuff. I was involved with that for much of the morning.
So that was exciting way to start the day. Not at all what I was expecting.
By mid-afternoon I was no longer needed at my desk, so I watched Blacklist with Dominica for much of the afternoon and evening. We are addicted to it now. Thankfully it is on Netflix so we are able to just binge watch it.
This evening we continued reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and got through about one chapter and then Luciana said that it was too scary and that we need to read it during the day, not at night time because it is so scary that she is not able to sleep after we are done reading it. So we wrapped it up on the early side tonight and are saving the conclusion of the book for tomorrow night’s reading.
Friday. Finally, a day at home with the family. We took today as a very quiet day. I’m pretty tired from weeks of traveling and events. I need a few days to just hide and adjust back.
I did some gaming with the girls today. And Dominica and I have really gotten into the NBC drama Blacklist which we have been watching heavily. We had to go back and watch some of the first episodes again because it has been so long since we have seen them that we had forgotton who some of the characters are.
Thursday. I’m still in Austin today so that I can meet with Spiceworks this afternoon. I skipped breakfast this morning, sleeping in a bit. I waited to shower and stuff until Tracy had gotten ready and headed off to the airport. Then I got ready and Andrew picked me up and we drove out to Spiceworks headquarters and got lunch across the street while we waited for my meeting this afternoon.
We had lunch at a place called Jade. I had shrimp fried rice, it was good.
We put in maybe two hours over at Spiceworks headquarters. This is the first that I have seen of the new building. “New” meaning over a year. Not so many familiar faces any longer. Several, but nothing like there used to be.
Scott at Spiceworks HQ
After Spiceworks it was time to drive back to Dallas. We got on the road and were home in the early evening before dinner time. Andrew came in and said “hi” and continued on home.
Andrew at Spiceworks HQ
Hung out with the family this evening. Once the kids decided to do their own thing, Dominica and I started watching Blacklist.
Last day of SpiceWorld 2017. Tracy and I both felt awful this morning. He is convinced that he came down with something as he did not feel like he drank that much last night (hint: he did.) So maybe it is a combination of the alcohol and something going around.
I have nowhere that I need to be today, so I decided that the best option would be to get some serious rest and not puch myself. Just no need. My first real commitment of the day is the Scale Boat tour this evening at five thirty near the hotel. Going to the convention center, which I’ve already seen everything there that I want to see, would just be walking away from where I need to be later. So I decided to nap, shower, and chill at the hotel.
As often happens when I drink too much, my CPAP got slightly askew during the night (this causes the air to not blow quite right into my nose) and I get sinus irritation which leads to insane levels of sneezing which easily turns into sinucitis.
Andrew, who is my ride home tomorrow afternoon, got into town way too early and wanted to hang out, but I was resting for a while. Finally around three we went to the “Yeti Bar”, which is a bar at the Yeti store across the street, for some drinks. I kept to just water myself. I’ve not seen Andrew in nearly a year.
From the bar I ran back to the hotel and bought Claritin, which I had not thought of earlier, and started feeling better very quickly. Andrew and I walked to the river and were among the first few to be ready for the boat.
Another great year on the Scale Boat. We had a nice ride with great weather, not too hot, for a change.
After the boat trip, we hit the hotel to freshen up, and then we walked to Touche for the evening.
Last Night at Touche with Jo, Hutch, Tracy & Scott
We shut things down again tonight, getting back around three or four. On the way back we stopped and got falafel. Tracy had never had falafel before and while messy, this was some of the best that I had ever had.
Two hours of sleep and awake, showered, packed, and dropped off at the Trinity Mills DART station so that I could catch the train downtown. It is about a forty five minute ride from up this way. But only $2.50 so there is really no way to beat it. And it is comfortable.
I got to St. Paul and walked four blocks to the East Transfer Station where you pick up the MegaBus to San Antonio (which stops in Austin.) I didn’t have long to wait, maybe half an hour.
The MegaBus, getting last minute, online tickets, is just $17 to get down to Austin. Way cheaper than gas and driving. It is just $20 total for the bus and the train to the bus, to get there.
The bus ride was fine. So many people asked me how the wifi was, but there was no wifi on the bus. They advertise that heavily, but there wasn’t anything. But I had my cell phone so didn’t really care.
I was exhausted so did my best to basically nap on the drive, which I mostly did. I had my seat and the one next to me so it was comfortable enough. The ride was super easy and we made amazing time arriving in Austin nearly an hour early. The whole drive was barely over three hours. Faster than I normally drive it. The bus doesn’t need to stop for gas, so that is extra handy and saves a good percentage of the time of a trip of that length.
I got dropped off at 1500 San Jacinto, near the Texas State Capital, and walked to the Embassy Suites in SoCo. That’s about twenty blocks. The weather was great today, though. Perfect for walking Austin. And all that I had with me was my backpack, so walking was extra easy.
In front of the infamous garage
Tracy was waiting for me at the Embassy Suites. He was pretty surprised when I arrived on foot, instead of in an Uber. It really is not that long of a walk, though. And such a nice day.
Austin Downtown Riverfront
The Embassy Suites in SoCo is really nice. I’m sad that I won’t get time to hang out in it. There is a huge atrium with restaurants, bars, a waterfall, and more. Really nice. The room was huge, too. Room 422. The suites have double views, one view from the bedroom out to Congress and the living room view into the atrium, which was actually the nicer view.
Tracy and Scott in Austin
I didn’t want to walk immediately back to the convention center and Tracy had some friends (from Dallas) meeting him at a bar basically right next door to the hotel, Zax, so I walked over there with him and had a couple of beers before heading to the convention center.
I got to SpiceWorld at the Austin Convention Center, got checked in, got my swag bag, and set off for a walk around the convention floor. It was a short walk, as there were so many people to see. So I made it about halfway around the room before just standing still and hanging out with people.
The convention feels about half full compared to previous years. I know that many of our regular crew were unable to make it out this year, or had deprioritized the event, so we were very short of the “old guard” right off of the bat. But the event itself felt very sparse, compared to what I am used to.
I did not hit any booths at all this year, but Dashrender made me swing over to Webroot and present a “secret” passphrase to get a super nice stainless steel growler. Dominica is going to be happy with that, that will go great on the bar at home.
I hung around for the “happy hour” at the convention, then when that wound down and people were heading out to go to the official party, Tracy and I walked back to the hotel to drop off our bags and stuff from the convention and then headed straight to Manuel’s on Third to meet up with the Scale crew for dinner.
Collier and Scott at the Scale Dinner
We had a great time at dinner. Great food and drinks. Nice to get the small groups away from the main conference. A chance to actually hang out.
The walk from the Embassy Suites to Sixth Street is more than double the walk that I am used to doing from the Hilton or the Hyatt Place. Lots of exercise for me this year. Even missing the early days, I am probably getting in more walking than usual.
Scott & Tank on Sixth by Touche
We got to Touche and were almost the first ones there. Very small crowd as we got there super early while people were still having dinner. We are full sponsored tonight by Strongarm.io, which is awesome. All drinks are on the house. Mitch, our bartender for about six of the last eight years, just started a new job last week and is doing the overnight shift there (he is in IT now) and could not make it out – which is a major shame both because we miss him and now because he is missing a major event for a major convention in his new field! But new bartenders Hutch and Jo were there to take care of us.
We had a good turn out tonight, probably near record numbers. The party is pretty legendary at this point. It was a really good party. We didn’t break, or attempt to break, any Flaming Doctor Pepper records. It was just a good, solid party.
Shots with the Touche Crew
Tracy and I were, as custom dictates, the last ones to close down Sixth. We got hidden in the back and got to hang after closing so it was around three when we finally set off to walk the long walk back to the hotel. A long, blurry walk. With pizza, of course.
As always, it was great seeing everyone. This once a year reunion is just so much fun. So sad that so many of our core group were unable to come this year. The makeup of new to old has shifted more this year than in any previous year. It was great, but not the same. Very interesting how the people have shifted over time.
