Sheep Guarding Llama

Today is the last day of the VeeamOn Conference in New Orleans.  I will be flying back to Texas tomorrow.

I walked over to the convention center for breakfast.  Then some sessions.  I got to meet my friend Gary today.  We’ve been friends on Spiceworks and on Facebook for many years, but have never met in person.  We got to hang out a little bit today.

In the late afternoon I was over at the hotel for a little while.  Then went out to find the after party.  It was a little bit of a walk but not far.  Veeam had gotten an entire street blocked off for their party and had a huge indoor and outdoor venue for us with multiple stages and all kinds of music and entertainment going on along with loads of food and drinks.  It was really well done.

Most everyone gravitated to one of the big acts like the pop, rock or zydeco bands.  But I found a little jazz trio playing on a balcony and hung out there much of the evening when I wasn’t meeting with one person or another.

Today was the first “real” day of the VeeamOn conference in New Orleans.  Last night was the welcome party and today the sessions and stuff get underway.

The main ballroom this morning for the opening ceremony was so packed that I did not manage to get a seat and instead sat on the floor, leaned up against the right side wall.  I have my Chromebook with me, which is awesome.  I am so glad that I have this.  This is the best travel and conference tool, ever.  It is so small and light, it is like I am carrying a tablet around with me.  But with a full keyboard and mouse support.  And with a fourteen hour battery life I don’t have to worry about it dying on me.  I can use it the entire day and still have loads of battery left.  This is amazing.

The conference went well today.  Attended some sessions, spent time talking to people out on the floor, ran into Alex that used to work for NTG, hung out with Calvin for a while, and had loads of good food and drinks at the conference.  It was a fun day.

After the conference, we went to Bourbon Street for a night out with the industry leaders in storage.  Tons of heavy hitters all together for drinks and dinner.

We had a great time. Loads of good food and good bourbon.  I even had bourbon made by a distant cousin!

Today is the beginning of VeeamOn in New Orleans.  The welcome party is this evening, so my day was spent getting caught up on MangoLassi and Spiceworks.  I was in the hotel nearly all day.  A good chance to chill.  I got plenty of sleep and it was nice to have some quiet time.

At the conference this evening I picked up my badge, which is pretty awesome as I got a sponsorship spot.  And the welcome party was really cool.  Loads of music and entertainers and the venue was set up and themed like different parts of New Orleans.  The food and drinks were amazing.

I ended up eating dinner with Thomas Reed, just someone that I sat at a table with and introduced myself to.  Turns out that he is my neighbour from back in Carrollton.  We live an easy walk from each other!  What a small world.  So we have each other’s contact info and will be keeping in touch.  Funny that I came to New Orleans and the very first person that I meet is my neighbour from Dallas!

I really enjoyed the opening party.  Not wild, but well done and fun.  This is a big conference, but not so big as to be an endless sea of people like Dell World or something like that.  I like conferences smaller than that. This seemed like a good size.  Big enough to have loads to do, but small enough to meet people.

I’m really enjoy quiet nights to myself in the hotel, too.  Watching some Mexican television and having some down time.

Monday.  Today I am heading to New Orleans to attend the VeeamOn 2017 conference that is going on there.  I am flying Spirit out of DFW to get there.  Spirit is so cheap and they took care of us so well when we flew from Managua to Houston.

The family dropped my off at DFW this morning and I was off to New Orleans.  Easy, fast flight.

The Hyatt Place where I am staying is great.  I have an amazing corner room with loads of windows and a view of the convention center where I will be all week.

Max got into town not too long after me and we met up for a walk along the Mississippi and looking for some food in the mall that is on the water front.  There was a food court there with outdoor seating, so we got po’ boys and headed out to the water.  It’s been quite a long time since I had a crawfish po’ boy, so of course I had to get one.

Food was good and we hung out for a while. Then the afternoon was relaxing in the hotel.

This evening, Anton, Max, Maryna, Taris, and Oksana were all in town and once everyone had arrived and settled in we took a walk to the French Quarter and went to Kingfish for drinks and dinner.  Food was awesome, drinks were awesome.

After dinner, we walked to Preservation Hall to listen to a living museum of live jazz concert, which was really cool.  Very popular.  But so hot.  No air conditioning, small room with loads of people.

After the concert we walked the French Quarter for a bit, then went out for live zydeco, which was really amazing but only caught the tail end of it.  We had wanted to go out for drinks, but everything was closing up.  Not a very wild town.

After the zydeco I decided to turn in.  Most everyone else went out in search of alcohol, but I have not been getting enough sleep for a week or more and it is going to catch up with me.  I was in bed by midnight.  I watched some Club de Cuervos before falling asleep.  That is my new show, I am really loving it.  Watching it in Spanish, of course.

Sunday and Mother’s Day.  I did a tiny bit of work when I first got up this morning and then, once the girls were awake, Liesl and I set about making breakfast for the family.  Dominica wanted scrambled eggs and cinnamon toast, so that is what we did.  Liesl did the toast while I did the eggs.

We tried using the toaster oven to make the toast, but that was pretty dirty and it caught fire.  So after putting out that small kitchen fire we moved to making the toast in the new oven.  This was my first time using our new oven!

Today we spent some time watching the new Netflix original series Anne with an “E” with Liesl.

The Liesl and I watched Johnny English Reborn.  Totally our kind of movie.

Tonight I watched some Club de Cuervos.