Sheep Guarding Llama

I was out taking care of people so late last night that this was a zero sleep night for me.  Today is going to be a very hard day.

I started the morning by running down to have breakfast with Rob and Alan at the Radisson.  They have an excellent breakfast down there,  I had no idea.  We sat and talked for a while out on the river front.  A great venue.

The conference went well today and I spoke a little during the hyperconvergence talk.  Then this afternoon, around three, I had lunch at Uncle Julio’s with Dominica and the girls.

Dominica looked into a local babysitting service today and found one that is well rated and is all local run by a local family that we felt really comfortable with and managed to get a babysitter lined up for tonight and for the wedding tomorrow so that she will be able to attend the wedding as well!

It rained really hard this afternoon.  A surprising amount of rain.  After lunch I went to the hotel with the girls and Dominica went to the conference.

The babysitter came over this evening and seemed like she would get along with the girls really well.  Liesl had Dominica’s phone so that she could keep in contact with us while we were not there as well.  It is very handy having a hotel for having a babysitter like this, another layer of safety.

We had a good night out at the after parties tonight.  We had a huge crowd at Touche’s and went for an insane new goal of Flaming Doctor Peppers this year.  It was a really good night.  We all had a lot of fun.  And having the babysitter was a great idea, that really worked out and know we know that she will work out well tomorrow for the wedding.  Dominica is very excited that she gets to attend the wedding.

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.

Today is the “first day” of SpiceWorld 2016.  This is my eighth year in Austin and my ninth time attending SpiceWorld overall.

We got up in the EconoLodge in Temple, Texas this morning, maybe around nine.  It was a bit after that that we got onto the road to drive down to Austin.

By noon I was checked into the Hyatt Place near the Austin Convention Center and over to Max’s Wine Diver for the Stumble Inn Brunch event that we have been putting on for many years.  We had quite a good turn out this year, nearly twenty I believe.  Had lunch and drinks there, but no cocktails because even though they were advertising their new cocktails, they had no ability to make any of them.  It was weird.

After the brunch I got some time to chill at the hotel and then went over to do the check in at the main conference hall and, as usual, got sucked into a million conversations over there and was not able to come back for a long time.

This year was a bit odd with no opening event at all and just an open time to hang out with the vendors on the show floor.  It was off and felt like they just phoned things in.

After the “opening sales event” we all went to the Handlebar as usual and had a good time, although it started to rain on us tonight and we got quite wet.

We ended up going to Touche’s tonight, even though it was not planned, because even when I do not direct people there, loads of people go there anyway and ask why we are not there.

Dominica and the girls headed down to Houston this morning so that they can celebrate Halloween with the Grices.

The Ralstons arrived decently early.  We got Panda Express.  Then Danielle and I went to TMobile and tried to get me an iPhone 7+ but they were all out of them so we had to order one that should arrive later this week.  While we were there we set Liesl up with her own phone line which she will get to use as soon as my new phone arrives and we get her transitioned over.  She is getting my old iPhone 5S that is still in very good shape.

I had dinner with Rachel tonight, then Art and Danielle picked me up and we drove towards Austin.  We decided that it would save a bunch of money if we stayed in Temple tonight at the EconoLodge instead of going all of the way to Austin.  So we did that and will be in Austin tomorrow.

Sunday.  We were pretty tired after our super late night out last night at the halloween fundraiser party in Plano, we did not get home until nearly four in the morning so we slept in a lot today.

I played Castle Crashers with the kids again today.  We are getting pretty good at that game, but it bothers my wrists, it is too much arcade action for me.

I did some WordPress work today, had a site that was hacked and I was brought in to fix things.  That took quite a bit of time.

Dominica made stir fry for dinner tonight.

The Ralstons are on their way down to Texas tonight.  They have been driving all day and stopped in St. Louis tonight.  We are expecting them to come through Dallas tomorrow.  We doubt that they will see Dominica or the girls as they need to get down to Houston tomorrow for Halloween.

We are well into the hectic SpiceWorld whirlwind of activity at this point.