Sheep Guarding Llama

Five hours of sleep last night, a very slight recovery from the night before with no sleep at all.

Breakfast this morning…

We walked with the girls down to IHOP this morning to fortify ourselves with a big breakfast and hot chocolate.  They have the best toasted marshmallow hot chocolate there.

Back around lunch we met up with Lauren and Tony at the local creperie  in the basement of the Hampton Inn next door and hung out having coffee and crepes on the street for a while until it was time to think about getting ready for the wedding cruise on the river this evening.  Mario ended up stopping by and joining us as well.

We had some errands to run, just looking for a pharmacy and such.  So we walked around town with the kids for a little bit.

We ran into Katie and Ivan while running our errands.  Then it was time to get ready for the wedding.

We walked to the Radisson because Lauren had said that we should meet her and Tony there.  We spent some time searching for them before finding out that she had meant to meet them at a different hotel that had never been mentioned.  So we were very confused.

We went to the boat launch and found a bunch of people waiting for the boat at a hotel there so hung out there for maybe fifteen minutes.  Then it was time to board the boat.

The wedding was a lovely affairs with loads of friends and family out on a boozy river cruise in Austin. We had a great time, it was loads of fun and Dominica was so happy that she was able to make it which did not look likely until more or less the last minute.

More after cruise drinking around Austin. Dominica went back to the hotel and relieved the babysitter.  I went out for the “reception” out in Austin.  We had a good turn out there.  Huw was not much to be seen, he was pretty drunk by that point.  Gabrielle was out with us, though, and active – as was some of her family including her grandmother who hung with us until pretty late.

I dropped the last of the people, Rob, Bud and Simon, off at their hotel and headed for the Hyatt Place and called it a night.

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.