Day 1 – ApacheCon 2004

Last night after I ordered dinner, Lars contacted me and said that they were going to the Belaggio Cafe for dinner. I really wish I had found out just a few minutes earlier. Dinner wasn’t so great. I went down to the Belaggio after I was done, and chatted with Lars, Ken, and Ken’s wife. It’s great to see a married couple with that kind of easy rapport. One can immediately see why he call her his SBH.

At about 4 this morning, I was awakened by a sonorous ringing sound – rather like a quickly vibrating bell, perhaps. This went on for about 5 minutes, then died down. I think it was the water pipes. Dunno. It was really loud, and I didn’t get much sleep after that.

The hotel has been “renovated”, which is apparently a word they use in Las Vegas to mean “drained the swimming pool, dug big holes everywhere, tore up all the sod, and killed all the trees.” I’m trying to find something amusing photos of skate rats in one of those roller pits, whatever they’re called, that always remind me of drained swimming pools. Perhaps Ken can use that in the opening pleary to at least make people laugh about it.

So, off to find some breakfast, and then I speak this morning. The hotel literature says that they still have the breakfast bar, but I don’t know where they could be keeping in, since they appear to have convereted the very nice restaurant into a dark and noisy night club. They appear to be trying to be more Vegas, but I think they might be losing a lot of their charm in the process. It’s a little sad.