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The conference still goes. I’m having a pretty darn good time, although it is punctuated with moments of homesickness. I’m missing the girlfriend, mostly. I spend a lot of time reflecting on the excitement I’m feeling at any given moment and wishing she were here to share in that excitement with me. Never mind the fact that were she here, she’d probably be bored to tears by the stuff I’m excited about. ;) It’d still be nice were she around. If anything, this is too big a hotel room for one person.

I’ve accidentally met some pretty cool people doing some pretty cool things. I just got done having lunch with the CTO of Gawker Media, which is one of the world’s biggest blogging media companies. Yesterday, I had lunch with a guy that works for Boeing whose job is to come up with new ideas. I’m pretty jealous of that job. I also met the guy in charge of “media” for Myspace. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of media on Myspace. We discussed various ways of implementing a service they’re planning to roll out in the future that I don’t think I’m really supposed to talk about.

I’m also enjoying myself outside of the conference, hanging out with my old friend Lorenzo. Last night we had a drink at the Top of the Hyatt (photo upwards), which gives a great view of the San Diego bay area (I’m told you can see all the way to Mexico when it isn’t so cloudy). Afterwards, we wandered around the Gas Lamp district and stopped in a Mexican restaurant called Los Pancheros for dinner. Tonight, he and I are thinking about hitting up a hooka bar, since neither of us has ever been to one. Tomorrow, we’re planning on doing lunch on a beach somewhere north of the city. And Thursday night, we’ll be partying it up in Tijuana. He’s already planning on taking Friday off of work. I’m just hoping I’m in decent enough condition to fly out that afternoon. :)

Well, break time is over. Time to get back to the learnin’. My brain is already fairly near its saturation point, so I’m hoping the afternoon presenters take it a little easier on me.

I made it to San Diego, for those of you who care (and I’m hoping that this group contains, well… someone, at the least). :)

Photo featured yonder is a snapshot of part of my room, taken from the entrance to my kitchen. Not visible: my kitchen (obviously), my giant-ass bathroom and my office. In other words, my room fairly well rocks. They were nearly full up when I got here (which is a long and adventuresome story in itself, which I hope to share some-other-day), so they stuck me in a half of a suite. Meaning, my bed isn’t much to look at (it folds down out of a faux-wardrobe), but my room is pretty rockin’. Its square footage is pretty close to my house, anyways.

Most notable moment thus far: I was walking out of the airport, towards the taxi area, and I caught myself thinking that really, San Diego wasn’t much different from Des Moines. In fact, it was about 10 degrees warmer in Des Moines when I left. So what was the big deal about California? And then I saw it: a palm tree. I’ve never seen a palm tree in real life before. :) That is how I recognized that I was no longer, in fact, in Iowa.

And now it’s time for bed. I’ve need to be up by around 7am, methinks. I’ll write towards you again when I get a chance.

In just a few minutes, I’ll be turning off my computer (it’s always the last thing to go), packing up Amanda’s car, and heading to the airport. As such, I’ll be pretty much incommunicado until at least 10:30pm central time tonight. After that, if you need to get ahold of me, I would suggest either using my cell or my gmail address. If you’re the forgetful type, you can find both on my contact page.

Adieu!

Gee golly Whitakers, I am a busy boy this week! How’s that, asks you? Well, allow me to exemplify. After working every day (at a somewhat frantic pace, so as to clear my schedule for next week), I will be doing the following:

Tonight: I and a certain lady-friend of mine will be taking in an Iowa Stars game after work and, hopefully, dinner. I believe this will be my 5th Stars game this season. I have yet to see them win. I haven’t yet had the heart to look up their overall statistics online, because either they aren’t doing so hot in general, or I’m acting as a mighty powerful bad luck charm. At that point, I’d just as soon not know.

Wednesday: A bunch of friends (it’s looking like 8 - 10 of us) from various workplaces will be heading to Appare after work. For those not in the know (which included me until about an hour before I sent out the invites), Appare is a new Japanese sushi/steakhouse in Urbandale (located here, for those curious). I’ve heard they have the best sushi in town, and Wednesday is their $4.50 martini night, so we’re going to go check ‘em out.

Thursday: After work, a few of us are taking a tour of the new Gateway Lofts in downtown Des Moines as part of an event hosted by the Greater Des Moines Young Professionals Connection. I’m not currently a member of their lil’ club, but I’m thinking about joining. I figure this would be a good opportunity to check them out. Afterwards, I’m planning on going shopping for a few essentials (such as shampoo, 3.4 ounces at a time and new shirts) and starting to get my pack-on.

Friday: More social goodness. A group of us are going to a wine tasting, followed immediately thereafter by wine making. Sound cool? You bet it does. It’s at a place called Vines to Wines, and it should be a lot of fun. We’ll sample all of their wines, pick the one we like best, and make a batch of it. A couple of months from now, we’ll come back and bottle the stuff, and we’ll each get a couple of bottles of our very own wine. :)

Saturday: Goodness! More social. Friend Hannah will be hosting the Passover Seder at her place of residence. Technically, the Seder should be April 2nd or 3rd, but this Saturday worked better for everyone else, so there you go. Besides, Hannah’s only half-Jewish, and the rest of us aren’t Jewish at all, so really we’re going with the idea that it’s the thought that counts. It should be a cool chance to partake in an extra-cultural activity. Plus, I hear there’s a fair bit of wine involved. ;)

Sunday: I plan to wake up late, realize I’ve wasted the entire week being social, and frantically pack as fast as I can. I hope/plan to be at the airport by 2pm in order to catch my 3:40pm flight to San Diego (via Chicago). I’ll land in California around 8pm Pacific (10pm CDT) and hopefully be to the hotel shortly thereafter. Then I’ll spend the next four days attending a conference, eating at quaint restaurants, walking along the beach, sneaking in to (and hopefully out of) Tijuana, calling the ladyfriend, and trying not to think about the work I’ve left behind. I’ll fly back Friday afternoon and be in Des Moines again around 10pm CDT (8pm Pacific). And then I’m going to drink.

So! If I don’t blog again in the next ten days or so, well, at least I’ll have a better excuse then I did for the last ten days or so. ;)

Recently, Amanda and I have been making an effort to eat out less often. We’d settled into a pattern of late which consisted of a lot of evenings containing the following general conversation:

Me: “What do you want to do for dinner?”
Her: “I dunno. What do you want?”
Me: “I dunno. What do you have?”
Her: “Not much. You?”
Me: “Not much. Wanna just eat out?”
Her: “Sure.”

Although sometimes, to mix it up and make it more exciting, she’d start the conversation and I’d end it. ;) Unfortunately, these conversations are expensive. Each one usually costs at least $20, and usually a bit more after tip and drinks and whatnot. So we’re trying to eliminate their occurrence by actually going through the fridge and cupboards first to see if there’s anything viable inside. And most times, it turns out, there is.

And you know what? It’s not so bad. I’ve been eating lunch at home this week, thanks in large part to the PS2. It turns out I’m willing to go home if I know I’ll be entertained over the lunch hour. And for dinner, Amanda and I have sort of taken turns whipping stuff up, and it’s working well so far. On Monday night we had spaghetti at my place, once I realized I had everything necessary to make it. On Tuesday night, we had leftovers (she shells ‘n cheese from Saturday, me chicken and asparagus from Thursday), because leftovers are a cool side-effect of cooking at home. Last night, we had an awesome steak salad comprised of peppercorn steak, baby greens, tomatoes, blue cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. And for dessert, since Amanda had done all the shopping for the meal, I baked a half-batch of peanut butter oatmeal cookies that turned out rather nice.

Oh, and tonight will involve some sort of baked fish, probably with a side salad and with a fresh loaf of bread if I sneak out of work a bit early to get it started. Go us, eh?

Oh oh, and it’s Kara’s birthday today, so happy birthday Karabeara!