Hi all – it’s been a terrific time so far, and just getting started. First, let me say that I’m so honored by the people who have come up to me and said “Hey, Andrew, I read you!” It’s so amazing to me that you take time out of your day to read my ranting.

The Travel

I left the house at 04:30 on Friday, at -11f (-23.8c) and blowing 10 knots. Snow swirling around the car, I hit the turnpike and the radio came on with “Ball Room Blitz”. I looked down and was doing 85 – oops. Two hours later I’m in Manchester. By 11:30 I landed in Orlando. You’d think that was it – but no.

The Shirts

I rented a GM Minivan, folded all the seats down, and after checking into the hotel drove to Seth Ober’s place of business in Celebration, Florida. Seth had earlier received deliver of 25 boxes of shirts, each weighing about 30 pounds. Doing this saved us about $1200 which it would have cost to have the Lotusphere crew receive them and turn them over to us at one of the booths. Thank you, Seth. Unfortunately, UPS lost one box of shirts – about 60 shirts in total. They checked 26 boxes out for delivery, but we got and signed for only 25. I’ll know more on that Monday, I hope.

Saturday

Saturday started with a Penumbra meeting in a conference room at the Dolphin (sorry I can’t share this, it was great stuff as always), then the annual Penumbra dinner at Fulton’s. The dinner was great fun, and the first shirts were passed out.

After the supper, I got to the Gonzo party at ESPN around midnight, and things were in full swing. A few drinks with Wild Bill, Rocky, Turtle, and all the rest and we closed that place. We decided then, that it was time to introduce Henry (Newbs) with his most excellent Bourbon to Wild Bill (Bill Buchan) with his most excellent single malt scotch. As the designated alpha-geek/firefighter (ok, the only alpha-geek firefighter) I did insist everyone be careful never to mix the two, and we did make sure to hold someone’s drink while a cigarette was being lit. Still up for debate, is the question as to if you have the bedspins, and you lay down in the center courtyard between the Swan and Dolphin – do the two hotels rotate around you?

Sunday

Sunday started with bedtime, around 03:30 then restarted much later in the morning with twenty ounces of water, two vitamins, and three Advil. I had great lunch with Gabriella and Tim Davis, as well as Ben, then mostly just chilling up in the hotel room until around 4 when I met with Tom Krier of Big Sky. They have brought the old Phone Notes thing back around and done it really nicely.

I want you to think about what you could do if you crossed Remark (a programmable touch tone phone system tool) with Lotus Domino data and agents, and hooked it up not to a telephone line in the old sense, but to a Vonage soft phone – or for that matter a BUNCH of Vonage soft phones.

Sunday Night, the Welcome Reception

It was cold here Sunday – for Florida anyway. I don’t think the party went well for this reason only. That’s a shame because the food, music, and theme were all good. A bunch of us went over to Jellyrolls where I was finally able to buy my own beer for the first time this week.

That was all fun, but its 01:15 and I’m meeting Rocky in 6 and half hours for breakfast than going to the opening session. I have two presentations to deliver tomorrow as well. The first, at 13:00 is “Admin Zero to Here in 60 Minutes” – come see it. It’s either going to be really awesome or really bad.