Chuckysal.com

What a maze! I’m staying at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The conference is located in Mandalay Bay, which is about a block away. This is how I have to get to the conference:

Leave my room, go down the elevator, cut across the entire MGM Grand Casino floor (which is huge), take escalators near Rainforest Cafe up to the walkway over to New York New York. Once I get to New York New York, I am briefly inside and then take the walkway from there to Excalibur. I then head straight to the Tram that runs directly to Mandalay Bay. Once I get to Mandalay bay, it seems that I walk the entire floor to get to the convention area and finally at the conference.

I guess you could say there will be no quick trips back to the room

Well, as you can see, I arrived in Las Vegas this afternoon. I went straight from the airport to the hotel, got checked in, settled in the room, then I decided to make the trip over to the Mandalay Bay and get my conference gear and grab a quick bite to eat before the opening Keynote. Well, little did I know how long it was going to take me to get from point A to point B, so I ended up making it over there just in time before the conference registration closed for the day. I then proceeded downstairs to find something to eat since there was only an hour or so between that time and the beginning of the keynote.

I found a place that didn’t look too expensive to eat dinner at The House of Blues. It was good (especially the sweet potato fries)! After dinner, I ventured up to grab a good seat for the Keynote address. When I got back up there, there was a looong line stretching past the escalators. So i meandered and found the end of the line. I sat in that line for 20 minutes before they began to let people in the ballroom.

The keynote lasted wayyyyy too long and 1/2 of it was on developer stuff. If I had known that prior, I would have gotten a better seat where it would have been easier to sneak out. Oh well.

My feet are extremely tired so I am fixing to go relax in the bed. It’s midnight my time, 10:00pm here. Conference cranks back up at 7:00am for breakfast, which means I’ll have to start the trek all over again somewhere around 6:30am.

More to come tomorrow, and hopefully pictures too!

CS

written by Chuckysal

As I wait here in the Atlanta Airport, I figured now would be a good time to post a few items on my blog… So here goes

Savannah Trip - Brittany and I just returned from Savannah, GA where she attended a conference and I enjoyed my time off . If you ever have a chance to visit this town, do it! There is so much history in Savannah you’ll need a few days to let it all soak in. I highly encourage you to take the $10 trolley tour around the city. It gives you a quick, 90-minute tour of the historic district and it let’s you get a feel for the town and how to get around. Also, Savannah’s historic district is a great walking area! Definitely take you’re comfy shoes! I hope to post some pictures here soon so check back!

We returned from Savannah Saturday evening. On Sunday morning we met Brittany’s parents to pick up her kitty. That short trip is one I will never forget. As I drove, there was a convertible VW Bug that went FLYING past us doing between 100 and 110 mph. I told Britt that person was going to see a blue light special if they didn’t slow down. I continued to watch that car speed down the highway until it went over a slight hill. When we came over that hill, we saw that car in mid-air, landing on its side in the median. We immediately pulled over to see I’d we could offer some help. When I approached the car, I noticed that nobody was in it. I looked around and the girl that was driving the bug was ejected from the vehicle during the crash. She was laying in the median (grass, thank goodness) not moving very much. We could tell she was alive as she was moving slightly. The way her head was positioned made it look like she had broken her neck. to make a long story short, she was alive and was transported via ambulance to East Alabama Medical Center with what was thought to be a broken pelvic bone. After leaving the scene, it made me give thanks for what I have and for everything God has planned for me in my life. Please say an extra prayer for the young woman involved in this accident that she will have a speedy recovery.

As I said above, I am in the airport waiting to depart to go to the annual WinConnections conference. This conference should be good as the final build of Windows Vista is on the horizon.

Well, it’s boarding time for the 4 hour flight. More to come when I land in Nevada. I hope to post some pictures throughout the week!

Hope everyone (ok, 2 or 3 that actually read this) has a great week!

Stay Tuned…

written by Chuckysal