Tonight was the registration for Gnomedex, but really, it was an opportunity to mingle. The actual registration took about 30 seconds. In addition to the fairly standard lanyard, we were given a Google basebcall cap.

It was nice to connect with some people that I hadn’t seen since Northern Voice. The Canadian delegation at this conference is actually quite large, so we felt right at home. I also met some new people, some completely new, and some who I knew only digitally. That’s the best part of these conferences – putting a face to the name/blog/podcast.

Tomorrow should definitely be an interesting day, with some very interesting people scheduled to speak. I’m especially looking forward to Dean Hachamovitch’s keynote address in the morning.

As I posted earlier, Dickson and I arrived in Seattle this morning. I don’t know why we decided we’d go for such an early flight – leaving at 6:45 AM is not something I want to do ever again. Especially considering we didn’t sleep last night. Anyway, we made it across the border fairly easily.

We took the Airporter to our hotel, and were surprised to find that they already had a room ready for us. Being only about 8:30 AM, we figured we’d have quite a bit of time to kill before we got the room. We brought all the luggage up, and then decided to venture out. After some breakfast at McDonalds and a Starbucks for me, we set about solving the Internet problem we had discovered upon entering the room.

The hotel has wireless, but it is not free. And at $10 USD per machine, we’d be spending about $150 during the trip. However, the hotel does have two machines in the lobby that are free to use, and these are not wireless. Seeing an opportunity, we went to Office Depot and bought a router. We also went to Northgate Mall (yes they have one too) to Best Buy to purchase a firewire PCMCIA card so that we can transfer video to our tablets. Once we got back, we were going to hook up the router, but someone was using the computers, so we went to kill some time. Both of us were tired, so we decided a nap would be a good idea.

Around seven hours later, Dickson woke up, and then woke me up. I guess we needed some sleep. Before going back to setup the router, we decided to eat first. We tried to find a Denny’s, but couldn’t, so we gave up and went to McDonalds again (though a different one than this morning). Instead of walking all the way back to the hotel, we took the Seattle Monorail – very cool! It actually goes quite fast, so it doesn’t take very long to get from one end to the other at all. The other neat thing we discovered today is the Metro. They have an entire underground bus terminal, and the big transit stops all have electronic signs with the status of your bus. Very neat.

Since getting the Internet working, we’ve been busy programming and updating and testing. I am in the lobby right now, sitting by the fireplace. I am sure the hotel staff thinks we’re nuts, awake at this time. Little do they know, it’s just par for the course!

This birthday wish comes to you all the way from Seattle! Hope you enjoy your day. I’d direct folks to your blog to leave you a birthday comment, but unfortunately, you don’t have one. Now that you’re another year wiser, maybe you should start one 😉

We arrived safely in Seattle very early this morning! I am happy to report that it was relatively easy to make it through customs and security, even though Dickson got harrassed a little by the customs agent. I think she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Unfortunately it’s raining pretty good outside today, so I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere. We have some work to do anyway, so maybe an indoors day is good. I did get a Starbucks already, so I feel like I really have arrived in Seattle. We’re still trying to figure out our options for Internet – the wireless in the hotel is not free, but the two computers we’re using in the lobby right now are.

Andrew and Ashish: the package made it here safely, but it had to be scanned at security. We have not yet tested to make sure everything is still operational.

I’ll post an update again later, hopefully when we have a plan for Internet access.

In less than 6 hours Dickson and I will be on a plane headed for Seattle to attend Gnomedex. I’m definitely looking forward to meeting some new and interesting people, and checking out all of the cool things people are doing with blogging and podcasting. We’ve also got some time to check out Seattle and have a bit of a vacation.

We should be online much of the time, so I don’t expect we’ll be hard to get in touch with. Hey, you know me, I’m almost as addicted to being connected as I am to Coke! We’re back late on the 27th, if you’re wondering.

So yesterday I mentioned that I would have a fairly big announcement! Well, as it turns out, I am a little late, but here is the announcement all the same: I got a new car! Probably not such big news for you, but definitely big news for me. The car is for me, Kim, and Tom. In theory anyway – they need to take their driver training and get their licenses, and then I’ll consider handing over the keys once in a while 😉 My Dad, Martin, will have more on that I’m sure.

The new car is a 2005 Honda Civic Reverb, which is a two-door coupe. It’s got a 1.8L engine with 115 horsepower, and it’s a five-speed manual. The Reverb package means that it has the Aero package (skirting and spoiler), a in-dash six CD changer, 15″ alloy wheels, and same colored mirrors and door handles. We also got the protection package which has a paint protector, undercoating, and scotch-guarding inside. You can see the full specs here.

Yes Megan, it has power locks. Dickson, it’s definitely not cute! I love driving a stick, so I’m very happy that it’s not an automatic. Some other cool things – the CD player plays MP3 CDs, and also has a audio jack for external devices, like my Zen Touch. The color is “Fiji Pearl Blue”, which is really nice. We definitely made a good choice on the color.

So that’s my announcement! Now I’ll always have a vehicle at my disposal, and Kim and Tom and I will have something to get around in for the next few years (thanks Mom & Dad). We took some pictures tonight, which you can see here. For now, time to sleep, if only so that I can get back to driving in the morning 🙂