Well, we continue to creep up there in terms of the time my body decides it’s ready to get up. Around 6:00am, almost on the dot, I crawled out of bed. With my luck, I’ll finally be used to it by Friday morning…you know, right when I have to fly back east and get screwed up all over again. Anyway, I knew I wanted to get my blog in on the Stevenote, so I knocked that out first. I got a shower, and headed out to Moscone. This morning, I sought out a blueberry muffin with an orange juice for breakfast. And believe me when I tell you, these were some real blueberries. Yum!
Unlike yesterday, I had two sessions and a lab today. I was trying to get an answer to a question that we’ve had for a while having to do with our iPhone web app at work. I’m not quite sure (as the WiFi at Moscone when everyone is there is absolutely atrocious), but I think they may have fixed the bug in iOS 5. So, that’s good!
Right before lunchtime, I saw a tweet from Daniel (yes, that Daniel that I met on the elevator on Sunday) that anyone who skips the lunchtime session with Dr. Michael B. Johnson would be sorry. Not specifically knowing who that was, I checked our conference schedule. Turns out he is a veteran at Pixar Studios, someone who knows the ins and outs of one of the most successful film studios in Hollywood. Needless to say, I skipped lunch. And I’m very glad I did. So, thanks Daniel!
Another surreal moment for the week happened when I arrived and found a seat for said talk by Dr. Johnson (or, as the cool kids call him, @drwave). I had sat down and gotten situated with my bag and all. I suddenly heard a voice that I recognized. But it was a voice that I did not recognize from ever hearing it in real life. I spun around to find John Gruber (of Daring Fireball) was standing two rows back speaking with Marco Arment, who was sitting on the row behind me. Very surreal.
After the talk, I had two more sessions and 1 more lab scheduled for the afternoon timeframe. I had missed lunch, so I was grateful when they provided some snacks and drinks after the 1st afternoon session. I actually got to have a real-life Dr. Pepper. Sweet mother of all that is good and pure, was it good! I even saw Don McAllister (of ScreenCastsOnline fame) walking from the download area when I went to my last lab of the day. He was busy, so I didn’t feel the need to bother him. Good to see him, though.
After all the sessions and labs were over, I walked back to the hotel. I wanted to try to call the kiddos as I didn’t get to talk to them yesterday. Jayme got the kids from my parents' house around 8:15pm eastern (Happy Anniversary, mom and dad!) and called me from the car. I’m so glad they’re old enough to actually have conversations over the phone. It warms my heart to hear them tell me about their day. Especially when they end their conversation with something along the lines of “I miss you, daddy. I love you!” Seriously tugs at your heartstrngs.
Earlier in the day, I had made plans with David (the guy I met at the airport on Sunday) for dinner. He had a favorite restaurant he told me about and I figured I’d invite him out with me. It’s called Pizzeria Delfina off the corner of 18th St and Guerrero St, in the Mission District. I needed to get a cab to meet him as I was running slightly late. Suffice it to say, the whole getting a cab thing. Yeah, I suck at that. I didn’t end up catching one until about 3-4 blocks up. I only arrived about 5 minutes late, so not much harm done.
[caption id=“attachment_387” align=“alignright” width=“150” caption=“Appetizers”]
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We sat down outside (as the weather was absolutely gorgeous) and ordered some drinks and a salad. For my “appetizer drink”, I had something called a Dublin Dr. Pepper. What is that, you ask? Well, I had to ask the waitress myself. Nothing too special, it’s simply a Dr. Pepper made with real sugar (instead of the normal high fructose corn syrup) that comes from Dublin, Texas. It came in a bottle and was quite good. A little sweeter than normal (not too big of a surprise), but still delicious.
For dinner, I had a Panna pizza (basically, a cream-based tomato sauce with basil, cheese, and tomato chunks) with homemade pepperoni and fennel sausage, along with a glass of red wine. Sounded delicious and it did not disappoint! Was absolutely wonderful! Over the course of dinner, David and I caught up with what all had happened since the last time we saw each other. Which, in this case, was the whole conference. We talked about some of the WWDC happenings, about how we both have similar food hangups, about our childhoods in the south, and all sorts of other stuff. It was so nice to just sit around eating good food and having good conversation in a nice, relaxed atmosphere. Had a very good time.
[caption id=“attachment_388” align=“alignleft” width=“112” caption=“Real California Pizza with Wine”]
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After dinner, we walked up to Castro St, where he said I could catch the Muni Light Rail (I think that’s what they call it…I could be wrong on that) back to the downtown area. In the course of walking there, he showed me some of the sights around the area. It seems like a very nice neighborhood with plenty of San Francisco charm, with parks all around and people out and about. Once we got up to Castro St, though, it suddenly turned in to a “downtown” feeling. Lots of shops, lots of restaurants, lots of people milling around having a good time. It had a kind of Little Five Points meets Buckhead kind of a feel. Trendy and happening, yet with a hippie vibe.
I said goodbye to David, thanked him for a great evening, and boarded the Light Rail car back to my hotel’s area. Unlike the cab ride from earlier, which was $10, the $2 ticket for the Light Rail ride was a steal. I’ll definitely make sure to go that route next time. Once I got back to the hotel, I sat down and wrote this blog post you are reading right now, and in a few minutes, I’m going to bed. Once again, I’m pretty pooped at this point.
The Day’s Images [slideshow]
