Fightertown, U.S.A (well, close to where it used to be anyway)

coming to the end of day one in San Diego. The clock here says 10:01pm but to me it's 1:00am since I'm still on Eastern time today. I got up at 6:00am got ready and stuff, and Court, Hooper, and I went to the airport. We said our goodbyes and eventually I boarded the plane at ~8:15am. The flight to Denver took over 3 hours. During the flight the pilot told us to look out the left side of the plane (where I was) and we could see the hurricane waaaay off in the distance. When I got off the plane I was ready to eat since it was like 12:30pm (eastern) and I hadn't really eaten anything. I went to MD to get a burger or something but they were still serving breakfast. It was only 10:30am in Denver, damn it. I waited a half hour and got a #2.

The Denver plane boarded at noon (pacific) and we landed in San Diego around 2:30pm (pacific).

One of the things I thought would suck about getting here was that due to the VERY short notice I was only able to pick center seats through the online booking tool. Luckily, I was able to talk to the gate people and get a window seat going to Denver and an aisle coming here to SD. We'll see how the return flights go.

On the way here to Denver I sat with a woman who was afraid to fly and a 22-year-old girl from Holland who seemed to make friends with everyone she talked to. Her and the woman talked the whole way there. They apologized for bothering my reading and I told them it was no big deal. We talked for a little while. I was amazed that this young Dutch girl had gone to so many places....she'd been to Berlin and to a bunch of other places. I guess when you live in Europe going to another country is like going to Wisconsin.

Anyways, I landed here and Mark called me. We got in around the same time so we eventually found each other (well, he found me) and took a cab to the hotel. During the cab ride we passed the USS Midway (which we are having a reception at tomorrow night) which is now a museum ship with tours and flight simulators and stuff. There are some planes up on the deck...an F-14 and a few others I recognized. The real prize was across the bay though...CVN-76, the USS Ronald Reagan. Amazing. Even from far away it looks like it can kick ass. Very cool to see. I can't wait to get a better look tomorrow.

After we worked at making sure our booth presentation would work we had a meeting with the other Motorola people going over how things would go over the next few days. After that Mark and I went to dinner to a place called Anthony's which has very good seafood. I guess Uncle Bruce and Aunt Angie and Grandma came here when they were in for Matt's wedding. Mark likes to seafood but his wife doesn't so he never gets to have it. I had a chicken pasta which was good and it came with broccoli which I didn't eat but I know Court would have loved. The girl asked us about dessert and when she mentioned spumoni I couldn't so no. (shout to the Pag's days in DeKalb) I figured it would be a scoop but it was 3. Needless to say, I didn't finish it.

During dinner Mark and I talked about work stuff. Pretty boring if you don't know the details and people involved so I won't get into it. He did say that there's a lot of traction with our services and stuff with customers so that's good. Some other good things were said during our meeting today so it all sounded positive.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel. Mark's feet were killing him so he went back to his room. Me, on the other hand...

When I found out I had to come here I checked the Padres schedule. They were in town. They were even playing at times(7pm today, 7pm tomorrow, 12pm Wednesday) where I could see a game. When I got here I did a mapquest dealio to see how far I was from the park. .9 miles. I looked out the window, figuring I should be able to see it from the directions. I can. During the day it was a little harder to make out in the jumble of downtown, but it's plainly visible if you know where to look. Tonight, right now, with the lights still on, it's obvious. Anyways, I walked to the park, figuring I would get the best seat I could for around $20. I got there in the 4th inning and the guy told me he could get me a seat behind home plate for $40. I bought the ticket, and eventually sat down in the best baseball seat I've ever had, ever. Section 102 (right behind home plate, probably 6 inches to the third base side), Row 20 (20 seats back from the foul net), Seat 6. Amazing. Everything just *sounded* closer. It was VERY cool.

The whole point to visiting PetCo Park was to get a mini-bat, which I've begun collecting. I've got ones from PacBell Park, Bank One Ballpark, SkyDome, Dolphins Stadium, Tropicana Field, and now PetCo Park. I'd like to eventually visit each big league park so I can get them all. Obviously, I've been to Wrigley and Comiskey but didn't get bats. I'll fix that next year...or maybe if I get the chance when I get up to IL in 2 weeks. I left the game in the bottom of the 8th to beat foot traffic because I thought I might take a cab back. I ended up walking anyway and went right by the San Diego Convention center. Did I mention that VoiceCon is a Freeman show? heh

I noticed by the scores that the Cubs lost, White Sox lost, and bad for the White Sox since Cleveland and Minnesota both won. They better watch it.

Well, tomorrow is 'man the booth' day from 2pm-7pm, then the reception at 7:30pm. I asked Mark about meeting him tomorrow morning and he said 'sleep in, don't worry about it'. Of course to a guy that gets up at 5:30am sleeping in probably means 8am. That's fine by me. :)