We woke up a o’dark thirty to head to the airport. Andrea offered to drive so we could save the $100 in parking, for which I was grateful.

The flight to Charlotte was uneventful, except for one thing. I saw this guy get on the plane with Mini Cooper luggage. I thought it was cool and told him so. Turns out he has another set that he’s will to give to me. Sweet! We’ll see if he drops me an e-mail when he gets back to Raleigh so we can set it up.

On the way to San Francisco I was served the most disgusting thing that has ever been presented to me as food. It was supposed to be a breakfast “skillet”, but it consisted of mealy potatoes, what looked like powered eggs with the consistency of feta cheese, and I think, spinach. I wasn’t the only one who passed on the meal.

We arrived a little after noon and were met at the hotel by Mike Huot. The three of us grabbed a cab to the Villa Florence, our hotel on Powell @ Geary. We couldn’t check in until 3pm, so we dropped off our bags and went looking for lunch.

After lunch we stopped by the show floor and checked out our booth. It’s smack dab in the middle of the Geek Ghetto, and it’s nicer than I thought it would be.

We finally got our rooms, which are small but clean, and I haven’t had problems with the Wi-Fi connection (although Matt and Mike have). They have the ubiquitous “Save the Planet” cards asking you to reuse your sheets and towels. Screw that – I come to hotels for clean towels and sheets. If there was some economic incentive for me to reuse things, I probably would, but if I have to stay in a strange place I want clean towels (I do tend to reuse the sheets at least a couple of nights).

San Francisco is dirtier than I remember. I still love this town, but after Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney I most certainly don’t want to live here (although there is a band playing blues/rock outside my window, which is actually kinda nice).

The one bad news involves an LCD monitor I had shipped to the hotel. The box had a huge hole in the side of it, and the monitor itself was cracked. I was panicking until Mike called a friend of his in San Jose, and we got a monitor to borrow. I just hope I don’t get to screwed trying to return it.

We wandered around looking for a place to have dinner, and managed to come to the Grant Street gate to Chinatown. The first place we came to was Cathay House, and since the wait wasn’t long we decided to eat there. There were a surprising number of foreigners, especially from Europe, and it made sense once I remembered that August is a traditional holiday month there.

The food was good.

Then we walked back to the hotel, and, at 9:30, I’m ready for bed. More later.