On my way to Seattle for the SQL user conference. Travelling very geekily–I have with me

1. A laptop for the conference proceedings (No handouts at the sessions–everything is electronic) and for taking notes there.
2. A Blackberry.
3. My cell phone
4. My Nokia 770 Internet Tablet (On which I am writing this entry.
5. A flash drive (A couple years old–only 128MB)

The laptop and the Blackberry belong to my employer, while the others are mine.

At one level the Nokia is redundant. Everything I am likely to do with could also be done on the laptop. However, the Nokia is sometimes more convenient. Besides, I am tickled at the idea of bringing a Linux device to a Microsoft conference.

I will be in Seattle all week, returning to Minnesota Friday evening. I had been planning to visit my brother Tom, but on Saturday we learned that his wife is undergoing an angioplasty this week. So they are rather preoccupied.

I will be missing Irish class tonight, for the first time since I started the program in April. That’s hard; it has become important to me. Well, almost nobody there has a perfect attendance record. I brought along some of my books and notes so hopefully I will not fall too far behind.