I left my machine running applying system updates tuesday night. I awoke to find my machine off due to what I was sure was catastrophic system failure. As it turns out, the power supply overheated and melted the wire and quit working. When the battery ran out, the laptop shut down. I dinked with the cord and power came back but it can with a puff of smoke from the cord, so I turned it off. Thankfully the part was under warranty so it was a free replacement, but I had to wait for it to be overnighted from wherever. So I was offline all day yesterday. Since I couldn't work, I tackled some "honey do" list items. The garage looks great now. We put in some shelves and got a bunch of stuff off the floor. And I managed to drop a shelf on my hand in the process. So now the meat of my palm/left thumb is turning increasingly darker shades of purple. What fun.

I'm finally back in Denver after 2 weeks in D.C. The conference is over and we're both very happy to not be in D.C. anymore. The conference was a resounding success on just about every front. The Washington Post has a nice article that gives an idea of the scope what all was involved here. My only complaint about the article is we didn't rate a mention. :) But it was a great time and seeing that banquet hall filled was truly inspiring knowing we helped that happen. For a better run down of what all the software can do, check out my colleague's blog on it. And if you are an organization (or know of one) that has similar needs, don't hesitate to contact me.

My colleague and I have been on-site with the client for almost 2 weeks now. The work we've been doing for the last year has finally come to fruition this weekend. We've been building a conference management solution including everthing from event setup and tracking to registration and check in. The system builds the event programs in PDF format as well as the badges attendees get at check in. Despite the complexity of the system and numbers of people going through checkin, things have gone swimmingly. The programs look fantastic. Check in has been unbelievably smooth to the point that even the attendees have commented on how great it's going. It's really gratifying to see our software become almost invisible because it's functioning so well. I really like seeing all those badges floating around at the hotels and the conference site. I want to grab people by the arm and say "I did that!" But, I'm a professional so I keep that excitement to myself mostly. But I said all that to say that it makes all the long hours and hard work worth it to see the pleasure on the client's face. But now I'm just ready to go home and see my family.