I arrived in Seattle this afternoon for the Microsoft Office Project conference. Frankly, I am amazed that there is enough interest in a project planning tool to warrant a conference. This is not exactly a technology that I am passionate about, but the Project team back at the office wanted an architect to come with them, so here I am.

I went for a walk around the downtown tonight. This is a nice area – if you like shopping at Nordstrom’s or Tiffany’s. I have always stayed in Bellvue when visiting in the past. Staying downtown is a nice change. In spite of the rain, I think I’ll like it here. Oh, I went looking for a Starbuck’s tonight. It took about 45 seconds to find the first one. Then they started popping up every 90 seconds after that. There are, oh, maybe one bazillion of them in the downtown area.

One thing I’m having a hard time finding is free wifi. I know it exists, but I’m not finding anything nearby the hotel. The Westin hotel charges $10 per day. That includes wireless access throughout the hotel, which sounds nice, but I’m limited to the hotel. On the other hand, I could pay $10 and go to any Starbuck’s or the nearby Border’s Bookstore. Of course, I’d then have to leave the hotel. I’d rather not pay $20 per day for both, but I may have to do that.