So here is my first step into the world of truly wireless Internet. I'm sitting in my hotel room in the Fifth Avenue Red Lion Hotel in sunny Seattle (apparently it rained earlier today). Armed with a one-time access ID and password from the desk clerk, I am plugged into the infobahn sans wires or carefully spliced copper or colorful prayer ribbons.

It's kind of slow. Sigh, there's no place like home. And I should be back home in Portland, not Seattle. Although in both places the winter has been practically rain-free, so in either city I'm a fish out of water.

In a few minutes I shall head down to the faux-pub to taste Fud. That's where I stayed each evening two years before, when last I attended this conference for financial professionals. At that time Mrs. The Fyd was able to travel with me, immeasurably improving the trip. Additionally the Iraq war started during our stay and so we got to taste the trembling edge of NW anti-war fever. Plus we rode the monorail. And discovered that the Hendrix Experience sux.

This time I am alone, but for the computer. Tomorrrow I join my conferees in the breakfast buffet line, hopes of bags of conference swag (last time I got a set of juggling balls! I lost them!) filling our minds as we fill our plates with rubbery eggs and bouncy sausages.