Kaleidoscope 2010...Finally

Finally. After months of planning and preparation, Kaleidoscope 2010 is upon us. It's great to be back in D.C. because this is the same city and this same hotel that I in which I attended my first Kaleidoscope in 2006. I was surprised the decision to return so quickly, but based on the numbers the decision was a correct one.

Here's a brief rundown of the week.

Highlights: Too many to list, but I will make mention of a few.

• APEX 4.0 Announced
• Battle of the Bands
• Java Bus
• Mike Riley receives Oracle Ace
• My first Werewolf experience
• Watching Netherlands advance in World Cup
• First MySQL track
• Hearing Jonathan Lewis speak

Lowlights: One

• Broken tooth. Damn you trail mix. A pox on your house.

As usual, I couldn't attend many sessions in their entirety while making my appointed rounds, but I'm sure I stuck my head in each and every room at some point or another. It was great to catch up with old friends like Francis, Dan, Andres, Joel, Dimitri, JES, Cary, etc. That's the greatest thing about Kaleidoscope is that you can get around to meeting every single person.

Friday, was a fun day. Dianne, Maddie and I met on old ODTUG friend, Andres Lomp from Estonia and went down to the waterfront for shrimp and crabs. It was an unforgettable time.From there we met up with ODTUG President, Mike Riley and his family to tour a few of the Smithsonian Museums with Dianne and Maddie. The American History Museum was probably my favorite. Saturday we made our way to Dulles and back to Houston.

Our journey continues...