Day three began much like the previous one. Up before 7:00 AM, relocate the shampoo and soap to the shower, wash myself with a washcloth like I used to do when I was four, etc. I dragged my gimpy foot back to the Mandalay convention center to hear Chris Hammond's enlightening presentation on DotNetNuke best practices. 
Unfortunately, the hobbled trek took a bit longer than I expected and I arrived about 15 minutes late to the packed convention center room. With nary a seat in the house, I snuck in the back door. Chris, being the jackass that he is, stopped mid-sentence to announce to everyone "Chad, find a seat." That was a nice touch. About three hundred people all twist in their chairs and stare at me. I immediately throw Chris a middle finger in front of everyone. Nah, I'm kidding. I sheepishly ducked into the first seat I could find.
When the class ended, I hung out with one of Chris's bosses from Engage Software, Henry Kenuam. I haven't seen Henry for probably close to two years and the first two questions he asks me are: have I quit chewing tobacco (I have) and what kind of car am I driving now. Why can't everyone here ask me shit like that? If you find yourself in the middle of any conversation at this conference, there's a 99.9% chance that you'll be talking about database reflection, sql clusters, or something in that vain. The next time I'm in one of these conversations, I'm going to ask someone if they've been to any good strip joints this week. As we say in Kentucky, Henry is good people and it was great to see him again.
After catching up with Henry, we parted ways and I drifted off course a bit. Instead of my usual DotNetNuke course, I opted to duck into a Windows Mobile class. An hour later, I'm sitting in the hallway trying to guess how much the cab ride to the hospital will be and wondering about the authenticity of modern-era prosthetics. My foot is killing me that bad.
As luck would have it, Bill is filing out the door about this time so we hook up to go get some lunch. Sometime the day before, I realized I had spent the entire 24 hours indoors. Since the hotels are all connected, I haven't felt the sun on my face in a while. Bill agrees so we head outside for a short detour en route to lunch. Not knowing where we are, we somehow end up not near the topless pool at the Mandalay that I had thought would be a fantastic route to choose, but instead we we're in the parking garage. A freaking parking garage of all places!!
Eventually we got back on course and Bill grabbed an $18 sandwich at the deli and I opted to hold out until my normal 3:30 PM dinner time. 
I got back to my room and laid down for a while hoping the pain in my foot would subside. While laying there, I decided to head out to a liquor store to grab a $13 box of Corona instead of paying $7 a pop in the casino. When I returned from my errand, I filled a trash can with ice and had an instant refridgerator. Suck it Vegas!
Which brings me to this post. I'm sitting here in my hotel room with a trash can full of beer, another trash can full of ice and my aching foot inside it, and my laptop on my lap listening to the soulful sounds of Sean Hayes, or "the chicken man" as my wife calls him. Speaking of her, I miss my wife, my bed, and my Wildcats but this is strangely comfortable. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I have no problem being social when I have to be, but that I much prefer living in my own head most of the time. Aside from going down to the casino later to watch a bit of the Kentucky game, I'll probably sit right here in this room and relax. I don't want to be the first person to come all the way to Vegas and not relax a single minute.
See you tommorrow...
Vital Stats - Day Three
---------------------
# of times Bill has compared Vegas to Pidgeon Forge: 2
# of times Hammond drank water during his lecture: 13
# of courteous, smiling casino workers: 1