Today started out bright and early with a woot-off! Normally Woot has one item per day, but during a woot-off they post a new item as soon as the previous one sells out. I had actually dreamed about a woot-off last night (seriously) and I woke up this morning to find they were having one! I actually did end up buying something: a USB 802.11g wifi adapter for $18 incl s/h, to replace the one I swear my brother-in-law broke because he is a big oaf. Anyway, I spent much of the day refreshing at woot.com, it was fun. I also got a couple of 1GB thumb drives for $16 each, one for me and one for A - that was a “side deal” though, not part of the woot-off.

I printed out all of my directions, notes, and cache pages for Philadelphia, and left at a little after 4:30. I hit some really bad traffic starting around Central Ave on the Beltway and continuing all the way to Route 1, which is pretty bad and it put me quite a bit behind schedule - maybe about an hour. I just happened to need to use the bathroom right when I was passing Chesapeake House, which is a rest area with a geocache, so I got out to look and pee. I didn’t find the cache - third time’s gotta be the charm, right? next time? - but I did get a yogurt and a little package of mini Triscuit crackers with mini cut-up cheese squares. Once I took the exit for 495 in Delaware I was in unfamiliar territory, and of course it was dark by the time I was hitting the outskirts of downtown Philadelphia. I managed to find the hotel, but I wasn’t about to pay $36.80/nt for valet parking so I drove around having no idea where I was and just looking for the nearest open parking I could find. I had a map with parking lots and garages marked, but I couldn’t figure out where I was, let alone where the garages were. I ended up parking in a garage at 12th and Filbert, and when I emerged laden with bags (computer bag, clothing/stuff bag, cooler with food, and purse) I was surprised to find my hotel was just across the street! So I had ended up going in almost a complete circle, apparently.

I set up in the room, turned on the TV, and opened up my laptop. I tried using their ethernet cable to hook up to the iBahn free system…and it didn’t work. There was a wifi network called “topofthetower” that I could access, but I couldn’t get any websites from it. I was able to determine from my Sidekick that the entire Wireless Philadelphia website is down, so I guess that’s affecting the connectivity for users, too. It would have been nice to have wifi so I could sit in bed, but I got out my ethernet cable and tried that one. How the heck did I end up in a room with a broken modem? Argh! I spent about 15 minutes on the phone with the iBahn tech support, and he was able to reset my modem - I saw the lights blinking - but I still couldn’t access anything. So I’m typing this in Notepad at 10:30 at night, waiting for the technician to come by. I wonder if they’ll come at a reasonable hour? Meanwhile I have the TV on, my Sidekick in my lap, and Dopewars open. (I’m tempted to just switch to another room, but I won’t go that far - yet.)

Added: It’s 12:20am. After waiting two hours for a tech to show up, I got them to switch me to another room. Guess what? Same problem. Which is weird, because it should be working, I see the lights blinking on the back of my computer where the network cable plugs in, but it still says a network cable is unplugged. I just want to go to sleep, but I need to get directions for going to the workshop tomorrow - the one thing I forgot to do before leaving. So I’m sitting in the lobby of the hotel with my wifi working beautifully as it always does. But fuck if I know what’s wrong with the damn ethernet port. I’m going to get my directions and go to bed; I’ll just have to use my Sidekick otherwise. Maybe tomorrow after the workshop I’ll come back down here…or go geocaching…or to Passional. Something. But damn.