Austin's Omni downtown

Aspen skiing was great. Getting in and out of Aspen, however, was an adventure I would rather not repeat. Getting there we were delayed. Getting out also was no picnic. We knew there was a winter storm coming, but had no idea what kind of chaos it would cause. Most flights out of Aspen were canceled. We weren't sure about our flight, but the suggestion we got was to get out of Aspen by road. We rented an SUV for a small fortune, and I drove it 6 hrs to Denver. Later we found that our flight out of Aspen (to Chicago) had indeed been canceled and at the time we were also told that should that have happened, the chances of getting out of Aspen would be slim until about Tuesday. So from Denver we flew out to Chicago and spent the night at O'Hare. Not fun. We found two benches that we slept on, but I think I only managed about one hour's worth. The vacuum cleaner lady kept me up for what seemed like hours. The flight out was delayed by about twenty minutes by de-icing of the wings. They first (what looks like) steam off the wings and then apply this green goop that looks like anti-freeze. Once we got home it was a mad rush to get the cats out of "jail", and then home to pack. The next morning I flew out to Austin. This time I had to trouble with the flights, but I was lucky to have booked the flight and hotel way in advance. The flight was oversold by 8, and several people couldn't get on. The hotel I think is also booked solid, partially due to SXSW: South by Southwest, some kind of music festival that is just ending today. I missed most of it, but the shuttle driver told us that yesterday there were thousands on 6th street. I'm not sure what remains of it tonight, but I'm hungry and it's time to go out for dinner, so I'll find out. The conference starts bright and early tomorrow morning at 8:30.