Iron City

My flight into Pittsburgh landed this evening (on an Air Canada Jazz airplane that was a bit smaller than I have been on in quite a while - I wasn't quite sitting on the pilot's lap, but it was darned close)

My work-mates and I took the Hilton shuttle bus down to a fun market/restaurant area which reminded me of "The Market" after dark in downtown Ottawa. Although a heck of a lot more quiet this Sunday night than I ever remember downtown Ottawa to be, even this time of year.

And it's not that I don't pay attention to advice from my bloggy friends, but I did end up trying out the local Pittsburgh beer "Iron City" that Lime (a PA resident) warned me against. Sorry, Lime, it's not that I don't treasure your opinion, it's just that I'm a sucker to want to try local brews whenever I travel.

I have to admit that the aluminum bottle the beer came in was pretty darn nifty and the beer wasn't all that bad. Since the bar we were at was out of Rolling Rock (one of my favourite US brews), and most other beers (they'd had their huge St. Patty's celebration the night before and were out of a lot), I ended up having a second "Iron City" brew.

About the only thing I'm not that fond of here so far is the supposed high speed internet access the rooms have. Supposedly there's great wireless access nomatter where you go in this building but the signal strength and connection ability is about as consistent as a Hollywood marriage. I no sooner find a signal than it steals away into the shadows again. My buddy down the hall, Samson, has been having the same problem -- argh!

In a desperate attempt to get onto my work network and get some work done (which, yes, did also result in this blog posting - so sue me for working so hard that I need a little break), I ended up plugging my phone line into my machine and relying on a good old fashioned dial up connection.

At least it works. It only took me 2 hours to get 15 minutes of work done . . .