Intel Solutions Summit 2015 in Dallas, Texas

Intel Solutions Summit 2015 in Dallas, Texas

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for May 10, 2015

Blue is getting settled into our house including Sunny's favorite sleeping spots.  Sunny isn't very thrilled about it.

The weather was nice on Sunday, so we thought it was a good time to get the boat out for a ride and have a contest to see which one of us had the skin tone that most closely matched the color of the boat.

   

On Tuesday, I flew down to Dallas, Texas.

I stayed at the Hyatt Regency which is directly below Reunion Tower.  It's hard not to feel like Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark while standing here.  I kept waiting for the big ball to start rolling down at me and I'd just run away from it while carrying my whip and a little golden statue.  All I needed was a fancy leather coat and hat and I could have done it.

The reason I came to Dallas was to attend the 2015 Intel Solutions Summit.  It's my favorite conference of the year!

The big trends in focus this year are a new CPU called Sky Lake for the client, focusing on vertical markets in the data center, and preparing for an explosion of new devices that will all be interconnected in the internet of things!  Every year I get so inspired at this show that I just want to go after about100 new opportunities when I get back to the office.

During the evenings, Intel always takes real good care of us and entertains us at different and exciting venues.  On Wednesday night, we went to see a really cool museum called the Perot Museum of Nature and Science which was made possible by the family of Ross Perot.  They're such nice people.

There were all sorts of bones and rocks and stuff.  I like bones and rocks.

I had a great time hanging with old friends and meeting a bunch of new ones.

On the last day, I went up to the top of Reunion Tower to have lunch and get caught up on emails.  It was a pretty cool place to hang out for a few hours and overlook the beautiful city of Dallas.

The really cool part of this trip was that I got to stick around an extra day and see my sisters who both live in Dallas.  They're such nice people.

Their husbands are fun too and we really like taking baths together.

I made it back in time for Mother's Day and to take the family to Como Zoo in St. Paul.  

I don't care how old you are, it's always fun to go to the zoo!

Even if the polar bears are kind of grumpy every time we come there.  This guy has been at Como Zoo for decades and we're pretty sure he's clinically insane.  I always try to get him to look at a series of Ink Blot cards that I have, but he just looks at me like this and doesn't give any solid answers to what he thinks he sees in the images.  It's hard to make a real diagnosis that way.

  

My family likes to look at pretty flowers.

We also like to stand on bridges over water.  But the way my diet has been going, I'm starting to think this is probably not a safe way for my family to spend time with me.

For lunch we went to the Nook in St. Paul to try their famous Juicy Lucies.  They were pretty juicy, that's for sure.