I went to an Avaya media/analyst reception last night which was held at The miX Lounge in THEHotel, Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. As one of the people at the party said it, "We have to thank Avaya because they normally wouldn't let people as old as us in here."

It was really a nice bar/lounge and there were some amazing appetizers. I decided to stay on east coast time so I had dinner before the reception which meant I had no room for the appetizers that looked amazing. I did have one truffle appetizer and some champagne but other than that primarily imbibed H2O.

I had a chance to talk with Avaya CEO Don Peterson who was telling me a bit about their new announcement focusing on the hosted market. I asked if they see themselves competing with Covad and Don said it is more a proof of concept than a business direction. He went on to say he would like to see others host the service.

He said something to the effect of -- this is a way for Avaya to keep a foot in the hosted market in case it becomes huge.

I am at the Luxor hotel where the elevators are actually inclinators which means they go sideways while they go up. They traverse the side of the pyramid. It takes some getting used to and if you go into one of these looking for coffee (there are no coffee makers in the room at the Luxor) you may fall over if you aren't paying attention because you are checking e-mail on your phone. Of course this is just an assumption -- this certainly doesn't describe my morning :-) .

That reminds me -- I better get some ice for this bump on my head.

Last night when I got back to my room, I noticed someone had stolen my do not disturb sign. Perhaps it has some value at the craps table -- I am not sure but will look into it.

I wanted to get up early today -- 4:00 am but as it turns out I couldn't sleep to well because the pillows were either too high or low. I couldn't get the right combination. I thought of waking up and calling housekeeping but wasn't sure what to ask for. Can you request a pillow assortment of various thicknesses? Probably not. Besides last night many of the Vegas workers were on strike.

I am still not sure why people were on strike yesterday. I saw something briefly on the news last night as well as some gatherings here in the city. The news featured people carrying flags from around the world at the rally but then when they were interviewed they said they want to be Americans. I would imagine if you want to be an American, you should start by carrying around an American flag when you rally. That is a strong first step.

The strike did make one thing clear to me however... How great our country is. In what other country can so many people who have committed a crime by entering the country illegally proudly protest? I was amazed.

I am not sure how I got off on this tangent but the sun is coming up and it is absolutely stunning. Well, gotta go. Busy day today.