I am the Dumbest Guy in The Room

Last night was the Friends of Red Gate dinner at the PASS Summit.  This was held at Ruth’s Chris Steak House and can be best-described in a simple two word phrase: Porntastic Meatfest. 

I was personally invited to the Red Gate function as a benefit to being a member of the Friends of Red Gate.  Friends of Red Gate are provided full licenses to all Red Gate products.  They are influential members of the SQL Server community: Chapter Leaders, Authors, Bloggers, PASS leadership, MVPs, or they are named Tim Ford and must live in mitten-shaped states that start with “M”.   They are evaluators and evangelists for the Red Gate products and this was reward for their work.  In my case, since I was just added to this group in the last week  I will need to pay it forward.

I had a difficult choice.  This event ran concurrently with the SQL Server Heroes event at the conference hall.  That event included a live band comprised of Microsoft employees: A Flock of SQLs.  It also included a dozen-and-a-half XBox Rockband/Guitar Hero stations, tattoo parlor, casino tables, Harley Davidsons, hot biker babes and studs available for rides/photos (respectively, of course) and the requisite food/drink.  On the other hand, the Red Gate dinner had top level meat, pleasant wine served in their cellar.  It had great shrimp appies.  It also had such SQL luminaries as  Greg Low, Andy Warren, Brad McGehee, Joe Webb, Steve Jones, Andy Leonard, and at least 25 other SQL luminaries.  My evening was spent dining with Greg and his lovely wife Mai, Grant Fritchey, TJay Belt, and Pat Wright.  SQL was on the back burner, instead we focused on the things that matter: travel, family, and what makes us happy. 

Last night will be added to my little tick list for that subject, even though as I looked around I realized I was the dumbest guy in the room.