Working in San Juan

10am: I'm blogging a bit from the office, loading software to the customer's server and running some tests. It's hot here - really hot. I stepped outside this morning onto my patio @ the hotel and started sweating before getting the sliding door all the way open. I took one photograph of the beach - no good, since the glass surfaces all fogged up immediately on the Kodak. I can't complain, though. It's the tropics, and it's supposed to be like this. It's just not the place for a shirt & tie workforce - am I right?

11am: Don't know what temperature they keep the a/c at in the building, but it's fairly comfortable in here - until I drank a cup of very strong and very rich coffee from the deli across the street. Their first complaint to me: "Remember when we had the coffee makers on each floor? Those days are gone. Either drip out of a vending machine downstairs, or we can get the good stuff from the cafeteria when they open at ten." It was good, hitting just right with the cuban toast, buttered and steam-press-toasted just right. But now I'm sweating again and looking for a diet coke or bottled water.

11:30am: Wow - just started raining. You forget that "tropical" often means "rainy" this time of year. The sun is shining, but it's also raining at a pretty good clip. The hurricane is expected to miss the island fifty to one-hundred-fifty miles to the north - that's from Susana, who can listen to the morning newscast and understand what the weather muchacho is saying better than I. Great people here, but now we'll (hopefully) wait for the rain to stop before walking to lunch with Luis - who's bringing me DVDs tomorrow ("You've got to see this one...").

2:20pm: Lunch was good and very filling. We had pizza at a grotto-like pizza place around the corner. Very good, with an appetizer of fried green plantains, french fries and wings. Now I'm hot and sweaty and way too full - with nowhere to take a nap. I just realized that this entry is reading like a play-by-play, so I probably won't do this again this week - tomorrow would be just "ditto" with a new place for lunch. I do need to find a store on the way home to by a new notebook and some pens. Such the unexperienced business traveller. I've got a plate full of things to do, but I think I can get everything done by end-of-day Thursday. If I don't have to come into the office on Friday, that'll be one less tie I'll have to wear.

4pm: I hear that there are tourists here, too, doing touristy things - like going to the mountains, enjoying the beach, and generally not working. I haven't seen any downtown. Don't think they could dodge traffic.

5pm: Why is there a Spongebob toothbrush in my briefcase?