Actually, it's very pleasant here, with mild temperatures and low humidity, compared to the swamp this is South Florida. If only this was a vacation, and not a week of brain-burning training.

The training isn't even really that difficult, it's just that long hours in a non-ergonomic chair is not good for my demeanor. Finishing up that training and then returning to the hotel room to connect to the office and cover my regular job doesn't improve it any, either.

I mean, hell, I've been to Atlanta quite a few times, and haven't really visited the city since 1975. I imagine it's changed a little in the last 30 years. I hear it's even desegregated now.

The hotel I am in, the Renaissance Waverly, is connected to a mall (or so they say). It is actually rather sad, because it is attached to a failed mall, an attempt at an upscale shopping experience that the neighborhood couldn't support. It reminds me of some vestigial organ hanging off the hotel — it looks like it has a purpose, but no-one can figure out what it is.

The hotel itself, though, isn't without quirks. A downside to being an early adopter of Internet access in the rooms is the cost to upgrade. While most of the business hotels I frequent offer free wireless access int he rooms and in the common areas, here I am limited to in-room wired access for $10 a day. Fortunately it is fast and reliable, and I have access from the training room PCs, so it isn't all that bad. Nonetheless, I am looking closely at the Treo 700p, just for the sake of future convenience.

Oh, and one other thing bothers me about the hotel. This is a high-class property, with a luxurious lobby filled with professional people. So why, then, is the fitness center located such that you have to stroll through that lobby in your gym shorts to get there? Every step my middle-aged, misshapen, and decided un-toned form takes across those expensive tile floors costs them dearly in prestige. Perhaps they should have a back entrance for the unbeautiful people.