So the other night I was getting my daughter ready for bed and she asked if we could wrap stuff.

Huh?

With one eye on the Rockies game and the other answering some emails to the webmaster account here, I wasn't entirely sure what she wanted, but I was sure it involved more mess than reading a book (my preference) or playing a game (or hers).

She's 6 now, but apparently one of her 5 year old memories from last August was sparked. She came out of my closet with a bag of DVDs. "Can we wrap these, Daddy?"

I loaded up on 50+ DVDs recently in preparation for the SQLServerCentral.com Reception at the PASS Summit. Along with a number of other prizes, I'd gone a little crazy at a recent sale, so the closet was stocked with a number of geek goodies that I plan on giving away on opening night of the reception.

Last year my daughter spent quite a few nights with me wrapping up DVDs and other prizes to give away at the reception. We had a good time with each other and a lot of tape and wrapping paper and she was looking forward to doing it again. I was thinking I'd skip it and let people pick their prizes, but she has prevailed.

We're wrapping presents and if you want the chance to get one of these custom gift wrapped items, you need to not only register and attend the 2007 PASS Summit in Denver, but also use our Source Code to get into the party:

That's the source code to come to our opening night reception. I don't have a room yet, but I'm working with the staff at PASS headquarters to get that squared away. We usually have the reception right after the opening from the PASS staff, probably starting at 7:30 somewhere near the PASS reception in the Denver Convention Center.

This is THE SQL Server event of the year, with lots of DBAs, developers, and Microsoft staff focused on SQL Server. You can learn about what's new, why something doesn't work in your environment, or get ideas to improve things. We have lots of write ups from authors that SQLServerCentral.com has sponsored in years past, so check some of them out (here, here, here, and here).

We'll have another casino party, which seems to be a lot of fun. You can have some snacks, get a drink, talk with fellow DBAs, and unwind with some funny money from our party hosts. We are giving away some bigger prizes, an iPod, a Garmin unit, and a mystery prize to the top three winners. I get a referral fee from PASS for everyone that registers and I do a good job of blowing the entire thing on this party every year.

But if you're not a gambler, don't worry. This is all for fun and we give away lots of random prizes, over 60 of them, to people just having a good time. We usually have about 120-150 people there, so your chances of winning are good. I'll give away some along with a few fellow staffers to people that get the next "Ace", the lowest hand, or someone that makes a good joke 🙂

I'm trying to get the next version of our "Best Of" series done and the polo shirts for this year just arrived at the Ranch this week: one of each going to each person that registers with our code.

I have been extremely lucky in my career to attend a dozen conferences, including 6 PASS Summits, and I am sure that you'll bring something back to your boss that makes the conference worth it. So register today and you can still save some money off the full cost of the conference. And be sure to use this Source Code:

I look forward to seeing you in September. Now it's back to wrapping stuff up 😉