So begins our sordid tale of nerd debauchery here in Austin. The San Francisco Bay Area is representing to the fullest extent of the law here in Texas, and we've had a hard time keeping up on all the panels featuring Bay Area blog superstars. Even Jeffrey Zeldman's keynote address on Saturday, which was a one man show, featured Zeldman name-checking Heather Champ and Derek Powazek and calling Matt "WordPress" Mullenweg out of the audience to talk about his experience attending South by Southwest, which inspired his effort to build a better blogtrap.

After missed flights, delays, and a PowerBook that decided to stop booting up once it left Apple country for the hinterlands, we finally landed in Austin just before midnight central time. Crashing at hotel a friend was staying at, we managed to at least log in to Gmail, only to find out about the flamers from Friday. Yeesh. We leave the city for a few hours, and all hell breaks loose! We walked a few blocks up from the hotel to the Continental Club, where both blues and booze were flowing from the tap. Austin closes early, like us -- what's discouraging is that their groceries stop selling liquor at midnight and one on Saturdays, so the San Francisco tradition of sneaking out at 1:45 to grab some beers for the afterparty is out of the question.

More free food, booze and cigarettes after the jump.

It was just off the plane at LAX when the urge to trade business cards took hold...