Smalltalk with James Robertson

Well this is bad news. One of our favorite restaurants here in Columbia - Strapazza - closed. We hadn't gone there in about a month, and we wanted to order from there throught carryoutmenu.com when we got home from Florida awhile back. We noticed that they weren't one of the options, but just figured they had dropped out of that system. Then today, at the Labor Day party we went to, we found out that the restaurant is closed down.

Very sad news for us - we loved that place. I guess we need to find a new Italian joint near here...

It's Labor Day Weekend here in the US - which means that after today, most outdoor public pools close down, and schools will all be back in session. While it's still summer weather, the slide towards fall and winter has definitely begun.

Here in Maryland, we hope that doesn't mean more of this in a few months :)

I'm trying out the installer for WebVelocity 1.1 on Windows (XP and 7), and it's taking way longer than I'd like. The problem isn't Windows; it's Parallels. It updated recently, and I hadn't fired up any of my VMs since then.... so they all need to update Parallels tools.

It's like watching grass grow :)

Update: Well, so much for Windows not slowing me down. Windows 7 has decided that it's not genuine, even though I have a corporate install DVD, and a valid key. Oh, the joys of Windows Genuine Advantage....

The 30th reunion for John Jay High School (Hopewell Junction, NY) is in less than an hour - I've had a pretty full day already. I went out to play golf with Arden this morning - then we took a bike ride near his home, and swam in his pool (which is really nice). Then Mark and I drove around a bit - I took some photos of the old school and a few other things - I added alts and titles to the photos if you float the mouse over them:

Technorati Tags: high+school, reunion, nostalgia

While I generally like having a car that's fully paid off, there are downsides to a 21 year old car: periodically, things break. I took my daughter out for a driving lesson on Sunday, and two exciting things happened: someone else driving out of the parking lot hit a light pole, so we had to run up and call 911. Just about simultaneously, the car started making a lot more noise. Driving yesterday, I noticed that there was also some kind of clunking sound coming from underneath, so I suspected that part of the exhaust system is loose.

So, this morning I drove the car down to the local gas station and walked home. I appreciated the cloudiness, because that made it possible for me to read a book on my iPad as I walked the 2 miles home. Now I just have to wait to find out what the damage comes to :/

Technorati Tags: car

My daughter passed her written driving test today - so now we start the whole learner's permit process. In a few months she can try the driving test, and get moved up to a provisional license. Time doesn't stand still :)

I decided that having a new portable drive for video storage would be useful - between Camp Smalltalk London and ESUG 2010, I'll be shooting a lot of video. So, I picked up a 500 GB FreeAgent drive. Here it is:

By way of comparison, it's as long as my iPhone, and maybe 1/2 an inch wider on each side. Wow.

Technorati Tags: hard drive

I'm heading to London on the 14th - late flight, so I might get my iPad case before then:

Huh?

A French company is offering people the chance to get away from it all and be bound and gagged for a day. The company will abduct you without warning, and hold you prisoner for up to 10 hours.

And..... you pay for this?

Things have been a bit quiet here on the blog; there are two reasons for that:

• I've got a new project I'm working on (in Smalltalk, of course) with some fellow Cincomers
• I've been getting things ready for our 4th of July party

The latter one has consumed the odd hour or two here and there - weeding gardens, buying burgers (have you seen the enormous packages they have at Costco??), and general house cleaning.We're just about ready for the party though - it should be a lot of fun.

Technorati Tags: holiday