Spinning back up to speed, here's a filter pass on the weekend+week that was 9/18-22, which I spent traveling to and in Boston*.  Wonderful weather - when I was able to escape - and some good times and excellent meals punctuated a busy week of attending a conference and visiting customers.  Probably the best thing that happened was I maintained my planned habit of working out every morning, probably the worst was that I didn't maintain my planned habit of blogging every night...

• During a nice walking tour of Boston Common and environs, discovered an amazing store with tons of old sewing machines in the window (right).  How cool is that?
• If you are ever in the market for bread pudding, may I recommend Stephanie's on Newbury?
• It turns out that in Boston people seek out Dunkin Donuts for coffee, in lieu of Starbuck's (or Peet's!)  Who knew?

*A four-hour fog delay in Long Beach turned an eight hour flight to the East Coast into a marathon.

I've been largely ignoring the 2010 Vuelta, but Vincenzo Nibali shows strength, smarts in defending Vuelta lead.  Good for him.  A day later he won the overall title, capping a most entertaining and interesting grand tour.  Congrats to Tyler Farrar who won the final stage and several other sprints besides.  I wish I had paid it more attention, the organizers have definitely shaken things up for the better. 

An interesting book to seek out: The Matchbox that Ate the Forty Ton Truck.  *Not* on Kindle however - possibly because it has a lot of diagrams?  That will need to get fixed. 

Scott "Dilbert" Adams' latest mindbomb: The Opinions of Attractive People.  "Imagine a web site that allows any adult to post a ten-second video that is nothing but a statement of opinion, showing only the speaker's face...  Visitors to the site would be able to vote on the videos, based on agreement with the opinions, or the general attractiveness of the speaker."  Interesting.  We definitely put more stock into the opinions of attractive people, whether we want to or not... look at celebrity endorsements.  I also love this: "If it sounds like the dumbest idea in the world, remember that you didn't think of Twitter."  Good point. 

An important infographic: So You Need a Typeface.  The first step is admitting you need to do this, the second is that you need help in doing so :)  [ via Boing Boing ] 

Mobius strip comic strip.  How awesome is that?  It does complicate distribution somewhat... 

Restaurants using wine lists on the iPad are reporting increased sales.  I think we're going to have to concede there is a "there" there with the iPad; there's something happening here, but what it is isn't exactly clear :)  It just shows up everywhere.  [ via Kottke ] 

Apropos: the time is now for digital textbooks.  As a parent with two  high-schoolers and one collegian, the time is *now*.  The iPad would seem to have the perfect form factor - color and diagrams and formatting preserved etc. - but the ecosystem hasn't formed yet.  It will. 

I want one!  23 great space missions, all on one T-shirt.  Donations made to the Planetary Society.  How many of these can you name? 

PS interestingly I went to the site to order one, and was confronted with a "size" drop down that had, like, 73 choices.  Too many!  I was confused and almost didn't buy one.  The website is *way* overdone and how lame is it when links aren't links.  They need a lesson is style and simplicity.

I encountered a similar problem recently while trying to register for the Susan Komen Foundation's Race for the Cure.  Instead of having one option - register - they had eight; a usability nightmare.  I was able to sign up in the end.  I think. 

From the horse's mouth, the Wave of the Day.  Awesome! 

Good to know: It's finally summertime, on Titan.  After seven earth-years of winter.  And just as summer officially ends here...  let's go!