Whew boy… we’ve been packing Aaron up for his first semester at Rutgers. It’s spritzes and cheese now before a big crab fest for dinner.

Joe landed a gig at Walmart filling pickup orders, which is great for him! But we missed him at last night’s dinner at the Maplewood with the ‘rents and will at tonight’s shellfish extravaganza.

I will certainly (over)write something tomorrow to commemorate the big move in, so I hope you’ll check in here tomorrow, too. As always, here are a few things to check out, thanks for reading.

retroStrip

I saw retroStrip featured earlier in the month on MacWorld and was excited to try it out. retroStrip resurrects the old Control Strip from System 7 and beyond. I used the hell out of the Control Strip on my PowerBook G3 Lombard. This is a hackier affair than the original, but that’s the target market,

Hawk Haven Naked Chardonnay

Rhonda and I took Aaron to Sweet Amalia for lunch Friday, partly to celebrate his last Friday before going off to college, and partly just because we all love the place. We sat outside in the hard afternoon sunlight, baking away but lavishing in a stunning lunch.

We made the mistake of “just grabbing a bottle there” and paid close to 40 bucks for a 20-dollar bottle of Hawk Haven’s Naked Chardonnay. It was a perfectly gluggable and dry white, eblematic of the style. I enjoyed every sip.

Speaking of chardonnays, Dave Mullen has a great article on oaked vs unoaked styles. Worth a read.

Bellview Viogner

Speaking of white wine, we grabbed a bottle of Bellview’s Viogner this weekend, since it was 10% off. It’s a refreshingly different varietal: I detect the flavors that I often associate with dry sherry, a nuttiness that doesn’t always present in fruitier whites. Viogner is one of the grapes blended into their Astraea, which I enjoy on tap.