Just wanted to know if there are any IAs in Florence. I'd love to meet some and hear success and war stories for practicing IA in Italy/Europe. I'll be in town from 6/30-7/6.

ChasinRacin Race Track Locator

Stumbled upon this site somehow, I can't remember how. Anyways, I think Jeff and I will have to keep track of all the tracks that we've visited or had the pleasure of actually driving on. At the end of the month we'll be venturing with TracQuest to Thunderhill. It's been a long time since we've been to a track and Jeff just completed his 30K service and upgraded the car with some mods that will hopfully improve the car's performance on the track. I haven't noticed any differences to the ride.

While the Race Track Locator UI needs some improvements, I am impressed by the facets for how one could find a track. I think I spent a few hours just browsing for tracks. Maybe I can lend my services to help design the locator.

I have to be honest with myself, I am NOT so much part of that User Experience stuff anymore...unless you count developing search products and management metadata standards...but the more I want to get out of the scene(because of navel-gazing), there's always something pulling me back in...

I've been developing a garden in my backyard these past few months and one of the big challenges is knowing what to plant. The other day I was talking to my friend Lee Cline about how I think many gardening related websites need to implement a taxonomy. Yes I know taxonomies are from the botany world, but what I was thinking was a multi-faceted taxonomy in locating flowers that I don't know about. For example, Lee had shared a technique in tracking information about flowers...color, height, seasonal bloom, and what type of lighting it needs. I got all excited since I had been reading so many books about plants & flowers. I started to track all the flowers in a spreadsheet. But the disconnect was when I didn't know about a particular flower and I just wanted to locate flowers based on attributes. So to the IAs out there who work for a nursery website or gardening publication, would it be possible to provide access through search & taxonomy capabilities that let me select the various attributes of the flowers & plants and not just the botanical or common name?

We just celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on Friday. From recommendations from friends at work we made reservations for The Village Pub in Woodside, CA.

Despite my being late, my husband was seated right away and offered a drink. The food and service was amazing. Melody our server was very helpful in assisting us on the selection. Since we're vegetarians(pesci) she was able to confirm that no meat products were in our meals. She was quick without being pushy to check for additional drinks to complement our meals & dessert. We didn't feel rushed and enjoyed everything in little under 2 hours.

He had artichoke/asparagus salad and I had scallops for first course. For the main entree, he had salmon and I had ahi tuna. For dessert we had the chocolate souffle; Decide early since the souffle takes a bit to arrive. Drinks: a nice subtle pinot noir & pre-dinner drink I had a cosmo. We're hoping to go back in the near future to try the caviar and champagne.

More details about The Village Pub:
Woodside Dining

Been working in the garden over the past 2 months, ever since I was able to start walking. I've chronicled most of my garden adventures through pictures. We also recently purchased patio furniture that is much more comfortable than the Safeway plastic chairs, so we'll hoping to start entertaining in the next few weeks.