... school's out for ever, school's out completely ...

Well okay not completely, but yes today was Megan's last day in Elementary school, so we are now "done"; they've all moved on, there are no more little kids.  And the summer is upon us.  Kind of bittersweet.

Megan and I did take a ride together to celebrate Bicycle Day, a 15 mile lap around Westlake, and it was very nice.  Looking at her long legs it is really hard to picture her as a little four year old.  Man, they do grow up...

And today was a day for reflection in other ways; yesterday I participated in a successful walkthrough of a new Aperio product, really great work on the part of our team, following another last week.  Our next release is by far our biggest ever, with multiple large projects in parallel.  It is amazing to see it all coming together, but also prompts a bit of nostalgia for "the old days" when we were just a little gang, and we all knew what everyone else was doing...

Dude, where's my recession?  Retail sales jump by largest amount in 6 months.  There are some big challenges in the economy right now, gasoline / transportation costs and the general bursting of a property bubble among them, but still money is being made and businesses are growing - as is the economy as a whole. 

Well, boo; the Lakers lost to the Celtics tonight, after leading by 24 points, and now trail in the series 3-1.  Someone once said a best-of-seven series doesn't start until one team has 3 wins, so I guess this one has now started.  The Lakers better figure something out or before long this one will have ended. 

Tomorrow is a big day in sports; Holland plays France in Euro 2008, a clash of favorites, while we have the "Queen stage" of the Dauphiné Libéré, a seven-climb trek over the Croix de la Fer which finishes atop the Col de la Télégraphe that should determine the overall winner.  My picks are Holland and Leipheimer :)

Have you had enough of the iPhone hoopla yet?  No?  Well, then here we have iPhone 3G: everything you wanted to know (but were afraid to ask).  Have a ball. 

Meanwhile the Palm Centro is now on Verizon, too.  "Thanks to Verizon's expected announcement today, the top three US carriers now carry the diminutive Garnet device, which Palm actually says is 'off to the strongest start of any smartphone in Palm's history'."  Hey, if iPhone is Pepsi, something has to be Coke, right?

Slashdot links an interview with Douglas Hofstadter, of Godel, Escher, Bach fame.  He's an interesting guy, and GEB is my favorite book of all time, but yet I couldn't even finish I am a Strange Loop.  I think he's mellowed and diffused, and lost a bit of what he'd found. 

So are you ready for Friday the 13th?  Hope you're not afflicted with paraskavedekatriaphobia...