Cabina Italian Kitchen – Culver’s With Gnocchi

While the house was being shown tonight, Jen and I tried out Cabina’s Italian Kitchen in the ever maturing Silver Lake Village.

I’m not sure why, I always assume Italian places are going to be Maggiano’s and pricier. Tonight, I was more in the mood for Chipotle than than sit-down Italian.

Cabina’s is closer to Culver’s than Maggiano’s. Both in proximity and in concept – there’s a Culver’s 2 blocks away. Like Culver’s, you order and pay up-front and they bring the food to your table. Like Maggiano’s they have fresh-tasting gnocchi (not in Vodka sauce – blah). The baked penne was bland. As was the cheese bread appetizer. The staff was friendly and anxious to help.

Unfortunately, their helpfulness made their role unclear; they bring food, they clear dishes, do I also order from them?

Bye Rex, Thanks for the Party


(Matt Thompson from the Strib and me in a MNstories video documenting the party.)

I, along with 600 of Rex Sorgatz‘s closest friends wished him well in his move to Seattle and Microsoft last night.

Honestly, I haven’t been to a blow out like that in quite a while. The food, the drink, the hundreds of hipsters in a very tight space.

Among them, I was able to catch up with Ben, Chuck and Lori, Paul, and a bunch of people I haven’t seen in years that are still without blogs. As an added bonus, I finally met – in person – the legendary Adam Sellke and the elusive Dack.

Thanks Rex – for the party and for MNSpeak community (of course more over there). Enjoy your travels west, and oh, and say ‘Hi’ to Scoble for me.

iSticky – Sending Stickies Around the Internet

I’ve been using the Macintosh Stickies to keep track of things for years. It’s been my standby note taking application for 3 main reasons:

  1. free with the OS
  2. just start typing
  3. no need to explicitly ‘Save’
  4. works without internet access

I thought it’d be neat if Stickies could be shared. The folks behind iSticky thought so too. I’m playing around with it today and looking to test out the iStickyServer sharing bit. If you’d like to as well, I’m ‘garrick’.

So far, my favorite bit about the application is the zen-like sample/intro notes:

“We hope you’ll enjoy our network service in a peaceful way!”

“It’s very important to check your preferences, because there are many features to discover.”

When I’d Pay For WiFi

There’s a showing at the house this morning.

Between waking up, tidying up, responding to the morning email, I wasn’t able to grab a decent breakfast (or brunch as I prefer). I already had a cup of coffee, just needed a network, someplace reasonably quiet, and some food.

Too many places with free wifi don’t have decent food, are loud, and generally don’t fit the bill. Driving around looking for a destination, I thought, “here’s an opportunity to sell me wifi and a quite room.”

I’ll bring my own coffee and pick up a sandwich someplace along the way, and I’ll give you $10/hr for a quiet room and a fast network.

Oh, I ended up at the Wilde Roast Cafe and had their bean quesadilla. Pretty tasty.

Another Reason I Can’t Support Minnesota Public Radio

First off, I never contributed millions (or even thousands) to public radio. A couple hundred bucks here and there. And I know a couple people employed by the Minnesota Public Radio. Heck, I even helped them usability test their site a while back. Kinda fun sitting on the other side of the desk.

That said, I haven’t contributed recently nor do I foresee doing so. I don’t agree with their Next Standard in Public Radio campaign. I especially don’t agree with their copyright infringement suit against Current.TV – the audience-generated, Al Gore-backed Current TV Network. His project to “democratize television.”

I wish MPR felt the same way about radio. Oh well, back the podcasts.

Thanks to Tod Maffin for the tip.

My personal favorite comment on the topic over at MNSpeak:

“Get a grip MPR. Are you going to sue NPR next because it’s one letter off from your name?”

Other food for thought from the discussion – ‘the Current’ is the new ‘JackFM’

FlySpy – Finally, A Useful Airfare Service?

Jen and I like vacationing in Europe – our heritage pretty much dictates it. We don’t really care when we go. We’ve got a general idea of what we want tickets to cost and are happy to build a vacation around that price.

As Dave points out the “I don’t care when, just how much” traveler has been stuck hunting-and-pecking arbitrary calendar dates on the various travel sites finding something that makes sense.

My experience with Orbitz gave me first-hand knowledge of the volatility of airfare prices. Just like at eBay, you’re not really sure what the final price is until after the transaction.

Hopefully, once FlySpy launches, those days will be over.

Google just gave me this alpha link.

UPDATE 16 May 2006: podcast of my interview with Robert Metcalf

Open House Sat, Feb 25 – 2-4pm and Sun, Feb 26 – 1-3pm

Just got word there’ll be an Open House at 2701 31st Ave NE, St Anthony, MN from 2-4pm this Saturday, Feb 25th. This one’s open to everyone.

If you want to check the place out, mark your calendars. Especially if you’re looking for a great starter house for you and your dog.

No, we won’t be there.

If you can’t make Saturday, come by Sunday between 1-3pm.

Nine parties came by for the open houses total, with an additional showing on each day. Today (Monday) there’s another showing. There’s a good chance 2 parties are interested. Hope so.