It isn’t a true keiretsu update because I don’t know all of these folks personally, but cut me a little slack:

• Greg is now licensed to practice law in DC, and his rant about walking and driving in the District reminds me of why I miss the Beltway environs—and why I left. For the record, Corner Bakery came in 1999, a year before we left; almost far enough away to keep me from gaining another ten pounds. Almost.
• At Justin’s Links, an hommage to Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman.” I did a hyperlinked art project around the song a while ago, on the eve of the Iraqi invasion, which in light of everything else that has happened since seems uncomfortably prescient (even if some of the links have gone stale).
• Craig points to a great post with photos from BrickFest 2003, the Lego convention. I particularly like the Star Destroyer Speed Build competition—as I reported a while back, the Lego Star Destroyer kit is the largest (and most expensive) ever.
• It seems that on the same day I found out about the Star Destroyer kit, I discovered the Julie/Julia Project. Now, almost a year later, the project is nearing its end and the well deserved publicity is starting to roll in. Huge congrats to Julie Powell for her write-up in the New York Times Food Section, following close on the heels of her audio interview with Chris Lydon. I love the way the Times discusses her, um, sailor’s mouth: “Some of Ms. Powell’s language, in person and on her Web log, is very rough. Some of it is very funny. So that this report may be welcomed at breakfast tables and in classrooms, the word ‘cookie’ has replaced the occasional expletives.” —Incidentally, note the careful two-word, initial capped use of Web log. Can you imagine how long it took the guys who do the style guide for the Times to come to an agreement on that one?

My inlaws came in yesterday and we had a great relaxing outdoor dinner with them (though it started to get pretty cold toward the end of the evening). We’ll be doing some fun things with them (when we aren’t working) over the next few days, and then they’ll keep Lisa company while I fly East for the family reunion and Rough & Tumble.

George leaves some notes from San Francisco, having (quite sensibly) not blogged his way across country. And somehow I missed his post from August 1 about getting XM Radio. Jealous=me.