It's August. People are starting to feel Fall breathing down their necks. Me too. I'm wrestling with radmind again in order to have the BCRC on a good footing when the students arrive. When I first set up radmind, I didn't know what I was doing and made a number of mis-steps which, though not fatal, have created problems in trying to move forward. This time, I'm starting up with a much better understanding of what I'm trying to do and, hopefully, can avoid making the same mistakes twice.
Phil has started an 
esperanto language blog. Good for him! I would like to start one, but I don't feel like I have time to do it properly. Maybe if I succeed in getting a local group going, I can organize a collaborative blog with local folks. Maybe.
This evening Alisa and I went to Northampton for dinner. Beforehand, we stopped at the Space-Crime Continuum, an excellent book store which has started to have an increasing section of games. While we were in North Carolina, Charlie learned how to play Dungeons and Dragons with his cousins. (He was incredulous that I had played D & D in my youth and had not mentioned the fact, let along taught him how to play.) When we got back, we found my old D & D stuff (which I had considered pitching a few years ago, but hadn't, luckily) and I led him and Daniel in a short dungeon adventure. It was hard -- I didn't really remember the rules (and the rules Charlie had learned were significantly at variance with what I did remember). We managed, though, and the game turned out OK. But it was clear I needed to get a new set of rules for the boys to play with. The Space-Crime Continuum had a great selection of stuff and an extremely friendly and helpful staff member who guided me to the right thing to get. Even better, they run introductory D & D sessions on Thursdays at 1pm. I'll have to look into getting Charlie and some of his friends over to a session next week so that they can learn how to play from someone who really knows.
Afterwards we went to La Cazuela for dinner. I didn't like it. I eventually settled on the enchiladas suizas, but only because everything else seemed to have something objectionable about it. It was all so "valley". The blue corn enchiladas had "Vermont Chevre goat cheese" and roasted pine nuts. Ick. The enchiladas were OK, but not as good as the tiny cup of pico de gallo Alisa had ordered (which cost $2 extra). That alone was better than the whole of my meal. The salsa they provided with the chips was nearly inedible (and certainly not worth eating). It had no flavor -- even just more salt would have helped it to have some flavor. (Indeed, all of the food seemed to have been prepared by someone who was intensely worried about my sodium intake.) The worst shock came when I ordered flan and the waitress helped me to understand that the flan was made with raspberry syrup, not caramel syrup. I thanked her for warning me and didn't order any. It might be nice for weirdos to be able to special order flan with raspberry syrup, but the idea that you just don't have flan and instead have custard with raspberry syrup that you call flan was mystifyingly cruel. The waitress' tip when way up when she alerted me to that. Alisa got a fancy (and expensive) margarita which was very good. I got and ESB on draft that was also good, but I don't think I'll be going back again any time soon. I miss the Torero Mexican restaurant in Champaign.