After Download 2006, I caught a train and headed down to Chicago to see my sister who was in town working on a trade show.  First off... I can't say enough how slick taking the train was.  I've heard plenty of complaining lately about the terrible Chicago traffic with the interstate and tollway work going on.  If you have reason to head to downtown Chicago, then take the Hiawatha.  Don't think about it, just do it.

It's worth every penny of the $21 one way ticket.  You'll make up for it the gas you won't burn, and the horrendous parking you won't have to pay for.  Not only that, but it's much faster than driving (an hour and a half), you can work on the train, and it's very relaxing (unlike driving in Chicago).  The only downside is that the Milwaukee station is a hole... but will hopefully look much nice once the face lift if complete.

After a summer absence, I've started to get back to contributing to BlogCritics.org.  My latest review is of the new NBC show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.  I'll give you a little tease:

What do you get when you cross the late 1990s television series Sports Night with Saturday Night Live? You get Aaron Sorkin's newest creation, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Update: Hello Cleveland, who are enjoying my review as well!

I almost forgot about the coolest thing I found out about while I was in California.  It's a sunscreen called Solar Defense, which you can get here.  This is the best damn stuff you'll ever get.  Period.

Most sunscreens, even the good kind, begin to lose their SPF rating after about 90 minutes.  This stuff lasts a full 8 hours, and works fine in and out of the water.  This is the stuff that lifeguards use, so you know it's going to work well.  While I was up at Nacimiento, my sister Sarah had a bottle of the stuff which we'd apply in the morning, and never need to the rest of the day.  I never got burnt.

Compare that with my own Bullfrog which I was using the day before I left while on a beach in Ventura.  I was in and out of the ocean and got burnt pretty much everywhere, even though I applied it several times.

The stuff is expensive, but it's well worth it.

I can't say I didn't eat well in California either.  If you happen to be in the Golden State, and looking for a few good places, allow me to make some recommendations.

Right before heading back down south from Nacimiento, my sister and her husband decided we should go into town for dinner.  That town happens to be Paso Robles, which is turning quite upscale.  It's almost turned into the central California equivalent of Santa Barbara.  As we were rolling in around 9 PM on a Tuesday night, the place we originally were going to go to was just closing.  So we started wandering the streets looking for open restaurants.  Suddenly Shannon said, "How about we go that Greek place?"  We took a seat in their courtyard area and looked around at the decidedly Spanish style decor, and glanced over their small menu and lengthy wine list and Sarah said, "I don't think this is a Greek restaurant honey."  It's actually called Villa Creek (with a C), but the writing on the sign did look Greek, so I'll give him a little credit.

The best restaurants always have short menus.  They do a few things, and they do them very, very well.  Between the Butternut Squash Enchiladas, Pan Seared Alaskan Halibut Arugula Pesto and Grilled Buffalo Rib Eye, we made absolute pigs of ourselves.

And if you're in the Santa Barbara area and looking for good seafood, I would recommend The Fish Enterprise Co.  A nice beer selection, and very good seafood no matter what your taste.  And of course, I can't mention seafood and Santa Barbara without mentioning Brophy's, which is right on the ocean.  You can never go wrong with their clam chowder and caesar salad.

I have another book review up at BlogCritics.org, this time on a new O'Reilly book, XAML in a Nutshell.  If you're into the latest and greatest trends in software development, go check it out.  You can see a list of all my BlogCritics reviews here.