The Plazes API has gone 1.0, and has lots of interesting new features. But, oddly, no “launch” method. Update: there’s a new Plazer API for this (thanks Stefan).

I brought the camera alone on my way to work this morning and took some photos of spring’s arrival in Charlottetown.

I was down on Queen Street this evening, on my way to the Churchill Arms for dinner with Catherine and Oliver, and I popped my head into the old Carter’s building across the street to see how the renovations are coming along on the new grocery store.

To my surprise they’re making excellent headway: the wall between the two halves of the building has been breached and dry-walled, there’s a new floor installed, and coolers are set up along one wall. It looks like they could be open with a month.

There’s a note on Suzanne Vega’s website about her recent marriage to trial lawyer Paul Mills. In addition to coming as a blow to all of us who hoped to one day marry Suzanne Vega ourselves, the item suggests a very, very long engagement:

The couple met at Folk City on West 4th Street in 1981. Mr. Mills proposed to Miss Vega in May, 1983, and she accepted his proposal on Christmas Day, 2005.

It concludes:

This is the bride’s second marriage and the groom’s first, the last for both.

If you’ll be in New England at the end of May, you can catch Suzanne playing at the Mohegan Sun Casino “Wolf Den” in Uncasville, CT on May 31st and June 1, 2006. Be sure to visit The Old Farmer’s Almanac General Store while you’re there.

One of the skills that Oliver gets from his Miller DNA is an uncanny ability to play the card game Concentration and related “turn over random things until you find two that match” activities. Catherine is a Concentration savant, as is our niece Patricia, and in recent weeks Oliver has been sourcing Concentration-like games online and watching him play is like watching Frank Sinatra sing.

By way of pre-Denmark cultural preparation, I added a bookmark to Oliver’s Firefox last night pointing at Oline, a pre-schooler website from Danish television. True to form, Oliver found a Concentration-like activity there, and Catherine just phoned me to say that every time he finds a match a big Danish cheer emits from the computer. As such, Oliver is becoming well-equipped to attend football matches and other cheering-related events in Copenhagen this spring.

Every time I take the elevator over at the Polyclinic, I exit with a vague feeling of unease. Until last week, I never conclusively knew why. But on a midweek visit to my accountant, I had my T610 with me, and I was able to document the source of the problem:

Note the different in the labels on the buttons vs. the labels on the “information about what floor you’re on” display: there’s a button for 1, but on the display it’s marked as M. And, for some strange reason, there is no second floor.

This is the kind of stuff that makes my head explode; I get stressed out just by looking at these photos. Every time I get in this elevator, I’m confused about what button to press, and what floor I’m on.

Overheard while exiting the movie The Inside Man at the Charlottetown Mall Cinema last night:

I don’t understand. I don’t understand why he didn’t get charged. I don’t understand what’s gonna happen to that Mayor or his wife. They’re probably gonna make a sequel, and it’s gonna be really, really bad.

Here are 50 of my favourite photos from Flickr. Can 50 photos tell you anything about someone?

My Dad is looking for a particular style of CD case. These are usually found a “dollar stores,” but he hasn’t been able to find any recently. If you happen across any, please email Dad — source located in Mississauga; thanks.

If I wasn’t otherwise engaged, I’d be seriously thinking about renting this house in the south of France this spring. I don’t know anything about the house itself, or about the owners, but we were in the same region last year and had a wonderful time. This house is even closer to Spain than we were (2-1/2 hours to Barcelona). If you’re looking for a spring trip, I highly recommend the area.