Rick Newton, the Ipod Expert, May or May Not Be Here

Rick Newton, Rick Newton, where art thou? Rick is away. Rick is an expert in using an Ipod. Tonight I've advertised a class in the cafe called Music on your Ipod, and frankly, I wish I could get Rick over to teach it.

But there is a lesson and a challenge here....and that has potential. I heard Rick is out of town, so he might not be able to come bail me out. With this in mind, I scootered to the Barnes and Noble store in Hadley last night, with the nighttime wind blowing hard against my leather jacket. It was a fun ride, something about riding a scooter at night is exhilarating. When I reached the big store, it was like an oasis, an oasis of like-minded people all reading books and sitting in chairs sipping expensive Starbucks drinks. I picked up a copy of "The Missing Manual for Ipods," published by the fantastically thorough O'Reilly publishing, and took it into the cafe, with a copy of Rick Steve's guide to Germany and Austria.

I thought I should really order something, since I was gonna sit there for a while (and I know how much it bugs me to have people come into our cafe and not order) so I had a hot chai tea and a turkey pannini. The sandwich was pretty good, and so was the chai.

So now I have the book, and in case I can't reach old Rick, the Ipod Expert, I'll find out how to do it myself--I have about 9 hours to study and practice.