After a restless night (I never sleep well in hotels) where I managed to catch bits of The Last Man on Earth and Psycho II in between bouts of sleep, I awoke. Fortified by coffee and muffins, Rob and I headed downtown followed by his friend Nic. Unlike the previous day we actually found our goal with ease. The morning and early afternoon was spent in learning about Xerox devices. I won't bother you with details, but it was actually all pretty fascinating and I hope to use some of what I learned at work.

Rob and I wanted to head back to the Vietnamese place and Nic agreed and so we did. The guys got the seafood hot pot which was loaded with shrimp and fish. I opted for the Hanoi style pork which was a mix of hunks of grilled pork and pork meatballs in a spicy broth. It was served with rice noodles and a really potent green salad that included cilantro, mint, and a few things that looked more at home in a vase, than on my plate. They were mighty tasty none the less. The spicy food was complimented by Vietnamese iced tea, sweet, red, and heavily spiced.

Our conversation was equally interesting. Both Nic and Rob are serious lovers of the fruit from Cupertino. Nic interviewed both there and in Redmond recently. I wish him much luck; since I have no doubt the competition is fierce. So we talked iPhone, iTV, and all things Mac. We're all excited by Apple's foray into the smart phone market. We were also in agreement that the set top box is nothing special though it has its niche.

The trip home began with checking out The Pursuit of Happyness on Rob's MacBook Pro. The movie was good and the laptop even better. The sound quality was good, though a few minutes in we ran it through the TT's Bose sound system, so it got better. I had to break from the Will Smith vehicle to take part in a conference call while driving through the beautiful mountains of Virginia. Isn't twenty-first century life grand? That ended up lasting an hour and a half. By that time I'd cooled on the movie, so we talked about our favorite podcasts.

I demo'd some of my faves for him and then we shared musical discoveries. He played a band for me that I hadn't heard before and they were quite good. Since I'm getting old I can't remember their name but he's going to let me borrow the CD so I'll make a detailed report soon. We finished up the trip, by him dropping me off at about ten. I was tired, a bit sore, and happy to have discovered new food, new music, and a new friend.