Get a mark on the lower left and then the spinning daisy.

jimmyt4: Go to Adobe and install the new Flash Player 9.

http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

"like a beautiful woman - you see it, you want it, you buy it" ??

Funny, that has never been my reaction to a beautiful woman (unless she's on a magazine). Different world, I suppose.

Sorry folks, but you're my only hope. I'm in Columbus Ohio - trying to set up travel plans for the boss who is coming to Minneapolis next week. He wants to dine at :Ocean Air" at the Nicollette Mall. Google comes up empty. Any clue what this is?

Again, sorry for the off-topic-ness, but You're my only link to MN.

Also, what's a decent hotel there?

I don't live in Mn, but I Google like a maniac:

Oceanaire Seafood Room - Sounds nice.

I'll leave hotel recommendations to the locals, but I always use Travelocity.com

I bow down before your google skills. Thanks so much!

mp

"like a beautiful woman - you see it, you want it, you buy it" ??

Funny, that has never been my reaction to a beautiful woman (unless she's on a magazine). Different world, I suppose.

I especially love the "you buy it". Sadly, that's pretty much the prevailing attitude in that industry. I used to work for a mid-level yacht company ($250K - $4mil price range). Worst job I ever had, but enlightening. Old boys clubs still dominate the boating world, and it's all about sex and trophy wives to the millionaires who own the yacht-building companies and to alot of the people who buy them. It's also about one-upping the guy in the next slip.

Glad I got out of that industry, it's in the crapper right now, as boats are the epitome of non-essential purchases. Plus the big ones get about 5 mpg at best.

Mr L: A "Corvette" was a boat long before it was a car, as any Patrick O'Brian fan knows.

Corvette

It works now. I have all sorts of Movie Playing software.
Either it was my computer reboot, or someone mysteriously re loaded the movie.
But thanks for the advice.

check out the color-glo booth tonite!

Where do you get one of those big boats that gets 5mpg? I'll buy one. In my experience, with even moderately big boats it's gallons per mile, not miles per gallon.

Thanks for the boat show tour, James! I'm more like the canoe guy on there. I really like the idea of a nice stereo in a canoe. Maybe he could install something in my little engineless sailboat. LED lighting would be good too. I have a picture that I took last summer of my little girl riding on the boat on a nice warm breezy day. It's my wallpaper, and seeing it cheers me up every day this cold January. My garage door nearly froze to the ground last night. I have a heated garage, and all the meltage has pooled near the door, and started to form an ice dam. I'll have to clean it up this weekend.

A canoe with an AM/FM radio and CD changer? Okay, I can understand the LED lights and the GPS, but is fishing so boring that one needs the company of, say, Toby Keith's voice to just to get through the adventure? And what if you're out somewhere where you're lucky to even have a cell signal, let alone one carrying your favorite Top 10 station?

I know, I know, times have changed, but isn't fishing a time to be with your son, your daughter, your father, your grandfather, or your friends? I just don't understand the point of a canoe with a radio and CD player on-board. Leave those things to the houseboats and megayachts of the world.

As the guy (and the commenter) said, these boats _are_ pretty much impulse buys; at least for the market that they're intended to serve. These boats are not intended for you or me; they are intended for people who get sixty million dollars in venture capital because they have a really cool Powerpoint show about Enhancing Webpage Google Rank. The kind of people who are CEO of a major investment company for six years, preside over a thirty-billion-dollar loss, and are given 25.4 million dollars to go away.

I might be too late to add my two cents, but the Oceannaire is a nice place. Good food, good cocktails, excellent music and a fun atmosphere.

I live here, so I'm no expert at local hotels. But for my wedding, my relatives all stayed at the Hilton on Marquette Ave. It's not far from the Oceannaire. The Marquette Hotel (also on Marquette) and the Marriott at City Center also seem like good hotels for business travellers. All three are right downtown.

If he stays at the Hilton, there's a good breakfast place nearby--Hell's Kitchen. It's kind of a daft place--the funkster wait staff wears pajamas--but the food is great.