I know that Starbucks is trying to be a "third place", which is exactly the experience I had there on Sunday. I had to return my Sony Wega because of an annoying problem, and on the way back I decided to stop at the Starbucks in Overlake (the one in the Sears plaza, next to Quizno's) and read Presenting to Win while drinking my coffee.

I ran into two people that I work with, and ended up having a great conversation with an ex-Microsoftie that I didn't know, but it turned out we had worked in very close proximity (datagrids, visual studio, etc.) for several years. We talked about work (he was now "taking a break"), audio systems, and home theaters. It was just a very pleasant day.