With Apple’s recent unveiling of OS X Mountain Lion it’s no surprise that we had plenty to talk about. A whole hour’s worth of chatting, in fact. Allison is loads of fun to talk with, and without her self control to cut our conversation off after an hour we’d probably still be talking. Days later. Really.

Interested in hearing what I have to say about more iOS features showing up in OS X, Gatekeeper, iCloud, Notification Center, and some rabbit holes we couldn’t help but head down? Then point your browser over to Allison’s Podfeet.com website and take a listen.

Or go the the iTunes Store. Whatever. I’m easy.

I’m lactose intolerant, and I’m pretty good at remembering to ask whether or not there’s dairy in the food I order when I’m out at restaurants. Occasionally I forget, or in this case I failed to ask if the breads Panera makes include milk in the recipes. After I ate half of my sandwich I remembered to ask, and guess what? Several of them do — including the bread on my sandwich (honey wheat, in case you’re keeping score at home).

The manager I happened to ask pulled out a massive tome and listed off all of the breads they make dairy free, and even went so far as to write them all down for me. She wanted to make me a new sandwich, but that didn’t seem right since I forgot to ask and they made exactly what I asked for. She then insisted on giving me new bread for my sandwich and refused to let me pay.

Yes, I know it was in her best interest to go out of her way to take care of me since we live in a lawsuit-happy culture. Not that I’m all about lawsuits, but she didn’t know that. I could tell that wasn’t why she went out of her way to make sure I was happy; she genuinely wanted to take care of me.

I’m a fickle consumer. I dump stores and restaurants faster than Kim Kardashian runs through marriages. All based on a single bad experience. I’m retail’s worst nightmare. OK, maybe I’m not quite that bad, but I can do a really stern look.

I could’ve walked away from Panera unhappy and in search of a new sandwich shop had the manager acted indifferent to my lame dietary needs. Instead, through a simple act, she ensured I’ll be back.

Now to get Panera to work on their crappy Wi-Fi speeds. No really. I can get better bandwidth from a carrier pigeon.

And in case you’re curious, or lactose intolerant, here’s Panera’s list of dairy-free breads:

• Country
• Rye
• Sesame
• Ciabatta
• Focaccia
• Baguette
• French
• Sourdough
• Tomato Basil
• Whole Grain

Here’s the description of my session:

Dropbox, Evernote, MobileMe: The Internet is loaded with cloud-based services designed to make your life easier and keep your files within reach where ever you go. Finding the right services with just the features you need can be a daunting task, so Jeff took care of the headache for you by putting together a list of his favorite online services and apps for your Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

I’m speaking from noon to 1PM and I promise to do my best to teach you something — or at least keep you entertained for an hour.

But wait! There’s more! I’ll be speaking on the opening panel event at 9AM where the amazing Adam Christianson from the Maccast will guide us through a discussion on the future of Apple and the impact the company’s products are having on out culture.

Talk about a power house lineup! The panel also includes The Mac Observer’s own Bryan Chaffin, Smile Software’s Jean MacDonald, Jason Snell from Macworld, and David Sparks from Mac Power Users.

Bryan and I will be manning TMO’s expo booth, too, so be sure to drop by and say “hi.” Maybe I’ll draw a picture for you.

If you need to get up to speed on what went down, Bryan Chaffin covered Steve’s retirement announcement at The Mac Observer, and followed up with Apple giving the CEO title to Tim Cook, the man that’s been running the company for the past few months.

Turns out a couple news outlets wanted to chat with me about Steve’s retirement. Here’s a list of the interviews and podcasts I did. For your viewing pleasure, of course:

• Forbes This is an Associated Press article, so you can find it other places, too.
• The Huffington Post Want to see how Trip Chowdry from Global Equities Research and I have very different views of Apple’s ability to perform without Steve? Here you go.
• MacJury Along with Chuck Joiner, Katie Floyd and Bryan Chaffin, we talk about what to expect now that Steve has dropped the CEO title and taken up his new role as Chairman of the Board.
• Reuters Insider Me, live, on Reuters TV. Guess who’s on with me? Yeah, Trip Chowdry. Just in case you don’t get how different our views on Apple post-Jobs are, you totally need to check this out.

There’s a good chance I missed something because the day of and day after Steve’s resignation were crazy busy. If there’s something I need to add to the list, just let me know and I’ll take care of it.

And my opinion in a nutshell: Don’t worry about Apple. It’s still business as usual, and we’ll still see awesome products for years to come. And thanks for all the hard work, Steve.

Here’s the scoop: If you’re near Boulder, Colorado, on Wednesday, March 30, I’m teaching my Getting Started with Podcasting class at Boulder Digital Arts. The class runs from 6PM to 9PM and costs $69 for BDA members, or $89 for non-members.

I’ll talk about deciding what you want to share in your podcast, how to choose the right microphone and headphones, sorting out the software you’ll need, how to get your podcast in front of your listeners, and more.

Want to get a little head start? No problem. I have some tips on picking out a microphone at the BDA Web site ready for your viewing pleasure. And to answer one of the questions I get all the time: My mic of choice is the Rode Podcaster.

See you Wednesday! You know, because I love to talk.

My User Conference session this year is “Working in the Cloud: Best Online Services for Storing and Sharing Your Data,” and I’ll have plenty to talk about. Here’s my session description from the Macworld Expo Web site:

Dropbox, Evernote, Google: The Internet is loaded with cloud-based services designed to make your life easier, keep you connected with information, and help you share files. Some are free, some require payment, and some are “freemium,” giving you a handful of features for free and even more when you pay. In this session we’ll take a look at the best freemium services for the Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and how to use them effectively so your important information is always just a mouse click or finger tap away.

My session runs from 3:30PM to 4:45PM on Friday, January 28, 2011. The conference runs from Wednesday, January 26 through Saturday, January 29 at the Moscone West center in San Francisco. Dress warm, kids.

If you’re looking to save a few bucks at Macworld Expo, you can get a 15% discount on a conference package just for having the patience to read this far. The Mac Observer has a sweet deal on hotel rooms at the Intercontinental — which just so happens to be right next to Moscone West.

I’ll be running around all week checking out the latest Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad software and gear during the day, and hanging out at the after hours events, too. If you happen to see me, be sure to say “hi.” After all, Macworld Expo is like one big family reunion. But in a good way.

So here’s the deal: I drew amazingly life like interpretations of Adam, Michael and me — and by “amazingly life like,” I mean “my usual style, thanks for humoring me, everyone.” Once we were all happy with the design, I slapped our mugs on a mug at Zazzle.

In case you’re interested, I used ArtStudio on my iPad, a Pogo Sketch stylus, and my homemade artist hand puck to avoid accidental gestures showing up as unwanted lines. Next, I exported the drawings as Photoshop files and dropped them into Illustrator so I could make vector versions of our faces. Finally, I uploaded the finished file to Zazzle and lovingly placed it on a mug for your drinking pleasure.

Now that my part is done, it’s your turn. Head on over to Zazzle and order your mug. I made sure there are plenty of mug styles to choose from because I know just how picky you are. Yeah, you’re welcome.

The story goes like this:
Nightshade managed to hurt her back leg somehow. Most likely by trying to jump up to a high counter. She does it all the time and often manages to slip in the process. The mystery incident left her limping badly, and me in a mild state of WHAT-THE-FRAK.

Of course, it’s a weekend evening and the Vet office is closed. A little online research and leg checking later, and it looks like Nightshade pulled a muscle.

While I’m doting over her to make sure she doesn’t try to jump on anything and hurt herself more, I post a tweet saying that I’m playing nursemaid to my cat and go back to my cat sitting duties. Not too long after my tweet goes out to the world, I get a reply from a Vet that follows me. A Vet I’ve never met in my life, but who is still concerned about my little office manager.

My Office Manager: Nightshade the Cat

This amazingly generous Vet — who will remain unnamed to help avoid people taking advantage of her generosity — offered help and advice 140 characters at a time over several days without asking for anything in return. Yes, the world is filled with mean, bad and selfish people, but there’s lots of good people out there, too, and I consider myself lucky to cross paths with the good ones from time to time.

Its been almost a week since Nightshade managed to gimp herself up, but she’s getting better every day. In fact, she seems to have forgotten she hurt herself and is pretty annoyed that I’m still stopping her from jumping on the counter.

For my Twitter Vet:
If we ever meet in real life, I owe you a big hug. And a drink. You know who you are.

OK, now here’s the kicker: People have been telling me they want to buy my drawings so they can wear them. On their bodies.

Sometimes, even I can take a hint, so I set up shops at Zazzle and Cafe Press. Why both, you ask? Because I haven’t decided which online store gives me the best balance between product quality and choice.

Yes, I’ll add more stuff over time, too, because I draw like I talk: I just can’t stop.

Go ahead an point your trusty Web browser on over to Zazzle or Cafe Press and wear me. Just like you’ve always wanted to.

I’m all excited about presenting at this user group meeting, not only because they’re all cool and excited Apple fans, but also because this will be my first time speaking at this group. Also, I’ll finally get to try out Keynote for the iPad in a real-world environment. What could possibly go wrong?

The Denver Apple Pi user group meeting starts at 7PM at the Consolidated Mutual Water District building at 12700 W 27th Ave. in Lakewood, Colorado. Directions to the meeting along with additional information about the group are available at the Denver Apple Pi Web site.

See you there!