Micro Center's 20th Aniversary 20 Per Cent Off Sale

was well attended Sunday in Fairfax, VA. We got in line at 9:30am with about 100 people already there. Free coffee and doughnuts were available as the line grew to 400-500 (my guess) by the opening time of 11am. I was there with my daughter to buy a blueberry iBook ($1280!) for her and a tangerine iBook for Dana Baggett. He lives in the hinterlands of rural Maine and has had his daughter's iBook on order since July. A half dozen of us became line buddies and had a great 90 minute discussion of everything Mac. It was like a Washington Apple Pi meeting. Most, it seemed, were there for the new iMacs, followed by iBooks and even a PowerBook G3 Series 400 MHz for $2800. I was a bit worried since I had scouted out the store Saturday night and was told they had only 50 iBooks, 25 of each color, for the sale. However, the Micro Center staff came down the line handing out vouchers for the various Macs available to minimize the chance of a dangerous stampede. The G4s and G3s ran out before they got to us and the iBooks ran out not too far behind us. All my line buddies got what they came for as well. Bill Jensen, who sends me news items frequently, got an iMac DV SE. Bob Manka said the ASWAS was cleaned out by the afternoon but managed to pick up several good software buys. KDS was serving free hotdogs and soda in the parking lot. Micro Center handled it's 20th very well. It is worth mentioning again that Micro Center, home of the original ASWAS, has among the best Apple Stores and staff outside Cupertino, CA. I look forward to their 25th!